Dion Waiters needs to be more selfish

[orangenirvana]

That's right, I said it.

And by selfish, I don't mean shooting more three-pointers.

Waiters needs to penetrate straight to the basket more often. He's one of the greatest dribble-drive players we've ever had at SU. He's excellent at avoiding the charge, which seems to be the most challenging aspect of driving for young players. Waiters is the key to our half-court offense. We shouldn't be struggling offensively like we are with the weapons we have.

If Cuse is in a scoring drought, then Waiters needs to take the ball and go to the bucket. Period. When he penetrates, good things happen. And the more he does it, the more productive our half-court offense. It's really pretty simple.

And in the final seconds of a tie game, he should never give the ball up to Scoop unless Waiters is triple-teamed and Scoop is wide open. I love Scoop, but he is what he is: a solid point guard and senior leader.

There's no reason Waiters shouldn't be averaging close to 20 ppg for this team. Even off the bench.

If SU wants to reach the Final Four, we need Waiters to truly step it up and be our NBA lottery pick. He has it in him, he just needs to take advantage of his own talents. And that isn't taking contested threes. It's taking the rock straight to the hoop.

 

[SmilinBob]

The more playing time the better his decisions will be. He seems like a pretty intelligent player and quickly recognizing situations and what to do when different scenarios develop is hard to do but in time he'll keep getting better. It's fun to watch his quick crossover and he has a darn good one and for often as he does it he has been under control (low charge total) which is pretty impressive. But that shot with someone in his face has to improve so driving does seem like the better choice of the two to me as well.

 

[BostonOrange]

That's right, I said it.

And by selfish, I don't mean shooting more three-pointers.

Waiters needs to penetrate straight to the basket more often. He's one of the greatest dribble-drive players we've ever had at SU. He's excellent at avoiding the charge, which seems to be the most challenging aspect of driving for young players. Waiters is the key to our half-court offense. We shouldn't be struggling offensively like we are with the weapons we have.

If Cuse is in a scoring drought, then Waiters needs to take the ball and go to the bucket. Period. When he penetrates, good things happen. And the more he does it, the more productive our half-court offense. It's really pretty simple.

And in the final seconds of a tie game, he should never give the ball up to Scoop unless Waiters is triple-teamed and Scoop is wide open. I love Scoop, but he is what he is: a solid point guard and senior leader.

There's no reason Waiters shouldn't be averaging close to 20 ppg for this team. Even off the bench.

If SU wants to reach the Final Four, we need Waiters to truly step it up and be our NBA lottery pick. He has it in him, he just needs to take advantage of his own talents. And that isn't taking contested threes. It's taking the rock straight to the hoop.

Not sure I'd say he has to be more selfish. But I agree with the penetration part. Dion needs to do the following (in my opinion):
- Stop taking contested perimeter shots. If he has wide open looks I have no problem with those.
- Make plays for himself AND OTHERS while going to the hoop and in transition. He has the ability not just to score but to get into the lane and make plays (like his kickout to KJ yesterday). I feel like sometimes if he isn't scoring he forces his offense way too much - in a couple recent games he had easy lay downs for dunks in transition and instead forced shots up. I want hm to be aggressive, but not worry so much if that aggression results in an assist and not a bucket.

 

[orangenirvana]

Not sure I'd say he has to be more selfish. But I agree with the penetration part. Dion needs to do the following (in my opinion):
- Stop taking contested perimeter shots. If he has wide open looks I have no problem with those.
- Make plays for himself AND OTHERS while going to the hoop and in transition. He has the ability not just to score but to get into the lane and make plays (like his kickout to KJ yesterday). I feel like sometimes if he isn't scoring he forces his offense way too much - in a couple recent games he had easy lay downs for dunks in transition and instead forced shots up. I want hm to be aggressive, but not worry so much if that aggression results in an assist and not a bucket.

By "selfish" I mean being the guy with the ball in his hands and creating the offense. That's not necessarily taking the shot. It's also like you said - dishing to the open man either underneath or to the outside.

"When he penetrates, good things happen" (hehehehehe) - That doesn't mean it has to result in Waiters scoring the points.

 

[BostonOrange]

By "selfish" I mean being the guy with the ball in his hands and creating the offense. That's not necessarily taking the shot. It's also like you said - dishing to the open man either underneath or to the outside.

"When he penetrates, good things happen" (hehehehehe) - That doesn't mean it has to result in Waiters scoring the points.

Right agree.

