Trevor Ariza - A balancing act.
An experienced, defensive, athletic swingman with a championship pedigree. You might think I was talking about James Posey two years ago, but really I am talking about the more youthful, Trevor Ariza.
What Ariza brings to this team is something they previously lacked, and that was an athletic, defensive orientated wingman who could try to limit the best players in the game. I mean, imagine if Ariza had been with the team for the 2009 playoffs, do you think Anthony would have been as effective? Simply answer is no.
So we must distinguish between the old Trevor Ariza and the new one, because he can play two completely different roles and that is why many view the Hornets acquisition of the young champion with such scrutiny, to them it’s a question of “Who is Trevor Ariza?”
The answer cannot be simple because contextually we just do not know how Trevor is going to perform with this Hornets team, after all most teams are different.
Some could simply split him down into two personas, the Trevor Ariza who was a championship role player with the Lakers, or the man who was an inefficient scorer for the Rockets. But it isn’t as cut and dry as that. With the Hornets Ariza will be a sparkplug, a worker, a hustling leader. This team the past few years has seemed dry, uninspired, listless, but with Ariza maybe the Hornets click into gear and recapture that 2007 defensive glory.
I know it’s tough to look at last year’s number’s where Ariza’s usage rate was high (10th in SF), his true shooting percentage was down (7th worst in SF), but some have attributed it sensibly as Trevor was the guy that Houston’s offensive sets went through.
To me when you put Ariza on this team it seems a perfect match in a way. With Paul running the show, Trevor can take a back-seat on offense and work off of him. He can utilize his athleticism on the fast break, in offensive sets and in rebounding. To me if Ariza doesn’t have a career year, efficiency wise I’ll be very underwhelmed.
That’s not to place any inordinate pressure on the guy. After all Monty Williams and his staff thrive on pressure, because as he says, “that’s what we strive for, I mean if you’re not playing for anything what’s the point?”
That moves me to my next point, about Monty’s educated knowledge of Small-Forwards in the NBA. After developing wing players such as Travis Outlaw, Manu Ginobili, Brandon Roy and Nicolas Batum, it’s safe to say that with the trade Williams saw something he liked in Trevor Ariza. After all he (Ariza) is young and still hasn’t hit his peak, so it’s not like we’re getting another James Posey on our hands.
For those of you who raised an eye-brow at this move take a real close look at what the team would’ve looked like before this trade. I mean would Collison really have contributed to the team’s immediate success? As well James Posey is a lot more ineffective than Trevor Ariza, heck why did I even put them in the same sentence?
Ultimately this acquisition of Trevor Ariza will either be looked at by the NBA commentator as the reason why New Orleans kept Chris Paul or the reason they did not. Even though the game is really about the team, people will look to individuals to justify why something works and why it does not.
We have to remove all the hype about Chris Paul this and that, because Trevor can’t appease the man. The appeasement comes from the team, and that in turn comes from winning. So the only way the team is felt satisfied is if they win, and win big. That is no easy task in itself, but if they put in the work to become a cohesive and healthy unit then being a Hornets fan just got fun again.
Season Guesstimate:
Points per game: 10
Minutes per game: 31
Field Goal percentage: 48
Rebounds per game: 4
Steals per game: 1.5
Original Story:
http://swarmandsting.com/2010/09/23/s...
