I believe you, but that wasn't in SpoTrac or in Ziller's MSN article. I haven't been keeping track lately. (Edit: the new CBA rule means it can't happen, but I still haven't seen any trade guarantee)
Definitely, we need as many long and rangy wings as possible to defend Bron/Kawhi/PG/Harden. I even like our big rotation of Collins/Nurk to guard Jokic/AD. Turning Whiteside into someone like Covington would make this cluster season worth it.
I corrected Ziller on Twitter (and Dwight Jaynes) the other day and they both made changes to their articles. Ariza's contract has to be guaranteed if the salary is needed to make the trade work. There are no teams far enough under the tax to not have to guarantee it and even if there was why would they trade for $1.8 million in dead space? So for all intents and purposes Ariza's contract HAS to be guaranteed to be traded. You can't trade for him and waive him to save cap space anymore.
A forward rotation of Collins/Ariza/Little/Carmelo/Hood is pretty decent going in to next year. Just wanted to see that with the regular fonts. Also, Collins/Ariza/Little should make a decent small lineup defensively, and the way Ariza is shooting now, might be better offensively too (though historically I don't think it would, Ariza playing alongside Lillard could give him career-high shooting efficiency like Hood started with this season, though who knows what it would have ended up as).
So Ariza has played 6 games for the Blazers. He has two games with 21 points and averages 5 in the other four games. Which is the real Ariza? I am thinking the 21 were outliers and we should only expect the 5. I know he adds improvement on the defense end, but man can we get a third scorer please.
Great trade overall. Not only aRe his defensive instincts far superior, his offense and ball handling is safe Nd in the pocket. I used to cringe when Aminu or harkless would have a tip pass/turnover and then start dribbling the length of the court. Ariza is in control and consistent. He seems to be bringing our team defense together. I hope we keep him for next year.
I think he may be like a better perimeter shooting Mo Harkless. Here's the comparison. When he's on, he's surprisingly good, and when he's not, eh, at least you have his defense. Unlike Mo, he seems to space the floor well. At least so far. Interestingly, Ariza's 3 point FG% has a huge variability over his career. He shot .322 in Washington last year, .351 in Sac this year over 32 games, and .451 here in Portland over 10 games. He hit .407 for an entire season (2013-14). He's .351 for his career. So he's also like Mo in that he's had good three point shooting years (Mo hit .415 three years ago) and bad ones (Mo hit .275 last year). Right now it feels like we got Good Ariza.
It's kind of funny that this has stayed true to form for Ariza this year (as a Blazer). Scored 21 3 times, and averages 5 the rest of the time. Not complainin, just kind of funny.
the biggest complaint, and the biggest flaw, in Harkless was his inconsistency. Well take a look at points-rebounds for Ariza as a Blazer: 21-6 7-4 21-6 2-2 6-1 5-3 7-8 2-3 21-10 7-3 I'm sorry, but that looks a lot like just about any 10 game stretch from Harkless. Maybe Ariza has a little higher ceiling and floor to his inconsistency; that I don't know. But at this point, Ariza is new to the Blazer equation, and by last season, just about everybody was on the 'familiarity-breed-contempt' bus for Harkless. Defensively, I think they are about the same although I think Harkless was a little better defensively against speeed that said, I'm fine with Ariza coming back next season; in fact, Portland will probably need him as the starting SF. The only reason, IMO, not to guarantee his contract is if Portland makes a move(s) around the draft that requires Ariza to be waived for tax purposes
I think that with Dame and CJ and Melo expecting touches and shots that his scoring is more situational and them taking advantage of him within the offense. that and him stating frequently his just trying to fit in and compliment the existing hierarchy. he and Whiteside seem to fluctuate in their offense a lot.
He's a 35 yr old playing close to 40 mpg some of these nights while in his 16th season. I feel like people forget this.
Harkless's issue wasn't just inconsistency, it's that after several years in Portland he was either missing games due to an injury AND inconsistent. Ariza is in his what, 900th season, so it's kind of expected. Both of them are bench players who were shoe-horned into a starting role .
in 2015-16 harkless scored 20 or more 1 time scored 0-9 55 times 16-17 20 0r more 3 times 0-9 37 times (his best season with blazers averaged 10.0/game) 17-18 20 or more 2 times 0-9 46 times 18-19 20 or more 2 times 0-9 40 times
So what you're saying is that by the end of the season, Ariza will likely have broken 20 in a Blazers uniform more times than Harkless did in his entire tenure?
