K. Dallas Martin has made Traveler Ariza better, I think

Oh you....

Battier avg. minutes by month:
October - 32
November - 31.9
December - 34
January - 34.3
February - 32.2
March - 31.9

Ariza avg. minutes by month:
October - 38.7
November - 39.1
December - 38.7
January - 37.1
February - 33.7
March - 33.3

 

I hope you're still a rockets fan after battier is traded. Other than loving him as much as his wife does, you're a pretty good poster. Do me a favor and travk battiers minutes from here going forward and maybe we can get somewhere.

 

I don't agree Martin has made Ariza better, it's just that because he's taking less shots and therefore missing less, you think he's improving.

IMO, the Rockets have created a monster in Ariza. Before, Ariza was a competent spot up shooter and a great role player. Now, he's forced to do things that, frankly, he's not that good at, such as playmaking or driving to the basket. Worse, because he was forced to take so many shots earlier in the season, he's lost confidence in his shot which is pushing him even more to do things out of his element.

He's still doing the exact same things he was doing before Martin came... c'mon man. Don't just remember the one 3 he makes at the end of the game. Remember all the other shots he took before that.

Let's see what Adelman does now that the Ariza experiment is over. Let's see if he can undo the damage. If he can't, I expect Ariza to be traded during the summer.

 

I fully expect him to be moved in any Bosh deal as salary filler, but ill still be here

 

Bosh isn't coming to the Rockets

 

I don't know if Battier is on his way out unless you mean the rotation. At some point (probably next season), I expect Budinger will take his role of top wing off the bench, but I still expect him to be playing 5-10 minutes a game.

Btw. Congrats! I know you've waited a long time for Battier to be on bench or off team.

 

You must not watch the games then. Ariza is getting mismatches on the perimeter becasue he's up against slower SF. He gets to slash to the rim and finish or get fouled.

Ariza was a playmaker on the Lakers during the playoffs last year. He hit big shots and made lots of plays. He Makes plays here too, on P&R's and makes great passes sometimes. There was nothing wrong with him trying to expand his game a bit and gain valuable experience. He's young than AB.

Overall he had a great game last night. He tool a couple bad shots but so did everyone else. You're just nit-picking.

Undo the damage? Child please. I wonder why we've won 4 of 5 with Ariza back?

How many did we lose without Lowry and Ariza?

 

http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/2010/03/15/PressCon031510wmv-1257463/index.html

This is what Adelman added during the post game press conference, when asked about his end-of-game combination of Brooks and Martin.

"And I like Shane at the four spot because he's a ball mover, he's very obedient with what we're trying to get done, he does all the little things. I think that helped us too."

There's a good chance that Battier will be traded, but I don't think the Rockets coaches want him gone as much as you do.

 

YUP ur dead on i thought the same thing

this is when Ariza is at his best and his weaknesses (creating his own shot) are at a minimal

he plays more to his strengths, running the floor and hitting spot up jumpers with the occassional slash to the basket or rare post up

 

Yeah, because every team is built the exact same way. Systems and players have nothing to do with it. By your logic, James Posey should have played more minutes for New Orleans last season, even though he didn't fit as well.

Put the pipe down

 

Good thing Melo said Battier was the reason he played poorly in the first half. Good thing Ariza went for at least 3 steals that burned us.

Very overrated team defender

 

Agree, Martin and Yao would make him even better. Ariza's main role is to stop someone instead of scoring more points, that is true for Battier too. A good chemistry is the key.

 

I agree with that, and noticed something last night that I've noticed countless times before, which was Shane constantly working the refs. Did it help? No, probably not (although we went to the line a hell of a lot), that being some of the worst officiating I've seen in a long time. Battier gives us something invaluable, even if his minutes are reduced, which is in the cards, I think, and that is intelligence. Like Scola, he's talking to the other players all the time, especially the new guys, and it is like having a coach on the floor. I know that can get overrated, because you have to produce, but it can also be undervalued, and I think Leeb has a tendency to undervalue that aspect of Shane's game, and of Scola's.

