Waiting on Dion Waiters

Dion Waiters, to this point is still shrouded in plenty of unknown. Certainly, the Cavaliers’ rookie shooting guard, selected fourth-overall in the most recent NBA Draft, came out of the gate swinging — 17 points on 6-of-14 from the floor and three steals — in the team’s Opening Night win over the Wizards. But save for the 28 minutes of play, not much of Waiters’ persona is common knowledge amongst Cleveland fans. For my feature in the impending third edition of the Cavs Zine, I dissected Waiters’ passion more than his play. Yes, we have seen the highlight reels of Dion’s days at Syracuse, and read the glowing remarks from those who have somewhat of a vested interest in the player succeeding at the next level, but until Tuesday night, expectations surrounding Waiters were kept fairly low. Talks of question marks surrounding chemistry, the penchant for focusing on published mock drafts and instant grade-based analysis as a means to say that the Cavaliers “reached” with their selectio...