Dion Waiters Set to Reverse Reputation Under LeBron James' Tutelage
Forget everything you know—or think you know—about Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Dion Waiters.
With LeBron James back in town, and a star-studded, championship-experienced supporting cast around him, the former Syracuse standout has a tremendous opportunity to rewrite his NBA story.
"This will be a fresh start for Waiters, something most third-year players don't get," wrote Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes. "He's out of excuses, and he now has the talent around him to make his life as a scoring specialist easy."
From a purely basketball standpoint, Waiters has a chance never previously afforded to him at this level. The dynamic scorer (15.3 points in 29.2 minutes over his first two seasons) should see a perfectly balanced floor littered with three-point snipers and unselfish distributors.
For someone with Waiters' skill set, that might be the recipe needed to unleash his full potential. His 7.4 drives per game tied James for 18th most in the league, via NBA.com's SportVU player tracking data. A career 34.2 percent shooter from distance, Waiters hit 41.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples last season.
With opposing defenses having to worry about so many different options—the three-point prowess of Kevin Love, Mike Miller and James Jones, Kyrie Irving's dribble penetrations, James' everything—Waiters can better pick and choose his spots, which should lend itself to cleaner, more efficient production.
Of course, as is the case with any Waiters' discussion, this isn't simply about the on-court side of the business. If any of them ever were, we'd see him as a steady scorer, capable playmaker and greatly improved three-point marksman.
We do not. We cannot, really, given the time we spend dissecting his reported rift with Irving, per Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal, or Waiters' unwavering quest to claim a starting spot.
It is James' job to bring the focus on Waiters back inside the lines. And the four-time MVP knows it, as he told reporters at his new (and old) team's training camp, via Lloyd:
"Every team, there’s a guy they want to kind of place the blame on. It would be Dion on our team. I told him, 'You can’t get involved in that or what people say about you. It’s not what people think of you, it’s what you think of yourself.' ...
I’m saying stuff that’s already been said about Dion and I know that. For me as the leader of the team, he has to understand not to worry what everyone is saying about him. It’s about us. It’s not about what everyone else thinks.
"
At times, it has seemed as if Waiters has embraced his new reality and taken heed of the words from his new team leader.
Earlier this summer, Waiters spoke of the adjustments he needed to make with this revamped roster.
"I have to find ways to impact the game without having the ball," Waiters said, per ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst. "I'm planning to go watch tape to see what [Dwyane Wade] did when he played with LeBron. I need to learn how to be effective out there with him."
Given both the success Wade enjoyed alongside James the past four seasons with the Miami Heat, and the fact that Wade comparisons were tossed around liberally leading up to Waiters being the fourth selection in the 2012 draft, there may not be a better blueprint for Waiters to follow.
More recently, Waiters said he was eager to hear all the advice James could give.
"I want him to take me under his wing," Waiters said, per Lloyd. "He's been here, won championships, proven player, best player in the world. Why not learn from a guy like that? I'll benefit from it. I'm like a sponge out there soaking everything up."
While that very well could be Waiters' aim for the future, his present actions highlight how this is still a work in progress.
Despite James' assertion that Waiters should ignore the outside noise, the scoring sub has already found himself at the center of a verbal sparring session. When Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal declared that he and John Wall were "definitely the best backcourt in the league," per USA Today's Adi Joseph, Waiters could not resist firing back, per Northeast Ohio Media Group's Chris Haynes:
There is nothing wrong with Waiters having confidence in himself, but these are the same types of distractions James tried coaching him to avoid. There is nothing to be gained in an exchange such as this—for the record, neither the Wizards nor the Cavs have the NBA's top guard tandem—verifying the existence of the long road that lies ahead for James and his new pupil.
"Helping Waiters become the league’s next great shooting guard will demand of James stern words and lofty lectures," wrote Bleacher Report's Jim Cavan. "It’s a level of pedagogical authority he’s never had and, should things fly furiously off the rails, might never again desire."
To his credit, though, James sounds as if he knows how lengthy this battle could be.
He preached patience in the essay co-written with Sports Illustrated's Lee Jenkins explaining his decision to return to Cleveland. He welcomed the challenge of elevating his new teammates.
"I get a thrill out of bringing a group together and helping them reach a place they didn't know they could go," James wrote. "I see myself as a mentor now and I'm excited to lead some of these talented young guys."
At Cleveland's media day, James once again cemented himself atop the franchise.
"I will be the leader of the team," James told reporters, per Northeast Ohio Media Group's Joe Vardon. "I believe I bring leadership qualities that a lot of guys either don't want or just don't know how to do it. And I can. I can lead by example, I can lead by voice, I can lead by command and I can lead by just my presence."
Judging by Waiters' track record, James will need more of his voice and command than his example and presence to properly mentor Waiters.
However, that does not make this an impossible mission. Waiters has never failed a test like this before, because this will be his first time receiving the exam.
The Cavs team he joined in 2012 had all of 21 wins to show for the previous season. It also had a then-20-year-old Irving attempting to lead an NBA team at an age when his peers might struggle to lead a fast-food joint. The supremely confident Waiters needed the type of guidance the wide-eyed Irving wasn't equipped to give.
"Everybody asks me if this is my year to be a leader ... I haven't been so far though, not at all," Irving told RealGM's Shams Charania. "I've just been a kid trying to figure it out. There's no perfect way to be a leader, and coming in as a 19-year-old kid and having everything bearing on your shoulders, there are a lot of ups and downs."
Ups and downs that are presumably now a thing of the past with the return of James. Whatever has plagued Waiters before—lack of or misplaced focus, immaturity, decision-making—James has the experience needed to exorcise those demons.
And no matter how daunting of a task that might seem, James will surely be committed to seeing it through. The Cavs have enough talent that their success won't be tied to a single player, but their ceiling will climb to unconscionable heights if Waiters figures things out, as Bleacher Report's Michael Pina observed:
All signs are pointing to the reintroduction of Waiters, this time a more efficient, more team-oriented player. He still needs to seize this moment, but opportunity is knocking at near-deafening levels.
The book that exists on his NBA travels could be rendered useless sooner rather than later. With his situation exponentially changed for the better, Waiters sits poised to break out in a big way during the 2014-15 campaign.
Few things move faster than reputations in the sports world. Under James' watch, Waiters' should finally take off in the right direction.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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