Dion Waiters made headlines in the offseason when he took to Twitter and made it very clear that he was a starter for the Cleveland Cavaliers and had no interest in coming off the bench. However, after starting at the shooting guard position for the first three games of the season, Waiters was pushed to the bench against the Denver Nuggets and the team won. Now, head coach David Blatt is considering making that move permanent whether Waiters likes it or not.
The Cavaliers looked like a much improved team against the Denver Nuggets and part of that could be Waiters leading the second unit. The shooting guard had 16 points in 24 minutes as the Sixth Man, going 6-of-14 in shooting. That was much better than anything he did as a starter in the first three games of the season. The shooting guard was not meshing well competing for shots alongside Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and Kevin Love. Coming off the bench allowed him to lead the reserves in shooting which created more points for Cleveland. James prefers Waiters in that role over being a starter.
"For the best of the team, that should be Dion's role," James said, via Cleveland.com. "Dion comes off the bench and brings us that scoring mentality but more than that, he brings us another defender off the bench, which we need. Someone that's tough, someone that can guard one through three. It's a new role, but it's a good role for him."
Waiters appears to be growing more accepting towards his role off the bench. The shooting guard told the media that he will simply do whatever it takes for his team to win and if that means coming off the bench or being "the water boy" then he is willing to do it. In his place, the Cavaliers started veteran Shawn Marion who put up 10 points in 32 minutes and that appears to work better than having Waiters at the position.
Waiters coming off the bench could be forshadowing towards his future. The Cavaliers did exercise the team option on Waiters contract which secures him for another season, but could the shooting guard be trade bait in the future? The Cavaliers have toyed with the idea in the past. Many assumed Waiters would be included in the deal for Kevin Love, but Cleveland retained him in the end. With Tristan Thompson also needing a new deal, someone will likely stay while the other goes. Both Thompson and Waiters are battling to lead the second unit and whoever handles the spot better could get the new contract.
