Ariza being godawful in the playoffs is the main reason the Rockets didn't win a championship....but yeah, not bringing him back well after he was washed is the reason why it all fell apart. This narrative is up there with "The only reason the Rockets won with Hakeem was due to MJ being out of the league for 2 seasons"
I assume the dig was at Danuel House, Gerald Green, and co. who they thought could replace Ariza by committee. There was probably some hope that Dekker would have a breakthrough too. Letting him go was a mistake but it is what it is.
looks like you forgot already who was the bottom barrel replacement coming in that summer to save money. who was trash for a reason. why are you even mentioning dekker when he was with the clippers already and was part of the cp3 trade. he was never even here during those years Then you also have this scrub who CF's loved and acted like he was another good acquisition
so you know better than Chris Paul LMAO. Makes sense from someone as delusional as you that you'd think you know better than someone that was actually on the team.
He was soo awful that he played over 40 minutes a game and guarded the other teams best player every night. Just cuz he didn't shoot well doesn't mean he was bad. He was an important piece. Plus just having his 1 year 15 million salary to trade for a better player woulda been huge.
....and he was a 3 and D player who shot 20% for the series from 3 and 0-9 (2-18 in the last 2 games) when his team needed him the most. When 100% of what you bring to the table is 3 and D, you can't be the worst shooter on the court. Also, who was he guarding? KD who went off for 34? So looks like he was providing neither 3 or D....but sure, light 45 mil on fire to bring him back for one more season of that! The narrative simply falls apart under scrutiny.
You could look at it as KD taking up all Ariza focus n energy on Def. which could have led to Ariza shooting those shots on more tired legs Not making up excuse for Ariza but his last two games of that series was not main reason they lost, the best player should have went off for 40/50pts, or whatever was necessary to make up for the lack of Ariza only making two 3's in those crucial games Ariza (and team) at the worst possible moments, couldn't hit the Three-za
Sure, you could certainly see it that way, that an aging, washed Ariza no longer had the stamina to defend and still be able to shoot....but if he's no longer capable of being a 3 and D player, can you really justify him being on the court at all? If you look at what actually happened, he was never again that stellar defender that he had a reputation for being. He got paid and was pretty bad for a few years before being out of the league altogether. He wasn't the savior.
Lol @ still crying…. over Trevor freaking Ariza….. 5 years later. As if a James Harden led team was ever going to win a Championship when we saw time and time again he couldn’t even get past the 2nd round being the 2nd best player on his team.
The problem is when time passes you only focus on what you remember. He was toast. 6 diifferent teams his final 4 seasons. He shot: 40.50 fg% 34.03 3pt% 50.92 2pt% That's maybe league average earning crazy money. Phoenix gave up on him because he shot 37.9% overall. He was 40% from 2. He scored 1,664 points in his last 4 seasons playing 176 games. He averaged: 29.2 minutes 9.4 points 4.7 rebounds 2.4 assists 1.1 steals 51% efg% But I get it, you say he would have just stayed the one year. Well in 2018-19 he did this: 12.5 points 5.4 rebounds 3.7 assists 49.8% efg% -.6 dbpm .5 dws Eric Gordon replaced him in 2018 as the primary SF: 16.2 points 2.2 rebounds 1.9 assists 52.5% efg% -1.8 dbpm 1.0 dws Ariza got 15 million which would have cost more due to the tax and subject them to repeater tax.... Ariza's 49.8 efg% was 52nd among forwards that year who played 50 games and 25 minutes per game. That's out of 57 players. He was inefficient at scoring. He was an average defender and could facilitate some. He wasn't woth a 15 million dollar deal. You don't make bad contracts hoping you can trade them. Your late firsts aren't attractive assets to take on bad contracts let alone give up a good player in return. I thought Ariza was great for us, but we got out one playoff too late...
It wouldn't matter if it was young Ariza, KD was going to make him work on defense, which is Ariza strength, his 3 point makes were bonus Looking at what actually happened from a birds eye view is the best way to view everything Whoever thought he was a savior needs to take on another hobby Ariza was exactly what he displayed, a versatile defender who could(and not) hit some 3s and occasionally drive awkwardly for a layup try Pretty sure all players age and become washed, its the reason why Olajuwon played for the Raptors
