After two seasons of flinging shots with reckless abandon, Trevor Ariza has gotten back to playing the style of game that defined him in Los Angeles.
In his off season player profiles, John Hollinger said Trevor Ariza “may have the league’s worst shot selection”. I’ve said in the past that Plaxico Burress has better judgement on when to pull the trigger. That’s not the case anymore. Ariza has cut way down on his bad long twos and threes, increasing his shooting and three point percentages as a result. He’s done this despite losing one of the game’s greatest distributors.
A common theme the past two years was Trevor getting the ball with 15 seconds or so left on the shot clock, putting his head down for a failed drive, then settling for a fade-away 19 footer despite there being ten seconds or so left on the shot clock. That’s bad basketball, as evidenced by the fact that he hit jumpers between 16 and 23 feet at a remarkably inefficient 29.4% over the past two years. Those shots were assisted only about 35% of the time.
Ariza also fancied himself a three-point shooter. Not the kind who stands in the corner and knocks it down when he’s open, but more of a “even though I’m not a very good long range shooter I’m going to shoot one every time I can see the rim and a defender is not literally molesting me.” He took 5.7 threes per game in Houston, hitting them at a 33% clip, and then took 3.6 last year in NOLA at 30%.
Fast forward to this year and you have a different story.
At first glance you may see that Ariza has actually been taking more long twos this year per game (2.9) than in either year past, but don’t let just that one stat fool you. The selection of shots within that range is way better. To start with, he’s hitting them at 37%. That’s not great, but it’s way better than being sub-30. That one stat alone doesn’t prove anything to us, but it backs up the eye test. He’s increased that percentage while working in an offense this year that doesn’t have a top distributor, and as a result more of Ariza’s shots in this range have come out of necessity, not poor selection
Also, he’s been taking one shot in particular quite a bit– the 17 foot baseline jumper, something I’ve seen him working on over and over and over in just about every practice I’ve been to. According to my memory, he’s hitting that shot at a pretty good clip this year, and he’s asking for the ball when he’s open in that situation. He’s also being assisted on 63% of shots in the 16-23 foot range this year, nearly double the number in his previous two seasons. No longer is he putting his head down, driving, and then throwing up prayers.
Behind the arc he’s seen a slight improvement over the past two years, only taking shots that he’s comfortable with or required to take because of a dwindling shot clock. He’s averaging only 2.5 threes this year so far, but he’s hitting them at a career high 34% clip.
There are other notable improvements in Trevor’s game, such as the career highs he’s averaging in rebounds, blocks, steals, AST/TO ratio, FT%, assist ratio, and many more things that I don’t care to focus on right now, but I just wanted to point out that Trevor really has cut down on his awful shots.
As a result, my FP/G rate (face-palms per game) is WAY down.
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One discussion that may be worth having at some point is how much Chris Paul contributed to Ariza’s down year last season. Paul constantly had the ball in his hands, and for a player who seems to thrive on rhythm and movement like Trevor, that may have been a factor in why he never seemed to be able to really get it going offensively in the regular season.
All the numbers in this article come from HoopData (which really enjoys being referred to as “HoopsData”, FYI).
6 responses to “Trevor Ariza Has Figured It Out Again”
ariza’s one of my favs!!!
off topic but seems the oak tree is out for awhile…weird since he always seems to be healthy..hornets really tankin it i guess which is cool we get a better draft pick…but maybe holding him out for a trade too?? i like oak better than kaman tho, defense wins ships, segway to why i love ariza and why the hornets should keep him around to teach the young pups
Gotta love Ariza. Easily my favorite Hornet. I love him because he always plays over his head, but he’s absolutely fearless. I wish I had a dime for every time I said, “Oh s@#t Trevor, don’t shoot tha. . . NICE SHOT Trev!” Not to mention he consistently wins the award for “Most Likely to Get Injured on an Insane Dunk.”
But there’s no two ways around it, when the dude gets hot, he’s a tough guy to defend. Add in his shut down defense and talking trash to Kobe Bryant in game 4 of the playoffs last year. . . what’s not to love?
Off topic, but for you nba 2k fans who havnt noticed, 2k has updated the rosters including stat changes. On the Hornets, Jack and Vaquez’s stats increased a lot, while the rest of the team basically stayed the same. Also, Gustavo Ayon has been added to the roster along with Solomon Jones, and Trey Johnson along with Dajuan Summers have been removed. No Lance Thomas though.
Also the “start” button seems to come and go as it pleases when you want to “play with friends”… It’s always fun to get in a locker room together and discover the game won’t let you play lol.
This quote summarizes it all: “After two seasons of flinging shots with reckless abandon, Trevor Ariza has gotten back to playing the style of game that defined him in Los Angeles.”
Ariza IS really playing well. 34% on 3 pt shots equal 50% on 2 pt shots. I’ll take it! Plus he is doing everything else well. He is a keeper!
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