Posts Tagged ‘Rockets’

Is it just me or does Ariza not sound happy to be a Rocket in his interview? He even mentions that he had no say in what happened. Kinda a strange comment after he signed a 5 year deal with them.

As much as this hurts, let’s take a look at this signing for the Rockets.

Ariza brings a crafty type of defense to the Rockets, but was he really the player the needed? After Yao going down for the year, and T-Mac with his injuries, they needed a scorer. Just a flat out scorer. Is Ariza that player? NO.

The media has been all over this story saying that Ariza can’t create his own shot. I actually beg to differ. He occasionally can, but with the Lakers, he normally just floated around the exterior or slashed. He didn’t NEED to create his own shot. The only real weaknesses in his game at the moment that hinder him from being an explosive scorer are his handles and slow shot release.

Watch some of the clips from last year. If he wasn’t wide open, he questioned his shot a lot and would end up pump faking and either passing or trying to take it to the rack. He needed a good 5-10 feet of air space to get his shot off. If he can work on his shot a bit more and speed up the release while remaining as accurate as he was in the Playoffs, he shouldn’t have any problem… but that’s a big thing to ask of a guy that just recently became known as a shooter.

Not a bad pickup defensively for the Rockets, but they already have Battier. Overall, a possible failed experiment from a team that seems to be in rebuilding mode after the injuries to their 2 star players. At least now they have an Injury exception that they can use, but who is really left for them to pick up that can give them instant offense?

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According to Ball Don’t Lie:

According to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (via Fanster), Matt Barnes, Steve Nash and Rafer Alston have all received suspensions for their role in Wednesday’s lame Phoenix Suns-Houston Rockets shoving match.

Barnes and Alston will miss two games for starting the third quarter scuffle, while Nash will miss just one for slipping on an imaginary banana peel. In addition, Shaquille O’Neal was fined $35,000 and Tracy McGrady was fined $25,000 for their roles in the altercation.

No word on whether Ron Artest was given a shiny gold sticker for good behavior.

How is Nash going to get only a 1 gamer when Alston and Barnes got 2? Nash instigated the whole thing. Barnes charged into Alston on purpose, Alston retaliated, they got in each others’ faces and yelled at each other for a bit… then in comes Nash with an elbow. That’s the point where it escalated into a full on cat-fight. T-mac probably should have been hit with a 1 gamer also for throwing Nash to the ground, but oh well, Stevie deserved it. Nash, you might want to remember that you’re a lot smaller than guys like T-mac and Yao. Either way, dumb fight. Dumb result. If’ you’re gonna get suspended either way, I say you throw a few punches and at least make the suspension worth it.

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