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Trevor Ariza missed 15 games last season. Rockets went 14-1.

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by bmd, Jul 20, 2018.

  1. Cstyle42

    Cstyle42 Member

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    Man this team is ready to move on from Ariza at this point.
     
  2. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    And my point was that even when he had a back up he was still playing high minutes. So yes it is valid, obviously Dantoni obviously felt the same.

    Sure, no arguments there. I think Ennis will do a good job.

    No, thats..lol, you realize that when Ariza had foul trouble in game 1 Durant went off and we lost. Yea Durant was going to get his buckets but that doesnt mean Ariza's length wasnt bothering him. He was our primary Durant defender the whole series, which is one of the reasons his offensive output was so low. But it was also a huge reason we were able to win games 4 and 5.

    Yea I agree. I'm not saying that our team is not gonna be elite anymore, I think we have the potential to be better. But Ariza was important, not just on the court but off it. He was a leader.

    Hey I agree again, I think you must mistake my arguments for saying that Ariza was the main reason we were an elite team which I never said. I'd just like people in here to understand that Ariza was indeed a very important player to replace and that its not all that wasy to replace him. He's not just moving piece, he was crucial.
     
  3. Nook

    Nook Member

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    Ennis replaces Moute talent and performance wise... he will have to play far more and better than he ever has to replace Ariza. Also Ennis is not nearly as long.
     
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  4. hakeem94

    hakeem94 Member

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    Another thing where Ariza was huge for us was the lockeroom invasion, we turned the season around just around that incident (although we were already great) and went on a huge streak
     
  5. aelliott

    aelliott Contributing Member

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    How do you know that? Ennis has already played for Bezdilik, so I'm sure that he has a very good idea of what he can and can't do defensively.

    If the Rockets are convinced that Ennis can work, then I doubt that random message board posters know better.

    Morey has consistantly brought in guys that exceeded expectations and fit our system. Maybe he should get the benefit of the doubt at least until we see the guys play.
     
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  6. aelliott

    aelliott Contributing Member

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    Ariza played 8 minutes per game more than his backup. We just play small a lot so he and Luc were on the court together a lot. All of our rotational wings play a lot of minutes because of our use of the small lineup and as short rotation.

    Ariza was as good fit but that skillset is certainly replaceable. Offensively, he was a streaky outside shooter who was very inconsistent.He didnt have the ability to take advantage of smaller players when he got as mismatch.

    When GS offense bogged down, Durant was forced to iso more than normal. He averaged over 30 pts/game on almost 60% TS%. Its not like Ariza shut him down.
     
  7. H-Town Melo

    H-Town Melo Member

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    Ariza ORTG and DRTG in both regular season match ups vs GSW

    107.3-121.4 in a win
    104.9-116.5 in a loss

    Ariza ORTG and DRTG in the 7 game series vs GSW

    G1- 97.7.......119.3 L
    G2- 126.9.......100.2 W
    G3- 95.3.......130.7 L
    G4- 103.8.......107.5 W
    G5- 96.8.......96.2 W
    G6- 92.0.......115.6 L
    G7- 87.1.......108.5 L

    2 of 9 games with positive net ratings and he was mostly brutal

    By comparison his "replacement" who "Golden State isn't worried about"

    105.4 ORTG-88.8 DRTG W
    115.6 ORTG-97.9 DRTG W
    113.5 ORTG-106.8 DRTG L
    77.6 ORTG-117.3 DRTG L

    3 of 4 games with positive net rating with 1 ridiculous blowout

    What does all this say?

    Melo's team out produced GSW when Melo was on the court while Ariza's did not when he was on the court.

    These are just the numbers man. What would you rather have?
     
  8. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    Dude 8 minutes per game is a lot. Yea....and Ariza PLAYED THE MOST OF THEM. Do you know why, its cause Dantoni trusted him the most out off all of our wing players. And explain to me how Gerald Green(one of our other wing players) only played 17 min per game? I can admit that Luc being out raised Ariza's minutes, but damn man you have to know Dantoni trusted him the most out of all our wing players.

