[DIMEmag] Trevor Ariza will either be Tracy McGrady or Darius Miles

A meh article from a shaky writer.

Thanks for the link, OP.

 

Ariza will be Ariza. He will be better than Miles but not Tmac's level.

 

Ariza has underrated handles. When he was a knick he got to show off that ability. Of course, the lakers chose not to utilize them in the slightest so maybe they're not so good after all. But don't be surprised next year if Ariza shows he can put the floor on the ball a bit.

I don't know why people are offended by the Darius Miles comparison. Miles was a talented player. He was a good defender, rebounder, and slasher. His midrange jumper was solid. What brought him down was his horrible attitude. Ariza appears to have a winning mentality.

 

Ariza is good at cutting to and finishing around the basket,unlike Battier who only does it rarely.

 

Tracy McGrady will be Trevor Ariza or Darius Miles.

 

exactly, the league will probably never see a 'natural' talent like t-mac again. He came into the league and he probably had the best combination of athleticism and supreme basketball skill the league will ever see. He was definitely a player beyond his years in his first few years but eventually the harder working less gifted athletes caught up, T-mac's game hasn't expanded but Kobe's, lebron's, wades games have developed very well.

T-mac keeps telling us he's gonna go retro, I wanna see something new, not the old t-mac.

 

He's judging the signing, without demonstrating that he even understands the perimeters of why it happened.

 

Do people actually realize how good tmac is/was. I think Ariza will be closer to miles than mcgrady.

 

I think he is more Jamie Foxx than anyone else.

 

It seems everyone is teetering on the edge of greatness..

 

Anybody know when Miles originally got injured? I thought that Miles started having health problems pretty early on, which is why he never reached his true potential.

TMac had some bizarre crazy skills even when he was a 2nd option in Toronto, and it was easy to see he had tremendous potential. Blocking more than a shot per game and averaging 3.3 assts is really unusual. More than 1 block per game is rare for anyone other than a center, and more than 3 assists per game is outstanding for anyone other than a PG or a SG who is the main option.

Ariza will probably improve, but I'm not expecting much more than would come from a higher usage rate.

 

You obviously don't know how bad Miles is/was

 

He's not gonna be Tracy McGrady.

Scottie Pippen at best.

 

you gotta remember the rockets got away with puttimg luis scola a power forward on this man he is not going to be anything like tracy mcgrady he just doesnt have that skill set his talents are more defense than anything hes not much of a shooter or a shot creator i would keep battier over ariza even though ariza is only 24 battier is a championship caliber role player while ariza is just a solid good role player

 

Anybody who expects Ariza to have the same level of skill as a healthy (or even injured Mcgrady) needs to get prepared for a let down.

 

wasn't Ariza on a championship team?

 

Somebody doesn't watch basketball for you to make a comment like this.

 

This quote is absolutely priceless on so many different levels.

 

You know, for my money...

...or Les Alexanders' money.....

..I'd take a wild stab at saying that Trevor Ariza becomes for the Rockets what Sean Elliott, Mario Elie, Jaren Jackson, Stephen Jackson, Manu Ginobili and Michael Finley have been for the Spurs the past 10 years or so....

...the yin to the yang that is Shane Battier.

Daryl Morey is modeling his GM style a lot like San Antonio does, "moneyball" cliches aside. That's not particularly difficult to do with Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady on your roster (no matter how risky it is to keep hoping you'll get a full season out of either one of them at this point in their careers)....

...and why the true test of Morey's ability will come very quickly, as he transitions the team personnel with the eventual ending (one way or another) of the Yao/McGrady tandem.

Tim Duncan is one of the best big men to ever play. Tony Parker has become an elite, game-changing offensive player at the point. Manu Ginobili is as consistent an "x-factor" player as you could want. There's a reason why, even with age for these three Spurs (excepting Parker) becoming a factor, that the Spurs front office has kept a slew of scoring wings on the roster, in some kind of revolving door, Von Wafer-ish maneuvers.

As all-league a defender as Bruce Bowen was for the Spurs, Gregg Popovich made it a point to not over-expose him offensively, by asking Bowen to be a guy who could give you consistent scoring form the wings. Bowen always had to split time with another quality wing player, one who was usually a better scorer than Bowen was. I don't believe Bowen played, even in his heyday, more that 35 minutes a night. Bowen's anemic offense never really crippled the Spurs, because there was always another guy who could put the points on the board that Bowen couldn't.

Von Wafer reached rock-star status with the Rockets because he got to take some of Battier's minutes, and score a few times with those chances.

It's not slapping Battier's defensive ability in the face to complement him with a scorer at his spot to take the pressure off him to score enough points to keep teams honest. It's helping highlight what great things Battier DOES do, because he has good teammates around him who can pick up whatever slack he leaves.

What I hope Trevor Ariza becomes, is a guy who can give the Rockets a double-figure scorer at that wing spot (12-15 points), along with all the other things that maybe you don't get from a Von Wafer—a solid individual and team defender, and a guy who knows how to play a role to help your team win.

A lot of the Rockets' future success still rests on both Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming getting healthy and remaining on the roster, but putting a fairly balanced player like Ariza around them both will be nice to see.

And when that happens, I promise I'll wake up and tell everybody how nice a dream that was...!