Not a lot of details but here is from Chad Ford's Twitter:

quote:

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The Hornets, Rockets, Pacers and Nets are on the verge of a four-team trade, according to a report from Chad Ford.

Darren Collison and James Posey would be sent to Indiana, Trevor Ariza would go to New Orleans, Courtney Lee would go to Houston, while New Jersey would receive Troy Murphy.

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For the Rockets, if I'm in this deal I would take the Posey/Collison piece of the trade for Ariza and then try to flip Collison for something more valuable than Courtney Lee. Maybe there's more to it (draft picks or something), but with these as the principal pieces it looks like Morey is just offloading some future salary.

Looks like it might be official:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5455472

Still not too sure about this one. Maybe part of another move to swing Jeffries away? Just a salary dump seem very anti-Morey.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5455472

quote:

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For the Rockets, aside from acquiring Lee, the move is largely a salary dump. This summer the Rockets spent a lot of cash signing Luis Scola, Kyle Lowry and Brad Miller to free agent contracts and their payroll ballooned to $81 million. Before the trade, the team was bracing for a $10 million-plus luxury tax hit. The deal would save them $28 million on the life of the contracts and $10 million this season, including luxury tax considerations.

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I like Courtney Lee a lot, and he has a lot of value. But if you could do Ariza for Collison, you have to do that, then try to package Brooks+Jefferies or Hill for a swingman. Tayshaun Prince or Rip Hamilton?

Collison/Lowery
Martin/Bud/Taylor
Rip/Battier
Scola/Hill/Rookie
Yao/Miller

Not sure what other SG/SFs are on the trading block.

... that's all well and good, except you'd have to take on James Posey which sort of defeats the purpose of a salary dump.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AlkPkd5y_9RZuuCv5pebpuy8vLYF?slug=ys-arizatrade081110

Looks like a done deal. I'm not sure what to think about this. Rocket fans everywhere were raving about Ariza when Houston signed him last year and now he's old news? I understand they traded him to prevent paying the luxury tax but someone help me understand..

Courtney Lee can ball. Morey tried to get him in the draft two years ago. Im fine with it. I wasnt in love with Ariza and Im not sure how accepting he would have been of his role this year.

In morey I trust, it's a wash bball wise

Imo

Here is the side by side comparison.



They seem fairly comparable, except Lee has only been in the league 2 years, and his contract is up after this season.

lee should still be on his rookie deal, meaning the rockets should have a team option for next season.

from a basketball perspective, i think i'm indifferent. lee is a little better shooter, but ariza gives you a little more versatility, especially on defense.

from a financial perspective, it's a no-brainer and a big win for the rockets.

With Ariza's contract off the books, as well as Jared Jeffries', Shane Battier's, and the newly acquired Courtney Lee's, might the Rockets be priming themselves to make a big splash in Free Agency in the 2011 off-season?

Still, I don't know if I really like this from a personnel standpoint. Courtney Lee is a solid player but he strictly plays the two guard position. It seems as if the Rockets are already booked at shooting guard with Martin, Budinger, Taylor, and now Lee. Ariza is an athletic three with size, terrific defensive capabilities, and has the ability to run the court. The knock on him is that he can't hit the open three-pointer, and his mid-range game is shaky at best. Perhaps that doesn't exactly fit into Adelman's scheme (especially with the hopes that Yao will return), but Trevor seemed to fit in fine when we were running the floor last season.

The Rockets essentially dumped salary by trading a starter for a bench player. I'm not a big fan of the deal, but I'll wait and see what else Morey has up his sleeve.

Per the Chron...

quote:

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The Rockets had coveted Lee for several seasons. They had tried to trade for him last season and tried to move up in the 2008 NBA Draft to get him.

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i'll reserve judgment for now.

honestly, this is the first thing i thought of when i heard we got courtney lee:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv8qTk1-Y2c

Just saw an unconfirmed rumor on another board that might make the Houston side make a bit more sense:

quote:

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The reason Houston is doing this deal is because of some behind-the-scenes- "issues" with Ariza. There was a MAJOR incident recently between Ariza and another key player that really turned ugly. The coaching staff was very concerned about chemistry issues between the two players and so they began shopping Ariza for the last month and a half or so. Apparently, Ariza has a reputation for being a "loose cannon" to put it mildly (one of the reasons LAL didn't do more to retain him), and Houston wanted to dump him and get back the best value they could. Lee is a very nice player--hard nosed, tough, and athletic--and they are really happy if they get him.

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So, if all that is true (take with a grain of salt), then perhaps that was more motivation.

The new line-up looks like this:

Brooks-Lowry
Martin-Lee-Taylor
Battier-Budinger
Scola-Patterson-Hill-Jeffries
Yao-Miller-Hayes

Not a bad move. I don't think Ariza was ever really the player that the Rockets thought he would become when given the starting role. Lee will be good insurance for when Martin gets hurt.

