Suns trade Ariza to Wizards - for real.

[Drewsprocket]

Lots of Rivers hate. I’d like to watch some wins. My hope is that He is someone Booker feels like is going into to battle with. Booker has had to place too much effort handling the ball and being the positive one encouraging his teammates. Rivers is obviously now the best ball handler AND on the team regardless of his like ability. It says a lot about how effed our playmaking has been. We shouldn’t be starting 3 rookies along Warren and Booker. I like them enough that they stay. So yeah, I hope he starts, plays well alongside Booker, defends with his heart. I’m hapoy to see the suns develop 2 good rookies as starters as opposed to sucking ass and burning out TJ and Booker.

[Superbone]

I really hate that Austin Rivers is going to play (and maybe start!!) for my beloved Phoenix Suns. One of the biggest douchebags in the league, and he sucks.

Let's hope he doesn't poison the lockerroom. At least his mentor plays here.

[Superbone]

And yeah. Let's give him a chance before we hate him. Maybe not start him out with the asterisk treatment.

[Superbone]

[INFORMER]

Lots of Rivers hate. I’d like to watch some wins.

I'm not sure why someone would think Austin Rivers is the path to winning. I guess we'll see.

[Mori Chu]

And yeah. Let's give him a chance before we hate him. Maybe not start him out with the asterisk treatment.

Am I at least allowed to post, "HERE COMES AUSTIN RIVERS!!!" when he messes up? If so, I'm in.

[specialsauce]

I can’t root for him. I won’t root for him. I’ll root for the Suns, but I don’t want him to succeed. He is such a douche bag.

[Superbone]

And yeah. Let's give him a chance before we hate him. Maybe not start him out with the asterisk treatment.

Am I at least allowed to post, "HERE COMES AUSTIN RIVERS!!!" when he messes up? If so, I'm in.

Of course.

[Superbone]

I can’t root for him. I won’t root for him. I’ll root for the Suns, but I don’t want him to succeed. He is such a douche bag.

What do you know about him? I am asking seriously because I haven't heard all this behind the scenes stuff. I can see him being the entitled type having grown up with money and everything he ever wanted. Let's hope he's matured a little bit along the way.

[Superbone]

The kid isn't evil incarnate. I'm willing to give him a chance. Here's a pretty good article about him:

https://uproxx.com/dimemag/austin-river ... ver-story/

[Superbone]

[In2ition]

I think it was Dave King, but he pointed out that the Suns have given the least amount of minutes to players within the sweet spot of being between 23-29 yrs old in the league by a huge margin. This is supposedly a good indicator of success, and since they have barely had anyone within those ages, it makes sense.

[JeremyG]

Phoenix forward Josh Jackson called Ariza "the ultimate veteran" and the ideal guy to have on a young team.

"He was always constantly teaching us," Jackson said. "He's been in the league a long time, been on a lot of winning teams, and whenever he saw something, even if it was the smallest thing, whenever he saw something that wasn't right or something that we weren't doing right all the way, he would take the time, even stop practice, and just talk and tell us the right way to do it and why."

http://www.nba.com/article/2018/12/15/r ... bre-rivers

It sounds like Ariza was providing something of value to the team.

[Drewsprocket]

I don’t want to watch Devin Booker get beat for whole games by multiple defenders because he’s the primary ball handler AND trying to create for himself. And when he’s on the bench, I don’t ever want to see Josh Jackson pretend he’s LBJ. We’ll see what Rivers does for the rest of the season. It’ll be better than What we’ve seen so far. I feel certain of it - because it’s been god awful (don’t give me that Melton sh*t either).
I also hope we don’t re-sign Rivers this summer- even if he returns to his 17-18 level of play.

[carey]

Phoenix forward Josh Jackson called Ariza "the ultimate veteran" and the ideal guy to have on a young team.

"He was always constantly teaching us," Jackson said. "He's been in the league a long time, been on a lot of winning teams, and whenever he saw something, even if it was the smallest thing, whenever he saw something that wasn't right or something that we weren't doing right all the way, he would take the time, even stop practice, and just talk and tell us the right way to do it and why."

http://www.nba.com/article/2018/12/15/r ... bre-rivers

It sounds like Ariza was providing something of value to the team.

Oh? I'll have to read your article so I can decide which one of them is spin. (From the Suns beat writer today...)

Sources said Ariza had checked out mentally early in the season. After practices would ended, he’d leave before everyone else, when that's usually an opportunity to bond.

He'd break the team huddle before his teammates and wasn’t engaged.

[ShelC]

It can be both. He can be helpful in practice and during games to individual guys and still be disconnected off the court or with the team in general. But I never bought the "great lockerroom" personality bit. He's a solid veteran who won't cause problems, knows the ins and out of the NBA, what it takes to play on a successful team. But he's not a cheerleader or outgoing personality. He's a roleplayer all around. McD probably sold him on us being a borderline playoff team and him helping put us over the hump. Not the first time McD's overpromised in free agency.

[Big Jake Little Jake]

I have a hunch he did not like his offensive duties much. He had to create a lot for others and take guys off the dribble to initiate our cuts and weaves. He really struggled doing it for a variety of reasons and he probably felt like at this point in his career, he shouldn't be trying to remake his game. Understandable, but frustrating too. Especially since Igor allegedly claimed Ariza was perfect for his offense.

I have no ill will to the guy - it just didn't work out here at all. Most disappointing to me was his lack of teaching on the court during the game. You compare it to Crawford and it's night and day. Anyone who defended the Ariza signing (I'll include myself in this) was hoping he'd act more like Jamal, but it just didn't happen. He obviously was ready to get out of here after the first five or six games. Oh well.

[Mori Chu]

Ariza would have worked well here if we had a point guard to pass him the ball, rather than forcing Ariza to dribble and try to create his own shot, which has never been his strength. And/or if we had a real defense that Ariza could be a part of, rather than being as bad as any team in the league both on the perimeter and at the basket. Ariza's still-good defense can't carry everything for us when nobody else on the floor with him knows what they are doing on that end of the floor.

[ShelC]

Ariza's the type of guy who will make a good team better but won't make a bad team good.

[JeremyG]

I'm surprised that Houston wasn't more desperate to get him back and try to work out a three-team trade.