Buckeye Pride, Cavs Trade, and Good Music, While We’re Waiting
January 6, 2015WFNY’s 2014 Cleveland Browns Position Review: The Defensive Line
January 6, 2015I‘ll always have a soft spot for Dion Waiters. He’s a high-usage, inefficient, inconsistent combo guard, but he was our high-usage, inefficient, inconsistent combo guard! He will be remembered as the player that could bring you out of your seat and to your knees multiple times within the same minute of game action. But, as of Tuesday morning, he’ll be taking long, contested twos, slicing to the rack and getting far too few foul calls, and dividing a fan base in Oklahoma City as he was traded in a three-team deal (along with Lou Amundson and Alex Kirk) that netted the Cavaliers guards J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert as well as a protected first-round pick.
The wine and gold are a mess right now. First and foremost, they have to get healthy. This team is going absolutely nowhere without LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving all healthy. That is irrefutable, and to a point, it’s almost pointless to belabor anything that happens without all three of those players at the team’s disposal. When you’re trying to finish games running your offense through Matthew Dellavedova, well, that says it all and more.
Let’s bring it back to Waiters, though. I still believe he was the fourth most talented player on the Cavs’ roster. There were moments when he was engaged on defense, willing to catch and shoot in the corner, and kicking it to teammates off dribble penetration that I felt like he could fit with the other three stars and make this Cavaliers squad very, very tough to beat. There were also moments where he became unplayable, sat the second half of many contests, and was a shot-chucker playing completely outside of the team concept with lacking effort on the defensive end.
And that’s the riddle with Dion Waiters: He’s simultaneously not as good as the optimist nor as bad as the pessimist believes he is. They say momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher in baseball. Well, in the world of Dion Waiters, momentum in the overall verdict of the No. 4 pick was the last possession.
I certainly trended toward Dion defender rather than the Dion basher, but I feel like I recognized his limitations after seeing him extensively through his first two NBA seasons. From Scott to Brown to Blatt, in the starting lineup and off the bench, the Cavs tried every which way to consistently get Waiters to perform, and it just didn’t happen.
When you’re a rebuilding team, you live through a lot of inconsistent basketball and hold onto what you can with regards to potential. One lets good performances outweigh bad ones. That tolerance for inconsistency shrinks when you have a team with two max-level players on one-year contracts and an unbelievable pressure to win now. I think both the optimists and Dion both got caught up in the 90-99th percentile of Dion performances. Turning in a star performance once or twice put it in Dion’s mind that he could and should go out every single night with that same approach.
Too often, however, we saw Bad Dion creep into games. It could manifest in the form of a hijacked possession that ended with a long, contested two-point jumper. Sometimes, it was a forced drive into traffic when the right decision would have been to reverse the ball. I don’t think it would be fair to say Dion played selfishly as he seemed to find his teammates when things were clicking. Rather, I’d say that he fell into the habit of being reckless or “Hero Ball”.
Will Dion succeed in Oklahoma City? I’m not sure, because he’ll face a lot of the same hurdles with regards to butting heads with other high-usage superior players in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka. There’s no reason that Dion can’t, but this trade will need to serve as a wake-up call. Dion isn’t as good as he thinks he is in his own mind. If he can play as if every possession where he touches the ball doesn’t have to end with him, his bench scoring and penetration can provide real value to a title-seeking team like the Thunder. The NBA and the benches of playoff teams are littered with somewhat inefficient players with some shortcomings. The difference between them and Waiters right now is consistency and role acceptance.
Despite the preaching of patience in the early season struggles for the Cavs, it was hard to see them getting through this season with Waiters on the roster. He was their largest trading chip. My greatest concern was that Waiters was worth more to the Cavs in his current capacity than what he would draw in the trade market. Now that we know what the haul was for him, I still don’t know what to think.
J.R. Smith is far from my favorite player, but it’s pretty obvious he can provide a lot of what the Cavaliers desperately need right now. The Cavaliers have shooters on the roster in Mike Miller, James Jones, and Joe Harris, but none of these players are in their prime or show the desire the shoot it at a rate to consistently spread the floor in consistent rotation minutes. Smith will do exactly that, for better and worse. Because there’s a little bit of Dion in Smith. Smith takes plenty of ill-advised shots, can hijack the offense, and is incredibly streaky. He’s also far from a locker room role model. It seems like a no-brainer that the Cavs would reach out to James, the unquestioned leader of this team on the floor, to see if he was willing to accept J.R. as a teammate. I suppose I’m intrigued by Smith’s longevity and success in the postseason, but I could see an unwillingness to buy into the team concept of sharing the ball.
As for Shumpert, I’m really intrigued by his ability to improve the Cavaliers perimeter defense. The Cavs have been relying a little bit too much on Dellavedova and Shawn Marion to take on the opponent’s best perimeter threat. Shumpert provides the right combination of size and age to keep LeBron off the best offensive player. Last year, for instance, the Knicks allowed a 113.5 opponent offensive rating and 52.5% effective field goal percentage with Shumpert off the floor compared to a 104.4 and a 50.3% eFG. Over his career, it’s a 105.4 opp ORTG off versus 98.9 with Shumpert on the court. Iman’s shooting between 3-and-16 feet is the stuff of nightmares, but he is at least as respectable with the open three as Delly and Marion with more athleticism and defense to offer. (ESPN’s real plus-minus rated him as the NBA’s fifth-best shooting guard on defense through last season.)
As currently constructed, one would assume that Shumpert would slide into the starting lineup as the two-guard and send Mike Miller back to the bench. That would give the Cavaliers when full strength, bench options that include Miller, Marion, J.R. Smith, and Dellavedova. It makes them slightly deeper, but they’re still missing a playable reserve big man (I guess Marion and James count for one-half of a big each).
