A Call to Arms for the Modern Cavs Fan
October 2, 2014Browns vs. Titans, the Tribe season review, and the return of LeBron – WFNY Podcast – 2014-10-02
October 2, 2014“With every team there is a guy they want to kind of place the blame on, and it will be Dion on our team.” – LeBron James
There is something about Dion Waiters that rubs people the wrong way. Perhaps it stems from draft day in 2012, when David Stern stepped to the podium and announced the one name Cavs fans hadn’t heard of. Perhaps it was his alleged feud with Kyrie Irving, a popularity battle he was sure to lose. Perhaps it is his occasionally juvenile brashness, his confidence that can be taken as cocky recklessness. Whatever the reason, Waiters is making James look downright prophetic.
The latest in the saga of “Everyone Hates Waiters” came today, in the form of a scorching hot take from Gawkers’ Tom Scocca, a piece in which he criticizes Waiters for something—though I’m not sure what. Washington Wizards point guard John Wall has been feeling spritely of late, and fresh off his first ever playoff appearance decided to crown he and his running mate Bradley Beal as the best backcourt in the NBA. Waiters didn’t take kindly to that boast, and when alerted to its existence, referred to it as “nonsense.” He would later add, “I think me and (Kyrie Irving) are the best backcourt. That’s all.”
That’s all.
If we want to criticize Waiters and his game, we can. But he is not a metaphor for, as the elderly like to say, “those damn kids.”
In typical Waiters fashion, he pushed things a bit further when he tweeted out a video of his 24-point performance on the road against the Wizards last season, with the accompanying text “Men lie women lie BUCKETS DNT,” which is more hilarious that anything else. But few, Cavs fans included, take Waiters’s personality lightly. No, as Scocca says, it’s the sign of the downfall of our youth, a mediocre basketball player putting his mediocre play out in public.
There are legitimate criticisms of Waiters. He’s inefficient on offense. His shot selection can be, at times, Josh Smith-esque. He pouts, and has struggled to mesh with his All-Star sidekick. Yet we somehow take his fiery personality, his Philadelphia-bred passion for the hardwood as some fault in his mental makeup, when it should be a sign of a young man in his third year trying to find his way on a Cavalier team that has looked like it belongs in the D-League for the past four years.
Maybe there is nothing Waiters can do to stop from morphing into Mario Chalmers 2.0. The first time LeBron yells at him on court, on national TV, the naysayers will pop out of the digital brush they hide in called the Internet. But Dion is as much a key to the Cavaliers as LeBron is, the forgotten man in a starting lineup who will find himself open more times than his mouth. If we want to criticize Waiters and his game, we can. But he is not a metaphor for, as the elderly like to say, “those damn kids.” He is not a terrible person, and he does not walk into the locker room every day and flip Tristan Thompson the bird.
He is simply a kid from Philly who likes to talk about his game, in a league full of the garrulous. Why he’s made out to be a villain has become an inexplicable phenomenon.
67 Comments
“Among Cavaliers, Waiters isn’t close to the best shot: Zeller, Hawes, Miles, Delly(!), Irving, Thompson, and Varejao were all more likely to score if they took the shot.”
This is one the major fallacies that keeps the Waiters hate going. Below are catch and shoot numbers for the Cavs. On catch and shoot 3’s last year Dion was better than Delly, Miles, Gee, Jack, Kyrie, etc. The only guy better was Hawes.
Dion is a very good shooter. His shot SELECTION needs improvement, but his mechanics and skills are very high.
http://stats.nba.com/playerTrackingCatchShoot.html?pageNo=1&rowsPerPage=25&filters=TeamAbbr*E*CLE&sortField=FG3_PCT&sortOrder=DES
waiters is a baller..plain and simple. hes been my fav cav since hes been drafted..right now, irvings the better player, but he will not last long in this league. already proven injury prone. dions built to last. myself, I would rather have traded irving instead of wiggins.
