Heading into this season, Dion Waiters was meant to be the x-factor for the new and improved Cleveland Cavaliers. The streaky guard out of Syracuse was set to adjust his game for the greater good for the team and become a key part to the Cavaliers championship aspirations.
Before the season, Waiters was saying all the right things to the media. He was even looking at film of how Dwayne Wade, a player who he had been compared to coming out of college, adjusted his game when LeBron James joined the Miami Heat in 2010, as Waiters explained to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, “I’m planning to go watch tape to see what D-Wade did when he played with LeBron. I need to learn how to be effective out there with him.”
Waiters seemed poise to make some big changes in his game but unfortunately things have been rough for the third year guard so far and that’s putting it nicely.
Too many times Waiters has gone back to his old ways.
Eighteen games into the season, let’s quickly take a look at Waiters per game averages- 8.1 points, 1.9 assists, 1.2 rebounds, 36.7 FG%, 24.2 3P%, 74.1 FT% and 23.0 minutes. Having a simple look at those stats make you cringe. Also, the fact that Coach David Blatt removed Waiters from the starting line-up just 3 games into the season and how Blatt has played rookie Joe Harris over Waiters in critical moments of games shows just how little trust the first year coach has in Waiters right now.
It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out how ineffective Waiters has been this season though. Multiple poor defensive possessions, questionable shot selection, over dribbling and maybe a little bit of pouting have all been shown multiple times from Waiters this season and quite frankly, those are things Waiters needs to clean up.
While Waiters has had his fair share of blunders in this early season, none of been more disappointing then his shot selection. This has always been a story of Waiters career, as many times he has taken isolated, step-back jumpers over the past couple of years. That was expected to stop this season, as the Cavs needed Waiters to adjust his game and become mainly a catch and shoot player. The idea was to have Waiters mainly stay on the three-point line, spacing the floor for the likes of James and Kyrie Irving and then being prepared to shoot whenever the ball was passed to him.
It’s safe to say this plan hasn’t worked.
Too many times Waiters has gone back to his old ways. The Cavs will be moving the ball on offense but it seems whenever Waiters receives the ball, he likes to take on his man one-on-one, which does two things: One, it stops the flow of the offense and two it leads to a poor shot and usually a miss or turnover. We have seen little commitment from Waiters to take on a catch and shoot role and this will have to change if Waiters plans to stay in Blatt’s good book.
This poor play from Waiters has led to many fans calling for the Cavs to trade Waiters for a legitimate rim protector. While rim protection is definitely an area of need for the Cavaliers, it is simply way too early to give up on Waiters yet.
While rim protection is definitely an area of need for the Cavaliers, it is simply way too early to give up on Waiters yet.
Everything was going to be an adjustment for the Cavaliers this season and for Waiters, his adjustment is just taking a longer time then, say, Irving’s or Tristan Thompson’s. Waiters has had a tough time adjusting to his role on the offensive end and is yet to put in the required effort needed on the defensive end but despite that, he is still keeping his head high, as he explained to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, when he was asked about his recent struggles, “It ain’t about me right now. It’s not about me. As long as we’re winning (I’m fine).” The fact that Waiters is keeping that attitude towards these struggles is definitely a positive for the Cavs and with veterans like Mike Miller and James Jones in the locker-room to keep Waiters focused on the task at hand, attitude isn’t something that Cavs should be worried about with Waiters, which is definitely some pleasing news.
Another reason why Waiters shouldn’t be given up on yet is simply how much talent the 22 year old possess. Waiters has the ability to score a bunch of points as quickly as anyone in this league and once he fully adjusts to his role on this Cleveland team, he will be an extremely valuable spark plug off the bench. In a November the 7th win in Denver, we saw flashes of how good Waiters could be coming off the bench. An effective 17 points off the pine and an intensity and effort on the defensive end gave Cavs fans a taste of how energetic Waiters will be once he fully adjusts to his role.
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Also, once Waiters puts in a constant effort on the defensive end, which he will eventually, he will no longer be a liability on that end of the floor. It seems like we have been saying this about Waiters his whole career but the kid has all the tools to be an above-average defender. His size, strength and speed will make Waiters a tough player to drive on if you’re an opposing guard. Waiters has just never had the care factor on the defensive end of the floor to become a respectable defender. We have already seen Irving make a concerned effort to become a better defender this season and the results have been extremely encouraging. Once Waiters begins the realize the importance of defense (and it seems like he is starting to, after he did an excellent job in shutting down Lou Williams in Toronto on Friday Night) and he will with the amount of former championships in the Cavs locker-room, he will be well on his way to becoming a two-way player in the league.
Furthermore, another reason why the Cavs would be stupid to trade Waiters at this stage is just simply how early we are into this season. It was never going to be easy for this team to gel and despite the current 6-game winning streak, there are still plenty of things for the Cavaliers to clean up. For Cleveland to give up on one of their more important players this early in the season would simply be blasphemous.
Waiters has all the skill to become the sixth man the Cavaliers need to capture that forever evading championship and Cleveland simply cannot afford to let him go before he even has a chance to get settled into the team.
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