Houston Rockets: One on One – Trevor Ariza vs. Chris Bosh

An early playoff outing during the 2014 NBA Playoffs spun the Houston Rockets into what could’ve been one of the biggest offseasons in franchise history in which they pursued almost every single top-ranked free-agent on the market.

And even though they missed out on the high-profiled ones —  the most notorious being Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, both of whom eventually chose money and re-signed with their current teams — the Rockets seem to have gotten not what they wanted but exactly what they needed.

After missing on Chris Bosh, the Houston Rockets picked up for former Washington Wizard Trevor Ariza as a free agent in a sign-and-trade deal in the hopes that he could replicate his latest season with the Wizards. Now, halfway through the season we look back at key moments in said trade and who’s come on top of it, so far.

Upon Signing

After signing with the Miami Heat, Bosh immediately, because of LeBron James‘ departure, took over the Eastern Conference champions in hopes to build upon where they left off after their humiliating loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.

With people, including myself, condemning the Rockets’ signing of Ariza, it was educated minds around the league who shed some light on why exactly was he a better fit for the team. Stating that, had Chris Bosh arrived in Houston, the team would’ve had too many cooks in the kitchen.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/9/2015.

Trevor Ariza 2013-14:

Chris Bosh 2013-14:

Coming off similar seasons from both players, Chris Bosh’s leadership and Trevor Ariza’s near-career year tipped the scale against the Rockets.

The Houston Rockets had lost their chance to land one of the offseason’s “sleepers”.

(Interesting caveat: The Rockets had to refrain themselves from matching Dallas Mavericks‘ three-year, $46 million offer to Chandler Parsons as they hoped to free the needed cap space to sign Bosh.)

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Now We’re Here

After one of the greatest starts to a season in team history, the 25-11 Houston Rockets have hit a wall of sorts since signing Josh Smith. This is not uncommon when you have a great chemistry situation and you try to plug in a new player into it. Still, the Houston Rockets even through their current “struggles” are likely to make the playoffs in the Western Conference.

Be aware that because of the Western Conference degree of difficulty, seeding will be close to meaningless and any team that makes the playoffs could eventually string out the wins needed to advance.

Offense

After losing Chandler Parsons the Houston Rockets were in dire need of a wing shooter and defender (not that Parsons was any kind of defender at all) and signed Trevor Ariza to fill the void. Now, the argument for signing Ariza was based solely on the chance that he could replicate his last season with the Wizards. Up to this point, the much reliable Ariza has not disappointed at all.

Let’s see if you can guess which shot-chart belong to each player:

1.

2.

(1. Trevor Ariza; 2. Chris Bosh)

Halfway through the season Ariza has taken up 17.4 percent of the Houston Rockets’ possessions scoring at a rate of 0.65 points per shot. Whereas Bosh is taking up 28.6 percent of the Heat’s possessions scoring at a rate of 1.30 points per shot (!!).

Also, by landing Bosh the team would’ve had the chance to play him at the 4, replacing Josh Smith, Terrence Jones and/or Donatas Motiejunas which is, to say the least, quite an improvement.

By joining Dwight Howard and James Harden as one of the team’s starting-five the Rockets would’ve easily become the toughest team to beat out of the West.

Defense

This may be one, if not the only, category in which Trevor Ariza overcomes Chris Bosh. And this is what makes the case for the Houston Rockets signing of Ariza.

The Rockets, because of their smart offense, have been relegated to few offensive weapons which, even though highly-efficient, are not providing the offensive edge needed to succeed in the Western Conference. Therefore they’ve been relying heavily on defense for the better part of the season.

This is where Ariza comes in.

Ariza as a wing-defender is holding opponents to 4.5 made field-goals when he’s defending the shooter. Whereas Chris Bosh allows opponents to make 6.3 field-goals per game.

Also, Ariza has the eighth-biggest on-off-court defensive rating differential in the NBA.

Even though Bosh is a better player overall than Ariza, he wouldn’t fit the Rockets’ style because his success as a leading scorer is a direct result of the number of offensive possessions he has in a game.

This limits his teammates’ offensive possessions — not the greatest idea when you’ve got arguably the greatest shooting guard in the league in James Harden and the most physically imposing player on Dwight Howard, both 17-plus point-per-game scorers.

Ariza’s role-player style is what eventually lets the Houston Rockets exploit James Harden’s and Dwight Howard’s offensive powers to the maximum level, which, even though that wasn’t what they wanted at first, is exactly what they needed.

Next: Should The Rockets Panic?