The Cavaliers blew out the Thunder on national television, 115-92, on Sunday, and Dion Waiters did little to help Oklahoma City’s cause. Waiters got the start and played 32 minutes, but he scored only four points while shooting 1-of-8 from the field.
The former Syracuse star has had an inconsistent season in his first full year in Oklahoma City. He is posting career lows in points per game (9.7), and assists per game (1.7) while playing close to his usual average in minutes. He’s also had his fair share of boneheaded plays. However, while the two-guard is getting fewer shot opportunities than usual, he has been relatively consistent when he does shoot it. Waiters’ effective field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage are up from a year ago, and he’s performed admirably defending the opponent’s best wing players after the man who had assumed that role, Andre Roberson, went down to an injury.
Still, Cleveland almost definitely improved their roster by swapping Waiters for J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert in a three-team trade last year, and his one bad game against the Cavs on Sunday most definitely proves that point, at least according to Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel.
In an article titled “Waiters shrinks against Cavaliers as LeBron proven right,” Trammel attempts to make the case that Waiters’ four-point dud against Cleveland proves that LeBron James is a good GM for helping push to make the trade that landed them Smith and Shumpert.
Waiters was awful for the second straight game. He followed a pointless Friday night game against Indiana with an equally fruitless game against his former team.
Waiters made LeBron the General Manager look incredibly wise. Waiters famously was traded by the Cavs to the Thunder 13 months ago because LeBron preferred to play with the mercurial J.R. Smith. The same J.R. Smith who made five of eight 3-pointers Sunday for Cleveland.
Meanwhile, Waiters missed his first seven shots, including an air-balled 3-pointer and a wild drive in which the ball bounced off the backboard 13 feet off the ground. Waiters made only his last shot, a 16-footer with 3:40 left in the game. That basket came with the score 109-88.
There are several dots that Trammel connects here that have no relation to each other.
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First and foremost, one game, no matter how bad, does not prove a trade was won or lost. The Cavaliers improved by getting two solid, productive players that helped lead them to the NBA Finals. That, if anything, proved management “right” for shipping out Waiters, not one bad game by him more than a year later.
Secondly, LeBron James is not the general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers, he is the small forward. Yes, it’s possible LeBron has a say in some personnel decisions, but to suggest he single-handedly facilitated the trade of Waiters to the Thunder is inaccurate at best, and downright wrong at worst.
Finally, this is not the first time Waiters has played Cleveland since being traded. In fact, it’s the third. Waiters already has had two games against Cleveland since joining the Thunder, neither of which were great performances. So, if you really wanted to make this case, why is it this game that proved it? Because it was on national TV?
Also, as his coach Billy Donovan suggested after the game, if Waiters was indeed trying to do too much, it’s likely more due to the fact that he had a bad game in Oklahoma City’s prior outing against Indiana than it is due to him attempting to prove Cleveland wrong for trading him.
This is just a very bad take from whatever angle you look at it.
