Dion Waiters Traded

Typhoon said:

It's not a bad trade per se but - and it might be the cynic in me - a little part of my brain wants to think that LeBron is just trying to return us to factory settings like when he left last time before he leaves again. Kyrie's next then Love walks.

Ill laugh my way to the grave.

Anyways. Ignore this.

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It's not like we traded Dion for a 33 year old vet who is past his prime.

Smith is (29) and Shumpert (24). Both players we got back help alleviate some of our depth issues and potentially can be retained moving forward. We get a similar player in Smith, a wing who can play the 2 and 3 (in spot minutes) and an asset to trade for a center. Throw in the #1 we got and it was a no brainer IMO.

It was fairly obvious Dion wasn't in our plans long term. You could just tell by the body language and attitude other players exhibited towards him. I know some people really liked him but he was just a nonessential piece in the grand scheme of things. Does he have more potential than Smith or Shump? Sure but that's all anyone has been selling in regards to Dion. He could just never put it together for one reason or another.

Waiters could end up being the best player in this trade but I don't think he was a great fit. When you have (3) All-Stars, fit becomes WAY more important. What Dion provided (scoring) we didn't really need. Getting longer and more athletic on the wing was more necessary IMO. Guess we'll see how it plays out.

Jack Brickman said:

I said it in S34 last night, but I absolutely hate when our organization using their mouth piece The Bullshit Whisperer to bad mouth players on the way out the door. Even if everything he is saying is true (and it probably is), it's classless and something that good organizations just don't do. Better teams shut their mouths and move on quietly. Poor organizations feel the need to run a smear campaign.

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How do we know when the organization leaked that to The Bullshit Whisperer? That could well have been stuff that he simply heard over time, and he's only saying it now because Dion is gone. I'm not sure it is fair to infer that the Cavs organization just passed those sentiments along to The Bullshit Whisperer now in the expectation they'd be leaked.

The Human Q-Tip said:

How do we know when the organization leaked that to The Bullshit Whisperer? That could well have been stuff that he simply heard over time, and he's only saying it now because Dion is gone. I'm not sure it is fair to infer that the Cavs organization just passed those sentiments along to The Bullshit Whisperer now in the expectation they'd be leaked.

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True, but it seems to happen every time the Cavs trade a player or fire a coach, and that makes us look classless.

Where you were picked in the draft becomes irrelevant after there is a short NBA resume. Guys like Michael Beasley, Thomas Robinson and Derrick Williams became NBA nomads very quickly. Dion simply has not displayed high demand skills. Guys who can score 12-16 points per game by taking lots of shots are not hard to find. Once you have the superstars, you need to get the role guys to fill the gaps on the roster. Dion lacked those skills and/or was unwilling to change his game to accommodate the need of the lineup. I expect ultimately Dion will have a fairly long career but end up as the main scorer on a number of 30-52 type teams.

I don't see why you guys are worried what Dion does with OKC. That is OKC's concern now. I wish the lad good luck but we should be more concerned about if the Cavs have good pieces from his trade and I feel they have. A good defensive wing player in Shumpert and a first round pick from OKC which can be used in a trade for a rim protector, two things that the Cavs desperately needed. That leaves us with JR Smith. I am not a big fan of him but even in worst case scenario, JR Smith would be as bad as Dion has been this season. JR Smith for Dion doesn't make sense from a long term perspective but from a short term perspective, surely JR Smith can't be "worse" than Dion in terms of contribution on the court. Even if we consider this season's stats where JR Smith has been lambasted, he has put up slightly better stats than Dion. But imagine if he sorts himself out, you get a former sixth-man of the year in him, even though the chances of that heppening are quite less.

Jack Brickman said:

True, but it seems to happen every time the Cavs trade a player or fire a coach, and that makes us look classless.

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I know, but it may be that The Bullshit Whisperer just doesn't print that stuff until the player is gone. And honestly, nothing he said there is a great revelation -- the same information has essentially gotten out prior to this. . I'd expect most reporters would have had that same information. They're just not douchy enough to write it.

Hilarious memories of Dion from Andrew Sharp at Grantland:

Men Lie, Women Lie, MEMORIES DNT

Jason Miller/Getty Images

Andrew Sharp: It feels like just yesterday that Chris Grant shocked the world and took a shoot-first sixth man from Syracuse with a fucking top-five pick. This was followed by Cavs fans relentlessly defending that move for the next several years. I swear to god, I was arguing with Cavs fans about Beal vs. Waiters as recently as August. Now we’re here. It’s over in Cleveland, and last night I found myself getting a little nostalgic for the year of Dion. What will we remember? LeBron ignoring wide-open Dion. Dion ignoring wide-open LeBron. The Philly Cheese Shake. This shout-out from Meek Mill. And … this note?

