Now that ......you know who is gone....who will be Clutchfans new whipping boy?

Ariza...I think he can get better...but as of right now he needs to take it down a notch

 

Correction. Trevor Ariza doesn't shoot like T-Mac. T-Mac has never been as bad as Ariza is right now. Even the one-legged T-Mac of that horrid 2008-09 season shot better than Ariza is shooting right now.

Trevor Ariza shoots like Rafer. And frankly, it amuses me that he doesn't get nearly half the vitriol that Rafer used to get around these parts. At least Rafer could dribble without looking like a new-born deer trying to find its legs.

 

It looks to me like the Ariza hate is reaching Raferesque levels pretty quickly. I guess fans will always find someone to slam.

 

Ariza by a wide margin. It seems even when the entire team is hot, Ariza is evening things out with suckiness. I dont care about expectations compared to what he is getting paid, the man on the court is doing things to make the team lose.

 

I guess I just hate watching bad basketball. I was actually being rather kind in my previous post.

I just looked it up. Even in Rafer's worst season with the Rockets (2005-06), he still shot better than Trevor currently does in every category. As bad as Rafer sometimes was, he never had an eFG% below 44%. Trevor is at 43.6%.

43.6%! I have a history on this board of defending players I feel are underappreciated for what they bring to the team. I don't know how to defend Trevor. Err... he can dunk. OK.

 

lol at the results from the poll

 

ariza this year, yao next year (or as-of-now-unknown FA or some player we trade for)

 

I'm going to wait until the end of the season to compare season FG percentages between the two players.

You can tell Ariza's feeling the pressure to shoot better, but I also see a player who's still figuring out his game. Yes he's had games where he tried to do too much and "carry" the team, and failed miserably at it. But I think he's learning from these experiences. Like tonight's game, he didn't shoot well but I thought he still played a pretty smart game overall.

Plus, he's averaging 37 minutes (14 more than last year) while having to play a much bigger role for his team. That's a physical and mental adjustment that just takes time.

Anyway I just don't get the hate. Then again, I'm probably one of the few fans who thought (and still think) that Rafer did a relatively good job as a Rocket.

 

It's Ariza until he can learn to shoot better and not make those careless turnovers with his dribbling. I don't think it's all his fault. He has always been a role player and this is his first season starting and playing significant minutes. It's not exactly helping that he's playing nearly 40 minutes a game due to injuries and those extended minutes wear down a player.

 

"Hate" is such a strong word. I like Trevor. I love his competitiveness, his hustle and energy every night. It's just ... his actual basketball game is just not pro-caliber. Rafer is actually a great comparison, because I too felt that despite all the criticism he got, he really did bring a lot to the team. He was able to keep the offense running smoothly even when he didn't shoot well. He was a coach on the floor of sorts. He often ended up shooting the ball after options A, B and C had failed, even though he generally couldn't hit a floater to save his life. He passed well. He rebounded decently for a point guard. He played good, sound defense. It was just the shooting thing that was such a blight on him, especially so since he was playing alongside Mac and Yao and inherently that was such an important aspect of his role on the team.

I'm trying to make a similar argument for Trevor here, but it's a lot more difficult. He doesn't play as much sound defense, although his gambling style does often force turnovers leading to fast break buckets (and even that has dropped off lately). He can't dribble. He's a mediocre rebounder despite his length. I don't know what more can be said about how bad his shooting has become, except that Ryan Bowen in 04-05 shot better than this and we're now seeing teams blatantly dare him to shoot. I guess his passing is decent for a 2-guard and he can slash to the basket when overplayed at the line.

I want to believe that he's just going through a bad spell and that he will eventually figure things out. It's just that ... there is no evidence. There is no evidence that he actually has the basketball skill to do the things he is asked to do. Any assertion that he will eventually become a more efficient basketball player while maintaining this same usage rate is based on blind faith.

It irks me because he's taking away opportunities from players who SHOULD be getting groomed more. Players like Aaron Brooks, who despite being the de-facto point guard of the future sometimes doesn't get as much rope as Ariza does. He makes a couple of mistakes and gets benched. Ariza gets to do all he wants. He's getting his opportunities at the expense of far more talented and promising rookies in Budinger and Taylor. At least with Rafer, we didn't have alternatives.

Sorry for the rant ... it's just, whatever Morey and Adelman are trying to do with Trevor, I really don't get it.

 

Well I guess I see glass as half full. I can't argue with your assessment of Ariza except I do think his defense is better than you say it is. Not Shane's level but still pretty good. Ariza also not only passes well but seems to pass within the offense well, which keeps the overall team offense fluid. He could be more aggressive with his drives to the basket but I attribute that more to too much playing time than anything else.

As for the Alston comparison, the difference between the two players for me is that Alston is a veteran whose strengths and weaknesses are well defined; he may surprise you with a hot shooting night once in a while, but you pretty much knew what to expect from Rafer. OTOH I see Ariza as a young player who is getting starter's minutes for the first time in his career; he is figuring out what he can do and recognize when he should do it. Sure he gets frustrated and flustered and tries to overcompensate when the opposing teams step up their defense, but I see him learning from this. And what he takes away from this season, especially in terms of decision-making, will make him a better player for the Rockets in the long run.

As for Budinger, I don't think Adelman's (over)playing Ariza has hurt his development. In fact, I'm pretty happy with how Adelman's been bringing Budinger along, giving enough minutes to challenge him and not overwhelm him, because Chase is very good but he's also inconsistent at times. You may be right that Budinger is the more talented of the two players, but I don't think giving him 30+ minutes and throwing him to the wolves right now is in his or the team's best interest. Adelman's doing right by him IMO.

I haven't seen enough of Jermaine Taylor to have an opinion, though I was surprised he didn't get any minutes last night vs. the Hornets.

 

Matt Maloney

 

At first glance at this thread's title, I thought Voldemort was on our team for some reason.

 

Sadly Trevor. I'd put him at the top of our "hardest to trade" list - beating out Cook and Dorsey. But I still think give him time and let a couple of natural scorers come in and maybe he can go back to what he does well.

 

YAO...he bought another team in another country which is a conflict of interest.

how can you think about managing another team when your main focus should be a nba championship.

yao will never be as good as "The Dream"

 

Almost all players have outside business interests, nothing wrong with it. Who says he has to be better than Dream? I just want a healthy Yao

 

Other: Scottie Pippen or Sir Charles

I don't think we need to hate on 1 player particularly.

 

Ariza easily. There are people here who thought (but of course will never admit that they believed it) he was going to develop into a star player here. Ridiculous expectations from people who don't know the game.

I blame those people because we should have already realized what he was when he signed here and shouldn't have expected anything more than that.

 

lol that was funny. luther.....easily ariza or brooks for some ppl cause they dribble so much....guys like battier, hayes, scola, landry and lowry are hard to hate..... and i'm growing to like anderson now. i thought he was too weak at first but i really like how he moves to the right spots to receive the ball....just a sign of a good scorer...

 

You forgot this one dude named Hakeem. Who, you know. Brought Houston 2 championships.