Is it time to start talking about trading someone other than McGrady?

Ariza is the next whipping boy.

 

Why is Trevor's ceiling higher exactly? I am not disagreeing, I just don't think it is.

Battier knows who he is on the basketball floor and in general is smarter than most everyone he plays with or against. He does not go out of his capabilities, he is limited as a player, but he KNOWS that and plays to his strengths which minimize his weaknesses.

Trevor on the other hand, constantly tries to do things he is just not capable of doing, and the very fact that he is 24, has been on multiple teams and still can not dribble the ball effectively makes me wonder if he will ever be what you and others think he will be.

I have been trying to support him, want him to succeed, but I just don't see the skillset required for him to be a triple threat player.

1. He can't dribble well.
2. His passes are almost always a half second behind on cutters
3. He gets stuck in the paint with the ball and nowhere to go
4. He loses his balance a lot

I think he is a long, tall, lanky version of AK47, but with lessor skills....

I know it has been less than a year Reeko, I get that, but I am talking here about baseline skills.....the guy is just lacking all over the place.

If he had one particular skill you could hang your hat on, like Battier and smart defense then you could see more value, but Trevor just doesn't have that one dominant skill....and he sucks at so many necessary ones.

IMO, he should be a bench player, no more than 20mpg, which is exactly what he was last year in LA.....and they let him go....ever wonder why?

I think we can see why, now......

Play well, and you don't get whipped.....

DD

 

Ariza averaged 24 mpg last year and he started 20 games, I believe the last 20. I agree he has struggled, but he plays good D. The Lakers also have guys named Kobe, Gasol, and Odom. We are a little thin at the SG/SF spot. Who would we put in instead of Ariza- Harris or Taylor?

Let's remember he is not getting paid much either. For what he is getting paid he is fine, just needs to take smarter shots.

 

I think Ariza will play very well with Yao or another go to guy. Sometimes we get alittle short sighted and especially when the current team has over achieved with an extremely tough schedule.

 

He'll say Budinger is already better than Trev.

all I have to say to that is "some nights" definitely not last night.

 

He certainly has a lot higher ceiling than Trevor does.

And I hear you guys, but Trevor's attitude bothers me as much as his piss poor play....

We don't need another Rafer Alston out there trying to lead......

DD

 

Budinger is only shooting 40% and 33% from 3. And no way he plays better Ariza than D. Let's see how much better Chase can get, remember he dropped in the draft because people didn't think his ceiling was that high.

But Bud sure does have great chemistry with Kyle on the break. Love watching them work together.

 

To grow you must reach outside of your comfort zone. Ariza has shown that he can be E-F-F-I-C-I-E-N-T (I know how people love that word so I threw it in) in the past. I think it's been said a billion times, but the Rockets want Ariza to use this year to figure out who he is. Morey has even said publicly multiple times that he asks Ariza to take so many of those long jumpers, so blame him.

In short, the Rockets like Ariza. Anyone could be traded on this team but you will not see Ariza thrown into a trade just to get rid of him. He's definitely better than some of the other options we had this offseason (Wafer,etc). And, the MLE really isn't that much so we got him at a good price as well.

 

Seems to me that a high percentage of recent threads are about just that -- speculation on trading McGrady alone and speculation on McGrady plus whichever other Rocket's players for whichever combination of players from other teams. Looks like that's been a topic of discussion for quite some time. No offense intended, but even as a casual participant on the forum, I've read a ton of discussion/speculation on this exact topic, unless I'm misinterpreting the question.

 

Budinger is a rookie, he is already playing better offense than Trevor, and his defense is improving every day.

And Budinger is only 21.......

He also plays smarter out there than Trevor, on both offense and defense.

Trevor looks lost to me......he just looks like he doesn't get it.

Honeslty, his BBall IQ seems to be lacking......

DD

 

You really think so?

I think you have to take into consideration contract......

And Ariza at $6 million for 5 years is not as good as Von at $1 million for 1 year or 3.

I think Von provides more for this team than Trevor does and for less money.

DD

 

Maybe Chase can eventually start over Trevor...but Chase isn't much of a dribbler either. Chase is pretty much a jump shooter and a slasher. When is the last time Chase created a shot for himself? This was the criticism of him in college- he didn't really take over games.

 

To be honest, I know Ariza is here to stay, and will probably play better when Yao returns, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if Morey found him a new home (hey, he was born in Miami; Q-Rich is expiring, and why not Miami's 1st rounder?)

Whatever the deal is, I'm tired of watching Adelman trying to turn Ariza into what he is not.

Of course, to be fair, Adelman was----is?----playing him a lot of minutes, and maybe that's why his shooting percentages just keep falling.

But tossing it to Ariza and telling him to dribble, handle, pass? Can we reign that in, please? Quit trying to turn him into a less-expensive version of Tmac?

 

Trevor is a good piece to the puzzle, but he's only scoring because we need him to with Battier and Hayes on the floor. If we can ever get a scorer and fill out the roster properly Ariza will be a solid defensive 2/3 for us for a long time eventually replacing Battier. Ariza is a top tier defender and slasher. That's it...he will never be a scorer, period and for the pay that's fine by me.

 

Darryl Morey doesn't think so. I agree with him.

 

Please Mr. Morey will you please post something or pull off a trade to stop the madness!

 

I am going to have to agree with you on this one DD, well said. My opinion about Ariza is that he stinks as a guard becasue thats not his skill set. Whenever I see him handling the ball, I get scared just like I used to when Artest would handle the rock.
I do feel as though he has the potential to become a great Small Forward, however, if I had to choose right now there is no question that I would take Battier.

Here is a question for everyone, Do we blame Ariza for sucking as a shooting guard or do we blame the coach and orginization for trying to turn him into something that he isnt?

Personally, if I were Atriza I wouldnt take on a role if I knew that I was not capable of fulfilling this role, and surely he has to know that he cant handle the ball, he cant create his own offense, and he cant shoot of the dribble, i.e., he cant be a shooting guard.......... Your thoughts?