Dion Waiters

[kosis]

[QUOTE="Jack Brickman, post: 2101439, member: 10609"]It's easy to have a great crowd when your team has never been bad. These are fans who have never had to experience major heartbreak or years without a star player. Let's see how they look in five years after Durant and Westbrook both leave for greener pastures.

The Thunder were bad I believe the first two years they were in OKC. They still sold out every game, which is pretty amazing.

Well the euphoria of just picking up a professional NBA team probably helped with that.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Well the euphoria of just picking up a professional NBA team probably helped with that.

They were only bad their first year in OKC (23-59), so you're probably right. They also had a young star in Kevin Durant, which obviously makes losing for one year a little more palatable. Oh yeah, and they won fifty games their second year in existence.

So their fans have known one year, their very first, of bad basketball. Since then, it's been nothing but fifty win seasons and watching some of the most exciting players in the NBA. It's easy to cheer for that.

 

[Ohio]

It is also worth noting that there is nothing else to do in Oklahoma.

 

[Tornicade]

Day in and day out is about whats goinbg on in the locker room and practice. We still arent sure of the severity of Dions back injury this season which we didnt even know he had until he got clobbered and someone reported it was already hurt before that.

Whats good for Dion is theres been no reports of infighting or much of the behavior that caused people concerns in cleveland.

As far as developing. sometimes you have to take a few steps back to go forward. I think that OKC sees that and will have no issues bringing him back or go to another team with a respectable contract for a man in the top 8 of a rotation.

What Dion has been showing is he can start and contribute as a second/third option and play on both sides of the court.

View: https://twitter.com/royceyoung/status/579122659008495617/photo/1


Of course Brooks is already getting flack for saying he worked with Dion and a comment about Dion getting back on the defensive end which apparently flew over some people hands but now scott knows to the griefing that comes with sharing anything about Dion

 

[Triumph36]

oh god would i love to know the contents of a brooks/dion private film session. has gotta be absolute gold.

 

[NIkeL]

Good to know that a SG in the NBA is working... on his layups.

 

[Tornicade]

When a Scorer is in a shooting slump offensively they tend to over focus on that part of their game. Brooks took some time to get Dions mind on other things. it was a good move by Brooks. All in all it was one game.

 

[Douglar]

oh god would i love to know the contents of a brooks/dion private film session. has gotta be absolute gold.

I can only imagine that they showed him a montage of his missed shots as a member of the Thunder that went on for over two hours without a single repeat while chanting:

1) Begging Mr. Westbrook to give up the ball = Bad
2) Long contested 2's off the bounce instead of passing back to Mr. Westbrook = Bad
3) Any sort of layup after Mr. Westbrook crosses 1/2 court stripe = Bad
4) Referring to Mr. Westbroook as "Rus" = Bad

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

Making Dion practice layups isn't going to suddenly make him an above 40% shooter.

 

[Tornicade]

showing your open isnt bad basketball. not sure why people get that idea.

as far as how westbrook and dion address each other not sure how one can call it bad unless russel states as much. russell did request Dions locker next his and the two seems to be getting along pretty well.. theres nothing really out there that disputes that.

now if your looking for anything Dion did against atlanta different from before it wasnt about whether he called Westbrook rus or put his hand up when he was open. He was a bit more patient on his shots and offense over all. his foot work was a little different

Dion doesnt need to be subservient to westbrook to play good ball. thats not really how it works in OKC. He also adjusted his overall positioning for better shots and converted his layups which for the season account for over 30% of his shots.

 

[Scholar]

4) Referring to Mr. Westbroook as "Rus" = Bad

5) Misspelling Mr. Westbrook's name = BAD.

 

[PIP]

I would love to see Scott do a video montage of Dion taking stepback jumpers going to his left---- and then ask him what he notices in the video ???

 

[Man Called X]

I would love to see Scott do a video montage of Dion taking stepback jumpers going to his left---- and then ask him what he notices in the video ???

So you mean, his shot selection from most games?

 

[Tornicade]

I would love to see Scott do a video montage of Dion taking stepback jumpers going to his left---- and then ask him what he notices in the video ???

That he hits them more layups

 

[I'mWithDan]

Not sure why this thread even gets post anymore.

Dion's numbers have actually dipped in OKC, both his raw statistics and advanced metrics. He's just not good.

This thread should be closed and everyone should spend their free time marveling at how Griffin depantsed Phil.

Still unreal that Dion greased the wheels to us getting J.R., Shump and Moz.