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Assuming there is a season. You guys aquired him to replace a young Ariza, but Metsy is clearly getting up there in age, which begs the question will Metsy World Peace be a big part of the rotation? He looked a tad slow last season.

Who is Metsy? Do you mean Meta World Peace

We don't have much of a choice but to play him. He just needs to work on defense all summer and get the lateral movement back. I feel like he'll be more useful, at least less disruptive, on offense this year as well under a non-triangle system (assuming he takes the time to learn it).

The defensive instinct and skills are there. And I'm not so worried about him being a distraction (He's no dennis rodman). IMO: He needs to slim down and work on his quickness. He's becoming vertically laterally horizontally diagonally slower than anybody i could think of in the SF position... jeesh!

metsy? that's a terrible nickname- we're not calling him that

i know his new name is bad and we don't have a lot to work with but we need a better nickname than that

How about we trade him..problem solved..haha

Truth of the matter is the Triangle was the biggest wrench in Metta's game. Now playing in a system with more fluidity, he'll be fine. Also he had one of his better defensive season's under Brown back when they were in Indiana. The numbers don't lie fellas....vets...seasoned vets win titles. You just need a few young bucks to balance the fabric of the team.

That's where Devin and Derrick come in, and that's the one things I always hated about Phil. He refused to infuse youth on his teams. And not having that cost us this time.

But once and for all guys here need to stop crying, bitching and moaning about Trevor Ariza. He and his dumb ass agent made a calculated risk, thought he was more than he was worth and he paid the price for it. You have to realize, playing with guys like Kobe and Pau made him appear to be better than he really was. You see how he struggled in Houston....that was no damn fluke.

The only reason he looked decent in New Orleans is because he's playing with another All Star in In Chris Paul, plus Paul will control the rock not Trev. A lot of guys here are getting Trev defense twisted, he wasn't a shut down defender....he's a roamer, cheats the passing lanes and has the athletic ability to do such things as that. Metta is a shut down, man on man physical defender.

He didn't shut Paul Pierce down in the 2010 Finals, but he made him work for his....and Pierce couldn't punk and manhandle Metta like he did Trev.

XTC wrote:Assuming there is a season. You guys aquired him to replace a young Ariza, but Metsy is clearly getting up there in age, which begs the question will Metsy World Peace be a big part of the rotation? He looked a tad slow last season.

Ariza averaged 11 ppg on 39%fg last season. Just sayin.

I hope he works on his shooting, even though the new Offense isn't the Tri anymore, I still feel he might be relegated to spot up shooting and his shooting was pretty bad this season. His D has fallen off to me, he's to slow to guard the younger more athletic SF, only one he's good for to defend are the physical posting up kinds like Pierce/Melo (not slow but physical).

Jase wrote:

XTC wrote:Assuming there is a season. You guys aquired him to replace a young Ariza, but Metsy is clearly getting up there in age, which begs the question will Metsy World Peace be a big part of the rotation? He looked a tad slow last season.

Ariza averaged 11 ppg on 39%fg last season. Just sayin.

His role on the hornets was FAR different than it was on the lakers. They were asking him to create his own offense, which he's just not suited for, and his confidence subsequently dipped, which made things worse. You can't look at stats without context.

He'd be much better as a 4th/5th option playing off the ball, like he was in LA.

here we go again arghhh

DEEP3CL wrote:

He didn't shut Paul Pierce down in the 2010 Finals, but he made him work for his....and Pierce couldn't punk and manhandle Metta like he did Trev.

When did Pierce manhandle Ariza? Trevor was injured for the 08 finals so...

And nobody is questioning how good Artest was over a year ago, he simply looked like he clearly lost a step last season, and was noticeably less effective defensively.

Ariza actually gave Turkoglu fits in the Orlando series. The man couldn't get a shot up most of the time with Trev trailing him with full court pressure.

He rarely gets credit for that.

Ariza was at 60 TS% in the 09 playoffs, a mark artest has never come close to. Ariza was and remains a far better fit offensively for this team, and I don't even think it's close. His off the ball ability and shooting is just clearly superior to Artest.

Defensively, Artest is only gonna get worse, and I think Ariza is a pretty good team defender, with room for improvement a man defender. The offensive load he has been asked to carry is clearly effecting his defensive "energy."

Doormatt wrote:Ariza was at 60 TS% in the 09 playoffs, a mark artest has never come close to. Ariza was and remains a far better fit offensively for this team, and I don't even think it's close. His off the ball ability and shooting is just clearly superior to Artest.

Defensively, Artest is only gonna get worse, and I think Ariza is a pretty good team defender, with room for improvement a man defender. The offensive load he has been asked to carry is clearly effecting his defensive "energy."

Ariza just got hot at the right time, so did Odom. Melo was abusing Ariza too, just so happens he got hurt and in late game Kobe had to check Melo.