[Lowe]Trevor Ariza is easy to miss. He shouldn't be.

zeeshan2 · May 25, 2018

In August 2010, when the Hornets traded for Trevor Ariza and became his fifth team in seven NBA seasons, Mike Malone, then a New Orleans assistant, called Ariza to say how excited he was to reconnect. Malone was a Knicks assistant when the team drafted Ariza in 2004, a relationship that ended 18 months later after New York's coach, Larry Brown, labeled Ariza "delusional."

Malone had spent much of the summer before Ariza's rookie season inside the gym at Westchester High School in Los Angeles, where Ariza was a local legend, teaching a raw and gangly teenager the basics of NBA basketball: defensive slides, ballhandling drills, holding his follow-through. But Ariza wasn't interested in nostalgia during this phone call. He was sullen.

"Coach, how come I keep getting traded?" Ariza asked. "What am I doing wrong?"

Ariza was in the middle of a period of self-discovery that would define the rest of his career. He won a ring with the Lakers in 2009, emerging as a reliable 3-and-D player in Phil Jackson's triangle offense -- a pass-and-cut system that meshed with Ariza's basic beliefs about how the game should be played, and one that is (ironically) very different from Houston's current isolation-heavy style. Ariza is a purist subsuming any hopes of Warriors-level ball movement for the greater good.

"I guess you could say that," Ariza tells ESPN.com of the purist label, "but I look at myself as a player that can adjust to everything -- a chameleon. Every system isn't for every player, so it's about how you adjust. I think that's the hard, and the fun, part."

Ariza arrived in L.A. having made eight 3-pointers combined over three-plus seasons; his first NBA coaches didn't even want him trying. He would have to evolve, and luckily for everyone, Ariza was the rare Laker who matched Kobe Bryant's addiction to work.

"We were inseparable," Bryant tells ESPN.com. "If you saw Trevor, you saw me. He didn't need me to show him how to work. He had it already -- that ambition."

Ariza famously snared multiple clutch steals in the Lakers' closer-than-you-remember conference finals win over the Nuggets, and shot 48 percent from deep overall in that 2009 title run. The Lakers promptly let him go in favor of Ron Artest; Houston, Artest's old team, signed Ariza to a fat five-year, $34 million contract.

A half-decade later, Ariza has mastered a role he was never sure he wanted, the always overlooked cog in Houston's scoring-and-switching machine. Almost everyone on the Rockets has gotten more publicity: Mike D'Antoni for reinventing his offense; Jeff Bzdelik, D'Antoni's lead assistant, for crafting Houston's defense; the superstars; the rising center; Gerald Green, rescued from NBA purgatory; the new-guy stoppers -- P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute, the latter drawing attention first as a free-agency steal, now as the victim of an ill-timed injury that has stolen his ability to make layups.

Ariza? He just logs 40-ish minutes, hits enough 3s that you never fret about spacing, and defends across every position. He rarely misses games or practices. When the Wizards tried to rest him at the end of the 2013-14 season, with their playoff seed almost set, Ariza refused, Wittman says. He wants in on every practice drill.

"I had the luxury of coaching [Kevin Garnett], and KG would cuss me out if I wanted him to sit out one play in practice," says Wittman, who spent 13 seasons on Minnesota's staff. "Trevor wasn't quite like that, but he would let you know he didn't want to sit."

Quiet endurance doesn't generate much buzz. Lost in Golden State's failure to call timeout in the chaotic final seconds of Tuesday's Game 4: Ariza enveloping Klay Thompson.

"He is the forgotten man," Malone says.

"There is no way we can do what we do without him," says Irv Roland, a Rockets assistant.

Ariza is an important, mature, calming presence in every locker room. No one panicked after the Warriors obliterated Houston in Game 3. Ariza was part of a group that went out to a big dinner in the Bay, after which some of them -- not Ariza -- retired to Harden's hotel room to play cards and talk ball for a bit. (D'Antoni has a saying to remind the Rockets not to dwell on whatever happened -- good or bad -- in the previous game: "So what? What's next?")

Ariza is usually the first player to arrive at home games. He warms up early, and sits at his locker, watching film of Houston's opponent playing on a big screen.

As players file in, Ariza might stop them to discuss a play rushing across the screen: How should we defend that? "He holds court," Bzdelik says. "When you have a player-directed culture like that, your team has a chance. Trevor brings that."

He always has -- especially in Washington, amid a sometimes factional locker room with a clear age division. During a preseason practice in Brazil in 2013, Nene, a strong and persnickety sort, deviated from Washington's pick-and-roll defense. Someone called him out. Nene objected. It was one of those moments, Wittman and other Washington sources recall, that could wobble a team's culture. "Why do I need to do it this way?" Nene asked, according to Wittman.

Ariza had had enough. "Just f---ing do it," Ariza barked, getting almost nose-to-nose with Nene, Wittman recalls. (Ariza and Nene, together again in Houston, both demurred when ESPN asked them about the incident this week. That's not surprising; Ariza still hasn't acknowledged a pivotal players-only meeting he reportedly called early in the 2013-14 season.)