Sam The Bullshit Whisperer @SamAmicoFSO
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Cavs coach Blatt told Waiters he needed spot-up shooter. Waiters resisted. Believes he's better than Kyrie, thought Kyrie "favored" by Cavs.

11:08 PM - 5 Jan 2015
802 Retweets 297 favorites

This quote?

Dave McMenamin ✔ @mcten
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Waiters on talking trash w/ KG: "I respect everything the man did for the league, but you know, young coming up, I need mine’s too."

11:10 PM - 8 Dec 2014
118 Retweets 100 favorites

No. This quote.

Dionwaiters3 ✔ @dionwaiters3
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Men lie women lie BUCKETS DNT RT @H2da_IZZOO: @Me_University @dionwaiters3 http://youtu.be/a89qZrzK_wg #BUCKETS

11:47 PM - 30 Sep 2014

YouTube @YouTube
318 Retweets 244 favorites


Of course that quote. His time in Cleveland was finite, but those words are timeless. Men lie, women lie, and buckets do not. Also, I got to the end of this section and just remembered that Waiters allegedly broke Kyrie’s nose in a locker-room fight last year and then mysteriously disappeared for the following week. God, I wish he were still on the Cavs.

But now he’s on the Thunder. With OKC down 20 in last night’s fourth quarter, one of the Golden State announcers blurted out, “Maybe Dion Waiters will be the third scorer they’re looking for.” That quote is either the latest and meanest twist of the knife from the Harden trade, or hey, it could be true. Either way, time for more memories.

I love Dion, but I love this trade for the Cavs. We get 2 guys that WILL fill two roles that we hoped Dion would fill. We've got a catch and shoot defensive player to start at SG that's an upgrade over Marion/Miller and a bench guy that will come in and get buckets. On top of that we got an asset that we'll use to fill yet another hole.

I'd bet that Dion looks like a good player for OKC the rest of the season, I'd bet on a fairly efficient 14/4/3 off the bench for them. He'll settle in behind Westbrook (a guy who's only won in his career) much better than he did behind Kyrie.

I'd also like to point out how terribly Blatt used him this year. Gave him a whole 3 games before he became the scapegoat for the starting lineup. Then put him in a role of watching Kyrie ISO while LeBron was on the bench. Dion missed shots and played terribly offensively as a whole, and all of that is on him, but Blatt's NBA experience really has shown this season and Dion was one of the bigger victims of it.

Good luck, Dion.

It still looks terrible and unprofessional. The Bullshit Whisperer has shit on Chris Grant, Mike Brown, and now Dion. Also, this all started when Griffin took over. The Bullshit Whisperer emerged from nowhere. Lloyd was Grant's go to guy it seemed and he never bad-mouthed guys like The Bullshit Whisperer does.

Jack Brickman said:

I said it in S34 last night, but I absolutely hate when our organization using their mouth piece The Bullshit Whisperer to bad mouth players on the way out the door. Even if everything he is saying is true (and it probably is), it's classless and something that good organizations just don't do. Better teams shut their mouths and move on quietly. Poor organizations feel the need to run a smear campaign.

It makes us look bad to other players who might consider signing here and it's really something we need to stop doing. It seems to happen every time we cut ties with a player or coach, too.

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"Hey RCF Mods, go hit that Brickman guy with a ban hammer."

jking948 said:

Whatta dick - View: https://twitter.com/JOSH_GORDONXII/status/552316806468481024

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Finish smoking weed on top of what?

Given the personalities and on court tendencies, it's only
a question of when Westbrook and Dion butt heads.

Durant might love on Dion initially, but let's see how he
reacts when Dion shows his chucking up shots even
more erratic than Westbrook.

I won't miss the 'And 1!' cries of Dion with no defender
around him.

I liked him because he was a Cavalier , but he is now
the enemy.

OKC won't be his last stop.

I expect him to have clashes with Westbrook and Jackson(if OKC plans on keeping him on the team). The difference Kyrie and those guys is, those guys won't hesitate to beat the crap out of Waiters if they have to.

The other issue with this trade that no one is talking about is what it does financially -- will we be forced to take a cap hit if Smith exercises his player option? And of course Shump will be a free agent so we may have to pay to keep him.

The trade feels like a kind of lateral move to me, given Shump's injury issues especially -- but if he can stay healthy it's positive to have a defensive specialist. God knows we need the depth. And JR Smith is basically a somewhat better version of Dion on offense, but probably even worse on defense.

I wonder if we will see Dion play better with a change of scenery. I think his confidence was really shaken this year, his head was not right.