Absolutely, that is why I like him for a 2 year deal and why I don't like Ariza for a 5 year one. And yes, I realize that he is only 24......I still think the Rockets overpaid. DD
DD, are you going to address this? DD, I do agree that we would be in trouble if Ariza plays and still has a low usage rate. However, looking closely at the numbers, there's no reason to think Ariza can't up his usage rate. He takes a ton of unassisted shots and non-jumpers, shots that are not dependent on others creating for him. It's a misconception that Ariza only took wide open shots that Kobe creates for him and the numbers show that.
so you don't think trevor is a smart player? boooooooooooooo i just think the rockets are too un-athletic. trevor with his athleticism and length can finish at the basket like no other player we have. that in itself is already fitting.
how would we not be able to offer a max when we will only have like 35 million in salary on the books? DD you are making less and less sense and not even bothering to look up stuff or look at facts.
Trevor can not shoot, he plays around the rim on putbacks etc....I like him more in that regard than Battier, but I like Battier in the brains department more than Trevor. If we are going to compare Wafer and Ariza, how many points per minute did they put up? Who was the more effective scorere of the two...because, IMO, that is what this team needs more than anything else. DD
fit on the same team on the court at the same time? definitely not. they are both strictly SFs who are offensively-challenged, especially with Battier's offense. Battier has higher value at this moment and is older so he has to go and I'm sure Morey will move him. Battier cant do anything inside the 3 point line while Ariza is a threat from the 3 point line, although not anywhere near as consistent as Battier. But 3 point shooting percentages are more likely to improve than inside scoring skills. Ariza is an offensive upgrade over Battier. He can run the fast break, finishing instilled full of terror with a dunk!!
It is the best of the situation. We do not have a great chance to win the title next year without Yao. So we let go of Ron-Ron (who I love as a Rocket) but in the long term Ariza makes good sense. You NEVER know when Artest is going to explode and do something dumb. He is really best on a year to year basis. I really hope those days are past him but, he is not all there at times! I think the Rockets are planning for 2010 and are doing what they can to be a solid contender for years to come. Ariza is young and full of upside and should fit good in which ever direction we go.
I'm not saying Wafer isn't a better scorer, he is. He scores more points per minute because he uses more possessions but he is not any more efficient than Ariza (their TS % is actually identical at .544). However, like I said before, I think Ariza can up his usage rate looking at the way he gets his offense. Also, Ariza does better in EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of the game than Wafer besides scoring. It's actually pretty ridiculous that Ariza has a PER higher than Wafer because Wafer uses way more possessions than Ariza and PER is an offensive metric for the most part.
DD if you combine Ariza's playoffs and regular season then you'll see he shot 36.7% from 3pt land. he took by far the most number of 3's per game in his career and was able to shoot the ball at a pretty solid rate from there. this shows to me that the kid is working hard on his shot and has upside with it. we all know he can't create off the dribble but it's not as if ariza has hit his ceiling on the offensive end yet.
Yes, it's worth mentioning that Ariza shot way way way waaaay better than both Artest and Wafer in the play-offs. Yes I know he had more open looks than Artest and Wafer but the discrepancy is too great to ignore.
I agree, I just don't like spending money on role players when we don't know what type of ROLE players we need going forward because of Yao and TMac. DD
For a 2 year small contract, yes. Ariza stops us from having Max money available in 2010..... The long term issue is my primary concern.... DD
Ariza's not going to replace McGrady nor is he meant to. At best, he'll be a solid role player who'll hopefully fill in okay while Morey searches for our next playmaking star wing (or PG). Kind of like what Artest did last season, but with even fewer expectations to win games. If Yao were healthy, the starting trio of Brooks/Battier/Ariza would at best be as good as Brooks/Battier/Artest, which is good enough for a first round win and a second round exit. Without Yao, of course, expectations are dramatically lower.
I don't think you need to worry. If Morey thought signing Ariza would prevent the signing of a max player in 2010, he would not have done the deal.
yao 20 mil budinger 1 mil taylor 1 mil ariza 6 mil brooks 2 mil battier 7 mil dorsey 1 mil landry 3 mil scola caphold 5 mil hayes caphold 3 mil lowry caphold 3 mil draft pick caphold (we'll be in the lottery) 3 mil projected salary cap in current economic conditions 50-55 million. this is considering we renounce the rights to barry, tmac, cook, etc etc. yao will certainly take his max contract player option. that leaves us with only room to perhaps sign a solid starter only.
^^^^^ What he said. I view this team in terms of asset management, Ariza makes sense if you are trading Battier...if not...then I think it was a bad move. DD
I think that y'all are blowing this way out of proportion. There are still moves to be made before the season, before the trade deadline, and before next off season. $6 million a year for a young, quality role player with championship experience is not overpaying. It is WAY, WAY, WAY too early to know whether this is a good or bad move. Ariza reminds me of a young Robert Horry much more than he reminds me of Shane. Personally, I think Shane is a luxury that we can't afford in a rebuilding phase. When we were in the hunt for a championship, having a great glue guy\defender was great. We need people to build for the future and it doesn't include Shane. I think it is unfortunate because I like him a lot.
Green points for me??? hehe see we agree on a lot of things btw I agree with ur point that it makes sense if we're trading Battier.
