Why should we keep Waiters after this season?
By Addam Francisco
As many may know, this year has become the national campaign year for teams to appeal to Kevin Durant, but what many people may not know is that Dion Waiters will be set to become a restricted free agent as well. I think that Waiters may be the one we all should be trying to keep (along with KD). With the NBA not being as stacked as it could be when it comes to the shooting guard position, I think its vital that we keep Dion Waiters, he will also be a huge part of a championship run if we make it that far this year. This guy averages 12 points per game, after just three seasons in the NBA. Not saying he’s as good as James Harden, but his playing style reminds me a lot of James. The only difference in playing style is that Dion can play some sort of defense, something that James never seemed to grasp.
With other premier shooting guards in the league all having something hanging over their head, whether it's a size issue, being injury prone, or age (Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant), I think this could be a window opening up for Waiters to be a premier 2-guard in this league. Not to mention, in Dion’s last game of the season he scored 33 points in just 36 minutes and shot 62 percent from the three point line. Now if that isn't a pretty exciting stat for Thunder fans, I don't know what is and thats not the first time Waiters went on a scoring rampage in his short Thunder career.
Yes, there are instances where we all can agree Dion may need to stop shooting as much and look for other open players, but thats the same criticism that plenty of shooting guards have dealt with but turned out to be pretty good players. Ever since the trade speculations came about involving Dion, I’ve been a huge supporter. I remember his college days and remember how he could single-handedly take over a game offensively. I think with proper coaching within the Thunder organization, Dion could lower his shots and improve his shooting percentage while getting his point average up in the 15 to 18 point range, maybe even better! The goal for this year is to keep Kevin Durant AND Dion Waiters in Oklahoma City and to not let them sneak away to another team.