Trevor Ariza deserves some criticism for giving up on the Suns like he did. When a bad team signs you to a fat contract to be a veteran leader, you don’t just check out when things get tough. Especially when you checking out is part of the problem. And then he demands a trade? Like he’s some sort of good player who gets to do that? If I were the Suns and I were petty as heck (which I am), I’d eat his salary and tell him to sit on the bench and shut up. Like what they did with Ryan Anderson.
Okay, criticism over. Now he’s in Washington, and he has lingering good memories of that locale, so things seem to be flowing smoother for him. It’s too bad that John Wall (the guy who magically turned him into a beast a few years ago) is out for the season because of how fat he got, but it looks like he doesn’t strictly need him to be successful. Look at that statline. 24 points, 9 assists. I wondered if that was a career-high in assists, but now that I look at it I guess I do remember him getting 11 with the Rockets a few years ago.
Speaking of the Rockets, I bet they miss this guy really bad right now. Props to the Suns for giving him such a ridic contract that the Rockets couldn’t match.