    Who cares he didnt take those mismatches.We never take mismatches like those. I hope you dont mean adding Carmelo so he can have more post ups, no thats not a good idea. It's an inefficient play and one the warriors would love for us to take.

    Yea and if Ariza wasnt there, dude would had like 40 and like higher TS, just watch that series and look at how Ariza was bothering him. Look at how Durant dismantled the Cavs in the finals cause no one could defend him.
     
  9. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    Man, advanced stats for defense are not something to be taken at face value at all.
     
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  10. Rockets4lf

    Rockets4lf Member

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    I wanted this guy gone years ago...Finally! This guy is straight trash and his defense is overrated. He cant defend big guys to save his life. I take PJ over this overated guy anyday.
     
  11. Nook

    Nook Member

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    Right or it could be telling that the Rockets didn’t turn to Ennis until AFTER Moute left. The size and performance difference IS real.

    Last year the Rockets has both Ariza and Moute and now they have Ennis. That is a sizeable down grade.

    Occam’s razor.... The owner wasn’t willing to drop $15,000,000 on Ariza after signing Paul for a huge amount of money and a large potential luxury tax with Anderson’s contract still on the books and Capela’s free agency. When Moute left they had to sign a wing and hope they can get another one later.
     
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  12. TheFreak

    TheFreak Contributing Member

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    Unfortunately for the Rockets, Anthony's 15 attempts a game last year were the fewest of his career. It also came with the worst TS% of his career. So it seems that with less shots he became even less efficient than he was previously.

    The point is that Ariza fits the role of someone who can play off of Harden and Paul. Now we need someone who has never played a supporting/complementary role well to do it well in order to maintain that #1 offensive ranking.

    I'm sure GSW would gladly trade wide open 3s for a few Carmelo mid-range isos against Curry.
     
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  13. aelliott

    aelliott Contributing Member

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    Anthony was playing in an offense that didnt complement him at all. The way you play Westbrook is to pack the lane. Unfortunately, that also kills the spacing for Anthony. Look at Oladipo with OKC and then in Indy.

    The Rockets arent passing up open 3s but there's only so many of those that you can create. If I recall correctly, we produced between 15 and 16 open 3s per game in the WCF vs GS. We get 90 to 100 possessions per game. It's those other 85 or so possessions that we are trying to upgrade. We had plenty of bad possessions that can be upgraded.

    I would guess that it's more likely that we'd be looking to improve those possessions rather than replacing something that is very efficient.
     
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  14. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    The answer to that i not Carmelo Anthony post ups.
     
  15. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    those numbers didn't seem right, so did a quick check:
    • We had 16 "open 3s" 4-6',
    • but we had 13 "wide open 3s" 6+
    • so, a total of 29 open 3s.
    • Game 7 was also right on cue, with 16 Open and 14 Wide Open = 30 total
    Also, aren't you mixing possessions with shots? Yeah, you could say we're trying to improve the other 60-70 possessions, but 15 weren't even shots, because we turned it over. So, we are down to 45-55 other possessions. And many of those lead to layups/dunks and FTs, which are statistically better than open 3s, right?

    I think we just didn't have enough players to close it out. And consider, even Melo ISOs might improve our possessions, by improving the bench ... get him staggered minutes to feature him in 2nd unit (with CP3 and EGo), even if he starts.

    Don't think there was anything wrong with strategy to fix, but do agree that Melo does alter the game plan on both ends. It will change things. I do actually look forward to his 2s as well as 3s...but more importantly, I think to really integrate Melo, we will exploit his catch and drive ability....off of many different plays. And this will create havoc that really gets the defenses moving.

    Much of integrating Melo into EG type plays or Catch and Drive action is to get him comfortable with that role, and we have the Melo Whisperer to do it.
     
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  16. bevo202

    bevo202 Member

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    The regular season matters about as much as the NFL preseason.
     

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