I'm sorely tempted to beat Leeb over the head with Scola's clutch performances the last several games, but I'll control myself. No need for a derail!

 

Don't tell me to put the pipe down when you're the one holding it.

Posey didn't start one game in the playoffs for the Celtics when they won, and played 22mpg.
Posey scored under 8ppg in the playoffs for the Celtics, brought home a touch over 3.5rpg.
He was hardly an integral part of their playoff run.
New Orleans signed him when he was 31 years old - paying him full MLE to be a defensive cog (not sure if they intended him to come off the bench or start?)

If you don't realise how important Ariza was in the Lakers run, then you need to go and look it up.
He was an integral part of their playoff run as a starter.
Houston signed him when he was 24 years old - paying him full MLE to be a part of the team going forward. All the talk from the coaches was that Ariza was signed to be a contributer to this team.

In the current Rockets system, Ariza has a very important place (thankfully not as number one shot taker anymore).

Posey does not equal Ariza, if anything, he shows us that Ariza is a good deal? Both players got full MLE, Posey was old and washed up, Ariza is young, has doubled his career scoring numbers and assist numbers, and is a player on the rise.

Oh, but that's right, he hasn't shot so well this season because he was put into a completely foreign role. Let's hang him out to dry then?

Leave the hate aside for a moment, and reassess your comments.

 

Hang him out to dry? He's the only player that doesn't usually play within our system..preferring to iso and take ill advised shots. His defense has been spotty at best as well.

I said play him 20 minutes a game. Give Shane, the better defender, better outside shooter and better fit in the offense 15-20 minutes and allow Budinger, already a better offensive player for this system, to get some minutes to develop.

Great, he played well in the playoffs for LA after a DECENT regular season.

Yet you call my comment about 20 minutes "stupid" and use an excuse about how he played well on another team with better players in a different system, which is hardly "apples to apples".

Having a role player continue to be a role player is NOT stupid.

I have no issues with the Ariza signing, I simply stated that he shouldn't play more than 20 minutes on this team. I stand by that (again). Don't try to put words in my mouth or compare me to a coach of a terrible team like you did earlier when trying to argue your side of this.

And last I checked, 20 minutes IS contributing. He has proven that he is not ready for a large role in this offense and should go back to doing what he does well...playing 4th option in a role player mode. Also, LA wasn't as deep at his position as we are (though they did have Odom coming off the bench)

I used Posey as an example to counter your flawed "If a guy plays a role on a championship team you HAVE to play him big minutes" theory, especially when it was a totally different team and offense. Is Ariza worth the MLE? Sure. But I simply feel, with the addition of Martin and having Shane and Chase playing his position, that he should get limited minutes.

 

Ariza's last 10 games going off his February and March splits
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/arizatr01/splits/2010/

.431 FG% (true shooting, effective shooting, whatever. thats a KEY stat for Ariza)
.415 3FG% (great though he wont keep that up, still shoots a few too many I think)
5.4 Rbs
4.1 Assts
13.9 PPG

Also, Ariza is around 11-12 shot attempts per game now. As compared to earlier when he was around 18 shot attempts game

Some of those game were before Kevin Martin arrived. Martin helps him STAY at those numbers possibly.

Basically he's more and more playing like the Ariza he was signed to be.

 

Well if he's taking less shots, then the trade has helped him! It moved him back to the 3/4/5 option, which is what he's used to.

The Rockets aren't forcing him to do anything anymore, hence the trade for Martin. They gave him a chance to carry the team, he couldn't, so thats why the trade was made.

He's NOT doing the same things he was before the trade. If you cant see that his game has gotten better since the trade, then you dont know basketball. I'll gladly take 12 and 5 (last nights #'s) from him every night. He doesn't need to put up 25...thats what Martin/Brooks/Scola/Yao are for.