I’m not saying Waiters isn’t potentially useful. I’m saying that right now hasn’t done anything that would warrant treating him like a superstar, which makes acting like a superstar seem a bit silly.
I’d consider it quite possible that the reason for Waiters’ fairly low TS% has a lot to do with taking shots that he shouldn’t be taking. It turns out he passes a lot less than Irving, Delly, and Jack, suggesting that the problem might be that he takes a shot when he should be passing to a teammate:
http://stats.nba.com/playerTrackingPassing.html?pageNo=1&rowsPerPage=25&filters=TeamAbbr*E*CLE
So, if Waiters wants to earn my support, he needs to do 3 things:
1. Improve his shot selection and shooting efficiency.
2. Make great passes and assists to his teammates.
3. Wait until he wins a championship to act like he’s all that.
The Waiters Hater’s will never stop. It’s been that way since day one. I predicted he would average 20, 4, 4 after his second season post all star break before his first NBA season. I was pretty close and like I thought he is on his way to be on the All Star ballot for his third season.
One skill that can’t be taken away from him is he is one of only about 12 people in the world that can penetrate “all the way to the rim” on a completely set NBA defense without a pick and roll. Only a few NBA players can that with 10 extremely long humans inside a 25 foot radius. His hesitation left is unstoppable.
That doesn’t mean he has a bunch of flaws but that is a very unique skill.
http://www.nbadraft.net/forum/official-waitors-haters-fan-club-sign-sheet
Been a cavs fan for my entire life. Dion is a beast. Gets his own shots. I love the whole dam team. Hope to catch a game this season.
This is a great piece. You’d think that Waiters would have the mental makeup to not pass up this opportunity with Lebron and to excel. If not…. Well…. Good luck to your basketball career. You’d have to be the most foolish person in the entire world not to. If he’s a jackass, shot selection issues, doesn’t play defense, etc I’m sure it won’t be tolerated.
I happen to lean towards him excelling with Lebron and hopefully he thanks Lebron for changing his attitude and saving his career.
As far as talent…. I sure hope this guy plays to his fullest on both sides of the court. If so…. Watch out!!!
Go Cavs!!!!
Wow… Humility. There’s nothing humble about writing on a blog about another man’s shortcomings. Before you speak about someone else’s issues… lets focus on our own. BTW… It’s basketball. He’s humble where it real counts. Quit tying to put him in a box that you don’t even what to be in…
I find it absolutely hilarious to picture Dion walking into the locker room before and after every practice and flipping Tristan the bird.
League wide LeBron is more hated than Waiters so get your facts straight. On the other hand the LeBron worshipers might not like him. They probably wants him to cower to LeBron. Cowering would break his spirit
In this case 5 good “super team” players
Close them
Are we here to discuss sports or are we discussing grammar?
Well . . . we’re not actually discussing anything, though 6 days ago we discussed both sports and grammar. It’s kind of our thing. Don’t like it? Cool.
Close what?
the blinds. I cannot figure the dang thing out.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view3/4640939/blinds-o.gif
Ever watch a Cavs game? Waiters shoots them out of the game. I must admit, he racks up an impressive count of Field Goal Attempts, all that the expense of open looks by James and Love. Your emotional outburst doesn’t address the real problem people have with Waiters – his poor shot selection, his refusal to move the ball, his ball-hog nature and begging for the ball on every play. He often holds the ball or dribbles into double-coverage, only to expect to be bailed out by another Cav. And half the times he can’t even finish on the drive. Waiters makes the team worse and his me-first approach to basketball is getting tiresome.
I can’t believe all these Dion fanboys way back when the “ax Waiters” debate was raging in full-swing. One NBA championship ring later and Kyrie leading Boston out to a league best 16-3 start, I guess we know who won that debate. Waiters got a little revenge when his Miami Heat ended the Celtics’ streak, though. Some people thought he would never mature with that “me first” chip on his shoulder. Nearly four years later, we can finally say he’s there.