Cleveland Cavaliers: Dion Waiters Now The Forgotten Man
By Austin Remo
The Cleveland Cavaliers are coming off of a close victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Friday night by a score of 95-91. When the Cavs trounced the Nets 110-88 in their first matchup on Dec. 8, Dion Waiters was a huge reason why, scoring a season-high 26 points in the win.
Their most recent victory over Brooklyn on Friday was a much different story for the former Syracuse sixth man.
David Blatt’s opening night starter turned sixth-man turned benchwarmer has seen his role and minutes fluctuate throughout the first quarter of the season. However, Waiters probably wasn’t expecting as much of a decline in minutes like he saw on Friday, playing a total of just seven minutes.
Mike Miller made his return from a concussion after missing the past seven games, which had a big impact on Waiters’ playing time.
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Miller was given the starting nod prior to Friday’s tip-off, moving Shawn Marion to the bench. He totaled more than 33 minutes of action in the game and finished with 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting, all from behind the three-point line.
Of course, Miller cannot possibly come out with these kinds of performances every night, but it was a tremendous start for him after struggling with his shot for the first month of the season.
More importantly, and the reason for this article, is the effect this has on Dion Waiters.
Now that Miller is more than likely the starting two guard going forward, Waiters is no longer the sixth man. He hasn’t been for awhile, actually. Matthew Dellavedova and Shawn Marion will usually be the first two of the bench for Blatt, unless early foul trouble rears its ugly head in certain contests.
Since Dellavedova’s return, he has assumed the sixth man role that Waiters once held. His defensive tenacity, ability to run the offense and good decision making are skills that his coach love about him.
As for Marion, his move to the bench couldn’t come soon enough. Not that he can’t cut it as a starter, but at his age, Marion can’t be counted on like he could in the past.
Matrix’s new role, possibly the most important on the team, is giving four-time MVP LeBron James some much needed rest while still giving a boost to the defense and a few easy buckets on the offensive end.
When you add the Canadian-born Tristan Thompson into the mix, the former Texas Longhorn big man can be seen as just as important as Dellavedova and Marion. He’s essentially the only other power forward/center Blatt uses in his rotations, and Kevin Love and Anderson Varejao need their rest too.
Looking at their minutes per game averages, Waiters is currently listed as seventh in that category for the Cavaliers, playing 22.4 minutes a night. Marion sits ahead of him at 23.8 minutes per game, and behind Dion is Dellavedova and Miller who are playing 19.9 and 13.7 minutes respectively.
These numbers are assuredly going to change, except maybe that of Marion’s.
As long as they’re healthy you’d have to assume Delly, a member of Australia’s National Team at last summer’s FIBA World Cup, and Miller will soon overtake Waiters in the minutes column. They’ve only played 24 games combined, equalling the total played by Dion this season.
DION WAITERS NUMBERS DOWN
The Philadelphia native has seemed to have a tough time adjusting to David Blatt’s style of offense this season. He’s shooting a career low 40.2% from the floor, and an ugly 27% from deep. His numbers are down early on this season compared to his first two seasons where he shot 42 percent from the field and 34 percent from deep.
The field goal percentage isn’t dramatically less efficient, but it less efficient nonetheless.
On top of the decrease in shooting percentages, Waiters scoring average is down as well. Of course, he’s getting a smaller share of minutes this year compared to last year since he’s playing with three All-Stars now, but is only averaging 9.6 points compared to 18.8 in his first two years.
That’s a major drop off for the supposed fourth option in a highly potent offense (the Cavs have an offensive rating of 111.2, good for fourth in the league).
He’s been seen a few times moping around on the bench this season, and looks disinterested when the team calls a timeout to call a play if he’s not in the game.
He seems unwilling to pass the ball and get his teammates involved on the majority of plays in which he touches the ball, dribbling out much of the shot clock before he hoists up a forced, deep jumper inside the three-point line.
In fact, per 82games.com, the Cavs assisted field goals percentage is at 61 percent with Waiters off the court, compared to 57 percent when he’s on the court.
He has also totaled only 46 assists this season, giving him an average of just 2.1 per game. Much of this can be attributed to LeBron James and his love for getting teammates involved. But for a ball-dominant guard such as Waiters, his assists should at least be sniffing four per game.
Cleveland’s offensive rating with Waiters on the court is 109, and with him off the court, jumps up to 115.7 points per 100 possessions.
DEFENSE A MAJOR ISSUE
Perhaps the biggest knock on Waiters’ game has been his defense, or lack-thereof.
The Cavs defense as a whole has hardly been anything to write home about with a defensive rating of 108 this season. That ranks them 22nd in the league, putting them right around the likes of the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets, two very bad teams right now.
With Waiters on the court, the Cavs defensive rating falls to about 111 points per 100 possessions. This is inline with his defensive rating over his entire career, which is 110 points per 100 possessions.
If you’ve seen just about every game this year for the Cavs, you would know these numbers seem accurate.
Waiters is slow to rotate on defense, whether it’s guarding the three-point line or a two-point attempt, which was evident in Cleveland’s embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Hawks at home on Wednesday on numerous occasions.
On the other hand, he’s also allowing his man to get by him with almost no resistance. This leads to his teammates having to help on defense, in turn opening up more three-point shots for opposing teams.
You can see in the video below from the Hawks game on Wednesday some examples of this.
On the first play, Waiters allows Kent Bazemore an easy lane to the basket in which he kicks out to Shelvin Mack who hits a three. On the second play, Paul Millsap gets into the paint after a screen and dishes out to Bazemore (Waiters man), who hits another three.
Although the second play he may have rotated down to Al Horford, Bazemore was still his man on the play, and should’ve stayed closer to him knowing that the Hawks are top five in the league in three-point field goal percentage at 37.8%.
If Waiters can’t improve his defense and accept his role in David Blatt’s offense, he might find his way out of Cleveland sooner rather than later.
All stats via Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.