Who is Dion Waiters?

We all know who Dion Waiters is. He’s a 6'4" shooting guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He played college ball at Syracuse University and grew up in the south side of Philadelphia. He likes to talk trash and tries to back up everything he does.

But you already knew that. We want to know more than that.

In is his first two seasons, we have seen Dion show he is capable of one thing: instant offense. If you need someone to score points, he has the ability to come in and go on his own one-man offensive scoring runs. His ability to score the ball has never been in question.

But there is one thing that people will wonder: who is Dion Waiters?

This isn’t a question of his personality, or what he looks like. This is more of a comparison. If you could compare Waiters to one player, who would he be?

In order to find out who is, we need to create some guidelines on how we are going to compare him. Are we going to pick out of hat? No. Are we going to yell random names and see which one we like the best? No, but that sounds extremely interesting.

Instead, I came up with three things we will use to find out who is Dion: position, stye of play and role on the team. From these three objectives, we will be able to answer our question.

Position

This one is easy. Waiters plays shooting guard, so all we have to is find everyone who is listed as a shooting guard, right? Well, yeah, we could do that, but there a lot of shooting guards in the league. Like, 127 of them.

Since Waiters has the ability to play shooting guard, as well as point guard, we can consider him a “combo guard”. So instead of looking at all 127 shooting guards, I have narrowed it down to 22 “combo guards”, a little easier to choose from. Here’s the 22:

• Arron Afflalo
• Bradley Beal
• Kobe Bryant
• Jamal Crawford
• DeMar Derozan
• Goran Dragic
• Monta Ellis
• Tyreke Evans
• Randy Foye
• Manu Ginobili
• Eric Gordon
• James Harden
• Gordon Hayward
• Kirk Hinrich
• Andre Iguadola
• Joe Johnson
• O.J. Mayo
• Austin Rivers
• Iman Shumpert
• Rodney Stuckey
• Dwyane Wade
• Lou Williams

There might be a few guys that surprise you on this list, but when you think of Waiters, he would fit right in that category of players as far as “position”.

But, we are not here to categorize him, we are here to find out who he is. And since all of these players are not the same, let’s take a took at the next criteria.

Style of play

Waiters can be described as a “high-volume scorer”: a guy who takes plenty of shots, but can put up big numbers in a hurry. He has put up good numbers in his first two seasons (18.9 points per 36 minutes), but it is likely due in part to his high usage rate (26.6 percent).

When looking at the list above, we’ll need to look at guys who had a usage rate of greater than 24 percent (meaning he is involved in the offense) and scored at least 18 points per game (showing he can score enough to be effective) over the last two seasons. From the previous 22, only seven of those guys made the cut:

• Arron Afflalo
• Bradley Beal
• Jamal Crawford
• DeMar Derozan
• Goran Dragic
• Monta Ellis
• James Harden
• Dwyane Wade

As you can see, these are some pretty big names. Am I implying that Waiters is one of the best shooting guards in the league? Well, I’m not saying he’s at the top, as there are a number of guys ahead of him, but he as heard some praise from a certain media member that would give me reason to believe he in the top 10.

Anyways, let’s get back on schedule.

Three-point shooting is an underrated part of Waiters game, as he shot 36.3 percent from behind the arc last year, which was above the league average. In order to narrow this list down even more to find our answer, we’ll need to find guys who shot at least 36 percent the three-point line last year.

Two guys were cut; Wade and Ellis. This leaves us with these guys:

• Arron Afflalo
• Bradley Beal
• Jamal Crawford
• Goran Dragic
• James Harden

As you can see, these guys are very good at attacking the paint, as well as shooting the ball. They also can score overall at a high level while also possessing a high level of usage.

We’re getting closer to answering our question, and for those of you who have read this far, here is a GIF of Waiters hitting a buzzer-beater last year.

Role on the team

Just as big as style of play is for this question, the role of the player on his team is equally important. You can’t compare a guy whose role is to be a defensive stopper, to a guy who you expect to lead your team every night in scoring.

Waiters has seen a few roles over the last two years, including being both sixth man and starter. He has played well in both roles, with his offensive numbers being very similar for each. Here are his splits for starting and coming off the bench.

Over the long run, many expect him to be a full-time sixth man (as he was at Syracuse), where he can flourish with the second team. However, Waiters has publicly stated that he wants to start, despite rumors that he could come off the bench.

Waiters have never been considered the teams number one scoring option with Kyrie Irving on the roster. In order to cut our list down, we will have to look at guys who are not the number one option on offense. Again, we will use usage percentage, but this time we will be looking for guys who were second (or worse)on their team in this category. By looking at the numbers, here is who we have left:

• Arron Afflalo
• Jamal Crawford

Two guys left. Both fitting all of the qualifications we have thrown at you.

However, Dion cannot be two different people, he can only one.

The last criteria we will use, is the exact title of this section: their role on the team.

Crawford is known as one of the best sixth men in NBA history, having won the Sixth Man Award twice, which is tied for the most all-time. He has been one of the best guys in the league in terms of “instant offense”, meaning he can score a lot of points in not a lot of minutes. When he gets hot, he is one of the hardest guys to stop.

On the other hand, Afflalo is more of a quiet player in terms of scoring. His efficiency is one of the best for his position, and has allowed him to be successful on the offensive end. Unlike Crawford, Afflalo can spread out his points, leaving most people shocked to see his point totals game-by-game (averaged 19 points per game last year).

After looking at the tape, we’ve decided that…

Dion Waiters is Jamal Crawford! Seriously, the signs are all there. Waiters isn’t as flashy as Crawford, but his game is set up in a very similar way. Both guys are “microwaves” on the offensive end, and will heat up with only one shot. Neither of them have a shot they do not like, and are HUGE fans of the pull-up jumper.

The glaring thing that made it clear that Crawford was the better option than Afflalo, was the fact that he came off the bench in 56 percent off his career games, compared to just 29 percent for Afflalo. We’re not saying that Waiters is better suited on the bench, but his style of play fits that of a sixth man.

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Now that we finally have our answer, what does this all mean?

Since the Cavs already have three excellent offensive players ahead of Waiters, he needs to adapt his game. What makes Crawford a very good NBA player, is that he understands his role: he scores when the offense needs a spark and solidifies the bench.

If Waiters can be Crawford 2.0 (which I think he can), the Cavs will reach their goal as a team: by winning an NBA title.