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Tag Archives: dion waiters
MY THOUGHTS ON THE CAVS TRADE OF DION WAITERS
Here’s my opening monologue from Tuesday, January 6th on 1480 WHBC as I address the 3 team trade that Cavs G.M. David Griffin pulled off with the Knicks and the Thunder with Dion Waiters going to OKC and in return the Cavaliers get J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and a protected 1st round pick from the Thunder.
Listen here –
http://stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=2801&c=18283&f=3817203 …
CAVS OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE ON THE TRADE OF DION WAITERS
CLEVELAND, OH – The Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired guards Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith from the New York Knicks and a protected 2015 first round pick from the Oklahoma City Thunder. In exchange, the Cavs will send guard Dion Waiters to the Thunder, and Lou Amundson, Alex Kirk and its own 2019 second round pick to the Knicks. New York will also receive forward Lance Thomas from Oklahoma City.
“We wish Dion the best as he continues his career with the Thunder and thank him for his effort and work here with the Cavaliers. Dion is a talented player with potential ahead of him. Trades like this are always difficult to make because there are relationships and bonds built and that was the case with Dion,” said Cavaliers general manager David Griffin. “At the same time, we’re very excited to welcome Iman and J.R. to Cleveland. With their size and versatility, we think both Iman and J.R. can help our team on both ends of the court and we look forward to them joining us.”
Currently in his fourth NBA season, Shumpert has appeared in 202 games (162 starts) with the Knicks, averaging 7.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals in 26.2 minutes per game. The 6-5 guard has ranked among the NBA’s Top 20 in steals-to-turnover ratio in two of his three pro seasons (15th with 0.91 in 2011-12; fifth with 1.16 in 2013-14). He holds a .348 career three-point percentage and was an All-Rookie First Team selection in 2012. This season, Shumpert is averaging 9.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals in 26.0 minutes over 24 contests (all starts).
Smith, an 11-year veteran, has played in 716 career games (173 starts) with averages of 13.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 26.1 minutes for New Orleans, Denver and New York. The 6-6 guard is also a career .370 shooter from the three-point line and .736 from the charity stripe. He has made at least 100 three-pointers in seven of the last eight seasons and was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year following the 2012-13 season. This season, Smith is averaging 10.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 25.8 minutes through 24 games (six starts) with New York.
Waiters was originally drafted by the Cavaliers with the fourth overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft. In 164 games (75 starts) in three seasons with the Cavs, Waiters averaged 14.3 points on .420 shooting from the field, including .328 from beyond the arc, 2.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.0 steal in 28.1 minutes per game. He was named to the All-Rookie First Team in 2013. Through 33 games (three starts) this season, the 6-4 guard is averaging 10.5 points, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals in 23.8 minutes per game.
Kirk, an undrafted rookie out of New Mexico, originally signed as a free agent by the Cavaliers on August 11 and played in five contests for Cleveland in 2014-15. Amundson, who was part of the 2014 Cavs training camp and preseason roster, appeared in 12 games for the Cavs this season.
CAVS EXERCISE 4TH-YEAR OPTION ON DION WAITERS
The Cleveland Cavaliers exercised the 4th-year contract option on guard Dion Waiters, Cavaliers General Manager David Griffin announced today.
Waiters, the fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft out of Syracuse, owns career averages of 15.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 29.2 minutes per game in 131 games (72 starts) in his two seasons with the Cavaliers.
Last season Waiters scored a career high 15.9 points per game.
CAVS 3 BIGGEST CONCERNS HEADING ONTO THIS SEASON
1) DEFENSE – Adding LeBron James and Kevin Love along with shooters Mike Miller and James Jones brings a ton of offense and outside shooting, but three out of those four aren’t known for their defensive prowess. LeBron is the only one of that group that consistently plays defense with grit and determination. Shawn Marion will help as a wing defender, but he’s not a spring chicken any more. The need for a rim protector is REAL. Anderson Varejao, Tristan Thompson, and if he can play at all, Brendan Haywood, aren’t feared shot blockers. Add in that Kyrie Irving has yet to play defense in his three years in the league, and Dion Waiters is a liability as well, the Cavs have some serious issues on the defensive side of the ball. Those deficiencies need to be addressed either by adding an “Eraser at the Rim” or for the current players to show more determination and give more effort. Hopefully LeBron’s leadership and defensive make up will rub off on everyone on the team.
