Robert Horry says Trevor Ariza was underappreciated with the Houston Rockets

Last week former Phoenix Suns forward Jared Dudley told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that incoming vet Trevor Ariza may be frustrated at times by the lack of a clear direction. This is of course an absurd notion, as the direction is multiple championships, and if Ariza wants to play ball for dirt cheap in a couple seasons he can be a part of the excitement.

Either way Ariza had 15 million reasons to move, before taxes. Call it 15 million and one according to Robert Horry. The seven-time NBA champion, who won titles everywhere he played but Phoenix, was on the Scoop B Radio Podcast with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson to share that he felt Ariza was underappreciated with the Rockets.

“You know it’s crazy, I live in Houston and I watch the Rockets play a lot. I see the way they play and I don’t think they gave [Trevor] Ariza enough credit for what he did for that team.”

“Defense,” of course, is a dirty word in Phoenix and has been more seasons than not in franchise history. The Suns are adding a guy who factored heavily into the Rockets amounting to a top ten team defensively last season.

“He played good defense on guys,” said Horry. “They didn’t want to play defense on guys like Kevin Durant.”

Hopefully that means games like that 46-point loss to the Warriors last February are behind us. I think having fewer 40+ point defeats is important to the inevitable title run in Phoenix.

As for the Rockets, Horry praised Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni and expects another successful season from his club.

“I think D’Antoni is smart and he’ll figure it out,” he said.

“They’ll get back to the Western Conference Finals.”