Hmmm... $15millon outgoing salary, plus what Eric Gordon makes... enough for a LeBron sign and trade salary matching?
It’s a shame that Ariza’s last game with us was a 0-12 Game 7 stinker. Many of those shot being completely open corner threes. If he hit 3 of those shots, we win that game I think and win a title. Instead he bricked those shots and even Corey Brewer was blushing. But the Rockets don’t let a starter and loved member of a near championship team go if they don’t have a back-up plan. They could have matched that deal since it didn’t matter in the cap anyway, so Morey and crew have something lined up to help replace and most likely improve the team for next year.
Why would the Rockets give up a pick to take on a much worse contract in Batum, as I don't see Batum opting out in 2020.
i get that money is tight this year, but i would just think 1 yr/20+ would be the kind of thing that gets you to sign with a team as crappy as phoenix. i don't know what we were offering but given we were already giving him 4 yr/32M, i would have thought we we would offer something like 3 yr/24M. ariza is getting older. there's no guarantee the year after making $15M that anyone will be offering him any more than $5M/yr so i would think 3 years guaranteed to play with a winner would get it done over a 1 year offer from a loser that may or may not be worth more over 3 years (though next year there is supposed to be plenty of cap room to go around). but like i said, maybe we were offering practically nothing, like our own 1 year deal.
ryno and a pick for bazemore as a replacement? hawks want to add salary and picks. rockets liked bazemore before. shot 39% from 3 this year, plays good D, is more of a creator on offense (3.5apg), and is more athletic.
In a vacuum it is a huge loss. He played a ton of minutes and always guarded the opponent's best scorer. That is not something we can easily replace. But hey. Free agency is young. We'll see what happens.
You don't think the Rockets can find someone who can improve upon his 37% outside shooting and 41% overall percentage?
Or they see an aging veteran with an inconsistent jumper with no ability to create offense on his own playing on a team that switches everything, thus negating the need for a true lock down defender. They might have also looked at his playoff performance where he was a 103-110 O/D per 100 possessions and thought he might be at the end of his usefulness as a guy getting 30+ starter's minutes a game.
Rather than lament the loss, I'm somewhat baffled by the move by Ariza. Yes, I know its 15 million and more than he could expect to get with Houston. Still.... He's been here for 4 seasons now....2nd time through. He was 1/2 of a game away from playing in the NBA finals. He could probably get an 8-10 offer from Houston to stay...meaning he gained 5-7 million in salary for this year....but signed a 1 year deal which is risky for an older player. He was inked in as a starter and got plenty of minutes and a role he fit as well here as anywhere. I almost wonder if Morey told him that "someone" might be coming and they simply wouldn't have room for him salarywise and he would no longer be starting...basically telling him to find a nice soft landing spot.
Which is why we're probably going to be including picks to dump that Ryno contract. Morey will find a replacement.
