Sure he can drive but he's not McGrady. Ariza would often lose the ball sometimes because he is so clumsy when he's driving in. Its like he don't have enough ball control when driving to the basket. He gets the ball stolen from him easily when trying to drive in or charges into a player and cause a turnover. I know his ball handling skills is nowhere near Tmac but I also think Ron Artest have better ball control than him also.
DD, you seriously disappoint me in this thread. you try to tell me Ariza has been bad on D, and that Wafer was worth keeping, in the same thread? jesus. even as bad as you might think Ariza has been, he would have to close both eyes and tie his shoes together to be as bad as Wafer was on D.
Front Page of Yahoo! NBA: Kobe Bryant has words of encouragment for Ariza: Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AhvWFK8fducQjp3QAaKk5v.8vLYF?slug=mc-arizarockets103009&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
I agreed with everything here up until that last line. I know Ariza's handles leave a lot to be desired, but Artest's dribbling is just abysmal. Plus Ariza has still got hops, something Ron "I-Get-Blocked-On-50%-Of-My-Layup-Attempts" Artest can't even begin to claim.
Artest was just the very definition of inefficient offense. Morey has been cringing in his sleep all last season thinking about those wasted possessions.
This is ridiculous. "Ariza can't drive." "Ariza gambles too much." "Blah blah blah." Have you guys even seen how Ariza played last year? If you saw how he played, then the select few of you that did know that this is what we paid for. He plays better as a second or third option, not as a first.
for someone who has yet to make an intelligent point in this entire thread, you have a lot of gall telling me to learn how to read.
AGAIN, no one is disputing this. He is clearly a 3rd or 4th option player. People are pointing out the inability to drive, gambling on defense, etc, because he is trying to play like a #1 option when he is not capable of that.
That may be but gambling too much and not driving wasn't a problem for him on the lakers because he had kobe to bail him out. Yes i agree he is a good second or third option but he won't be as good as he was on the lakers
For comparison purposes, Artest is 1-5 tonight so far with 4 fouls and 3 turnovers. Looks like a good acquisition to me thus far.
Like Adelman and Morey have said so many times, this is a learning process for Ariza. Being the first/second option in offense now will help Ariza become a more potent offensive weapon when he's back to being the third/fourth option. Don't you want Ariza to do more than shoot 3s when Yao gets back? This season is a great opportunity for the Rockets to develop guys like Ariza, Brooks, Landry and Budinger. Being patient now will pay off big dividends in the future.
Yes,but he does need to play smart. It's better for him to take one dribble and finish at the basket as compared to putting the ball on the floor and try to dribble around or go through guys which leads to turnovers unless he can show greater improvement in practice. I do agree with you that this is a great opportunity for the young guys to get better,which I find exciting.
It seems to be a feeling-out process for him and Adelman, figuring out what works and what doesn't. Personally, I'm liking what I've seen of Ariza so far.
A few snippets to make this swap even better: Laker fan 1: Phil mentioned Ron missing both of his freethrows as one of those plays where we shot ourselves in the foot. We were trying to mount a rally and had a series of plays that took the wind out of the sails. Those misses in the fourth were one of them. Again, this is what we saw all preseason -- Ron missing freethrows and threes. He'll dig out of it at some point. Offensively, he was out of sync like the rest of the team. "If he's got to think about it, he's a step slow," Phil said prior to the game about Ron in the Tri right now. Really, this is the first game where he looked more like the Ron Artest you worry about. There was plenty of frustration with all the players in how the game was called. "I thought he was playing a little too hard for the game," Phil said, meaning Ron was playing more physical than the refs were allowing. The three offensive foul calls seemed to take him out of the game -- a good test for him and his teammates early this season in dealing with his emotions. Those were some very weak calls, for sure. Defensively, he matched up with Marion, who scored 18 points. The Mavs were able to take advantage of some weak two-man game defense by the Lakers. Ron had a couple of steals, but also caused a couple more turnovers. Despite all that, he was only a -2. We just couldn't keep him on the floor. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-6 shooting (1-4 from three, 0-2 from the line) to go with3 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers and 5 fouls in just 23 minutes. The Action: He took a rebound that Bynum kept alive and hit Kobe for a layup. He posted up Marion and drew a foul on the post entry pass. He got blocked in the post. He got tapped on a three from the top of the key. He swished a wide open wing three. He bricked badly on an open three. He blew past Marion from the wing and set up LO for a layup. He was called for an offensive foul trying to get set for a post up, very weak call. He swatted a ball off Marion in the backcourt to regain a possession. He attacked down the lane and missed a layup, but got it back. He tried to create from the midpost and was called for a charge, he had to sit with his third foul. He had 3 points on 1-5 shooting, 3 assists and 2 turnovers. Second Half: He stole a pass and was called for an elbow when he tried to gain control (bogus call, he got his fourth foul and a tech...Phil was ticked at the call). He stripped Dirk on one end, attacked him on the other and drew FTs, he then missed both of them. He tried to push up a rebound, lost it, then fouled (that's the Ron you don't want to see). He missed a three in transition. Laker fan 2: Watching Artest with the ball on offense, so far anyhow, far too often leads to me either 1.) watching him and realizing I'd never realized how awkward some of his movements are - he's very NON-textbook in not only his shooting stroke in alot of sitatuions (that part I knew prior to his being a Laker), but I must not have realized how awkward his handle and control seems to be on the break or as he drives the hoop... or 2.) I end up, as a result of #1, screaming "pass the ball dammit!"
we obviously got the better of the deal, we gotta a younger, more athletic player for the same price. he doesn't necessary waste possessions with fade-away 3's and is a good if not a great defender. i'm happy with ariza, hopefully anderson will improve like scola did. scola, an improved anderson, and a healthy ariza, battier, and brooks (lowry) could do some damage. we just need to grab those boards and play better interior d. my 2 cents.
once again you fail. i never said, or implied that DD made that point. I said that its disappointing that DD would slam Ariza for his D when his D is miles ahead of Wafer, and DD wanted to keep Wafer so badly (Wafer would have cost a few million per season to keep). basically, the point is that if DD wanted good defense, then why did he want wafer? and if he wants to slam Ariza for his defense, which is already better than wafer's, then its a fair amount of hypocrisy.
