Gordon hasn't been good against the warriors. The numbers were posted earlier. I don't know what Ariza is like offensively against the warriors, but Love did good things against the warriors. No, he didn't score in as high volume or efficiency but he rebounded and played defense. I still think we don't use him enough and he could be more effective. I think he would be great with Chris Paul.
I think you could stick prince luc in Durant for 25-30 minutes just as easily. We know curry is going to be guarding whoever is at small forward anyway whether it's luc or Ariza.
The warriors aren't worried about Ariza attacking Curry.
There's no way in hell I'd trade Clint for anything less than a star. I think very highly of him, he's young, and they have nobody else that can do what he does.
So, this is why I think the Rockets have a great shot to beat Golden State. Trying to hide Curry on Ariza doesn't work, because that means you're now going to have Durant or Draymond guard James Harden, and that's not gonna cut it. Curry has to play Chris Paul straight up.
You're right, Houston trying to run offense through Ariza to exploit Curry won't work. But that's not why Ariza is preferable to a guy like Sefolosha or Moute.
Those two guys are such non-factors offensively that, in a 7 game series, you game plan your defense around them. You take an extra step away from them to help with drives. You rotate off of them to double more. When the defense breaks down, they're the guys you leave open to help.
Basically, they're the equivalent of what Harrison Barnes was in the FInals. Barnes was a better offensive player than either of those two, but he pretty much regressed to what those two guys are.
So it's hard to play guys like that 30+ minutes a game in a 7 game series, because it becomes easier to expose them. Luc Richard shot 1.4 3s a game last year, 0.5 the year before, and for his career, 0.7. In a 7 game series, you just pretend he doesn't exist on offense. Sure, there might be a game where he decides to take 4 or 5 3s and hits a couple. But over the course of the series, you count on the averages playing out, and once he starts missing, he'll stop shooting.
That won't work with Ariza. He shoots a lot of them, he's not afraid to keep shooting them, and he shoots them well enough that if you totally ignore him, he can drop 4 or 5 made 3s on you quite easily.
So yea, Ariza isn't good enough to have the offense run through him to expose a weak defensive player, but he's good enough that he can't be ignored. I feel like you can get away with ignore both Moute and Sefolosha.
That said, again, I don't think Golden State would be wise to put Curry on Ariza. You're just creating two mismatches instead of one. And it's why I really like Houston's roster construction as it relates to Golden State. Not to mention they've got another good wing defender to throw at Durant in PJ Tucker.
The only concern is Ryan Anderson getting beaten up all over the court by Draymond. People shit on Kevin Love, but Love doesn't get bullied by Green. He defends him well, keeps him out of the paint, and rebounds the ball at a high level. I'm afraid Anderson will just get punked.
Also, this doesn't mean I don't like Moute. I'd like Moute to be on this team. But in a series with Golden State, I'd expect him to be a 17-22 minute guy. Spell LeBron for a bit, guard Durant for a bit. But he's a lot like Shumpert in that, after that nice little spurt of energy, the other team can adjust their defense and start making him be the guy to make shots.
Only he's preferable to Shumpert because he's a better defender who can more adequately bother Durant.
