Dion Waiters, with help from Kyrie Irving, is key to helping the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team make the playoffs this NBA season, an editorial by Cleveland Urban News.Com Sportswriter Karl Kimbrough

Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Dion Waiters

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving

By Karl Kimbrough, Cleveland Urban News.Com Sports Writer(www.clevelandurbannews.com)

Cleveland Urban News.Com 
Sportswriter Karl Kimbrough

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Dion Waiters, with help from Kyrie Irving, might be key to helping the Cleveland Cavaliers make the playoffs this NBA season.

For seven years the name LeBron James would reverberate in the rafters of Quicken Loans Arena when he would throw down a dunk 

It was hoped that the mega star would ultimately lead our Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team to an NBA championship. 

But that dream came crashing down for fans when James decided to take his talents to the Miami Heat as a free agent in 2010. 

Fans were left wondering if the Cavaliers would have another chance to find a great player to lead their team to championship contention. Players like James don't come around too often, if at all, other than James himself.

All is not lost. Last season another young talent was drafted by the Cavaliers named Kyrie Irving.

 Irving is a 6'3" point guard, and a young man whose physical stature belies his great abilities and dynamic skills. Watching Kyrie's rookie of the year season gave Cavs fans something to dream about again.

 Cavalier management, along with accomplished veteran head coach Byron Scott, have a plan to rebuild the Cavaliers into a championship team. But their season accusations this year have been met with questionable optimism. They also lost two starters to free agency, and to retirement relative to  Antwain Jamison and Anthony Parker. 

                                                                                                               

General Manager Chris Grant only brought in one free agent in C.J. Miles and made no trades that have made an impact on Coach Scott's rotation. In addition, the Cavalier hierarchy, which looks to build its team primarily through the NBA draft, went to the NBA draft with four picks and came out of it with two players.

They traded their second first round pick and two second rounders for seven footer Tyler Zeller. That move was well accepted by draft experts, media and fans. The much anticipated fourth pick in the draft which was used to select Dion Waiters, a sophomore combo guard from Syracuse who was not initially well received by draft experts, media, and many Cavalier fans, some say. Many questioned why the Cavaliers would spend their precious fourth pick on a player who did not start in College and had a questionable attitude. Others did not see two guard shooting skills in Waiters.

           

I agree with the assessment that Waiters is not the traditional two guard. So why would the Cavaliers and Coach Scott, who said that Waiters was his pick and the second best player in the draft, take a player who is a combo guard and not a traditional two guard?

Well, traditional two guards primary responsibility on offense is to shoot and score mainly from the perimeter. Scott and the Cavalier management realize that the NBA game has subtly changed. Yes, the NBA game is not being played the way that it used to be by many teams in the league and more importantly by teams that are winning.

           

NBA teams have historically sought after centers or big men who can control scoring in the painted area of the floor, that is close to the basket. The game has always been won or lost in the paint.

The team that scores more and defends better, rebounds better in the paint wins championships. However, dominant big men who play with their back to the basket are rare coming in the league anymore. 

                                                                                                                                                     

A big man in the paint or near the paint that needs more than one man to guard him needs shooters on the perimeter to keep the double team away, Shaquille O' Neal is the last dominate big man to win a NBA championship, and that was in 2006 with the Miami Heat.

 I did not count Andrew Bynum with the Lakers because until now he was not dominating. O' Neal, has retired and dominant inside players like Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are in the last years of their careers. In the last 15 years or so there have been few big men, including power forwards, who have come into the league with a low post game. The last two NBA championships were Dallas and Miami and neither team has even a power forward  who plays in the paint.

Miami Heat’s Chris Bosh likes to shoot outside the paint, but finally in their championship series LeBron James realized that he needed to use his low post moves against Oklahoma City and found out that they could not stop him. But this is not an area that he wants to play from. 

                                                                                                                                                         

If you examine the top teams with the best records last year you will find that the game is still being won in the paint both defensively and offensively. 

Chicago, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Miami were the top four teams last year in point differential in the league, and they are four of the top teams  in the league. Point differential is the number of points allowed compared to the number of points scored. 

The reason they were at the top of the league is due to their defending the paint and scoring in the paint so well. These teams score in the paint by guards, and small forwards running the floor and scoring off of defensive stops on the fast break. But for the most part they score in the paint by guards and perimeter stars driving to the basket.

For Chicago it was Derrick Rose and  for Oklahoma City it was Russell Westbrook. For Miami it was Dwayne Wade and LeBron,  and for San Antonio it was Tony Parker and Manu Ginobilli. All but two of these players were in the top eight in scoring in the league. Due to their ball handling abilities they can score anywhere in their half court offense.

 It is surprising to note that Parker as small as he is has led the league more than once in scoring in the paint. Parker has unique quickness and ball handling that allows him to score inside or get fouled and shoot free throws. This is where Waiters comes in He is one of those rare combo guards. He can shoot the three, and the midrange shot, and he can get all the way to the basket in the half court set and facilitate, making others better.

In crunch time these are the type of players that you need to win. 

Waiters and Irving  have supreme confidence, which is another rare quality. If these two can average more than 40 points combined, the Cavaliers will be well on their way to winning the playoffs.


Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com Sports Writer Karl Kimbrough at kimbrough@clevelandurbannews..com and reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by telephone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.