The Cleveland Cavaliers might not wait too long to make another big deal on the trading front, as shooting guard Dion Waiters has expressed his frustrations in playing alongside LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving.
Exactly as LeBron predicted before the start of the 2014-15 NBA season, the Cavaliers were off to a surprisingly poor start after losing three of their first four games, including a 101-82 blowout loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
James, who won two championships out of four consecutive finals appearances with the Miami Heat, believed his teammates need to cut off some bad tendencies such as playing lax defense and opting to one-on-one basketball instead of moving the ball around for an open man.
"Everyone wants to win, I would hope," James said in a post-game interview. "Would you rather play selfish basketball and lose, or play unselfish basketball and sacrifice and win? So you pick it."
The Cavs' starting backcourt of Waiters and Kyrie Irving hasn't been impressive at all early this season as both guards shot combined for an average of 28 shot attempts per game along with sub-40 percent field goal shooting.
While everyone expected Irving to be among the team's leaders in shot attempts as a member of the Big 3, Waiters is not and his frustrations are coming from the lack of touches he gets when sharing the floor with Irving, Love and LeBron and the complicated role given to him by head coach David Blatt as a catch-and-shoot player.
"That's not my game," Waiters said of his catch-and-shoot role. "I can do it, but you know what I'm effective at: pick-and-roll and things like that."
Based on his comments alone, there are two things going around Waiters' head right now: the first is he's not happy with his decreasing shot opportunities and second he wants his coach to tweak the offense to accommodate his strength.
Unfortunately for Waiters, those things have zero chance to happen, and in a star-studded team like the Cavs, it's either accepting the role or asking to play somewhere else. Right now, Waiters seems ready for a trade.
Trading a talented young player like Waiters won't be a problem for the Cavs. In fact, dealing away the guard would allow them to address several issues on their roster, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.
Loaded with offensive weapons, the Cavs currently lack a rim protector and an outstanding perimeter defense in the backcourt. Perhaps, the Waiters' situation might be their best chance to fix one of these areas of concern.
As of now, the most intriguing trade scenario out there is for Waiters to join the New York Knicks in exchange for Iman Shumpert as the centerpiece of the deal.
Many analysts believed Waiters is a perfect fit to the triangle offense because of his ability to create his own shots and knock down jumper consistently, while Shumpert would boost the Cavs perimeter defense and still contribute on the offensive end despite limited touches.
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