How do Ariza, Gabriel and Swanigan fit on this Trail Blazers team?

After the mid-January trade between the Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings, how do the new pieces fit on this Blazers team?

The Trail Blazers have made moves, like it or not they have been active in the trade market and now have three new players on the team. Gone are Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver, in come Trevor Ariza, Wenyen Gabriel and Caleb Swanigan.

This season is only halfway through and has plenty of time left for the Blazers to make a run at the playoffs. This trade straight away brings more depth at the three positions of need. The three, four and the five positions have been massive problems all season, now they have backup at the four and five as well as Trevor Ariza who is likely to start at the three.

How do these new additions fit on this team and how can they impact winning for this squad?

Trevor Ariza

Let’s start with Ariza. He is 34 years old but still has a lot left in the tank. Ariza has never been a knockdown shooter but he is around league average at 35 or 36 percent. He is stronger from the corners though and has been above 39 percent from this spot every full year since 2011/12.

Yes fans want teams to sign or trade for guys that shoot 40 percent from three. But these guys aren’t readily available. Ariza’s strength around the rim though is still evident, even at age 34 he has still finished at the rate of 62 percent this season. This mark would be good enough for second on the Blazers if the injured Rodney Hood was excluded.

Ariza is also a strong rebounder, at six-foot-eight he is three inches taller than Bazemore and will be able to defend the bigger wing threats in the league. He has always been a great rebounder for his position, and is a better foil to CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard than Bazemore.

Due to Dame and CJs lack of size, pairing them with Bazemore who is only six-foot-five has been troublesome. With some of the bigger twos and threes that need to be guarded, having all three Blazer players under six-foot-six makes switches or ball screens a nightmare to guard.

Ariza can’t guard all the faster players, but he can guard the more physical threes and fours. Ariza also has championship and playoff experience. It was a long time ago, but Ariza won a championship with Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. And then he was also only a few shots away from the finals with the Houston Rockets three years ago.

Ariza has the ability to guard three positions, and can knock down the three competently. The off-court stuff including his non-guarantee next year needs to be sorted, but Ariza is an upgrade from Bazemore.