Sacramento Kings: What does Trevor Ariza have left in the tank?

The Sacramento Kings signed veteran Trevor Ariza in the offseason to give the team some reliable bench depth. But what does Ariza actually have left in the tank?

The Sacramento Kings did an incredible job this offseason of piecing together what looks to be their best bench in years. Chief among those additions is veteran small forward Trevor Ariza.

Instead of going out and using their cap space to acquire a star-studded, max-contract-caliber player, they used their money to find reliable role players who all fit in as pieces of the bigger puzzle.

We’re talking players like Cory Joseph, Richaun Holmes, and, of course, prized free-agent addition center Dewayne Dedmon. But there is perhaps no player that better personifies what the Kings were looking for than the aforementioned Trevor Ariza.

Ariza is a 15-year veteran of the NBA who has spent the better part of the last two decades traveling the league as a talented and reliable role player. In fact, Ariza has been much more than a role player in the past.

The 34-year-old has held down a starting role for years having started all 456 games he’s played since the 2013-14 season. However, expect that to change this season in Sacramento.

With the Kings having signed Harrison Barnes to a pricy four-year, $85 million contract in the offseason, Ariza will be relegated to a bench role serving as Barnes’ primary backup.

It will be a fresh albeit familiar situation for Ariza who served a primary bench role for years before finding a starting job with the Houston Rockets. But the question remains, what exactly should the Sacramento Kings be expecting from Trevor Ariza?

And perhaps more importantly, what does he still have left in the tank?

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Ariza has been widely regarded as an excellent three-and-D wing with outside scoring ability and superb defensive IQ. But last season, his metrics saw a steep decline.

Split between the Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns, Ariza shot just 33.4% from three-point range as the shooting touch that he was once praised for had evidently run dry. And his 40% field-goal percentage isn’t pretty to look at either.

However, it is important to note that Ariza was asked to play a whopping 34 minutes per game last season. And due to injuries in Washington, he was actually one of their primary scoring threats with only Bradley Beal and Bobby Portis having attempted more shots.

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However, we should also take into consideration that age does have an effect on players, especially defensively. Ariza isn’t as quick as he used to be and he may have trouble keeping up with some of the younger, more agile players in the NBA.

That isn’t to say that he can’t still be an effective defender, far from it. But to expect the same level of defense from earlier in his career would be foolish. Still, it’s more likely we see his shooting touch return to form than his defensive prowess.

Fortunately, the Kings won’t be asking Ariza to do nearly as much as he did last season. In fact, Ariza would be lucky to receive half the minutes per game that he did last season with a reasonable figure being somewhere around 15-20 minutes.

With a diminished role and a better supporting cast, the hope is that Ariza could be the reliable veteran presence coming off the bench that the team knows he could be.

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He may not be the player that he once was, but Trevor Ariza is primed to make a sizable impact this season with the Kings.

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