They say Trevor Ariza is too thin, a 6-foot-7 forward walking
around in a guard’s body.
They say his perimeter game is still weak, that his jump shot is
inconsistent, and that he lacks an inside presence. They say
he’s not ready for the NBA.
He says otherwise.
“I think I’m making really good progress,” the
43rd overall draft pick in this year’s NBA Draft
said. “I think I’ll be ready whenever I’m
called.”
After playing only one season at UCLA, a year in which he
averaged 11.6 points and 6.5 rebounds, while shooting 42.6 percent
from the field, Ariza decided to take a shot at the NBA, entering
the draft pool about a month after the Bruins’ season
ended.
It was certainly not an easy decision to make for the
19-year-old.
“It was a really hard decision,” Ariza said.
“But, I thought that I was ready.”
The Westchester High School product had his collegiate career
start on a rather sour note. Ariza missed the first few weeks
of the exhibition and non-conference portion of the schedule with
spontaneous pneumothorax, better known as a collapsed lung.
Although the only memories that UCLA holds of the former
freshman are compressed into the stretch of 25 games in which he
took part, there were snapshots which convinced scouts of his NBA
readiness. Ariza’s 24-point performances against Oregon
State and USC captured his potential.
The starry-eyed prospect, hoping to earn a spot on the New
York Knicks’ roster, learned enough in his one year in Pauley
Pavilion to last an entire NBA career.
“I learned how to be more patient, slow down, and to read
the floor better,” Ariza said. “I think it
prepared me very well, because, at the collegiate level,
there’s not too many schools that the media come to, like
UCLA.”
Coach Ben Howland also had a measurable impact on the
forward’s game.
“He taught me how to run a half-court offense,”
Ariza said. “That’s big at every level (because)
you’ve got to learn how to play in the open court and half
court, also.”
The local product may have moved up a level prematurely, but not
without the support of family. “Whatever I have done, my mom
wanted to be behind me 100 percent,” Ariza
asserted. “If I wanted to stay in school, she would have
been behind me.”
She was certainly next to him on June 29, when he was the 13th
player selected in the second round. “It was fun,”
Ariza said. “I was excited. My family was excited for
me.”
Ariza will not admit to succumbing to the criticisms of the
media regarding his poor performance from the free-throw line and
from beyond the three-point arc. The young forward’s desire
to cement his reputation as an NBA player can be seen through his
refusal to leave the gym until he sinks at least 500 shots.
Past summers for Ariza have involved preparing for 20 to 30 game
seasons, with crowds in the hundreds to thousands. But under
the guidance of Hall of Famers Isiah Thomas, the Knicks’
president of basketball operations, and Lenny Wilkens, the
Knicks’ coach, Ariza will be preparing for an 82 game
season in front of capacity crowds at Madison Square
Garden.
“My phone’s been ringing a lot more,” Ariza
said. “At first, everyone was calling me, telling me
what a dumb decision I made. Now everybody’s calling me to
congratulate me, wanting to be my friend again.”
This past Saturday, Ariza took to the floor at the Long Beach
Summer Pro League, making his unofficial professional debut and
scoring a game high 22 points against the Clippers.
“It’s just about the experience, learning from my
mistakes, correcting them,” Ariza said.Â
How much success Ariza enjoys in the NBA will be a product of
the effort and determination he devotes to his craft. What is
certain is the anticipation felt by the soon-to-be NBA rookie
regarding the upcoming season.
“I can’t wait to meet everyone (in the
league),” he said. “I feel good, I’m happy where
I’m at.”
No one can question that.