Anyone have a clue as to when Ariza is coming down here and signing the contract? I doubt he pulls a Hedo but I really want this thing to be official already.
how old is ariza btw? i just hope he still have much upside, i always doubt players who would cash in after overachieving in the finals, I hope he proves me wrong
Ariza is NOT going to Portland where they have Outlaw, Batum and Webster. Portland should be looking to upgrade the Point spot anyways. For Ariza: When opportunity knocks you answer. The best opportunity is in H-town.
Yeah.. I havn't seen much of him either. But just a quick look at his stats, about 11 a game on a team loaded with talent. Shoots good percentages, seems to be athletic, plays defense. The career stats kind of bother you, but the guy is only 24... so you can attribute that to learning the game. Brooks, Lowry, Landry, and now Ariza. You have 4 young, solid role players... going into 2010 you should have the cap space to sign a young-ish star. We're moving in the right direction. We're no longer in "win-now" mode. But if we need to rebuild, we're already in position next year to sign a few guys.
Great pick up. We are still in need of a bigman though which I highly believe can be picked up with a bit of trading here and there.
I love how we got Ariza over Gortat. Ariza IS worth more than Gortat. We don't need any big man right now. I say lets sign Pops Mensa-Bonsu for a 3 year deal starting at 2 million per year and be done with our Center spot for the season. Bonsu is a monsta rebounder and at 6'10 should be good enough. We're tanking the season anyways. We instead should be looking to find our big man of the future in next year's draft... Cole Adrich Jerome Jordan Gani Lawal just off the top of my head. next year's draft is where we should be looking to find our C of the future
FOR THE LAST TIME, THE ROCKETS ARE NOT TANKING!!!!! You are a professional sports team who gets paid millions to perform to the best of your abilities, we already know that they have heart, so hell no to tanking. Plus, there are no Jordan's or Duncan's of the draft
Aaron Brooks is down with the move....on his twitter thirty2zero Ariza and I were roommate for an allstar game my senior year on high school. He is a cool guy. i hate to see Ron go, but its a business
I like your thinking. I believe that's exactly what Morey is doing, since there will be more Centers/PF in next year's draft than this year. It will make some guys drop lower in the draft than previous years.
I like the idea of Pops too, but he measured 6'7.5 without shoes, he is 6'9 with them. Not trying to be too technical here because he is a great rebounder, but that seems undersized for a center and we are short in the front court already.
After seeing Hedo Turkoglu and Carlos Boozer verbally commit to teams and then see them back out, I can't held but to think that Houston needs to get things in writing ASAP
I'll reserve judgment on this move until I see what star or stars the Rockets get in the future. Ariza doesn't look good on his own, he needs someone to feed off of. I'm willing to give this deal time but I'm still a little bit confused, if we're in rebuilding mode why do we make this deal? No matter how you slice it, we are going to overpay for a player the caliber of Ariza. I mean, are there other teams that have offered him a high salary that's why we have to bump up the price??
Ariza could have taken more money to play in LA, CLE, or Toronto. Toronto was going to give him 9 mil. per year. RA and Morey must see something in Ariza that they want to build the team with (length, speed, athleticism) We pay Battier 9 mil. per and I think Morey and RA are planning on trading Battier and having Ariza as his replacement.
I think it is a great acquisition for the price. Without Ariza, the Lakers probably wouldn't have won some close games, and probably wouldn't have won the championship. As far as Artest leaving... well, I liked having him on the team usually, but sometimes he would just go brain dead, and for an elite defender I did not care for his perimeter defense.
