Dion Waiters: Time To Move To The Bench?
The Cleveland Cavaliers have not lived up to expectations so far this season, posting just one win in their first four games. And one of the players who has struggled with the new additions to the roster is the third-year guard Dion Waiters.
During his first two seasons with the team, Waiters was considered to be a primary scoring option on a team without a lot of firepower, as he averaged 14.7 and 15.9 points per contest. But now that he is being asked to play in a reduced capacity, the results have not been favorable.
In the team’s first four games, Waiters’ scoring average has dropped to just 7.5 points per contest, which represents a 50 percent decrease from last season. And that is not the only area where his game has experienced a sharp decline.
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After shooting a somewhat respectable 43 percent from the floor last season, Waiters’ conversion rate has plummeted to a woeful 32 percent. And his rebounding and assists numbers are down from a season ago as well. Now, with a decline in production across the board, the obvious question becomes is should the Cavaliers relegate Waiters to a bench role going forward.
While some would agree that coming off the bench would potentially provide the second unit with some much-needed scoring punch, Waiters has a different perspective on this situation, as explained by Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Medical Group:
"I’m still going to be out there with two or three players, referring to LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. If I come off the bench in the first quarter, at least two of those guys are going to play the whole first quarter regardless. So it doesn’t really matter. That’s what people don’t understand."
Not only does the team want Waiters to consider coming off the bench, they would also like for him to change his game on the offensive end. So rather than trying to create offense for himself as he has done in the past, he is now being asked to be more of a spot-up shooter from distance as a means of putting pressure on opposing defenses.
And while Waiters has been putting in the time in an attempt to improve in this area, he doesn’t feel that this facet of the game is his strong suit, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal reports:
That’s not my game. I can do it, but you know what I’m effective at: pick-and-roll and things like that.
While Waiters is probably more suited to creating offense for himself being that is the way he has played during his first two seasons in the league, the numbers say otherwise. In fact, during the 2013-14 campaign, Waiters converted 42 percent of his three-pointers in catch-and-shoot situations. And while he was very selective in taking those shots, his percentage was higher than both Kevin Love (40 percent) and Kyrie Irving (32 percent).
What Waiters doesn’t understand is that in order for a team to be successful, “everyone” has to do be willing to sacrifice for the greater good. For some players, that could mean being more aggressive on one or both ends of the floor. It can also mean molding different parts of your game to help put your team in position to be successful each game.
Whether or not Waiters will come off the bench for the rest of the season remains to be seen. However, being that he was a productive player on bad teams that did not have many scoring options, he deserves a chance to see if he is capable of doing what it takes to remain in the starting lineup.
James Tillman is a Staff Writer for HoopsHabit.com and a sports contributor for Football Nation and Sports Kings/Pass The Pill. James is also a former Featured Sports Contributor for Yahoo! Contributor Network. Follow him on Twitter @JTILLMAN9693.