Veteran Ariza remains a steady if underrated cog in drive to playoffs
He was a Rocket before James Harden.
He won a ring with Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson.
And there was only one teammate loudly singing from the back seat in a national TV commercial featuring Chris Paul and The Beard.
Somehow, Trevor Ariza is underrated on the best team in the NBA and the greatest regular-season squad in franchise history. And even though he has started 310 games for the Rockets since he returned to Houston in 2014, we don’t talk enough about the quiet but proud man in red wearing No. 1. “It doesn’t matter to me. It really doesn’t. I don’t play bas-
ketball or play this for the notoriety. I play it because I love it,” said Ariza as the Rockets prepared for what could become a two-month playoff run. “I really enjoy the sport — I love the sport, actually. I enjoy the time that I spend with my teammates. And that’s it. If you like me, great. If you don’t, that’s your fault. That’s bad on you, because I’m going to give you everything I have and that’s it.”
With the Rockets, Ariza has started for Rick Adelman, Kevin McHale, J.B. Bickerstaff and Mike D’Antoni. Since he entered the league in 2004 out of UCLA and became the New York Knicks’ No. 43 overall pick in the second round of the draft, the 6-8, 215-pound forward has poured in 9,929 points, clocked 27,808 minutes and been a constant, key component on the best teams of the Daryl Morey era.
The 2014-15 Rockets, who reached the Western Conference finals with Dwight Howard and Harden sharing power all season? Ariza was in the middle of it all.
Rock-steady performer
The 2017-18 Rockets, who recorded a franchise-record 65 victories and could possess home-court advantage in Game 1 of the NBA Finals? Eric Gordon, Clint Capela, P.J. Tucker, Luc Mbah a Moute, Harden and Paul received most of the attention from October through mid-April. But Ariza was always there, starting all 67 games in which he played, while averaging 11.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 33.9 minutes — and leading a defense that is playoff-worthy.
“He’s one of the better players for the last 10, 15 years in that role,” D’Antoni said. “He’s just steady. You know what you’re going to get. He’s really improved his driving and finishing this year. His defense is always good, hawking the ball and all that. He’s a big presence in the locker room. Sometimes you do take him for granted because he’s smooth and quiet and all that. But he’s been really good.”
Ariza captured his first ring with the 2008-09 Los Angeles Lakers, briefly became a Rocket, then became a teammate of Paul’s during CP3’s final season in New Orleans. Ariza, 32, has played for one-fifth of the NBA’s 30 franchises (Knicks, Magic, Lakers, Rockets, Hornets/Pelicans, Wizards, Rockets again). But by far his longest stay has been in Houston, where Ariza joins Harden and Capela as the only rotation players remaining from the peak season of the Beard and Superman experiment.
“I have seen everything in this league,” said Ariza, sounding like a book waiting to be written. “It’s a good and a bad thing. I’ve learned a whole lot just being in this business. Made a lot of friends.
“But the most important thing is that I’m grateful for everything that the game has given me. It’s given me a lot of knowledge, it’s given me a lot of things that I could never dream of.”
The Rockets began preparing for 2017-18 as soon as a Game 6 no-show against San Antonio in last season’s conference semfinals became an official part of franchise history. Hunger, frustration, personal fire — Ariza felt it all after the Rockets disappointed again.
“If you see someone or you feel that you’re equally as good as another team or another person and they get what you want, it makes you a little bit envious of them,” he said. “So I think just the envy of watching other teams raise banners, it just makes you grind harder, makes you work harder, it makes you do that extra hill that you don’t want to do in the summer.”
Reflecting on Lakers
Eleven months after the Spurs ended the Rockets’ season a round early, this squad presents everyone from Harden and Paul to D’Antoni with a clear path toward a careerdefining ring. Could this team be better than the 2008-09 Lakers group that won 65 games, then downed Howard’s Magic 4-1 in the Finals?
“Statistically, we’re better,” Ariza said. “Now it’s coming down to the time where it really counts and it really matters. It all just depends on how well we do these next two months.”
Four years with Harden has allowed the 14-year veteran to watch his friend grow and mature. Two seasons up close with D’Antoni has left Ariza praising a coach who clearly got the best out of the Rockets through 82 games.
“Man, he’s been unbelievable. He is like the ultimate player’s coach,” Ariza said. “Everybody wants to play for him. Everybody should get an opportunity to play for him, because he just gives you so much confidence as a player. He wants you to do well and he told everybody from the jump, ‘This is going to be your best year. Every year, you’re going to do something better than you did last year.’ …With a coach like that, you can only want to play for him and give him everything you have.”
One of Ariza’s best assets in red: Giving the Rockets everything he has, every minute he’s on the court.
“Trevor is definitely a quiet leader. He goes out, he’s more about his action,” Tucker said. “He ain’t going to say much, but he goes out, he gives 110 percent every night, always wants to guard one of the better players on the opposite end. He’s a good two-way player. Trevor’s definitely a big piece of our team.”
Tucker and Mbah a Moute brought much-needed grit to this season’s team. Ariza has long added the mental and physical toughness that will be critical if this year’s team is going to go as far as it should.
“I would call it just me trying to be the best man I can be. I’m not trying to start (stuff ) with anybody. I just want an understanding,” he said. “I feel like there’s other ways you can go about solving issues or problems and, for me, I just like to be respected. I feel like I don’t disrespect people. So if I feel disrespected, I want to understand why.”
Harden and Paul will receive the double teams and zoomedin camera lenses. D’Antoni and Morey can answer critics always waiting to pounce when the team falls short.
Ultimate role player
But if the Rockets are going to do what hasn’t been done in this NBA city since 1995, it’s going to take true role players.
Ariza has been playing that role for years. As Harden, Paul and D’Antoni chase their first ring, the proud man in red wearing No. 1 is fighting for his second.
“That would be everything,” Ariza said. “I feel like, just to see the joy that the Astros have brought to this city, see how excited people were for that — right down the street — and to hopefully bring that same type of excitement and joy and proud feeling in this building would be amazing.”