Dion Waiters Traded

AmirT0 said:

True not everyone but I am getting a ton of "dumb" ratings on a legitimate opinion that is not popular.

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It could have to do with saying that people are defending Dion "like he is their son", that he is a "selfish chucker", that he has "the bball iq of an amoeba", that he "plays dumb", that he is "selfish, arrogant, me-first," that there is a reason people say he is "trash".... People of course are going to rate you poorly or put you on ignore when you do that.

You're just stirring things up with hyperbole when there are plenty of useful ways to question whether Waiters is the solution at 2-guard. If you want to continue bashing Waiters or other players with a bunch of exaggerations, you won't be here much longer.

AmirT0 said:

True not everyone but I am getting a ton of "dumb" ratings on a legitimate opinion that is not popular. Dion fans take it personally that I am not a fan of his game.

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I think people are just pointing out that drawing opinions from a handful of pre-season games is utterly pointless.

KI, K-Love and LBJ have only played one game together. Are you arguing that is enough time for roles to solidify and for players (like Dion) to be comfortable with their place in the pecking order?

It's really impossible to judge anyone on this team until game 25+ or so. By then, we should at least see how individual players fit in to the system and also how they do or don't play well off each other. It could be a situation where Dion ultimately moves to the bench because he's better on the floor with one of our main scoring options out. I'm not saying that is the case, just stating we're not going to know that until all the starters log significant minutes. There's no way to assess how Dion will play until we get to the regular season IMO.

Simon said:

Raptors are irrelevant because? They made the freaking playoffs last year and are on the rise. DeRozen is also an all-star.

Sorry to get off topic, just had to make my point.

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RealRaptorsfans.com is the best site ever!

In all seriousness though, I thought Dion was fairly unselfish last night. Had a couple nice drop-off passes down to TT. One of the improvements I am noticing in his game is his passing ability. He has always been able to create for himself, but toward the end of last season he started to find players out of the penetrate-and-kick game.

gijimbo said:

RealRaptorsfans.com is the best site ever!

In all seriousness though, I thought Dion was fairly unselfish last night. Had a couple nice drop-off passes down to TT. One of the improvements I am noticing in his game is his passing ability. He has always been able to create for himself, but toward the end of last season he started to find players out of the penetrate-and-kick game.

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He's always had that passing ability. He just tends to look to create for himself more than for others. If you watched him in college, that ability was always there, though. That's one of the reasons I was a fan of him going into the 2012 draft.

I do think Dion will start to pass the ball more once he gets accustomed to his new teammates. He just needs to learn that he's passing to guys now who are actually good at basketball.

Jack Brickman said:

He's always had that passing ability. He just tends to look to create for himself more than for others. If you watched him in college, that ability was always there, though. That's one of the reasons I was a fan of him going into the 2012 draft.

I do think Dion will start to pass the ball more once he gets accustomed to his new teammates. He just needs to learn that he's passing to guys now who are actually good at basketball.

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He needs to learn where they are going to be and where he is going to be. Just like his first two years in the league, he got better as the year went on and he got comfortable in the offense. Then the following year he starts with a new coach again and new system. When the offense is stagnant and no one is moving he will shoot because that's what he does. When players are moving and he knows where they are he usually makes the right play and gets guys dunks or open looks from 3.

All of that and he is playing good defense and shooting 41% from 3 in the preseason. His feeling out process this year consists of taking 2 or 3 bad shots a game, instead of several more than that in the past. When he gets his game legs his shots will fall, and when he, and everyone else, gets comfortable in the offense the bad shots will decrease. He's certainly not hurting the team. They play much better with him than without him.

AmirT0 said:

If you think Waiters>>DeRozen you don't make much sense and now you spin it with Raptors irrelevant. I bring DeRozen up as an example because he is not a me-first egotistical two guard yet a very good player.


True not everyone but I am getting a ton of "dumb" ratings on a legitimate opinion that is not popular. Dion fans take it personally that I am not a fan of his game.

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Derozan plays no defense, and shoots 41% from the field. You shouldn't have brought him up as the selfless team first 2 guard.

Also the raptors are irrelevant so it doesn't matter anyway.