2) TEAM CHEMISTRY – Ego’s will have to be checked at the door the first day of training camp. Shot attempts are going to have to be divided up amongst a number of ball dominate players, and point totals are going to have to be sacrificed for the betterment of the team in order for this mixture of superstars, all-stars and up and coming stars to gel and turn this group into a true championship contending team. That’s not going to be easy when a number of these players are used to being the number one or two option on every team they’ve played for. How soon this happens, if it happens, could determine how far the Cavaliers can go in 2014-15.
3) HEAD COACH – David Blatt was an “Outside the Box Thinking” hire by first year G.M. David Griffin. Blatt has been a successful head coach for many years overseas, but never in the NBA. How will he transition to dealing with the ego’s that we mentioned earlier? With the rule changes that the NBA game brings? And how will he handle coaching against veteran NBA coaches night in and night out? Blatt as the head coach may be the biggest uncertainty facing this team as the season begins and moves forward. “Griff” has surrounded him with former NBA players as well as former NBA head coaches, so that should help, but David Blatt is still the man in charge and he needs to create his own identity, philosophy and style with his team. What is that? What will that be? Can the European game translate from a coaching standpoint to the NBA? We’re going to find out, and when we do, David Griffin will either have made his first mistake as a G.M., or he’ll continue to look like the basketball “Boy Wonder” genius he’s looked like this entire off-season.
WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN
So what happens when Love comes to town? The Cavaliers are hoping it leads to an NBA championship one day soon.
photo courtesy of bleacher report
U2 and B.B King sang about it years ago. Everybody else has been talking about it recently. And now the biggest trade in the NBA this off season finally happened. Love is coming to town.
Cleveland has acquired Kevin Love from Minnesota for this year’s first overall pick, Andrew Wiggins, last year’s #1 pick Anthony Bennett and a 2015 first round draft pick they acquired from Miami as part of the LeBron James trade back in 2010.
Per ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports, the Timberwolves also get power forward Thaddeus Young from Philadelphia and a reported $6.3 million trade exception as part of this three team swap, and in turn will send Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved plus a first-round pick to the 76ers.
photo courtesy of thebiglead.com
Love, just 25 years old, comes to Cleveland and gets to reunite with Olympic teammate LeBron James and street ball teammate “Uncle Drew”, Kyrie Irving. It creates a “Big 3” that Cleveland has been looking for since “King James” first tenure with the Cavaliers.
Love averaged over 26 points per game along with 12 rebounds a game last season for the Timberwolves, while also dishing out over 4 assists per contest.
photo courtesy of unz.com
Love gives Cleveland three different 20 points per game scorers in David Blatt’s starting lineup which right now looks like Irving at the point, Dion Waiters at shooting guard, James at small forward, Love at power forward and Anderson Varejao at center.
It’s no secret that LeBron James wanted Love in Cleveland as he spoke highly of his high basketball IQ and what a great teammate he was in the 2012 London Olympics at his recent homecoming party in Akron, Ohio. James and Love helped Team USA win the gold medal in London.
On the flipside, James never spoke to, or about Andrew Wiggins, and didn’t mention him in his Sports Illustrated essay when he announced he was returning home to Cleveland. So the writing was on the wall that James had no problem with the Cavs dealing Wiggins, a possible future All-Star, for Love, already an All-Star 3 times over and a 2-Time All-NBA second teamer.
For Wiggins, a kid with enormous potential, he finally gets to call someplace home as he goes to Minnesota and will be the focal point in their rebuilding process.
Bennett will get a fresh start with the T-Wolves after having a disastrous rookie season a year ago, after he was selected first overall.
Love can opt out of his contract and be a free agent at the end of the 2014-15 season and like LeBron James, will probably do so. It will allow Love and James to take advantage of getting a max deal worth max dollars after a new TV contract is expected to be signed by the NBA, which would then raise the league’s salary cap and max free agents will be able to make more money on those deals.
Love will wear the number #0 and you can already buy his jersey at the Cavaliers Team Shop at Quicken Loans Arena.
A press conference to introduce Love to the media will be held on Tuesday, August 26th at 3pm at Cleveland Clinic Courts.