Can someone explain if/how Howard and Ariza play together on D

Pretty simple. Ariza is a perimeter defender. He slows down drives and contest threes. He pokes at the ball and basically does what Beverly does. With Ariza and Beverly on the outside, Howard only has to worry about the post.

 

Ariza

His key defense throughout the playoffs – in round one on Jimmy Butler and then D.J. Augustin, and then round two on Paul George (Ariza held George to 39% shooting in the series) – along with some sharpshooting catapulted the Wizards to nearly securing an Eastern Conference Finals berth.

- His playoff exp. on defense is solid

There has been numerous articles on the web about how underrated Ariza is and its cause of Voting.

You already know how good Howard is, just look at all the Defensive All -team he has made in the history. Beverly made 2nd team last year.

A quick EX:

Playing with the flu, Ariza went into Madison Square Garden on April 4 in a must-win regular season game and held Carmelo Anthony to 10 points on 5-for-14 shooting. He battled the flu earlier in the season in a home game vs. the Miami Heat, holding LeBron James mostly in check in a 17-point win.

^ That there is hardcore if you ask me.

This is a quick answer.

 

For a moment I thought that was a CH innuendo title that was cut short.

 

So you're saying he gets the flu a lot. Great Morey, replacing Parsons with a flu-prone player.

 

An important factor besides his abilities is that (like Beverley) he understands his role. He knows who the stars are on the squad and know what he must do to support them.

 

Maybe being flu-prone is positive for two reasons....

#1 He plays through it

#2 It gives his defensive assignment a mental challenge by playing against someone with the flu and hoping they won't wake up sick the next morning

 

He and Beverly shut down the feeder street while Howard blocks the highway with an upturned 18 wheeler.

#H-TownTrafficJam

 

They're both good at not letting the other team score points.

 

It is lost on people, fans, media that 50% of the game is defense.

 

How good is Ariza defensively?

And how good can Bev/Ariza/Howard be defensively on the court together?

Houston was #12?? In defensive rating last season. With another year to mature for Bev and the addition of Ariza could they have a top 5 defense if Harden decides he wants to play?

 

I think Ariza's defense is overrated. He's definitely good and played great last year. But he's naturally inclined to play defense like a young Ron Artest or Beverley. Ariza isn't dumb, but he's not known as film room guy like a Battier or Bowen.

If we don't get a solid defensive assistant to maximize Ariza's efforts I'd be worried about a dropoff under McHale. I think Parsons winds up improving quite a bit on defense for Carlisle.

We need perimeter defense badly. Ariza should help. It'll make Harden's life easier and give Dwight a break. I think we have a bigger problem on defense at the 4 than people talk about. The west is full of 4's that shred us and make things tougher on Dwight.

 

If Harden decides he likes playing defense, than this team will be a contender.

I think this year we will see a slow of pace by focusing more on Dwight in the post.

 

Seriously? That's what you gathered from that?

He is not a robot. People get the flu, especially those that travel a lot.

 

Dwight and Ariza will be like defensive generals out there. The problem we have again is no depth. Dwight and Ariza can't play 48 min and we have zero depth behind them. We also have no depth behind Bev and he gets hurt a lot and gets in foul trouble often.

Anyhow I think the better question is how will Harden and Ariza mesh defensively. Who knows how that will work out.

 

I was just giving example of how he can play defense even ill and when the team really needs it. Most people cant even get out of bed let alone play Sports.

He is great defensive minded player, he might not have all the scoring flash that parson did, but he can knock down some 3's, and He go off like 10 3's in game.

 

Beverley-Ariza-Howard is a pretty good foundation to build a defense around.

Harden gets ragged on about his defense a lot, and rightfully so, but there are a lot of bad defenders in the league. Look at Steph Curry. His defense isn't much better than Harden's. But GSW is able to hide Curry in defense on the other teams worst offensive player and then let Thompson and Iguodala guard the team's other perimeter players while Bogut patrols the paint.

Actually, now that I think about it, GSW should be a pretty good example of how our defense might be. They have two bad defenders in Curry and Lee, but with three other good defenders in Thompson, Iguodala and Bogut it makes them a good overall defensive team. Houston should be similar- two bad defenders in Harden and Jones (Jones is just undersized), but three good defenders with Beverley, Ariza and Howard, we should be a much better defensive team than last year...hopefully.

 

Nah, he's saying:

1) superstar SF comes into town
2) infect Ariza with the flu
3) ...
4) profit!

Apparently Ariza's flu games = godly defense.

 

I think GSW is a pretty good comparison/projection. Here's hoping.