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Dion Waiters Traded

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Grade the Trade (Waiters + Kirk/Amundsen + 2nd rd pick for Smith, Shumpert, and 1st rd pick)

  • A+

    Votes: 18 7.1%

  • A

    Votes: 68 26.7%

  • B

    Votes: 106 41.6%

  • C

    Votes: 44 17.3%

  • D

    Votes: 10 3.9%

  • F

    Votes: 9 3.5%
  • Total voters
    255
  • Poll closed .
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Honestly, I don't care how much he chucks in garbage time when we're up by twenty-five points if he plays good defense and has six assists when the game still matters. Dion played well tonight, and provided exactly what we're going to need from him on a regular basis.
 
I watched him all game on defense and liked about 90% of what I saw. There were a few times when he didn't make an assertive effort when he got picked off the dribbler on the pick-and roll. He didn't float or get caught in no-man's-land, as sometimes happens. But he hedged a bit and ended up not being involved in the play. But the rest of his defensive play was excellent. Not just the steals and tipped balls but the general hustle and contesting shots.

Some posts in this thread seem to be focusing on his shot attempts, but the key stat for Dion is his minutes. If Blatt likes what he is contributing, Dion is getting minutes. If Blatt doesn't like it, he is pulling the plug quickly and sitting him down.

Harris shot 50% tonight but played mainly in garbage time. Miller sat the whole game after they tried him out as a starter in practice. I guess that experiment didn't click yet. Dion played 30 minutes, played solid defense, and functioned well within the offense for three quarters. Wish he could consistently deliver that. He has provided that around 1/4 of the time this season. They need that kind of contribution a lot more often.
 
MirORich said:
Yeah it hasn't been great to date. The larger point is that 14 games in is not the time to make some sort of final judgement. It is a new team, new expectations, and an adjustment period for all 15 players and the coaching staff, Dion included. Even most of the most die hard Dion supporters are not in here saying he should start or he's not being used right. They're just pushing back against the attitude in this thread that Dions adjustment period is over and it's time to judge him in some sort of finality as a player and fit on this team, which is just ridiculous 14 games into this season. Tonight's game was another piece in a larger puzzle that we can use 1/3 to 1/2 into the season to know whether Dion can be the player that this team needs him to be. I'm not saying he is or he isn't yet. But tonight I watched the entire game and felt he played the right way, played good defense, helped spark a nice run in the second quarter, and played the way we need him to.

One play in particular I liked and Fred and Austin pointed it out was an open look that Dion had. He saw Kyrie w an even more wide open look from three, moved the ball, and Kyrie buried the three. The Wizards called timeout immediately following the three and Kyrie walked over to Dion and rubbed his head to give him some acknowledgement for the unselfish pass.
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Except this isn't a 14 game judgement period -- Waiters inefficient chucking predates this season. Since the day he was drafted, Waiters ranks top 10 in FGA per 100 possessions, but ranks in the bottom 8 percentile in TS%. That's not just bad, that's atrocious.

Cavs management is giving Waiters every chance to prove himself, but the clock is ticking, Ray Allen looms, and the trade deadline awaits.
 
To me as long as Waiters brings the energy on D like he did tonight, I can live with some bad shots.
 
Let's just put it this way... With our weak bench, I would rather Dion be aggressive, score and sometimes shoot too much than to not shoot enough or be passive. We NEED him to come in and take shots and be aggressive.
 
In a positive note, Dion is currently 5th in the league in steal %. Yes, maybe he has gambled a few too many times for some people's liking, but he's also shown that he can be quite the capable perimeter defender if he wants to be one.
 
And his are valuable bc they're going all the way back to the hoop..jUst wish it wasn't him laying it in.

We should instill a"dion only dunks"rule
 
CavsFTW said:
It's easy to write off Waiters wild chucking because some of those attempts came during garbage time, but it's difficult to write them all off when they're part of a larger trend.

FGA per 36 minutes

LeBron James 17.4
Dion Waiters 14.8
Kyrie Irving 14.4
Kevin Love 12.8

Additionally, among players who've played at least 12 games and are averaging at least 9 shot attempts, Waiters ranks 96th out of 100 players in TS%. When he's on the court with Love, Irving, and LeBron, Waiters has the best floor spacing a guard has ever seen in this league, yet there he is dangling near the bottom of the league in scoring efficiency.
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Sometimes stats don't reflect what the eyes see.
I'm not a fan of this teams offense stonewalling possession after possession because this kid has to shoot.
I'm simply not a fan at this point. He would lead this team in shot attempts if he's given the minutes, and there's no way that should ever happen on this team.
 
I had just about given up on Dion after the last game. But he played a solid game tonight. He missed a number of good looks and appears to be in a shooting slump. I think the team is fine with him taking the good looks. Eventually they will fall. Could have easily been 10-17 for 25 pts last night. Keep playing defense and happy to have you on the team.
 
Free Agency God said:
Dion did all of the little things tonight, and he played under control. He looked like he had accepted his role tonight. If this is how Dion is going to play (tough defense, playmaker, etc), I wouldn't mind giving him 10 - 12 million a year.
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Good lord I would. For a 6th man that's Ginobli money. 10 million is pushing it. 12 million is insane. He should be looking at Brandon Jennings money.

EDIT: I have to go back to this but this would be more than Jason Terry ever made by a huge margin. Just no.
 
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warriorsz32 said:
Let's just put it this way... With our weak bench, I would rather Dion be aggressive, score and sometimes shoot too much than to not shoot enough or be passive. We NEED him to come in and take shots and be aggressive.
Click to expand...

Why should we have to settle for either extreme, though? With the number of shots the Big 4 (the 4th is Andy) take, having Dion chuck pretty much means no shots for any other reserve. That's only going to hurt developing that 8-9 man rotation you need to be successful.

This "good Dion/bad Dion" stuff isn't conducive to developing a consistent rotation. Nobody has any clue as to which Dion is going to show up on a given night, and I doubt we ever will.
 
I didn't see the game last night because I was traveling, but I just want to comment on this idea that if Dion plays good defense we then shouldn't care about his shot selection as much.

Ugh, no. That's now how being a role player works. Doing one thing right doesn't then mean you have reign to do something else totally wrong.
 
The bad shots and horrible finishes can be detrimental to the team even when he's playing great defense.

He can either improve drastically or simply play hard nosed defense and forget about trying to be D Wade-light.
 
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