Sorry, he shoots 43%. 39% these last playoffs.

Wuck be like

This crap is just pointless to me. And getting annoying. Derozan compared to Dion, who cares? What does it have to do with anything? Just like Dion and the whole Beal situation, people trying to stir up a rivalry. C'mon, not even close. It is all talk.

The latest Sports Illustrated cover, courtesy of the guys over at FTS:

Shalom Amir,
I understand your passion regarding Blatt's amazing roster - it's a dream!
But I have to disagree with you regarding Dion's feeting to this team and how it will work with Blatt's system.
Of course Blatt likes and builds his teams with lots of movement and passing, but I remember many times how Blatt managed to work with players that feets your description of Dion Waiters, just two examples from the top of my head - Alan Anderson and Keith Lengford.
They both got plenty of credit, and Blatt just built the correct system for them to succeed. Because at the end ofthe day, Blatt gets his roster and has to work with what he gets, and he has plenty to work with , and I'm talking Dion's as well.
So I doubt Dion will find himself benched or even out of the team, I think he will thrive.

oracio said:

Shalom Amir,
I understand your passion regarding Blatt's amazing roster - it's a dream!
But I have to disagree with you regarding Dion's feeting to this team and how it will work with Blatt's system.
Of course Blatt likes and builds his teams with lots of movement and passing, but I remember many times how Blatt managed to work with players that feets your description of Dion Waiters, just two examples from the top of my head - Alan Anderson and Keith Lengford.
They both got plenty of credit, and Blatt just built the correct system for them to succeed. Because at the end ofthe day, Blatt gets his roster and has to work with what he gets, and he has plenty to work with , and I'm talking Dion's as well.
So I doubt Dion will find himself benched or even out of the team, I think he will thrive.

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I have faith in whatever blatt draws up

Marcus said:

The latest Sports Illustrated cover, courtesy of the guys over at FTS:

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And this is the main image from SLAM magazine:

(by @HoopsBoosh)

real source:
http://www.slamonline.com/the-magazine/toc/lebron-james-slam-magazine-cover-cavs/

Dion is a talented guard, but some of y'all are overhyping him a bit. He's an inconsistent overall shooter and that's the truth. Can and will he get better this season? Absolutely! Should he take a lot of open shots within the flow of the offense? Absolutely! Does he sometimes take a few quick open shots when he'd be better off moving the ball? He does.

I have no problems with him taking a lot of shots if the ball keeps coming back to him after everyone else touches it, but he still has some bad habits that he'll have to get rid of and to be fair, he's not the only one.

Tonight makes two times I've gone back and specifically re-watched a preseason game with a focus on Dion's shot selection. Each time I've came away scratching my head, am I watching different games than some of the people in here? Just being facetious, but you'd think his games were full of nothing but contested, off-balance fadeaways with a full shot clock after reading this thread sometimes.

In reality, from what I've seen the majority of his attempts are open and come in the flow of the offense. The ball doesn't stick in his hands, and he's continually used his penetration to set up looks for others rather than create looks for himself. In the first quarter alone he drove left, sucked in multiple defenders to the short corner with him, then skipped a pass to an open LeBron on the right wing- unapologetic chuckers do not make that play. A few minutes later he found Andy moving into open space instead of forcing up a shot after getting by Taj Gibson, another small instance Dion looks nothing like the shameless gunner he's made out to be sometimes.

His first two touches in the 2nd quarter were drives that both ended in him creating an open look for TT (one being a missed runner and the other a powerful finish right over Gibson.) Sandwiched between an assist to a cutting Marion for a dunk was an uncontested pullup from about 17 feet out, not a great shot but not some prayer flung up with a whole bunch of hands in his face. He didn't force anything after his miss; his next attempt was a 3 he splashed when Kyrie found him unguarded after an offensive rebound.

Throughout the game Dion moved the ball and looked comfortable next to the other projected starters, which will also most likely double as our crunch time lineup. We've seen signs he's going to accept a lesser role that's primarily focused on the defensive end of the court, where he's increased his effort from last year (wasn't hard) even in meaningless exhibition games. It's a problem for the rest of the NBA if we have a player as talented as Dion Waiters in a secondary role, not to us.