Should the Pacers get in on a Trevor Ariza trade?

Some rumors are swirling in Phoenix that Trevor Ariza could be available to teams in a trade. Should the Indiana Pacers jump in on that?

The last time the Indiana Pacers made a mid-season trade was in 2014. They sent away Danny Granger and a pick for Lavoy Allen and Evan Turner. That felt wrong then, and it feels wrong in retrospect. But this year there may be a guy that the Pacers could acquire in a midseason trade that could make sense for them. That man is Trevor Ariza.

The reason we can zero in on Ariza is due to some interestingly timed reporting out of Phoenix. We first learned that the Suns are still interested in acquiring a point guard thanks to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski:

That doesn’t seem like much on its own, all summer long the Suns were looking for a match at the point guard position. But then Marc Stein got in on the reporting action and suddenly the picture became a little more clear:

Those tweets were two hours apart, and it’s not a coincidence that the leaks got out of Phoenix in just a few moments difference. The Suns leaked that they want a point guard all the while shopping Trevor Ariza. Something is up, and Ariza is gettable.

That is where the Indiana Pacers step in. Before evaluating a trade, let’s just envision how having Ariza on the current Pacers team would benefit the squad. I wrote this summer about why the team should sign Ariza in free agency, so let’s just steal some quotes from that:

"“If you watched the Western Conference Finals, you saw what kind of player Trevor Ariza is. He’s decisive. He’s quick on D. He has long arms. He’s 6’8 and can guard any player on any area of the court. He’s exactly what the Pacers need.”"

Ariza is a solid defender on the wing, something the Pacers could use. He could guard big wings next to Victor Oladipo and allow Vic to exert more of his effort on offense. He can also stroke the three-ball, he’s hit about a league average percentage from the outside on a crazy number of attempts over the past half decade.

If the Indiana Pacers plugged him in at the three, he could space the floor while playing defense when Bojan Bogdanovic rests. If they plugged him in at the 4, he could take on Thaddeus Young‘s defensive responsibilities when Young is recharging. He couldn’t match either player’s production 1:1, but he could offer a lot of it.

The Pacers could use that forward depth. Outside of Young, Bogdanovic, and Doug McDermott, Indiana has nobody who can reliably play forward. Ariza would fit right into a hole on the roster, one that is occasionally occupied by TJ Leaf.

But Ariza has to take someone’s minutes, technically. Those minutes would probably appear from the person who gets traded away for him. There are two trades that are easy and legal that would get Ariza in Indy if the Suns were to be interested in them.

*Note – Trevor Ariza cannot legally be traded until December 15th.

That solves the Suns point guard problem…

Shoutout to Dan Favale at Bleacher Report for this idea. This trade literally works exactly in the salary department. If Darren Collison made one fewer dollars or Ariza made one more, this trade would be illegal.

This trade would allow the Pacers to move Cory Joseph into the starting lineup and get Aaron Holiday more minutes as the backup. The guard rotation would be set with those two guys, Oladipo, and Tyreke Evans.

The forward rotation would then just add in Ariza. Tyreke has played 30% of his minutes at the SF position this season, but that would no longer be necessary with him playing full-time guard. Ariza could take those minutes, plus a few from Thaddeus Young and/or he could play PF when the Myles Turner + Domantas Sabonis pairing isn’t working. It would give the Pacers more versatility and get the Suns the point guard they need. Win-win.

On the salary cap sheet, this trade is solid for both teams too. Both players are on expiring contracts, so it would not change the long-term outlook of either team’s cap sheet beyond this season. That would be appealing for both sides as a short-term trade that may improve both rosters.

This could also be a trade option:

Tyreke played a ton of point guard in Memphis last season. Who is to say he couldn’t do it for the Phoenix Suns?

This would accomplish similar goals to the first trade but would have the second unit guards be Aaron Holiday and Cory Joseph instead of Holiday and Evans. Evans may be a better fit for Phoenix with his ability to be a secondary shot creator, so perhaps the Suns would prefer him to the steady hand of Collison.

Evans can’t be traded for another 10 days, but he becomes trade-eligible the same day as Ariza so there is really no issue.

So, should the Pacers do it?

I get why a fan might want the Indiana Pacers to make one of these moves. I get why the Pacers and the Suns might want to make these moves. And if either of them happens, they would be more than understandable.

But if I were Kevin Pritchard, I wouldn’t do it. Here’s why, for both.

For the Darren Collison trade, I wouldn’t do it because I personally value (maybe too much) having a quality point guard on the floor at all times. The Magic and Kings have been terrible for a long time, but they have both been decent this season. It isn’t a coincidence that their point guards are playing some of their best career basketball at the same when the team’s improvement comes.

I understand wanting to get Holiday more minutes. But DC is much more impactful on winning. His BPM is 0.0, basically a league average player. Aaron Holiday’s is -2.1 That’s fine enough for a rookie, and he will get better. But this season, as the Pacers try to build off of last year, DC is important as a steady hand. Holiday can take his spot eventually, but not yet.

Not doing the Tyreke trade is all about organizational appearance. As weird as it is to say, Tyreke is one of the best free agents the Pacers have ever pulled. How bad would it look if they traded him away 2 months into the season? Why would a somewhat big name free-agent ever come to Indiana again if they thought there was a chance they could just be traded away in a few months?

Agents keep track of all that stuff. It matters. If Tyreke is unhappy here, then that would be a different story. But he himself admitted that he is still acclimating to the team. I don’t think it would be a good idea to move him, both because I think he ends up playing better soon and because I think it would look bad for the organization.

Connecting some dots, sure, a Trevor Ariza to the Indiana Pacers trade might make some sense. If there’s a match between the two teams, then so be it. I wouldn’t personally do it, but that doesn’t mean the Pacers won’t.