- Nov 18, 2010
- 4,201
- 141
Ariza is just terrible. And while he may be an above averagedefender, there is no way that makes up for just how unspeakably bad he is onoffense. Just about every metric shows he (and Belinelli to a lesserextent) have been a drain on the team, and played worse than areplacement player would (basically a 12th man).Originally Posted by Kiddin Like Jason
Ariza is still really vital to this team. He just needs to stop shooting so much. I sometimes wonder what he does in between games, because it can't be working on his offensive weaknesses.
The blame isn't all his, though. Chris and Monty have to recognize that nothing good comes out of him having the ball in his hands for too long, because he can't really dribble, either. Find ways to avoid it.
It's time to move Thornton into the starting lineup for Belinelli and see how that works.
Ariza just doesn't fitwith the offense run by NO (or any offense for that matter). Watching them, they'rebasically a pick and roll team, and once Paul beats his man off thepick, the natural advantage becomes a 5 on 4. But the thing is, itisn't an advantage at all because Ariza can't shoot off the kick out, midrange or otherwise, andcan't dribble off the fake with a defender running at him.
To put things into perspective, if you go by the metric"value added," (estimate of the number of points a player adds to theteam's season total above a 'replacement player') a replacement player would be valued at 10.5 points. Paul has been valued at 262. Belinelli is measured at -0.1. And somehow, Ariza has managed to be valued at -11.