Dion Waiters Replacement J.R. Smith Better for a Reason

The Cleveland Cavaliers traded talented but struggling Dion Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The trade seemed to be focused on the Cavs acquiring Iman Shumpert to give the team more balance in their starting. Due to his injury, Shumpert has only played one game for 10 minutes.

However the two other pieces the Cavs acquired in the Waiters trade have paid huge dividends. The 1st round pick from OKC helped the team acquire Timofey Mozgov who has transformed the team’s defense and showed more promise on the offensive end.

J.R. Smith, considered “the price the Cavs had to pay to get Shumpert,” has been excellent in his role starting with the Cavaliers. Smith has played 9 games for the Cavs, starting the last 8, and averaged 15.3 points per game to go along with 3.6 rebounds and 2 assists. He also has 1.7 steals per game in his short time with the Cavs. He is shooting 40% from 3 point range and 43% overall. All of those numbers, with the exception of assists, are significantly up from his time with the New York Knicks this year.

Waiters, during his time with the Cavs this season, was averaging 10.5 points, 1.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists. He was shooting a lousy 26% from 3 point range and 40% from the field overall. With the Thunder his numbers are not much different. He is scoring 11.4 points, 2 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He is shooting 25% from 3 and 40% overall.

While Smith’s general numbers are better, it is his 3 point shooting and especially his catch and shoot numbers that are the reason he is much better for the Cavs. Smith is shooting 15% better from 3 point range than Waiters. A huge number. Smith is also shooting far more catch and shoot chances than Waiters ever did. NBA.com defines catch and shoot as:

"Catch and Shoot: Any jump shot outside of 10 feet where a player possessed the ball for 2 seconds or less and took no dribbles."

Stats are for all of this season so far:

Smith has scored 155 points off of C&S chances.
- Waiters has 78.
Smith has 4 C&S per game this season.
- Waiters takes 2.6.
Smith is making about 40% of his C&S chances.
- Waiters makes about 27%.
Of Smith’s 4.2 C&S chances per game 3.4 are 3PT attempts.
- Of Waiters 2.6 C&S, 2.2 are 3PT attempts.
Smith is also making 40% of those.
- Waiters is making 25%
Smith’s overall C&S Effective Field Goal Percentage is 55.8.
- Waiters’ is 37.5.

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So as Waiters returns to Cleveland we can see why he didn’t fit. In an offense with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving attack the paint often, Kevin Love‘s solid passing and David Blatt’s spacing, the Catch and Shoot is vital for the Cavs shooting guard. J.R. Smith has done it quite well. He also does is more often than Waiters, who likes to either hold the ball, dribble the ball or keep moving with the ball. That often bogged down the Cavs offense.

So while Cavs fans are happy with Smith’s production, effort and fit so far, it is clear that his willingness and ability to take and make catch and shoot shots. We are looking for better stats about what the C&S numbers have looked like just in their time with their current teams. Guess is that Smith’s has gone up since arriving with LeBron, Irving and Love, which would also explain his dip in assists.

How important do you think the lack of Catch and Shoot attempts from Dion Waiters was to him not fitting in with the new Cavaliers and J.R. Smith fitting?

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