 

[mark79]

I agree. When we are struggling with the half court offense, he is our best option to penetrate and dish. But it's not only Dion, as Triche and MCW are fully capable of doing that as well. In general as a team we don't get to the line often enough. I think CJ could do more of that as well, especially against the zone when he gets it at the foul line. He should try to drive more and take it to the hoop a little more than taking the 12 footer. Unfortunately he missed a lot of those last night.

 

[BleedsOrange44]

For a guy that talented when driving to the basket, taking 6 three-pointers is unacceptable. Every time he drove, something good happened, yet he wanted to stay on the perimeter for some reason. I'm OK with him taking wide open threes, but not forcing them like yesterday. No one can guard him when he drives, yet he doesn't want to for some reason.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

That's right, I said it.

And by selfish, I don't mean shooting more three-pointers.

Waiters needs to penetrate straight to the basket more often. He's one of the greatest dribble-drive players we've ever had at SU. He's excellent at avoiding the charge, which seems to be the most challenging aspect of driving for young players. Waiters is the key to our half-court offense. We shouldn't be struggling offensively like we are with the weapons we have.

If Cuse is in a scoring drought, then Waiters needs to take the ball and go to the bucket. Period. When he penetrates, good things happen. And the more he does it, the more productive our half-court offense. It's really pretty simple.

And in the final seconds of a tie game, he should never give the ball up to Scoop unless Waiters is triple-teamed and Scoop is wide open. I love Scoop, but he is what he is: a solid point guard and senior leader.

There's no reason Waiters shouldn't be averaging close to 20 ppg for this team. Even off the bench.

If SU wants to reach the Final Four, we need Waiters to truly step it up and be our NBA lottery pick. He has it in him, he just needs to take advantage of his own talents. And that isn't taking contested threes. It's taking the rock straight to the hoop.

Bull! He could have cost us the game by not giving KJ the ball for the last shot, WHEN HE WAS WIDE OPEN! But Dion had to be the hero, instead of a team player.

 

[Whitey23]

Bull! He could have cost us the game by not giving KJ the ball for the last shot, WHEN HE WAS WIDE OPEN! But Dion had to be the hero, instead of a team player.

My thoughts exactly. I was freaking out.

When the team was rolling a month ago he was putting up points within the offense. He needs to get back to basics (along with a few other teamates).

 

[Rocco]

And by selfish, I don't mean shooting more fadeaway three-pointers.

Fixed.

 

[Sgt Cuse]

That's right, I said it.

And by selfish, I don't mean shooting more three-pointers.

Waiters needs to penetrate straight to the basket more often. He's one of the greatest dribble-drive players we've ever had at SU. He's excellent at avoiding the charge, which seems to be the most challenging aspect of driving for young players. Waiters is the key to our half-court offense. We shouldn't be struggling offensively like we are with the weapons we have.

If Cuse is in a scoring drought, then Waiters needs to take the ball and go to the bucket. Period. When he penetrates, good things happen. And the more he does it, the more productive our half-court offense. It's really pretty simple.

And in the final seconds of a tie game, he should never give the ball up to Scoop unless Waiters is triple-teamed and Scoop is wide open. I love Scoop, but he is what he is: a solid point guard and senior leader.

There's no reason Waiters shouldn't be averaging close to 20 ppg for this team. Even off the bench.

If SU wants to reach the Final Four, we need Waiters to truly step it up and be our NBA lottery pick. He has it in him, he just needs to take advantage of his own talents. And that isn't taking contested threes. It's taking the rock straight to the hoop.

First, Dion absolutely does not need to be more selfish. That is one of his fatal flaws. Now you can try and recreate your own definition of selfish, but I'm not buying it. Dion needs to be more of a team player. Those ill-advised ugly three pointers were torturous to watch and they were the result of selfish play.

I understand that you and Dion's agent may thing he is one of the greatest dribble-drive players ever at SU, but not me. Is he better than Flynn? No. Better than Devo? No. And that is just the recent past - Sherm, Pearl, Bing - no, no, no. Currently, the best guard on the team? Okay, I'll give you that. But if he puts up another performance like this one, JB may have to reconsider who the dude is on this team.

 

[Melancer46]

Bull! He could have cost us the game by not giving KJ the ball for the last shot, WHEN HE WAS WIDE OPEN! But Dion had to be the hero, instead of a team player.

This. Not to mention it feels like Scoop has hit buzzer beaters in like 4 or 5 of the past 6 games. He's been cash at the end. And yeah, I almost flipped out in the middle of the student section when Waiters completely ignored KJo at the end of regulation.