Really have to reserve judgment until He plays for the Rockets. Doubt Ariza would have accepted a 3 year deal but hypothetically, less years would be ideal however players really look for stability meaning longer terms.
Wow! When did anyone in the Rox organization state Ariza was going to be our "go-to guy"? We know we have a void at center but as it looks we are not going to sell all our assets for an injury prone or overpaied player just cause Yao will be out for 1 year. Dope!
Before the summer started, Artest was worth about 8 to 9 mils a year, maybe not for 5 years but he was at least worth that much, Ariza was never suppose to be worth more than the mid-level which he didnt get, but he got the full mid level. So Artest was a steal for the Lakers, while we just got Ariza for the market value.
Never heard about the term late bloomers. FYI we have Brooks, Scola and Landry. Although they are not elite I wouldn't call them no options on the Rox.
I'd rather slightly overpay him in place of an aging superstar, one dimensional explosive wing player or an allstats guy.
MLE deals are very easy to move especially if the guy is young. If you figure the 25% rule, then another team has the range of 4.3m to 7m and a lot of players fit that range. The mavs gave Diop a full mle deal in the offseason and way before the deadline he was traded for carrol and the young 7ft er. Its not hard and most teams are willing to take those deals. Ariza will never be a 20ppg guy, but the way he moves without the ball and get in tfransition, he will be a 12-15ppg type a guy. Somewhere between Ronnie Brewer( the player I was pushing draft night in 06) and Prince (the guy I was pushing for in 03). He not the ball handler of brewer or prince, but he's that kind of player.
it's hard to judge whether a guy is worth his contract or not until you let the damn player plays out his contract. i'm excited about ariza. he's a player that fits adelman's system, young, athletic, tall/lengthy, and has room to improve. with us rebuilding on the fly, the MLE was a good deal for him. it's unrealistic to expect him to be a 1st/2nd/or even a 3rd option on a contending team. but if he can turn out to be a better version of shane battier, he's well worth it. and like leeb said, a young player with potential with that kind of contract is an ASSET. you can never accumulate too many assets.
He was basically the same player in the playoffs just got more PT and instead of making his free throws he hit timely 3's. Hes infinitely worth the investment because of his youth. Hes going to spend his PRIME years in Houston, Artest is already on the decline and wont be an upgrade in that system. Its not a mirage, Ariza has always been good, LA is no different than Orlando.
He's overpaid. You don't give that kind of money to a guy who got the best looks he will ever get playing with Kobe, Gasol and Odom yet still shot 32% from behind the arc. His athleticism is almost useless because he never uses it except the occasional finish on fast breaks. His defense is sorely overrated, by the way. Ariza is basically a poor man's Battier in every aspect of the game except for dunking. I barely remember the guy even existing during the Rockets/Lakers series in the 2nd round. If he was so great why did he only show up with 10ppg and less than 4 rebounds in 30 minutes a game? I didn't see him playing any "lock down" defense either. I think he is capable of being a great role player because he doesn't take bad shots, is a good (not great) defender and appears to have his life together off the court. What he is not is a guy you want to sign to a long term deal when your team is hemorrhaging talent. If he is even the Rockets 3rd option on offense the team is heading to the lottery fast. The deal makes absolutely no sense at this point.
So let me get this straight, out of the entire NBA, Ariza is the only one on this list? They couldn't find a single player in the league who is more overpaid than Trevor? What a joke! So i guess I'll just name some guys right here. Rashard Lewis: $18 mil in 2010 $20 mil in 2011 $22 mil in 2012 $24 mil in 2013 Thats Kobe//Wade/Lebron type of dough for a sidekick. No wonder the Sonics let him walk when they draft a younger superior version of him named Durant for a fraction of the cost.
are you even serious? he's better at battier in the fast break, moving without the ball, and yes, even spot up shooting from last year. trevor ariza's 3pt % is misleading b/c he got better as the year went on last year and got more comfortable in the starting role. the stats you posted, he didn't even come close to those in around 35 minutes a game. you may think he's overpaid, but as an overall player, he's better than shane, who will make $6.8 and $7.3 million next year. trevor still has a chance to develop both as an offensive and defensive player. so he WILL get better. how much? we dont' know yet. so give him the benefit of the doubt.
Sure, there are plenty of late bloomers, but they usually show something before 5 years in the league. The point is that over the span of 5 seasons, Ariza has not shown anything to deserve the contract he got. Don't fool yourself. Brooks, Scola and Landry (and the rest of the roster for that matter) are not options which you can hang your hat on night in and night out. Cmon people! Ya'll are getting ridiculous. You're going to sit here and tell me a 5 year vet that had a good 2 month/23 game stretch, but had done virtually nothing in the 5 years/311 games before that is the same player?? You're going to tell me that because of this small sample over the past 5 years of ineptitude that he is worth over $6 million/year for 5 years because of his age and hopes that he can be better than the most recent and best 23 games of his NBA life? You're seriously telling me that a 5 year career 6.9ppg, 3.8rpg, 29.9% 3 point shooter has always been good? I think some of ya'll are having trouble recognizing the current situation those bloodshot Rockets-red eyes. Bottomline, Ariza played a role with the Lakers and he played it well in the playoffs. That said he won't have that same role on this team. He has a Kelvin Cato-esque mountain to climb to prove he deserves the long, expensive contract that he got. I hope he does it and becomes a valuable piece to the Rockets future, but as it stands, he was overpaid and for far too long.
It's not misleading. He's an average 3 point shooter. For his career, he is a poor 3 point shooter. Yes, he can outrun Shane and finish better but how many times did you see him outrun and anyone and use his super athleticism against the Rockets? Stromile Swift can outrun and out jump Scola but he doesn't use those gifts to be a better player. Not saying Swift and Ariza are comparable but if a guy doesn't use his gifts then he might as well not have them. Who? Battier or Ariza? He can't shoot the 3 like Shane or defend like Shane. Both guys are pretty much spot up shooters on offense and defensive "stoppers." Shane is better at both of those things. Sure, Ariza is a better athlete and finisher but he doesn't use those gifts to give himself an advantage. I think Shane is a more effective player. Even if he is not it makes no sense to bring in a guy and give him a big money deal for the long term when he doesn't fill a need within the team. You don't know if he will get better. He went from a team that surrounded him with talent to one that has arguably the least amount of talent in the West. The open looks won't be there like they were in LA. The guy has been in the NBA for a while and although he didn't play much early on he knows the game. How often do 6th year players get significantly better? Is he all of the sudden going to have great handles or develop a sick pull up jumper? I doubt it. He might be a little smarter on defense and refine his shot a bit more but don't expect him to improve much.
Amen. Good post. This guy didn't crack any rotations for a reason. Do NBA coaches just have it out against young, athletic, long players? Yeah, that must be it or it could be that he just isn't that good. He landed in a great situation. He found himself on a team that was so loaded with talent in Gasol, Odom, Bynum and Kobe that all it needed was a guy who could play some defense and hit some jumpers from time to time. That's all he did in the playoffs. The numbers he put up are not even that good considering he had Kobe and Gasol literally attracting the entire defense. What's going to happen when he catches the ball at the top of the key and has to put it on the floor with a defender in his grill because he doesn't have the former MVP attracting a triple team?
Artest signed a contract for the full MLE also, but he lost his athletcism and his performance has declining. Trevor Ariza actually improved last year.
You mentioned it twice that he has been in the league 7 years. He didn't even graduate until 6 years ago.
I know.. these guys act like 5M/per yr can get you a go-to guy/lockdown defender.. evne Battier is paid more than 6M