My guess is that Morey isn't done. I have a feeling that Battier and/or Jeffries will be used in another deal to land us a better starting 3. Battier also has a cheap buyout so any deal involving him could see him back in Houston at a cheaper rate after the other team cuts him to save payroll.

oh how the tides turn so quickly

Les Alexander has never paid a dime in luxury tax. There was no reason to think this year was going to be any different. I do think that DM is not done with moving players around.

This makes alot of sense now that it looks like Battier will be staying around

1. Ariza significantly regressed as the season wore on. I think he thought he was going to have a huge breakout year offensively, and the Rockets gave him plenty of leeway to try and do it. But it didn't happen and when Aaron took over, he regressed.
2. Buddinger needs more touches. There was a logjam at the 3 position and someone had to go. The first optionn was to package one or more of them in a trade for a high draft pick or big time FA. When that didn't happen, someone had to go. Buddinger needs more minutes.
3. We swung for the fences in FA and missed. Fine. But there's no reason to pay the luxury tax when you're just a 5-8 seed playoff team. You move salary while still retaining valuable assets. This does that. We still have plenty of pieces to go after Carmelo, CP3, or any other big name out there.
4. Ariza's attitude never really jived correctly with the other players. For some reason he just never seemed to fit in. These rumblings went on from time to time throughout the year.

I'm indifferent to this move other than I love that it means more time for Buddinger. This reminds me a bit of the Rafer Alston trade in that respect. It's not so much about Courtney Lee. It's the extra minutes it gives a budding young player already on the team.

Here's a pretty breakdown on grading the deal for all of the teams involved:


http://www.realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/961/20100811/grading_the_deal_four_team_trade_wakes_nba_from_hibernation/

Here is the Rockets part:

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The move is absolutely financial for the Rockets, who save $5 million this season alone thanks to the trade. Even if they keep Lee’s escalating rookie contract, they’ll still save $4 million in 2014 when Ariza is due to make $7.7 million.

Ariza played well, but wasn’t the player the Rockets expected when they signed him to a five-year deal last summer. The acquisition of Kevin Martin and the growth of Chase Budinger made Ariza a movable piece without hurting their depth too greatly (especially since Lee will absorb any minutes created on the wing).

Lee has been traded twice in two years, but he’s a player I’d love to have on my team if I was running an actual NBA franchise. He’s young, cheap, unselfish and dangerous offensively. He fits into Houston’s new mold. They are leaning much more on offense than they have in recent seasons, when they were known as a defensive powerhouse.

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is a numbers guy and he’ll love the PER comparison between Ariza (13.40) and Lee (12.88) in light of the salary differential.

Grade for Rockets: A-

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And a bit more on Lee from the Chron:

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"He's very intriguing defensively," Rockets vice president for player personnel Gersson Rosas said. "He's going to follow the game plan to a T. He eats up direction and guidance from coaches.

"He can defend big 'ones' like Deron Williams, Rodney Stuckey, Jason Kidd. He gives us a direction we did not have before. He's cut from the same cloth as Shane Battier. He really values the details, has a great approach. He really takes it personal."

Lee's personal coach, David Thorpe, said Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy considered Lee to be his best defensive player on the ball and Thorpe predicts Lee "will be the Rockets' second-best defensive player (after Battier) the first day he steps on the court."

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That stuff about Lee being a Battier-Like worker on D makes me feel a little better about him as an player. Maybe he and Shane can share spreadsheets and 1000 page defensive playbooks.

Same article also mentions the Rockets pick up a 6 million dollar trade exemption in the deal as well. Could be huge when the trading deadline approaches.

Ariza was not needed on this team, and now you don't have to move Shane to get Bud more mins. You have a true rotation of

Brooks/Low
Martin/Lee/Taylor
Batt/Bud

The shooting woes were bad with Ariza, but the biggest problem was between the ears with him. He mentally checked out of a lot of games, especially when his shot wasn't falling. Had the ability to play defense, but often chose not to.

I'm not bothered a bit by Ariza's departure.

What I remember most about Lee is when he helped get WKU to the Sweet 16 in '08. If he turns out to be as good defensively as that blurb above suggests, that is good news.

The Rockets were a rotten defensive team last year (due in no small part to Yao's absence...bang on him all you want for lack of footspeed, but 7'5" is 7'5" and he would have improved team defense) and Lee could help shore up the backcourt from a defensive standpoint...he's got OK size for a 2-guard and he almost has to be a better defender than Kevin Martin. He seems to have the mindset to want to defend someone, which is at least half the battle right there.

Hopefully his shooting will improve with some better pieces around him...the Nets were horrific and he was asked to do a lot more there than he will in Houston, so it's hard to make too many judgements from his year in NJ.

Lol Wut? Provide a link to such defending or I will call you out as a farce. I don't believe I have spent a whole lot of time on this board in the past two months, and certainly not defending Ariza.

i believe he wasn't meaning literally the past 2 months since the seasons been over for the rockets since then.

how about....recently....since the rockets got him.

[This message has been edited by Simplebay (edited 8/13/2010 11:41a).]

I still reject the premise and challenge you to find posts of me vehemently defending Ariza.

If this was about Brooks or Yao or maybe Budinger, I could see that. But I don't know that I've really given Ariza a whole lot of thought.