I thought though towards the end of the season, he had done some growing up. He and AB seemed to communicate better; he had accepted his role, etc. We won't have a chance to see that now but I wish him a good career at NO.

I'm in agreement with you on Ariza's attitude (Rahat mentioned it as well). He was repeatedly grimacing, especially around midseason. He looked to be preoccupied with himself rather than the team. I felt like Ariza had a maturity issue coupled with the awkward (failed?) results of having been used as a go-to-guy prior to the trade deadline.

That said, I don't buy any of this x or y has hit their ceiling already. Both Lee and Ariza are young. I enjoyed watching both of them in the playoffs two years ago. I thought NJ had gotten quite an asset in Lee and I haven't given up on the possibility that he can be a better-than-solid contributor. Two years of play (one with such a poor Nets team) aren't enough to tell me a guy has hit his ceiling. The same for Ariza. In my opinion, the jury is still out.

But I won't miss that selfish grimace.

2008-09 season: Lee was an underrated key to Orlando's conference championship, taking over as the starting shooting guard as a late first-round draft pick and becoming the Magic's top defensive stopper. Unfortunately for him, the enduring memory many folks have of his season is the missed layup that would have won Game 2 of the NBA Finals in L.A.

Lee was pretty quiet offensively, ranking 57th out of 65 shooting guards in usage rate, and that was the main reason his PER was so low. For a low-usage guy he also was surprisingly turnover-prone, tending to get in trouble when he dribbled into the paint. However, Lee was effective in the catch-and-shoot game, hitting 40.4 percent of his 3s. Lee made 59.8 percent of his shots in the immediate basket area, too, so he certainly can finish — he just didn't get there very often.

Scouting report: Often compared to Richard Hamilton because of their similar builds, especially once he donned a facemask in last season's playoffs, Lee is likely to have a much more defense-oriented identity as a pro. He's a very good spot-up shooter, with last season's numbers backed by strong 3-point percentages as a collegian, but it's unlikely he'll ever be great at creating his own offense since he's neither a deceptive ball handler nor an explosive leaper.

Where he does excel, however, is at the other end. Most rookies struggle on defense, but Lee was the Magic's best on-ball defender from the get-go and has a good chance at becoming an elite defensive stopper. Even though he isn't powerfully built, he moves very well laterally. He needs to get better at drawing charges, though, as last season he took only five, and he needs to get stronger to defend post-ups better.

2009-10 outlook: Lee was traded to New Jersey in the Vince Carter deal and should see extended playing time as the Nets' starting shooting guard. While his team as a whole will be a far cry from the Magic squad he played on a season ago, the change of scenery will give him more opportunity to round out his offensive game. I suspect his shots and points will increase sharply but his percentages will go down.

Of course, Lee's long-term value is more likely to come as a defender. He'll be facing opponents' best scorers every night in New Jersey without a lot of help, and while he'll probably take some lumps this season, the experience should pay off in the long run as he tries to establish himself as a lockdown, one-on-one ace.

If Lee can step in front of Deron Williams and cut off his drives then this would be a good pick up.

Losers: Jermaine Taylor – 3rd SG (please no discussion of James at the point or the three – not realistic), Brooks/Lowry combo (why get a back-up 2)

Interesting comments from DMo – Per Rockets.com Q: Was this more a deal to move Ariza’s contract or to get Courtney? DM: This was an opportunity to get Courtney. I mentioned the Kyle Lowry deal and I hesitate a little bit because Kyle is a very good player and I don’t necessarily want to put expectations on Courtney to be similar to Kyle – they’re very different players. But in terms of our aggressiveness and trying to acquire players who we think ->>>>fit our winning culture and style of play, fit our overall focus on what we value on the floor, when those players become available we aggressively go for it.

Did DMo just say Ariza didn't fit into the Rockets winning culture, style of play and lacked the overall focus on what is valued on the floor? If it wasn't about the money…

But what makes zero sense at first glance is the Rockets talking about how Lee can defend the bigger PGs. Well that's nice,but isn't that what Lowry is for? And if the team is talking about Lee guarding PGs while Brooks is on the floor,who is Brooks guarding? If Brooks can't guard bigger PGs,how is he going to guard SGs while Lee has the PG?
The rationale makes no sense,so why stress it unless…Brooks is going to be traded. Huge honking speculative leap,but if Brooks were to be traded and Lowry starting,then the Rockets might be toying w/a Lee/Taylor/Bud/PF de jour/Miller reserve unit w/Lee and Taylor bringing up the ball,running the hi-post offense thru Miller and using Taylor as the last second drive option(or possible playmaker-remember the line about JT perhaps being the emergency 3rd PG a month or so ago?). For the back-up PG the team signs some journeyman PG.

The fact that rox did not go that route and went after Lee should speak volumn about how much they like him.

TP has worse stats, is 5 years older with only 2 more years of experience, and would cost ~$4.5 million more than Ariza at a $10,324,380 salary.

I'm going to assume this was a pretty harmless joke, but would you think there's any weight to that rumor?

Bad thing about this trade: I used to snicker at all the 4-team trades proposed on various forums because they never happen in real life. Well one just happened

Its my opinion based on observation. I definitely don't have any insider information on that. I did get to sit close a handful of times last year and watched most games on tv. I saw Ariza getting frustrated and acting indignant at his teammates quite a bit. I also witnessed a nasty episode where he gave a bunch of fans the bird when they called out to him in jest. I know for a fact that the Rockets had to address this particular issue with him.

My perception of Ariza is that he has a lot of growing up to do and was never particularly happy here. I never once saw him with a smile on his face in a Rockets uniform.

Morey stated before that Ariza was worth his contract for his defense alone; the spot-up shooting and slashing was a great bonus. Even if Lee is a quality defender, he would just be shoring up the 2 defensively, where we already know Martin is not particularly effective. Sure, we still have Battier, but we had him before. There's no net change there. If we move Budinger to the 3, have we really gained anything? Is a secondary benefit just evening out the roster positions?

I just feel (reflexively) like our defense has diminished.