Trevor Ariza thought Washington Wizards would re-sign him

Veteran swingman Trevor Ariza believed he would re-sign with the Washington Wizards. Things didn’t work out and Trevor Ariza wound up inking a deal with the Houston Rockets.

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It was a very strange offseason for both the Houston Rockets and swingman Trevor Ariza.

The Rockets wanted to acquire a superstar and pursued both New York Knicks’ forward Carmelo Anthony and Miami Heat power forward Chris Bosh. While they were trading the likes of center Omer Asik (to the New Orleans Pelicans) and point guard Jeremy Lin (to the Los Angeles Lakers), the Dallas Mavericks signed forward Chandler Parsons to a massive offer sheet.

It was widely expected the Rockets would match the offer sheet but they didn’t and Parsons joined the Mavericks. They rebounded by signing swingman Trevor Ariza, who is coming off of the best season of his career.

Trevor Ariza, however, never believed he’d leave the Wizards.

“I did think I was going to be” with the Wizards, Ariza said after a practice at Toyota Center with the Rockets last week via Michael Lee of The Washington Post. “I thought they valued the things that I did there. At the end of the day, it didn’t work out.”

The Wizards wanted to sign Trevor Ariza but made center Marcin Gortat their priority, inking him to a five-year, $60 million deal.

Trevor Ariza made his debut against Parsons and the Mavericks on Tuesday night. In a 111-108 Rockets’ victory, Trevor Ariza scored 12 points on five-of-seven shooting, grabbed four rebounds and dished out three assists.

Trevor Ariza averaged 14.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game. He shot 45.6% from the field, 40.7% from beyond the arc and 77.2% from the free throw line last season.

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