I still really like Trevor Ariza

The most worked-up I ever got about a personnel decision the Lakers made in the Kobe era was when they gave up Trevor Ariza. 

Really. 

At the end of the 2008-09 season, the Lakers were the World Champions and Ariza was a major contributor on that team. His length was above average for a 3 and his ability to fill any need the Lakers had was really remarkable to me at the time. he could guard anybody from a shooting guard to most power forwards and Phil Jackson put him in positions where his superior athleticism and spot-up shooting would pay dividends. His salary at the time was only $3.1 million per year and he was only 24 years old.

That offseason, the Rockets signed the UCLA product for a little more than $5 million per season and the Lakers went out and signed free agent Ron Artest (Metta World Peace). World Peace signed with the Lakers for slightly more than the Rockets signed Trevor for, and the two basically switched teams.

I wasn’t happy. Why would a team that just won a title get rid of a 24 year old starter on that title team in favor of a 30 year-old Artest/World Peace who had a weird game and was a wild card at best?

The litmus test was whether the Lakers would win a title with World Peace, and I suppose they accomplished that. World Peace made a game clinching jumper in game seven of the finals to justify all of it. So I guess it all came out in the wash. While Metta aged, Trevor was in his 20’s. I’m not saying he would have mitigated their plans, but you can’t tell me Ariza wouldn’t have helped the teams that a washed World Peace finished his NBA career with.

This season, Ariza’s departure from the Rockets and the nose dive Houston has taken so far this year are further evidence to support the idea that he was, and still is really good. Ariza, now 33, is still a good player. Nine years later, I still think he’s one of the best guys out there to fill gaps and holes a team has.

The shame is that he’s on a young team in Phoenix that has too many of those holes for anyone to deal with. I’m not sure if his $15 million deal is tradable this season, but you know he could plug into virtually any contender and make them marginally better. He may be hitting the tail end of his highly useful career, but I will always believe in Trevor Ariza and the power of players like him. Basketball games are often decided on the margins, after all.