"There were not a lot of people who would mess with Nene," Wittman says. "He could hurt you. And here comes Trevor, 175 pounds soaking wet. That was such an eye-opener."
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s3ts · May 25, 2018

Totally agreed. Ariza gets no love, he deserves much more credit than he gets.

seclusion · May 25, 2018

Love Ariza. Always have. Even when he played for the Lakers.

Pizza_Da_Hut · May 25, 2018

s3ts said: ↑

Totally agreed. Ariza gets no love, he deserves much more credit than he gets.
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If they make it passed the warriors, I expect him to get a finals MVP. He is the difference maker, kinda like Iggy was.

justtxyank · May 25, 2018

Anyone who says Ariza gets no love doesn't listen to Craig Ackerman on the radio.

That man has done so much for the legend of Ariza's toughness that he's on the level of Andre the Giant or Meng/Haku from wrestling's glory days. Wouldn't surprise me if Ackerman tells a story of Ariza biting off someone's nose!

Pizza_Da_Hut · May 25, 2018

justtxyank said: ↑

Anyone who says Ariza gets no love doesn't listen to Craig Ackerman on the radio.

That man has done so much for the legend of Ariza's toughness that he's on the level of Andre the Giant or Meng/Haku from wrestling's glory days. Wouldn't surprise me if Ackerman tells a story of Ariza biting off someone's nose!
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You're being coy, but I'll bite. The whole no love thing is from non-Rockets fans. Rockets fans love Ariza, Luc and PJ. We understand THEY are the defensive revolution.

saleem · May 25, 2018

Will Ariza be our emergency 3rd playmaker too? Do we have any other option?

napalm06 · May 25, 2018

Good article.

napalm06 · May 25, 2018

saleem said: ↑

Will Ariza be our emergency 3rd playmaker too? Do we have any other option?
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We're going to have to pull Luc out of storage.

Even if his offense isn't there, like Clutch and MK said: we will win this series with defense. And we can't do it with 6 guys.

noppeper · May 25, 2018

Pizza_Da_Hut said: ↑

You're being coy, but I'll bite. The whole no love thing is from non-Rockets fans. Rockets fans love Ariza, Luc and PJ. We understand THEY are the defensive revolution.
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This is not entirely true, as just a couple of weeks ago I had to reply to another poster who left me befuddled in his underrating Ariza's impact on the Rockets. Fans who don't pay attention to details can easily miss what he brings to the table, especially when he is not hitting from 3 or playing brilliantly on offense like he did in game 2. Then you have the media "experts" calling out Durant for his struggles, but they don't even mention the role Ariza's physicality and length is having in his game.

pgabriel · May 25, 2018

He immediately made everyone move on from Parsons

topfive · May 25, 2018

s3ts said: ↑

Totally agreed. Ariza gets no love, he deserves much more credit than he gets.
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Half of ClutchFans thinks he's old and slow and no longer effective on the defensive end.

saleem · May 25, 2018

napalm06 said: ↑

We're going to have to pull Luc out of storage.

Even if his offense isn't there, like Clutch and MK said: we will win this series with defense. And we can't do it with 6 guys.
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I do agree with this in theory. Let's hope that Luc will give us at least some solid defensive minutes.

FTW Rockets FTW · May 25, 2018

Most under-rated player on the roster

Brings it night in, night out

My favorite Rocket

Rocket_ph · May 25, 2018

Hopefully he retired as a rocket always like ariza even when his shot is not falling.

mfastx · May 25, 2018

Thank god Parson left so we could get this guy. What a great turn of events that turned out to be.

s3ts · May 25, 2018

topfive said: ↑

Half of ClutchFans thinks he's old and slow and no longer effective on the defensive end.
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They be drinkin that kool-aid.

Ziggy · May 25, 2018

Fun to see how he's matured since his first stint here when he was still growing into his game.

mockster · May 25, 2018

Ariza s defense and hustle is great. His scattered scoring is also good but I hold my breathe with him, his drives are scary and he’s not always accurate with his threes

But without him I don’t even think we would be up 3-2 so many guys so crucial to our success

jbasket · May 25, 2018

Trevor Ariza is the most loved player that is not loved.

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[Lowe]Trevor Ariza is easy to miss. He shouldn't be.

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[Lowe]Trevor Ariza is easy to miss. He shouldn't be.

zeeshan2 Member

s3ts Member

seclusion rip chadwick

Pizza_Da_Hut I put on pants for this?

justtxyank Member

Pizza_Da_Hut I put on pants for this?

saleem Member

napalm06 Huge Flopping Fan

napalm06 Huge Flopping Fan

noppeper Member

pgabriel Educated Negro

topfive CF OG

saleem Member

FTW Rockets FTW Member

Rocket_ph Member

mfastx Member Supporting Member

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Ziggy QUEEN ANON

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