The pick they received in this deal is Top-18 protected this year from OKC. The Thunder currently sit 10th in the West, 2.5 games out of the playoffs. If they do climb into the playoffs (very likely, in my opinion), there’s a decent chance that pick gets conveyed this year rather than waiting an additional year or two, where it is Top-15 protected. It also sounds like the Cavs have no intention of making that selection themselves. With Samuel Dalembert being released to complete this trade by New York and the Cavs roster at 14, the Cavs are going to add a center at some point soon. It could be Dalembert, but I’m hoping that they can pull off something more substantial.
The Cavaliers probably needed to move on from Dion Waiters, but I can’t help but feeling like the Thunder got Waiters for next-to-nothing and a change of scenery with some more stability could bring out Good Dion more than Bad Dion. With Shumpert’s injury past and Smith’s ego concerns, I feel like the Cavaliers potentially traded one headache for another. It doesn’t mean that it can’t, that it won’t work, but I think it will largely depend on keeping the restricted free agent Shumpert beyond this season.
Things are ugly, REALLY ugly for the Cavaliers right now. But, in the Eastern Conference, in the long and winding NBA season, the Cavaliers have time to figure this all out. If Shumpert can be one of the best five on the floor at the end of games because of his defense and Smith buys in while more consistently providing the type of boost Dion did only occasionally, this trade will be a win. If not, the Cavaliers will have wasted their biggest trade chip and a young asset.
71 Comments
I’m not saying it’s “just because,” but I am saying that doesn’t hurt.
Does Shump still have the high-top fade? If so, I think we need to include this as a major positive in this trade.
Just read a little more about the Dion/JR comparison, and I found this passage (from espn) to be a bit eye opening, especially the bit about usage:
“At the same time, there’s a big difference between Smith and Waiters: Smith has actually been good in the NBA. Waiters has posted a true shooting percentage (TS%) better than 50 percent only once in his three seasons in the NBA (.508 in 2013-14) and was still below average then. Before this season, Waiters’ most efficient season would have been the second-lowest TS% of Smith’s career. Especially in Denver, Smith hasn’t been nearly as shot-happy or as inefficient as his reputation would suggest. Even this season, Smith’s usage rate with the Knicks (23.5 percent) is lower than Waiters’ with three All-Stars (24.1 percent).
I’m an unabashed Dion hater, so I’m pretty happy with this. 3 reasons:
1. He wasn’t that good. The only reason he scores 6 more points than the average SG is that he takes 4 more shots than the average SG.
2. So far this year, he’s actually been worse than his rookie year, across the board. That a strong signal that he’s not going to get any better than he is now. For comparison’s sake, both Kyrie and TT are having the best year of their careers so far, and both of them are constantly making changes and practicing to be better players.
3. Dion was rude to LeBron, Love, Blatt, Kyrie, and other people who are demonstrably better at basketball. That means not only was he not a good player, he wasn’t willing to take the advice of people who tried to help him become a good player. My impression was that he also mouthed off to Byron Scott and Mike Brown.
Had he, at any time, really humbled himself, hit the gym and the courts, and changed what he was doing, he might have become a serviceable player. But he shows no signs of doing that. Shumpert and JR Smith are far from greats, but will be an improvement.
You guys keep whiffing on Fredo. Fredo is the essence of completely ineffectual, stupid and whiny but still determined to be liked by everyone as he stumbles through the season. Anthony Bennett is Fredo.
Blatt is Sollozzo. “You give me too much credit, kid,” he says to Michael Corleone/Kevin Love. Not knowing he’s about to get whacked by the kid he thinks he’s manipulating.
Hey now, TT has turned out to be pretty good, and Tyler Zeller got a lot better after his rookie year and is now decently good (albeit not playing for us). So he didn’t draft complete busts all the time.
read that on Twitter last night and almost fell over…..cause Dion ain’t no James Harden.
2015 comment of the year nomination.
I’m laughing at Wall and Beal thinking they are getting anywhere near the ECF.
The stage seems too big for him, and he appears to lack the relational skills – and, for lack of a better phrase, the NBA human capital – to lead this team. Also not seeing much in the way of innovative strategy on either end of the court, but bball is admittedly the sport I bring the least amount of nuance as an observer.
Haywood may be the horse in the bed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VomBuudIDsM
After yesterday, Lou Amundson sleeps with the fishes
Isn’t that Bynum?
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http://2damnfunny.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Joeys-Moo-Point-Friends.jpg
I feel like,the Cavs made a good trade!! See everyone need to look Past the big 3. Everyteam needs a bench shumpert and JR.Smith.. We picked up a starter and a bench player.. Y’all forget that JR.Smith was 6th man off the bench. Name me one team who won a ring with no bench players… Just like the lakers, had the best starting five to me… They had Howard,Nash,Kobe,gasol and world peace,but dey didn’t go no where cause they didn’t have a bench to rely on… The cabs need to get a big man…. I like the wild thing but BRUAH yo gotta go.. Bring in hillbert,chandler or amire, then the Cavs will be a Championship team… So until we get a Big man down low cabs will not win a ring….. #Go #Cavs
Actually, that would’ve been improper grammar! For instance, you say “Mom and Dad’s house,” not “Mom’s and Dad’s house.” Unless you are trying to say “Mom’s and Dad’s houses,” implying they live separately. Harv’s grammar was, in fact, ambiguous.
I’ll see myself out.
Actually, “Mom and Dad’s house” is referring to one house — the one that they share. “Shumpert’s and Smith’s personality issues” would be correct, assuming they don’t share one personality.
I hate it when I’m wrong on the internet 🙁
How does Herschel Walker describe his personality issues?