Ariza to Houston; Artest to Lakers
by citizen zhiv on Jul 2, 2009 7:07 PM PDT
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A little bit of musical chairs.
Interesting, and possibly volatile, expenditure by the Lakers. Phil Jackson does a good job handling players, but it's still a bit of a head scratcher why they would pay a substantial amount, along with all the luxury tax, for Artest. I guess they think he has more skills and is more effective than Ariza, that he's worth the money.
Seems like there's a bit of an overlap in Houston between Ariza and Battier.
This is all a rather strange equation. I'm not quite getting it.
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can we afford to trade kaman for battier?
Great for this year, we start Camby this year, but what about next year if Camby walks? Is Deandre ready?
Now that Houston has let go of Artest
do they really want to let go of Battier? Their only other option is McGrady. (Unless I’m forgetting somebody.)
Mike Smith on Eric Gordon: "The Clippers may have found their go to scorer."
On a second note, I want Novak back!
Overlap = trade available?
probably not but I can hope for a trade for Battier. I just hope the Lakers lose Lamar and I will be satisfied. I think we should be ok with a trade for Kaman for Battier.
In Gordon we trust
Doubtful
I really don’t think the Clips can trade Kaman away at this point. He’s their only guy with a low post game.
After all of the hype (NYT Magazine) about how much Houston/DMorey loves Battier, it would be really surprising that they would trade him. Overlap with good players is probably a good thing I guess.
Would love to see Odom go elsewhere. But I don’t know now, now that they’ve paid Artest, and it’s hard to tell where Odom might go besides the Lakers.
Very Doubtful
Sorry just posted this in another thread, but its more applicable in this one so I’m reposting
Kaman isn’t getting traded. Randolphs dealing leaves us with just the right amount of bodies to start a season. Dunleavy knows all too well the longevity of the NBA season, and the tolling injuries that take place throughout. For Kaman, Camby, and DJ to be healthy all 82 games is unlikely. IF we were to trade Kaman now, we will have gone from a team with a surplus of 4/5 and a thin 2/3 to its’ exact opposite. Trading a big for Battier would only do damage at this point me thinks. Plus, there’s no way Battier is on the trading block for the Rockets. He’s the Lebron James of moneyball, and he’s much too valuable to that organization than Kaman could ever be. It just doesn’t make sense on either side.
Dunleavy’s going to stand pat on Kaman at least until he knows what kind of player Kaman will be for the future of the program. Until then, he ain’t going anywhere.
From what I’ve heard about Odom, it sounds like he’s an almost sure thing to come back. I don’t think they would have signed Artest if they didn’t think Odom was verbally committed. Odom is more important to that team than Artest is, so they wouldn’t make a splash and start throwing away championship pieces and money at new ones if they didn’t think they could retain the main guys in their system.
Ariza must be pretty good
Personally I thought he’s a bit overrated. He’s a good glue guy, love him as the 4th or 5th guy on the court because he’s all about the hustle plays. He’ll get extra possessions, play good D and knock down wide open shots but if you stick him on a team where he has to create offense for himself (or others) then he’ll struggle.
That said, Morey and his staff must have crunched their numbers and found that he is worth the money. The Rockets have really not made any mistakes the past few years since they’ve used the Money Ball approach. Guys like Chuck Hayes, Battier, Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks, Von Wafer etc would not impress anyone, yet they took the eventual champions to a game 7 with that ragtag crew. I’ll give the Ariza the benefit of the doubt if the Rockets picked him over Artest.
FA in 2010.
Im not sure Rockets picked Ariza over Artest.
Didn’t Artest bolt first, then Ariza signed? (I dont know the details, I was out at the movies today.)
Besides, on anybodies watch, Shane Battier was attractive. I would have taken Battier any time in his career in a heartbeat. Memphis to now. Luis Scola was always a Houston so can’t really say anything there. As for the rest, your right, I probably wouldnt have given Chuck Hayes, Aaron Brooks, or Von Wafer a chance. Especially Von Wafer.
Mike Smith on Eric Gordon: "The Clippers may have found their go to scorer."
On a second note, I want Novak back!
i’d honestly rather take ariza over artest.
