<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Orlando's trade for Brian Cook and Maurice Evans Tuesday is quite interesting, not so much for the significance of the players involved as for what it means about where the teams are headed. The trade sent the duo from L.A. to Orlando for Trevor Ariza, a high-flying wing player who is only 21 years old and has a great future as an energy guy in the Ruben Patterson mold.</p> From L.A.'s perspective, this deal was a no-brainer. They give up two guys who weren't playing while adding a true 3 -- a position the Lakers needed to bolster. And Ariza is another athletic young player who can become part of the nucleus headed by Farmar-Turiaf-Bynum if and when Kobe Bryant finally gets a new address. In terms of value this was a deal they couldn't pass up -- Ariza's upside is far greater than Cook's, and Evans was disposable.</p> So why'd Orlando do this? Two reasons, both of which make sense.</p> First of all, they're dead serious about surrounding Dwight Howard with shooters. Ariza can't shoot, so he didn't really have a role on this team. Cook, on the other hand, can shoot like nobody's business -- he's a career 39.2 percent 3-point shooter. It's the only reason he's in the league, in fact. And since he can also play the frontcourt, an area where the Magic find themselves a body short after losing Tony Battie for the season.</p> But a second reason may loom larger. To me, the Magic make this trade only if they legitimately think they can win the East this year. And the fact they did tells me they truly think they can win it. Not in a "Maybe if things work out and the best players on the other teams get hurt and we get real lucky in close games" kind of a way, but in a "We're the best team" kind of way. And after starting 10-2 and beating Boston, they might be right.</p> So they made the moves to get the two missing pieces they really need -- a backup who can play the 2 so they can keep Keyon Dooling out of size mismatches, and a backup power forward who can space the floor and keep defenses from collapsing on Howard -- Pat Garrity, with a 1.57 Player Efficiency Rating in 120 minutes and a half-decade long streak of single digit PERs, clearly isn't working out. I'm still not sure Cook is a Stan Van Gundy type of player because his D needs a lot of work, but for the 10-15 minutes a night Orlando needs him it may not matter.</p> Will it work? Call me back in June. It's definitely a good deal for L.A. Whether it's also good for Orlando depends, in large part, on whether they're contenders or pretenders in the East. Right now it looks like the former, which makes the swap look like a wise move.</div></p> Source: Blog Hollinger ESPN</p>
Ariza is a damn fine player. I always hated him mostly because he was on the Knicks (and I hate that team so much) but he is one of those guys that brings instant energy off the bench.</p> Balkman lite if you will.</p>
Good trade for both teams. Lakers get the best player in the deal in Ariza, a guy who is somewhat similar to Evans but hes much younger, taller, and a legit lockdown defender. He'll take defensive pressure off of Kobe and give the team more energy and athleticism.</p> The Magic just needed depth and experience. They traded a guy who got no playing time under Van Gundy for a servicable reserve 4/5 and an effective, veteran, defensive minded 2/3 in Mo Evans. The Magic seriously lacked help on the interior with only Dwight and Foyle, Cook isn't a great player but given minutes hes effective and can spread the floor. They're looking deeper right now and I think this trade will make them even better tha nthey've been so far.</p>
Trevor Ariza was acquired just in time for the Boston trio. He can come in off the bench to disrupt Allen or Pierce if they get off to a quick start.</p>
