I think it is a good choice. Ron showed how big idiot he was so I am happy. What separates ARiza from Ron is that he ATTACKS THE BASKET FIRST. He can shoot it and will be better next year but he will attack first and is a pretty good defender.
24 years and still improving? Gimme that over shaky jumper of Ron Artest every day. I liked Ron Ron's appearance during the season and playoffs and I wish him luck in the LA and I'm not sad since Rockets got Trevor Ariza! Nice.
The signing of Ariza means Wafer is gone. Your depth chart right now would have Battier, Hayes, and Scola starting. Although Scola is a decent transition player, I'm not sure I'd afix "fast" or "young" to much of that trio.
now lets just keep mcgrady let his contract run out and go after the king in 2010 cuz we will have the best supporting cast for him oh yeah lets try to resign scola this summer instead of waiting in 2010 cuz hes gonna put up great numbers this year.and theres gonna be another trade commin.
I can't help but feel that this is only staving off the team falling apart. With that said, an Artest-Scola-Battier-Brooks-Landry core took the NBA champs to the limit. If Artest is going to be gone, throwing the MLE at a good young swingman who shoots a good percentage and plays defense is vintage Morey. Ariza is a great complement to Battier...Shane can take the tough covers and Ariza can play help defense and hopefully shoot for two steals a game as he continues to improve. All credit in the world goes to Morey here for taking steps to keep the Rocks in the playoffs when it seemed like the sky was falling.
This is a long-term move...it's not about next year's playoffs. Yao and McGrady are the key to next year's playoffs, barring some major trade at this point. I don't think you can count on either enough to say that you'll be in the playoffs next year....and honestly, that's probably a good thing.
we down graded IMO, we went from a borderline all star to a rotational player, and theyre both payed the same. we`ll see next year when no one is hitting their shots, or we will see ariza avg. 20 ppg.
I would have been fun to see Brooks, Wafer, Ariza, Landry and Scola on the floor at the same time for a running team. Too bad about Wafer, I would love to have the guy back. I love his athleticism. Maybe Taylor will turn into a diamond in the Rough.
we went from a 29 year old guy who is inefficient and shoot to much...who was brought in as a veteran piece to get a championship contender over the hump to a 24 year old guy with good efficiency numbers...who was brought in as a young player for the future of a team that clearly can't keep its star players healthy this shouldn't be a straight-up artest v. ariza comparison. we don't live in a bubble. artest is good for the lakers...a team that already has its stars in place. artest is superflous for the rockets...a team that needs a new direction going forward
Please don't take this personally. But it's not math (which deals with unknown variables). It arithmatic and you are the one who "failed". Artest and Ariza got nearly identical deals...$5.6M in Year 1 which is likely the full MLE for 2009-10. The max raise for an MLE is 8%. That (for the arithmatically challenged) is $448K per year. That means a 3 year deal is worth $18,144,000 and a 5 year deal is worth $32,480,000. But BOTH deals started at the same value. EDIT: Never mind...I see you were doing it by yearly average. Guess I'm better with numbers than reading comprehension.
Why did Ariza chose the ROckets out of all the teams? He could have gone and play with a Contending team like the Cavs and duo up with King James/Shaq & MO Williams, or he could have gone Portland... Did this guy really wanted more playing time or what? Im not hating on his decision or anything just wanted to know because Portland and other teams could have offer him the same MLE type of money plus their teams could contend for the Championship ring unlike the ROckets for 2009 -2010.
I think we downgraded too, and as long as he doesn't have locker room issues, I think Artest will contribute more to the Lakers this season than Ariza did with his outside shooting. It's disappointing to lose Artest especially because he took a paycut to sign with them. BUT, at this stage of his career, Artest isn't a borderline all star and whether he could've been a good number one option for us this season is very questionable. Last 4 games without Yao, he shot 27for84 (32%) and 10for61 (16%) from 3. He averaged less than 1 FTA a game, down from 4 a game during the season. Small sample size, and the Lakers are better defensively than the majority of teams we'll face in the regular season, so his numbers playing for us next season wouldn't have been as bad. But from what we've seen it's pretty safe to assume without Yao for a whole season his efficiency would've taken a big hit. If anything last season showed that he's a veryvery good role player. Kind of like what Ariza is but older and on the decline. In short, I think the drop off in offensive production from Artest as your number 1 option to Ariza as your number 1 option isn't as big as you think. Both would struggle.
After mulling this over for a while, I am convinced this was the right move. In fact, I am wondering if we had Ariza for the Lakers series and if the Lakers had Artest, if we wouldn't have won that series. It is really plain to me that Adelman/Morey are going in the direction of being PG centric. That is to say, they want the ball in Brooks' (or whoever the point is) hands and they want him making decisions with it. They want to spread out the court and surround Brooks with guys that can shoot and finish. They do NOT want guys on the court that are going to take the ball away from Brooks and dribble it up and fool around with it. They want guys that are going to get open to receive and shoot/finish and they want guys that are going to feed the ball back to the lil' jitterbug when they ain't open so he can run around somewhere else with it. In light of this, Ariza makes perfect sense with his defense, and his ability to run (Ron can't run), get out on the break, and get easy dunks, his ability to spot up and shoot it (just as effective as Ron), and his quick first step (quicker than Ron) that allows him to make a clean crisp move to the lip without dribblemania, not to mention his willingness to give the basketball back up and reverse it if he doesn't have an immediate opening. Ariza is a ball mover. He fits perfectly. The only question about him is can he maintain his efficiency with increased minutes and increased offensive touches?
Lottery here we come... Ariza is not nor will he ever be a star he is a role player, we have a team full of role players. A 30 win season is reasonable, we are in a 3-4 phase of missing the playoffs again...
