By: Rahat Huq
- Trevor Ariza followed up his stellar debut in Tuesday night's opener with yet another strong showing last night, scoring 20 points and going 4-7 from downtown. While we're just two games in, it's easy to see why so many (including myself) felt Ariza at $7million was a far better value than Parsons at his current pricetag. He's defending and spacing the floor at the other end, and upon immediate reflection, appears to be the dream fit at small forward next to James Harden. It's really hard to believe that this is the same guy who manned the '3' for this team just a few years ago, because he's done a complete and total transformation as a player. Over the years, Ariza has seemed to gain self awareness of limitations and he's learned to play within his strengths and within the team's system. Next to Harden and Howard, he's getting more daylight than he ever knew was even possible, and he's knocking them down with confidence. Ariza still travels every time he puts the ball on the floor off the pump fake/triple threat, but he's been needing to do that less. What he's eliminated completely, thank god, are the plays where he attempts to take his man one on one off the dribble, without any sort of help. Related: the Rockets did not employ two superstar players during Ariza's first stint.
- Big Papa continued on Ariza's assault from the bench, knocking down four triples in the first half. It's clear so far that this guy belongs, as he's shown already a sweet stroke and a deft touch around the basket. As I noted in the latest episode of The Red94 Podcast, Big Papa is deceptively quick, and almost always is able to get a step on his man. He's showed off some slick passing in the first two affairs, already having formed something of a synergy with Donatas Motiejunas (who hasn't shown much of anything himself). I'm racking my brain trying to think of who Big Papa reminds me of as the first thing any good analyst should do upon consecutive strong showings by a new player is to immediately make a player comparison, preferably to someone of similar ethnicity. I don't think you can say Turkoglu, because while Papa can handle the ball, we haven't yet seen him attempt to create anything off the pick and roll. Not that he can't do it, but we haven't yet seen it, but I'd love to see them test that out. At present date, I actually think Papa is what Rudy T. thought he was drafting when he used the pick the team got back in trading Hakeem Olajuwon on one Bostjan Nachbar.
- Several other people noted last night on Twitter, reaffirming my own observations, that Pat Beverley seems to have regressed offensively, though I have my suspicions regarding the cause. He's not a good playmaker or finisher and I wonder if what we're seeing is more symptomatic of the absence of Lin and Parsons rather than an indictment of Beverley himself. I'd rather withhold judgment here until a sizable sample of plus/minus data can be obtained, because with Beverley, the overall impact often cannot be visually deduced. But this ties into my next point...
- My main concern following the preseason, and now after two games into the regular season, is the load on James Harden. The Rockets' offense has been rolling along, with Ariza and Papa knocking down the majority of their looks, but the system has been almost entirely dependent upon the brilliance of James Harden. So far, he's been up to the task, but he's still a mere human. I worry that a) he'll wear down and b) buckets will be hard to come by on those nights when he's bottled up. While Parsons couldn't create off his own dribble, the biggest area where he'll be missed is his playmaking off the pick and roll. I'm concerned that this team's upside is limited, barring the acquisition of another playmaker.
- I don't know what else happened in the game, but they switched to highlights of Celtics-Nets, and the clips I saw seemed to indicate Rajon Rondo was putting on a show, where he had some passes where he was like, "oh you want a basket? here you go" and everyone else on the court and watching on TV was like "I didn't even know that guy was standing there wide open under the basket."
- My League Pass came in blurry on both the TV's in my apartment and this was really annoying. I reset the receivers and still no dice.
- Terrence Jones has at least one play every night that makes your jaw drop. Last night, he had the ball in the open court and he threw a no-look, behind the back pass to Ariza (or someone, can't remember), for a flush. Jones reminds me of those times in high school where me and my friends would go play pickup and there'd always be kids that were way taller and more athletic and they'd dunk all over us. Yeah. He just looks like a beast when he jumps or handles the ball. I just wish he'd be more consistent, damnit. But I'll write more about that tomorrow because I gotta go right now.
All in the game, yo, 
