first: i dont see why shane or trevor can't play the 2. both can guard SG's. no other wing player on this team is deserving of the starting spot over either of them. second: i dont think this means the end of shane automatically. it's a possibility, but the rockets can have a max contract available next summer with shane and ariza on the books. its a simple matter of signing lowry for less than his $6M cap hold, and possibly trading scola for a pick and an ending contract to which the rockets can renounce their rights. shane will be vital to ariza's development. trevor has all of the tools, and some of the skills. shane will show him how to study and prepare.
It's not about guarding the other team. It's about having a guy out there that can create off the dribble for himself and draw the defense for others. Ariza and Battier are both suited for spotting up and/or cutting off the ball. With a team that looks destined at this point to be offensively challenged...I don't want to see that combo.
I got a mixed feeling about this news. He is a good defender and good 3-pt shooter if when his shot is not contested. He should be effective when Yao's healthy. However, without a star requiring constant double-team in the team, he might find a hard time shooting the ball. I guess we will have to wait and see what he could bring to the Rockets.
Well a sign and trade is officially out. That's what all the analysts/insiders have been saying but I haven't heard one concrete reason why it wasn't possible under the CBA. Well I finally found the answer while searching around twitter. The reason that Artest/Ariza can't be traded in a sign and trade is because Ariza will become a base year compensation player with his new raise. The BYC makes it impossible to trade these two contracts for each other under the current terms. The only way a sign and trade could go down is if Ariza limits his raise from last year to 20% which would prevent his contract from becoming BYC. He made 3 million last year, so he's not going to accept a deal starting at 3.6 million when he's got 5+ million on the table. Well there goes that pipe dream. At least we know why now.
Yeh. This is true but he's still very young and the rockets have been good at developing young talent. At the very least he'll be a very good role player once Yao gets back or once we trade for another star.
Rocket fans keep your head up! Yao with the foot, T-Mac with the leg, Artest bolted to the Lakers, Now the critics leaving us for dead, It seems like just a month ago, We were close to the crown, So why must they think a few more setbacks, Can keep this team down, I mean we still have Scola, Brooks is a beast, Kyle Lowwwwery the bad boy, Shane puts that lock down on the D, Landry is a monster, My boi Barry can shoot, Ohhhh and D Morey just added the kid Ariza too, These guys will not bail, Rick won’t let them fail, Clutch going keep the crowd hype, As to the championship, the Rockets will prevail
An Ariza-Battier pairing at the 2 & 3 will be better than Artest-Battier. Ariza has the quickness to properly defend guards. Jackson preferred to keep Ariza defending players at his own position but when he did guard PGs... Aaron Brooks was completely shutdown by Ariza in one game.
man i'm so sad and happy about this signing. ariza is EVERYTHING offensively we love for shane to be when tracy and yao were relatively healthy: hit the open 3, take it to the rack when guys go at him, handle the ball... yet yao and tracy are injured. but ariza has the potential to be better. he's a hard worker. he's going to be a part of our future.
If we are to start rebuilding at some point next season, Ariza is a good piece to have. He just turned 24 and has a lot of good years ahead of him. His contract may look like a steal in a couple of years.
Am I the only one that hates this? I don't see this vast potential everyone else is seeing. He's a great role player but it makes no sense for a non-contender to to pay a role player $7m. I think people are really overrating him based on an incredible shooting streak he had in the playoffs. It was a fluke, he'll most likely shoot around 31-36% from 3 again.
Ariza did a great job in the lastest palyoffs. I think he will become better in Houston. and i am so dispoint ron's leaving.
so basically morey is stacking this team with role players until 2010 where he can lure an all-star to come to houston. GENIUS MOREY
I swear this board is going to be the end of me. Everyone take a step back. Three days ago, what did we have on our team? A solid point guard situation (could improve, I guess, but the least of our worries right now), a solid power forward situation, a premier SF defender, and that's all we really knew. Our biggest needs: Center and a wing with length that can score if needed. What does Morey do? Immediately, he goes after Gortat (Center) and Ariza (wing with length that can score if needed). But Morey doesn't know what he's doing?!?! He really needs to get off his butt, and start going after people!! Most of you guys really have no grasp on reality. I see all these posts like, "OMGZ San Antonio is doing this, what is Morey waiting for?!" and it just blows my mind. Maybe Morey doesn't want these players on his team. Or maybe, just maybe, they don't want to come here. Its not like NBA Live where if you offer them a decent contract they will automatically come over. There are so many factors involved. Maybe the player has family in that city. Maybe they love the team colors. Maybe they have a crush on one of the teams cheerleaders. Who knows? What I do know is Morey is not just sitting on his hands doing nothing. This bored has doubted his every move (seriously), and he keeps succeeding. What more does he have to do? 1) Everyone doubted his draft night pickups of Brooks and Landry. 2) Everyone doubted his draft night pickups of Greene and Dorsey 3) Everyone doubted his trade of Bonzi for Bobby Jackson (helped us get Ron) 4) Everyone doubted his trade for Lowry He is one owner that I can assure you has the team's best interest in his mind. Let me throw this curveball at you guys who disagree with lowballing Gortat and going after Ariza. What happens if we give Gortat a big contract, then Yao comes back. Now we have a backup center with one of the larger contracts on the team. Simple moves like that are what sets back a team. I wanted Gortat, but only up to a certain price. Ariza is a young, smart, high character guy that can go on pretty much any team. No matter what direction our team goes in, we will be able to use a player like Trevor. The same cannot undoubtedly be said about Gortat. Why doesn't everyone take a breather and just see how this plays out. We're not gonna win a championship this year, (no team could when both players you build your team around are out for the year) but I can guarantee you we will get there sooner rather than later with Morey behind the wheel.
Hmm, I guess it is better to have Ariza instead of Artest if 2009 is gonna be a down year for us. It is very concerning to not have any centers on the team so far. I am guessing they might try a run and gun system without Yao to slow us down. Our team going into next year is full of holes but has an exciting mix of young guns. But without McGrady and Yao, we will probably not make the playoffs. Picking up draft picks wouldnt be a bad idea since the next draft is supposedly pretty strong, but our role players are so good that we still will probably end up with 40 or so wins. A Barbosa/Stoudamire move makes a whole lot of sense all of the sudden if we were going to try a running system, but we would need to retain Brooks in order to be successfull in my opinion. Id love to see us make a play for Rubio now that we have some time to develop him before we can be in contention. Again, I am not sure we have the assets to land either of them to be honest. Kinda seems like we have alot of pieces that just don't fit together which could spell trouble in the long run. I think Morey has made it pretty clear he either doesn't like what Artest brings, or he is very uninterested in signing any older players to deals. I like the youth movement, but I am do not want an extended rebuilding period. I pray Morey has a contingency plan in place to reload this team on the fly. I am not sure I can stomach another "post dream era"