I mean ariza shoots better, is younger, doesnt’t think he’s some sort of offensive force and take random 3s and hold on to the ball, is a quicker perimiter defender, and also I think at this stage in their careers the guy with quicker hands for steals. oh and more importantly artest isa little crazy.
You get artest if you need a physical defender for bigger 3s / smaller 4s and maybe some 2s. ariza can probably harass point guards even.
the lakers i think went for the name guy. artest is 30 next year. the lakers already had problems guarding the aaroon brooks and tony parkers (and hopefully someday mike taylors of the world) and this “switch” really does nothing to fix that.
I am ready to see sieve like perimeter D, as the lakers start a 30 year old artest, 31 year old kobe and ancient derek fisher to guard the perimeter while, the last line of defense is pau gasol, lamar and bynum.
only one of those 3 is aa shot blocker, and he’s a foul machine. and he’ll be an even bigger foul machine now. I mean if you were a coach playing the lakers, wouldn’t you just send your absolute quickest guard who can hit free throws into the lane over and oveR?
I mean it goes both ways.
Mainly, did Ariza have a good season cause he played for LAL? Seems to me that anybody that plays for Lakers this season has had their share of luck. Before Lakers, who here can honestly say that “Ariza over Artest?” I don’t think I would have even considered putting their name next to each other.
Aside from that, I think Ariza and Rockets really messed up. Think about it, the Rockets don’t need a backup SF. (I think that’s all Ariza is.) Ariza isn’t a player that can create his own shots, and Artest was able to create his own shot a bit better (but was still probably horrible at it anyways.) Point is, Houston doesn’t have Yao, Tmac is probably going to gethurt this season, and Houston doesn’t really have an offense to carry them anymore, besides Battier, but even then Battier is an off ball kind of guy, just like Ariza. Houston is better off with Artest than Ariza.
Mike Smith on Eric Gordon: "The Clippers may have found their go to scorer."
On a second note, I want Novak back!
who says ariza is the backup.
i mean clearly tmac is done there. they have ariza and battier as the starting wings.
who knows, with more oppurtunities to score ariza might be a 15ppg scorer. I think that was the best thing about him, he knew his role on the lakers and he didn’t really complain about scoring say 8ppg. I think he could score more (and he did in the playoffs). Given the situation in houston now, I think he may get more touches…
More touches does not equal an efficient scorer.
I think the thing that we have to note here was Lakers offense vs. Houston offense minus any real threat now. Remember you said it yourself, Mcgrady’s done and Yao seems to be out. I think its going to be a test for both you and I. I’ve never seen any REAL value in Ariza because the guy needs people around him in order for him to be efficient. Before that, seems like Ariza never had any real value. He was probably best known as being a Bruin.
I think 15 ppg is way too much for Ariza, that is of course unless he’s shooting at a relativly low percentage. We’ll have to see though. I don’t think Ariza will do better in Artest.
Mike Smith on Eric Gordon: "The Clippers may have found their go to scorer."
On a second note, I want Novak back!
The Rockets could offer more
They have Artest’s Bird Rights first off.
Battier was not always so respected, remember the Rockets traded Rudy Gay (just drafted) for him and alot of people questioned that move. Considering how good Gay’s been this might be one of those moves they regret long term. Scola was drafted by the Spurs and they wish they kept him.
FA in 2010.
by ClipperChuck on Jul 3, 2009 11:00 AM PDT up reply actions
serious????
anybody in da league would take artest over ariza…. is it guaranteed hes goin to shoot close to 50 percent again from 3 pt land??? nooo…. look at vujacic n wat he did da previous season… not sayin hes gonna have that bad of a season… ariza fucked up tho.. by tryin to budge da lakers for payin him more money…. they lost n now hes stuck w/ da rockets… dumb move…
i also don't understand ...
… why Houston was so interested in Ariza? Don’t they need a more proven scorer? I suppose they might be giving up on this year for 2010 draft and FA, but then why commit to Ariza for five years?
And I don’t think you can play Battier and Ariza together for long stretches so you’re going to hurt the productivity of both.
Signing Ariza really only makes sense if Houston trades Battier— seems unthinkable, but don’t have any other explanation (aside from Morey panicking).
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