J. Howard, Alston, and Ariza. Do they really deserve the bashing?

juwan - no. he's a pretty good offensive guy. he can give you 20pts a game. when we lost yao and tmac, he was our leading scorer. problem is that he's not a rebounder and we needed a rebounding big with yao since yao always gets boxed out and couldnt get a rebound. solid locker room presence too.

rafer - yes. he has a big mouth and cant back it up with his play. wasnt a good locker room presence too. and it seemed that he had problems with tmac and ron last year.

trevor - yes. he's taking a lot of the offensive load too much.

 

I think bashing happens when fans are not just frustrated by a player but also by a lineup change that refuses to happen. When they feel it's "obvious" that the change could make the team better.

Fans wanted Alston replaced by guys like Mike James, Steve Francis, and Aaron Brooks. Currently, there are numerous threads demanding Chase Budinger to start in place of Ariza.

IIRC Howard was criticized the most the year JVG started him in front of Stromile Swift. Many fans were baffled as to why the big FA acquisition of the summer was getting fewer minutes than the "scrub".

 

people need their team to win to escape their own miseries.
and when that doesn't work out, the aggression leftover needs a target.
scapegoating, bullying, call it what you want.

not to say rafer, jho, and ariza haven't had some awful games.
but the hate is different than a critique.

 

When you are the worst shooter in the NBA, you deserve to be bashed, simple as that

 

Well, J. Howard and Rafer were brought here as role players and Ariza was brought here to be one of the main players...

So Ariza deserves more bashing.

 

I don't think Howard deserved all the bashing and Ariza probably doesn't (yet), but Alston sure as hell did. Man, I hated having that guy on the team.

 

No.

Nobody deserves the bashing this board demands.



Well, maybe Ariza. :grin:


Seriously, not even Tracy.

 

I thought all three were good role players being forced into a situation where they could not be successful.

At the time they were on the rockets, I believe anyone of them could have played a part in winning a ring.

 

Howard had a max contract; get serious.

Alston was hugely overrated by Morey and JVG; he was a decent ball handler but a absolutely HORRID shooter. Occasionally he had a streak or two that his defenders would jump on.

Ariza is bench reserve who is in a starting role. This is a prescription for failure. He is the WORST shooter in the League and he is volume shooting, another prescription for failure. His attitude doesn't appear to sterling which adds to the fact the fans have put a target on his back. Fans believe that he is at the center of the current chemistry issue. We have a problem.

 

I agree with your points but Reefer's problem wasn't just the two point, it was also the three point shooting. Technically speaking, Reefer's 3 pt shooting is "decent", but remember 90% of his threes were wide open, like "practice in the gym" open as a result of having two guys who command double teams playing at the same time. Take away that luxury and his 3 pt shooting drops all the way down to...well, this season.

 

Agreed.

 

I'm pretty sure that Howard didn't have anywhere near a max contract when he played for the Rockets.

And Ariza is definitely better than a bench reserve. He is a championship caliber role player. In fact, he was a starter on the Lakers during their championship run. He's just not capable (at least at this point) of being a featured player, and that's the role he's been thrust into this season.

 

Are you asking if I think those guys were better for the team while they were here? The answer to that is yes.

I think you overrated how much this BBS disliked Rafer and Juwan. At the very least, it took a while for those guys to build up such a broad opposition here. Both guys also were recognized (for the most part) as being decent players with weaknesses (Howard's contract, Alston's two point shooting). Ariza is quickly becoming recognized as trash as an overall player.

 

At least with Alston, the opinion varied from game to game depending on how he performed on that day.

But with Ariza, that guy just plays turrrble every game.

 

No. He shot just as well if not better from three before he came to Houston. It's no surprise his shooting is slightly down this season, he's going to be 34 this year.

The bottom line is the guy shot 35% from three as a Rocket and that isn't bad at all.

 

WHat? Hayes shouldn't be in the starting lineup either and yet he is a very important part of this team, and one of the best defenders in the post.

Juwan Howard. He SHOULD be blamed. WHen I hear his name his playoffs performance comes to my mind at first. I remember. 2006/07 series against Utah. He was HORRIBLE.

 

I didn't really like the deal for Ariza when it was made.....The only way Ariza will succeed is with a dominant 2 or 3 guard on this team so he can just feed off that. As far a Juwan Howard goes, he was what he was. An aging PF who was never very good on defense to begin with, and who took a lot of jumpshots... Finally, Alston is a solid player and all, but he had way too many 1 for 10 shooting nights for my taste. And that stupid floater just ran him out of town that much quicker.

 

What ever happened to Shandon Anderson? He played great for Utah than us and than disappeared from the face of the earth.

 

All the players you listed have one teammate in common that excessively passed them the ball. BATTIER! So why doesnt he get bashed? The world will never know.