Be honest, do you miss Trevor Ariza & Luc Mbah a Moute?

This team's issues are much deeper than not having Ariza and Moute. First of all Moute barely plays for the Clippers due to injury and I suspect he'd be having the same issues if we retained him knowing our luck. Obviously you don't retain Ariza for 15 mil, although he'd be nice to have.

Everyone keeps forgetting that the last time we had a season like this, 15-16, Ariza was a member of that team and participated in that dumpster fire. That team also had a massive regression in defense and Ariza didn't do anything to stop it. So lets not act like he'd fix things on that end.

This team as-is has shown it's capable of playing good defense. If they were able to sustain that level of defense most of the season we'd be just fine. But for unknown reasons, just like in 15-16, the Rockets usually don't even show up on that end.

 

To answer your question directly, no, not in the least bit. Not at all in fact.

What I miss is the rockets winning and the rockets defense. I think people are falsely attributing losses this season to the fact that Ariza and Luc are gone because well, the national media keeps parroting it like idiots. A lot changed this summer other than just those two leaving. The 14 second reset after an offensive rebound has caused scoring to increase. When you couple that with the fact that player movement fouls are eating defenders like Ennis alive the game has changed a little. The flux of Melo in and out of the roster has hurt too, heck all roster flux has hurt. We can't seem to get into a rhythm. Having Ariza and Luc doesn't necessarily fix that. What fixes that is coaching, players stepping up and into their roles, and our franchise players really locking down on effort every night on both ends. Again, as others have pointed out, Luc hasn't really been healthy this season either, and with Ariza's family issues I wouldn't be shocked if the rockets has the same flux issues as well.

 

Ariza is not playing a lot? He missed 2 games but plays 34.4 mins a game. Thats not a lot?

 

Of course I miss Ariza.

 

Trevor --- 15 Million
9.8 PTs
5.4 RBs
3.3 Ast
10 - PER
.4 WS

James Ennis - (3.4 Million for 2 year)
8.3 Pts
2.4 RBs
.7 Ast
10.9 PER
.7 WS



Rocket River

 

stop living in the past and move on.... why'd you miss any of these 2 role players?!??!

 

bc this team is in need of actual role players is a good start

 

What does that have to do with how much he plays? There is a difference between playing a lot and playing good.

 

And he's being lauded for his defense (which would apparently solve everything for us) when he used to get attacked viciously here for being old and slow.

 

No, I don't miss those two specifically. I miss last year's overall tenaciousness and hunger. I miss the ferocity with which the team played. I miss the obvious joy and love the entire team played with. I miss the fact that Ariza was obviously a huge presence in the locker room, and players seemed to listen to him whenever he spoke. I miss seeing CP3 on the court. But specifically, no, I don't miss them.

 

I miss winning.

 

Honestly I don't miss them.

 

yeah talking and missing these 2 guys will help right

 

as opposed to what. talking about non rotational guys right

 

I miss this team winning and playing defense. We should be able to do both well enough, without both. Defense is primarily about effort, especially in basketball, ask PJ.

 

Nicely said...

DD

 

Wrongful thought.

According to SAS, Ariza want $10 million salary only if he played for Rockets. Moute would not be injured if he were here.

You can deal Ariza/Gordon/2 picks for Butler/1 playable player.

You can deal Anderson for a rotation player because he was willing to take 6 million pay cut.

Now you've got 9-man rotations.

 

You know who I miss the most, Montrezl Harrell. That one stings the most.

 

to answer OPs question:

yes, everyday. and coach B too.

 

Interesting, assuming that's true (which who knows if it is) that'd still be pretty steep. Don't know enough about the discussions to comment.

But the bolded is pure baseless speculation unlike my comment, which is based in reality.