He had returned home to Los Angeles, and if he could not be called a star, he had become respected and valuable and a champion.

Ariza seemed destined to spend the next five years running between Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, winning championships in his beloved hometown, with an easy retreat to his home in La Jolla. Randy Newman couldn't have loved L.A. more.

Then he knew he had to leave. Even Los Angeles and the Lakers could not offer Ariza something he still craved. He needed to grow into something more than the Lakers would ever want of him. He needed to become whatever his talents would allow.

"I loved playing for the Lakers," Ariza said. "I loved my teammates. I was at home. I could see my family (he has a 17-month-old son, Tajh, in Los Angeles) every day. Sometimes, things don't work out the way they should or the way everybody else thinks they should."

As Ron Artest quickly claimed Ariza's spot with the Lakers, Ariza slid into Artest's with the Rockets . Had the Lakers wanted nothing more than to keep Ariza, he likely would have returned and never wondered what might have been out there for him. But now, with training camp to begin next week and the business of the summer behind him, Ariza has become convinced he needed to move on.

"Every player wants to grow. Every player has goals. Every player wants to be the best player he can be," Ariza said. "In L.A., they have so many great, great players. Kobe is the best player in the NBA, arguably ever. Pau Gasol. Lamar Odom. Andrew Bynum is coming into his own. I think I would have been stuck into one role there. Here, everybody said, ?We want you to work on your game. You have to do more. We believe you have the skill and the talent to do it. Come do it.'?"

Ariza insisted he is happy with how things worked out for him. But nearly three months later, there is clearly lingering resentment.

The deal goes down

"My agent (David Lee) got off the phone and told me he got off the phone with Mitch (Kupchak, the Lakers GM)," Ariza said. "He said they thought I was worth the mid-level (exception). If I could go get a deal, go get it, and they would match it. The next day, I flew to Vegas. I met with ( Rockets general manager) Daryl (Morey). Everything went good. They told me that Ron Artest signed to go to L.A. Once they heard that, Cleveland, Toronto, Portland starting coming in. I chose to come here because I thought in Cleveland I would be the same type of player. I thought if I would leave a place, I might as well get better and try to find a role.

"I'm not a greedy person by any means. Fair is fair. I helped your team win. I'm not asking for the bank. I'm not asking for the house and the farm. I need something fair. At first, I felt hurt. It's my home. I was a little upset. But you get over it. I have great memories there. I had my first real opportunity to play there, won a championship. It was a great experience. ? But you know, things happen."

As the months have passed, the idea of moving to a team that needed him to be more than a complementary piece to other stars became increasingly attractive to Ariza, who has long resisted assumptions about his limitations. When Ariza played in New York, then-Knicks coach Larry Brown called him "delusional." But Ariza has since won Brown's praise and seemed to have a breakthrough in last season's playoffs, during which he averaged 11.3 points on 49.7 percent shooting, including 47.6 percent 3-pointers.

In five NBA seasons, Ariza, 24, has averaged 6.9 points (8.9 last season), a long way from star production. But he thinks he's ready to take off.

"He was a great fit, not the guy you fit players around," said Tony Bland, Ariza's longtime friend and trainer. "I point to the Toronto situation with Tracy (McGrady) and Vince (Carter). Once Tracy got out and was able to spread his wings in Orlando, his game developed. The world was able to see the plethora of moves he has. I think the same thing will happen with Trevor. He will spread his wings here and show everybody his game."

The Rockets do not believe they need Ariza to become a scoring champion, as McGrady did in his third season in Orlando, or even to make the 11-points-per-game jump McGrady did when he joined the then short-handed Magic.

Vast potential

"No one wants to limit Trevor. He has potential to be whatever he puts his mind to," Morey said. "We know what he's good at. That's good enough for us. If he is just the Trevor who has been a very good player in the league the past few years, that's what we'll take. But he sets high expectations for himself, and this is a year we're going to need guys to surprise us in a good way.

"Coach (Rick) Adelman and I feel he has that ability. We feel like there are a lot of places we're going to need people to step up. We don't know with which ones that's going to happen. We do feel good about betting on Trevor to be one of the guys."

Still, Ariza did not leave Los Angeles to be one of the guys. He said he does not care about public appearances or photo shoots, though he is happy to oblige. Bland called the move "a huge thing," but he and Ariza both used a word they never would have guessed would describe anywhere but Los Angeles.

"He couldn't pass up this opportunity," Bland said. "We feel we're in a situation here where we can be at home."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com