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T-Mobile Player of the Week: Trevor Ariza

This post is sponsored by T-Mobile

Let's break a few POTW rules, shall we?

1. I'm not going with the obvious choice this time. Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, and Aaron Brooks - I apologize, because I know just how offended each of you are for being excluded. Great week nonetheless.

2. I'm counting last night's game. Yes, I know it's a new week. But I'm counting it anyway.

Trevor's shot selection has steadily improved over the past month, especially when Kevin Martin has been healthy. As a result, this past week was one of the more efficient weeks that Trevor has had in a while. In all (excluding last night's game in Sacramento), Trevor only took 4 shots from the 5-23 foot interval. In other words, all but four of his shot attempts for the week were either at the rim or from behind the three-point line. Coincidentally, Ariza missed all four of those attempts.

As I noted earlier this week, the addition of Martin should help improve Ariza's game, if only because it will help eliminate many of those long pull-up jumpers that Ariza, for whatever reason, fell in love with for much of the season. Last night, Trevor turned in a fantastic stat line, finishing with 29 points on 10 of 18 shooting, and added 2 blocks and 2 steals for kicks. Ariza has shot over 40% in each of his last four games, and hasn't been forcing the action quite as much as we are used to seeing.

It's great to see Ariza ending the year on such a high note, especially given how tumultuous a year it was at times. Now that he, Aaron, and Kevin have an entire summer to work together, we should only see better things from Ariza next season. And that defense is still doing the trick, whether anyone wants to take notice or not.