For three straight seasons now, I’ve been clamoring for a reduction in Trevor Ariza’s minutes. Ariza was over or near 35 minutes per game in each of his three years since rejoining the Houston Rockets, and though he seemed to handle it fine during the regular season, it resulted in some dead legs that caused Ariza to under-perform in the postseason in two of those three seasons.
And though his minutes were cut a little this season with the arrival of forwards P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute, Ariza still played 34 minutes on average each night, and it simply wasn’t enough once again to keep him fresh once the playoffs hit.