Dion Waiters

Shaoyut said:

http://gfycat.com/WeeklyNiceBarasingha

Click to expand...

just in case nobody wants to click the link

The worst part of that play isn't that he lost his handle. It was that he forced up a terrible shot instead of handing the ball to Jackson for an easy 2.

I honestly feel badly for the guy, though. I don't think he really understands why things aren't working out for him.

Is it now safe to say that Chris Grant is a terrible talent evaluator?

Wtf did Grant see in this guy honestly lol.

supermario21 said:

How about Wiggins though? 23 on 14 shots. Imagine if we would have been able to get Love with a Waiters/Bennett combo...

Click to expand...

I don't think there's a single person on this board who would have been sad about that trade, but there was just no way it was going to happen. The Cavs didn't have nearly as much leverage as originally thought. They needed Love just as badly as Minnesota needed to save face and get something for him.

Marcus said:

I don't think there's a single person on this board who would have been sad about that trade, but there was just no way it was going to happen. The Cavs didn't have nearly as much leverage as originally thought. They needed Love just as badly as Minnesota needed to save face and get something for him.

Click to expand...

Never should have included the Miami pick.

Dion, maybe the most mentally weak guy in the NBA.
He is his own worst enemy.

All4One1ForAll said:

Wtf did Grant see in this guy honestly lol.

Click to expand...

That is really easy to say now. Pre draft Dion had a promise from another team (a lot thought it was phoenix) Scouts were super high on him and projected that a lot of his stats translated really well to the NBA.

Jerry West is one example of a person that was super high on Dion.

Marcus said:

I don't think there's a single person on this board who would have been sad about that trade, but there was just no way it was going to happen. The Cavs didn't have nearly as much leverage as originally thought. They needed Love just as badly as Minnesota needed to save face and get something for him.

Click to expand...

It seems like some fans forget there are two sides to a trade. Anyone thinking Minny would have traded Love when they did for anything less than they got is ignoring the pressures on their front office. They could have waited until the break, or even done an S&T after the season if they didn't think the offer was good enough. The FO didn't want to flush this season down the tubes - which is what would have happened in the absence of scoring from the 4/5 -- just for the sake of keeping an extra mid-first round pick.

mAo_mAo said:

Is it now safe to say that Chris Grant is a terrible talent evaluator?

Click to expand...

Depends on the qualifications you have for terrible. It's funny how he gets no credit for taking Kyrie when he had such a small sample size to go off of and he was hurt during the pre-draft process. Especially considering how many people wanted Williams and Knight/Walker or said that package would be better. Much bigger gamble back then when compared to looking back at it now, and he deserves some credit for it. Now, I love using win shares to provide a players value currently (and if you look at previous drafts sorted by win shares, it looks pretty accurate based on what I also see on the floor), so bear with me.

So far, in retrospect, in the 2011 draft we have the 5th and 9th best players by total win shares. Tristan, the 4th pick, is ahead of the 2nd and 3rd pick in both win shares and WS/48. We also have the only All-Star so far with this class (though it will change this season with Butler and Klay Thompson).

Obviously, this being a Dion thread and all, his #4 pick is currently not justified as he is 23rd in total win shares and 38th in WS/48, but young ~15 ppg scorers at the guard spot are still valuable. Also, where is the love for the Zeller pick? Drafted 17th, 9th in total win shares, 14th in WS/48 (there are 3 players ahead of him who have played less than 100 games), ahead of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th players taken. No credit there for a good pick?

Now, no one can defend last years draft. Bennett has been a shit show so far in the league, there is no denying that. But it has been noted many times that Grant wanted to trade down because he was in a no win spot at the #1 and was denied by ownership. And now that Sergey is getting some playing time, he is looking pretty valuable for a 21 year old.

Everyone here loves to look back on the guys he should have taken, shit, its all some posters do in here. How about we bring up the guys he didn't take that were mentioned here that would have been even worse than what we actually got? Derrick Williams, Thomas Robinson, Austin Rivers, etc. We could have been worse off, believe it or not.

Phoenix who promised picking Dion was also in the teens I believe, not 4.

Golden State was interested in Dion too

I liked Dion when he was here, and he seems like a cool person. I was at the game Sunday and I was planning on cheering him when he checked in but it was all boos... I was shocked and slightly disappointed but at the end of the day Dion is on the Thunder now, so it's whatever.

Zen said:

That is really easy to say now. Pre draft Dion had a promise from another team (a lot thought it was phoenix) Scouts were super high on him and projected that a lot of his stats translated really well to the NBA.

Jerry West is one example of a person that was super high on Dion.

Click to expand...

At age 20, Dion checked off a lot of boxes for skills you want from a guard. Could he drive with explosiveness? Could he put up big scoring bursts? Could he set others up and rack up assists if he couldn't get to the rim? That is a desired skillset. At the time, the Cavs had exactly two guys who could do all that: Sessions and Kyrie. All the swingmen were catch and shoot players.

What nobody expected was that Dion was too hard headed to expand his game from what he was at age 20.

Long on talent, short on brains.

He lets his ego consume him.