In continuing the player for the Orlando Magic, here is the next up on the list:

#1 TREVOR ARIZA

Ariza is a very good young player for the Orlando Magic. In his third year out of UCLA, Ariza came to the Magic as part of that Steve Francis trade. Trevor Ariza is becoming a very nice young addition to this team, and one I feel will be a huge part of our future success.

Strengths:

Athleticism: Trevor Ariza is an outstanding young athlete. He has plenty of speed, quickness, and can jump out of the gym. As far as athleticism goes, he is the teams finest athlete, and uses that athletic ability to max. Especially on the defensive side of things.

Defense: Ariza is a top notch perimeter defender, and definately the best we have on the team. He has nice fundamentals always sliding his feet right, keeps good posture, and really bothers the other teams perimeter scorers. His instincts and smarts on defense are top notch to, he is never caught in the wrong place, causes lots of deflections, and always rotates to the right area. His athleticism really helps him on defense, as he can recover if beaten, and jump high enough to bother his man when they shoot.

Penetration: Trevor is good at getting to the rim off the dribble. Most everyone on the team is good at getting to the rim off the dribble, and Ariza is no different.

Offensive Rebounding: This was a surprising area to say the least this year, but Ariza is surprsing good at grabbing offensive boards from the small forward position. Ariza sneaks in while the team is trying to put a body on Howard, and uses his athleticism to jump high enough to get the rebounds. Through 17 games played Ariza has 28 offensive boards, which is third most on the team, and only two behind Darko Milicic’s 30 which is second most on the team.
Weakness’s

Shooting: Ariza does not have a very good shot on him at all. When he is in the game, his man usually backs off of him because of how unreliable his shot is.

Free Throw Shooting: To go along with him being unable to shoot, his free throw shooting is rather terrible also, which is a common theme on this team. So far he is shooting 50 percent on the season, which is a huge alarm. That is not good for someone who’s offensive game is centered around attacking the basket. 

Offensive Decision Making: As smart as Ariza is on defense, he somehow looses it alot on offense. He will shoot with people in his face, early in the shot clock, and out of his range alot. A few times he will get the ball after a turnover, or cause a turnover and run into a 1 on 3, him being the only person for the Magic there and three players from the other team there. This is an area that he desperately needs to work on, and may be a reason for him not getting as much playing time as I feel he deserves.

The Bottom Line:
 Ariza’s defense, and athleticism are great for this team, and he is a huge spark off the bench when he comes in the game. Ariza hustles all day, every game, and is contagious among the other players. With both Bogans and Turkoglu out for a few games, I am expecting him to step into the starting role and play alot more minutes. This is the time where he proves that he deserves more playing time, as even when those two are there I think he deserves a good 22-24 minutes a game, not the 17 he has been averaging. He has been a very pleasant addition, and I hope he continues on this path in the future.

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