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Allonzo Trier committed to Arizona on August 3. For Trier, it was the end of an interesting path through middle school and high school as Arizona Desert Swarm covered here.
Upon watching some film on Trier from Nike's Elite Youth Basketball league, a few things really stuck out to me. First, and perhaps most important for Sean Miller's squad, Trier is an elite scorer. He averaged nearly 30 points per game this summer in the EYBL, which is a record in the league's five-year history. He has an explosiveness that immediately made me think of a slightly taller version of Derrick Rose, and, like Rose, he goes to the hoop for layups and floaters more than he relies on his mid-range game.
When he does need to create space in the mid-range, however, he generally relies on his stepback or shoots a fadeaway, as you'll see above. Trier will probably start right away for Arizona, considering he is a 5-star recruit and also Arizona will likely lose at least two projected starters, in Stanley Johnson and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to the 2015 NBA draft. I think Arizona fans can expect Trier to have a role like Nick Johnson had for the 2013-2014 team; he will be the leading scorer and main scoring option. Trier and fellow 5-star commit, point guard Justin Simon, will be a very formidable backcourt for the Wildcats in the 2015-2016 season.
Though Trier is a five-star recruit, his game is not void of drawbacks. Firstly, and most notably, he is not much of a two-way player. He had a couple nice defensive plays in the film I watched, including this block , but mostly it was all on the offensive side of the ball. I think a large part of this is that he is a bit undersized at 6-foot-4; however, with the right coaching I think it is possible he could find ways to compensate like Nick Johnson was able to. Also having the 6-foot-5 Simon in the backcourt with him should alleviate some of the pressure Trier has on defense.
All in all, the future is very bright for Allonzo Trier and the rest of Sean Miller's teams. Arizona fans should expect to compete for a title this season and next season at the very least.