NBA
Breaking Down the Trevor Ariza Trade From the Wizards and Suns Perspective
On Monday, it became official. the Washington Wizards traded Kelly Oubre Jr. and Austin Rivers to the Phoenix Suns for Trevor Ariza. It finally happened after a three-team trade with the Memphis Grizzlies fell through because the Wizards thought they were getting Dillon Brooks. Classic Wizards.
The whole basketball world knew that Ariza would end up getting traded. However, the Wizards were not on a lot of people’s radar for Ariza to end up. Both teams have been thoroughly disappointing this year, although not surprising. Did this trade help either team?
The Trevor Ariza Trade From the Wizards’ Perspective
From top-to-bottom, this Wizards team has been a mess so far. You have a roster full of players who can cause some issues in different ways. John Wall walked into the season over-weight and not fully prepared to lead this team.
Then you have situations where Bradley Beal and Wall don’t exactly get along. You bring in a Dwight Howard, who at this point is a walking distraction. Not to mention, guys like Oubre Jr, Rivers, Markieff Morris and Jeff Green who are inconsistent and aren’t exactly the most loved players.
Add all of that up and you get this a team who is 2.5 games out of the eighth seed in the East. Now this trade may help the Wizards in the short-term. Ariza is a three-and-D specialist who is experienced and has been on winning teams before. It also helps that you get rid of Rivers, who might be on his way out of the league after this year. However, for essentially one year of Ariza is a bit odd. Especially when you didn’t move some of the bigger-contract players on your team.
I’m not so sure Ariza will fix any of the biggest problems for the Wizards. This team has a massive chemistry and injury issue at the moment. Howard hasn’t been healthy at all this year, to a butt injury. No comment.
Now Otto Porter Jr, who is getting paid the most out of every player on the Wizards, is out with a knee injury. It comes down to Wall and head coach Scott Brooks being on the same page. They have had their issues, and I don’t think a role player in Ariza will help any of that.
How About the Suns?
The Ariza signing never made sense to me honestly. The only reason I can think of for this trade occurring is because they knew they would get some value back. The Suns are the worst team in the league, record-wise, and there have been some unhappy campers on this team. Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton have been good-to-great so far, but they haven’t lead this team to a lot of wins. The team is young and they don’t exactly have the best roster to look at.
Oubre is in an interesting position on the Suns. This could be a fresh-start for him that he may need. He’s on a team that’s learning to develop their games instead of desperately trying to get in the playoffs. The Suns are basically out of it at this point. If he works on his game, he could be a key piece to the Suns in the future.
Obviously, there’s no instant impact wing players for the Suns, so they have to see where they can fit Oubre. Right now, the Suns have a good amount of wing-players on the roster in Josh Jackson, Mikal Bridges and TJ Warren. As they say, you can never have too many wings, but effective is he going to be fighting for minutes? With Rivers waived by the Suns, they essentially traded Ariza for Oubre straight up.
But Who Won?
I’m not sure any team won this trade. Ariza isn’t going to come in and solve the Wizards problems. That’s going to come down to Wall and his ability to lead. Ariza can absolutely shoot the three-pointer and lock-down, but he won’t necessarily help chemistry issues. The ceiling for this team is a seventh-seed and getting a gentlemen’s swept by the Milwaukee Bucks or Boston Celtics.
The Suns aren’t necessarily a franchise players are crawling too either. How much time will Oubre get on the court? All the wing-players on the Suns are relatively young trying to get more minutes, so how will that fit work? The Suns don’t have a set point guard, so what’s the point of buying-out Rivers when you can use the depth? It’s just a very odd deal for the Suns.
The edge will probably go to the Wizards, but considering it’s a one-year rental, it’ll be a short-term win. Long-term, I don’t think anybody wins. It felt like one of the most uneventful trades in a while.
Photo Credit
James Anderson via Flickr
Writer Brandan Verrastro
