[CHRON] Rockets notes: Ariza's playing time could be reduced

lol :grin:

sad, but true

 

I'm so down as well.

 

about time, i was wondering why Trevor gets so many minutes despite his poorly performance down the stretch.

glad to see how it's gonna work out as to what Mcgrady could do given his minutes would round up. and meanwhile what kind of a role Ariza should adjust himself to, wish no more his dumbass dribbling move trying to creat his own shots.

 

C-Bud needs to take up part of his minutes and some of Battier's too. The injury and absence of McGrady has hurt us,more than some of us would admit to.

Nevertheless,I'm happy to see what Ariza and Chase can do. They can get better with time,and become consistent role players.

 

Finding 7 or 8 minutes for McGrady isn't a problem. But I don't see how he can play 20 to 30 minutes and be a true part of the rotation without someone else getting scrub minutes or being traded.

 

As long as he defends the ball and move his feet quick enough to get positions, 20 minutes of action won't be a blackhole for our rotation. Ariza has been playing way too many minutes, 39 mins. That would hurt us as well if he's out of lineup.

Having his minutes reduced and Chase's increased a bit along with bumping Tracy's up to 15-19 would be good to go IMO.

 

I just don't think there are enough minutes for everyone.

If they don't trade McGrady, they're going to give him more than 20 minutes. It will be gradual but he'll get back to the early 30s IMO.

The problem is that there are a total of 96 minutes at the SG/SF positions. Even if they reduced the minutes of Ariza/Battier/McGrady to 28-30 minutes each and kept Budinger at a conservative 17, that's still 101-107 minutes. And that's excluding Brooks at the SG when we go small.

Unless Adelman decides to drastically reduce someone's minutes for the rest of the season, I don't see a way to keep everyone happy.

 

Ariza could use having his minutes reduced a bit.

 

i agree, rick should slide him in the last 6 min of the 1st quarter after the 1st commercial time out, then some time in the 2nd half when the game matters more so he can get into a rythm maybe the last 4 min of the 3rd and first 5 of the 4th qtr. giving him about 15 min or so.
ariza does play way too much and isn't that great, he needs to go back to his role of playing as a defensive player with an occasional steal and occasional 3 pt shot, he shoots way too many bad shots, and doesnt drive enough, i think tmac can shoot better and has showed he wants to drive to the basket in the short time hes in there.

 

Didn't realize he was playing so much. Drop him down to 30 minutes a game, drop Battiers minutes by 5 and there is some minutes for Tracy. He has has some of the minutes Lowry gets when we play him and Brooks on the floor together.

 

I like Ariza, he seems like a nice guy. But he's just not that great. On defense, sure he's good. But on offense he's just not that gifted. Bricks all day long. Dribbles very awkwardly and loses the ball. I wouldn't mind seeing his minutes go down some. And Tracy and Bud's minutes go up. If this 7 or 8 minutes thing with T keeps going on than just move him. I'd rather see him play with someone else, than barely play at all.

 

I just cross-referenced the data from basketball-reference.com and it appears that Chase Budinger has been averaged 19.4 mpg, along with 33.8 and 38.5 for Brooks and Ariza respectively. Let us say, cut 8.5 minutes off of Ariza's playing time to add up to Tracy's, which would go up to 16.0 mpg. To evaluate his game and condition coming from microfracture surgery, 16.0 minutes per game should do well for him to shake off the rust of him. And also it should be gradually added up to his playing time.

Meanwhile Brooks' playing minutes could also get reduced slightly by 2 or 3 minutes considering his 33.8 minutes of action and his presence could really give us a boost down the stretch. So I would say for now and for Tracy's best interest if we don't trade him, 15-19 mins. per game would be viable and won't break down the chain of our offense and chemistry.

 

What the Rockets are missing right now is a player exactly like McGrady. A player that can handle the rock, create for others and breakdown defenses whenever the opponent clamps down on us late in games. We all love Ariza but he is NOT that player. Yeah, we experimented a little by overwhelming him just to see what he can handle, but his limitations as a player are very apparent. Reducing his minutes (and shots) all the while keeping him as an integral piece of what we're trying to do is definitely not BAD news, by any means. Neither would reducing Battier's minutes in favor of C-Bud.

 

Ariza's playing time is going to be reduced? Thank God. Make Chase an option before Ariza.


C-Bud > Ariza

 

I think ariza and battier should split 48 as our lead defender and tmac/chase could split the rest.

 

Ariza has been forcing the issue all the way and didn't accomplish nothing but turnovers and bad shots, his ability to create his own shots or for his teammates is not there either, which is really killing us offensively and defensively if they steal the ball and initiate the fast break.

Oh, he did drive, but not sufficient to get into the paint and draw fouls, maybe the reason he's not willing to do so mainly stems from his poor dribbling skill that get him called for a travelling violation time and time again. He also shows hesitance every time he picked up his dribble looking for his shots or passing lane to get the ball to the hands of our smalls or "bigs" inside.

In regard to T-Mac, his shots are not there yet, only 2 games of action he just shows his agility and lateral quickness are much much better than last season, his 3 point shot against the Nuggets was too flat to go in the basket, that being said, maybe his elevation on his jumpers is still under the effect of his confidence, which may gradually get better and more playing times would help along.

 

yeh but rafer was never asked to score more.

 

Its really not that hard, if mcgrady is back or as close to his normal self as possibly. HE WILL FIT IN. even if that means taking minutes from ariza, shane, and C-bud(haha) but really it wont be that hard if he can be effective.

 

i think he just missed a shot, again, he only took one jumper, and one drive to the basket like he did in his first game.

 

The thing is, those average numbers of minutes are before factoring in McGrady's 7 to 8 minutes.

I posted this elsewhere but here are the minutes for the PG/SG/SF rotation from the game vs. Denver, McGrady's first game with a full roster. (From Yahoo)

Ariza 34:30
Brooks 30:12
Battier 30:57
Budinger 13:38
McGrady 7:35
Lowry 26:33
Taylor 00:35

In this rotation, Brooks probably got about 9 minutes at the SG spot.

So whose minutes would you cut to give McGrady another extra 8 minutes? Also, Budinger probably needs at least another 4 minutes as well.