Los Angeles Lakers: Ranking the day one signings by potential impact
By Jason Reed
1. Trevor Ariza
Defense is still very important to the Los Angeles Lakers and with the team letting Alex Caruso walk, it is going to need several players to step up defensively. Ariza is one of those players and to me, he is a better version of what Kent Bazemore is.
Trevor Ariza is old, like all of these other signings, so it is definitely far from a guarantee but I would guess that the Lakers are imagining him to be someone who will undoubtedly be part of the crunch time lineup.
Ariza might not be as efficient from beyond the arc as some of the other players that the team brought in but he can still hit a three, and more importantly, is extremely experienced in the playoffs and knows what it takes to be a role player on a title-wnning team.
His defense is what is the most important. He is not the prime version of Ariza anymore but he can still give the team quality defensive minutes as a wing. His size and length are going to be huge for the Lakers.
Ariza likely won’t go 100% defensively in the regular season because of his age but in the playoffs his impact as a defensive wing, with all of the wings the Lakers lost this offseason, is going to be huge.
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If Ariza struggles then that will probably be an indication of the team as a whole. The Los Angeles Lakers need Trevor Ariza to play a big role next season.