LOL, that's exactly what he did when he went for that lay-up. I wonder if he's been doing some yoga on the side, I saw some great flexibility. It's too bad Rising Dog won't get us much in the way of points or wins.
Rafer? Or Kyle Lowry? And Ariza can contort because he is lengthy. But I definitely would not mind if Ariza suddenly because LeBron and charged like a bull in a china shop.
No, Doc, that is NOT AT ALL the argument I put forth!! I said nothing about the player or his condition, I'm talking simple statistics, that since they are drawn from too little data, it is mathematically, and statistically incorrect to draw conclusions from them.
Ariza is not a horrible player, though he has played horribly in December. Like some have suggested here, it must be the excessive workload. Dude cannot even make free throws anymore. After a nice start for the season, Ariza has definitely hit a wall.
Exactly. Espacially with his athleticism. He can jump over people and I belive he can finish strong as well. Btw, the Rockets will have to do something. You just can't force the guy to play 40 minutes every single night even if he is shooting 20%. You have to find different ways. And I am not really talking about McGrady. Maybe Taylor can do better.
Ariza can't get by people off the dribble. I would say, with the ball, he is an unimpressive athlete. Notice how routinely he'll drive and get cut off by defenders, only to pivot back and look to get bailed out. Its a combination of lack of burst, vision, creativity, coordination, shot-making skill ...
Aaron Brooks also comes to mind, as a player who avoids absorbing contact when driving toward the rim. This is why the Tony Parker comparisons are out of line. If Brooks could somehow develop this skill, then the Rockets would have another Bobby Jackson type contributor.
Except for that driving layup down the stretch to essentially clinch the win in New Jersey the other night...
Not a bad idea except he's shooting 65% from the line... Trending towards Chuck Hayes land. Could it be fatigue? Rick - please give him some pine. Thirty minutes sounds good.
PigMiller, Beginning your post with "Except" and ending with those 3 periods (as an attempt to smugly contradict my observation) does not convince me otherwise. Let us see Aaron Brooks do this more consistently, and against a defender other than Yi JianLian.
He's probably crying because he saw a replay of his disgusting move where he tries to take his man off the dribble, gets cut off, pivots back and launches a hopeless fadeaway. I bet he thought he looked like Kobe when he was doing it. Or it might just be his general lack of talent or coordination and absence of any signs of significant improvement in those areas.
I'd agree with that. But I'd also put it to the thread that 31 games is also 'too small a sample size' - his shooting % may or may not increase over the rest of the season, but there's significant reasons as to why it has dipped so dramatically from previous seasons. In the end, if the coaching staff (who have us sitting nicely at 18-13 despite all the 'experts' opinions) think Ariza ought to shoot, then I'm happy enough with it.
Ariza has no explosiveness, thus he can't be a franchise/first option player. There are only a few franchise players without explosiveness, for example, Paul Pierce. But then again...Celts have 3 franchise players.
He looks horrible. I'm not debating whether he can be a valuable piece as a sidekick but this is like asking chuck hayes to fill yao's offensive role. It just can't happen. Hayes is a valuable player and tremendous defender, but he just does not have the skills or aptitude to be the #1 post scoring option.
