Oklahoma City Thunder: Was Acquiring Dion Waiters a Smart Move?
On Monday evening, the Oklahoma City Thunder acquired shooting guard Dion Waiters in a three-team trade that also included the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks.
According to the report from Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, Oklahoma City gave up small forward Lance Thomas and a protected first-round draft pick.
Waiters is a talented player capable of lighting up the gym on any given night. However, the Thunder made a mistake in acquiring the 2-guard's services.
The reason: he won't fit well alongside OKC's personnel.
Currently, Oklahoma City boasts two of the top five scorers in the NBA on it's roster. They exist in the form of Russell Westbrook (27.3 PPG) and Kevin Durant (25.5 PPG), and both account for the majority of the Thunder's offensive production when healthy.
It should come as no surprise these two regularly control possessions on offense. Westbrook consistently creates opportunities for himself and others as the 1-man, and Durant scores the ball in a variety of ways from everywhere on the floor.
In addition, backup point guard Reggie Jackson is relied upon as a third scoring/playmaking option as well.
Essentially, OKC has three players who constantly need possession of the ball in order for the team to succeed. This is why trading for Waiters makes no sense: he needs the ball in his hands to thrive, but he won't consistently get that opportunity with the Thunder.
Waiters is his best when he plays a major role running the offense. Last season is a perfect example, as the 23-year-old put forth noteworthy numbers as Cleveland's first option behind Kyrie Irving.
These include 15.9 points, 3.0 assists, 43.3 percent shooting from the field and 36.8 percent shooting from three in 29.6 minutes per game.
Entering the current campaign, however, the Cavaliers brought in LeBron James and Kevin Love to help establish a winning culture. As a result, Waiters was forced to change his role from ball-handling to catching and shooting.
The results weren't pretty: 10.5 points, 2.2 assists, 40.4 percent shooting from the field and 25.6 percent shooting from three in 23.8 minutes per contest.
While the point and assist decrease can be attributed to his drop in minutes, the significant fall in his shooting percentages correlates directly with his new role.
Waiters can't catch and shoot efficiently. With Cleveland this year, he shot 35.7 percent from two and a disastrous 25.4 percent from three in these types of situations. It's just not his game.
Unfortunately, this is the role he's set to play in Oklahoma City.
According to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, Waiters will come off the bench but receive the bulk of the minutes at shooting guard. Assuredly, he will play alongside at least one of the three aforementioned Thunder players at all times.
In other words, Waiters will always be either a second or third option when on the court. Even if he's with Jackson, he will probably assume less responsibility due to Jackson's superior playmaking abilities.
What does this mean? His ball-handling opportunities will be limited and he will be forced to become a floor-spacer.
As a result—if his performance with the Cavaliers this season is any indicator—Waiters may ultimately hurt OKC's offense rather than help it by filling this role.
In the 11 games Durant and Westbrook have both been healthy this year, the Thunder boast an outstanding record of 9-2. The team's offense flows exceptionally and the players complement each other well.
By acquiring Waiters in exchange for little value, Oklahoma City is messing with what has proven to be a beautiful concoction. Consequently, this experiment will either work out beautifully or ignite unnecessary issues.
Sadly, judging by Waiters' inability to adjust in Cleveland, odds favor the latter.
All stats are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
