Los Angeles Clippers: 9 Players To Target At Deadline

Trevor Ariza

There has been no real inkling that the Houston Rockets are interested in moving Trevor Ariza, but he’s exactly the player the Clippers have needed for years.

The Clippers have one of the best four-man cores of Chris Paul, J.J. Redick, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan. Even with a rotating cast of journeymen small forwards, they’ve been able to be one of the best starting units over the past few years. Ariza is the three-and-D wing that they need to stop the stopgap small forwards.

Ariza isn’t as athletic as he once was and it’s been noted that he has a weakness when it comes to putting the ball on the floor. Ariza would be a dramatic improvement over what the Clippers have had over the past three years (Matt Barnes, Luc Mbah a Moute, Wesley Johnson, Paul Pierce, Lance Stephenson).

He’s long and rangy enough to still be a plus defender and has a knack for knocking down the corner three (44.3 percent on corner three-pointers this season).

The Rockets are below .500, already fired a head coach, and had their interim head coach call them a “broken team“. The Rockets have reportedly thrown Dwight Howard‘s name around in trade talks and they might just start tearing their team apart.

If Ariza is available, the Clippers should jump at the opportunity to grab him and fill the void at the small forward spot.

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