Rockets made a huge mistake trying to make Ariza the "go-to" scorer. He has definitely become a bad volume shooter, I rather take my chances with Budinger.
At least Ariza went to the rim and the free throw line tonight. And I'm sorry but Battier is about 5x better defensively than Trevor is.
The heck are you talking? As far as I can tell, he thought about firing off the MLE, which was the only thing we could have used enough money to get Gortat interested, even though it wouldn't have worked as the Magic would have matched like they did for Dallas. And yeah, Ariza was probably Plan B, but if Plan A has no chance of working, go to Plan B, and it's not a bad second option. Ariza needs to stop shooting so much, but really, I'm not going to go into panic mode with really anything he does this season unless he starts really moving into complete scrub territory (which he hasn't). Furthermore, my man? For God's sake, I know you're worse than Kwame in going "OH MOREY SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS HURR HURR" but if you are a Rockets fan, Morey is your man too thanks to his brilliant contributions to the Rockets team as of late. He is one of the best damn GMs in the league, period.
Martin obviously has to be in the starting lineup. Ariza SHOULD move to the bench but his delicate ego don't be able to handle it, so Shane will have to
I would like to see Ariza come off the bench, I think he could be that spark off the bench like he was for the Lakers. I think he would be more comfortable with his role that way...but I can't see Adelman benching him, so it will most likely be Shane
Shane is going to the bench. That's mainly bc he can handle it, whereas Ariza would probably whine about it.
Ariza will want the ball if he plays most of the time with Martin. He should be a spark off the bench.
When Lowry gets back, he could help Ariza get better looks with the second unit, particularly in transition. Ariza is more mobile than Battier and likes to run the court so that makes sense. At least for this season, with Lowry being a backup. But you're right, I'm not sure Ariza would be able to handle the demotion/role change without flipping out. If somehow we still have Lowry, Brooks, Ariza and Battier next season (pretty unlikely) and Lowry is starting, I can see Lowry-Ariza as starters and Brooks-Battier off the bench. That would allow Brooks to play his natural game alongside a more responsible defender who doesn't demand a lot of touches and who will compensate a little for Brooks' defensive limitations. It would also allow Battier to cut down his minutes for later in the season and hopefully the playoffs. He isn't getting any younger. I like both Battier and Ariza but now that we have Martin, there should rarely ever be a need to see Battriza.
Ariza needs to be the starting SF, with Bud as his back up... they definitely need to take minutes away from Shane "father time" Battier.... --RB
Battier starts and Ariza comes off the bench, but Ariza may get slightly more total minutes. And I say Ariza won't make a big deal about not starting. The rotation is going to be tricky, however, because there won't be enough minutes for Martin, Battier, Ariza and Budinger at the SG/SF spots. And it's not a good idea to play Battier too much at the PF when the matchup doesn't warrant it.
