Twitter Explosion: J.R. Smith and Dion Waiters In the Same Trade?

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The Give and Go is a quick back and forth between Paul Mitchell and Chris St. Jean about a relevant subject in the NBA at that moment.

Chris:  Alright Mitchell, after a holiday hiatus we’re back and on Monday night of the first ‘back to work’ week of the new year there was a Twitter explosion.  Half of the fun was the crazy rumors (Reggie Jackson to the Knicks) flying around when the trade happened, as even Woj wasn’t quite sure what was happening.  After the dust settled, here’s the deal:

The Cavs acquire Iman Shumpert and J. R. Smith and a 2015 protected first round pick (OKC).

The Oklahoma City Thunder acquire Dion Waiters.

The New York Knicks acquire Lance Thomas (OKC), Alex Kirk (CLE), Lou Amundson (CLE), and a 2019 second round pick (in a pure salary dump).

So, Mitchell, what just happened?

Mitchell: Twitter was down for most of the night on Monday and Reggie Jackson wasn’t even traded; I feel let down. But as with any trade involving J.R. Smith and Dion Waiters, the social media explosion was amazing, and the details of the trade were released piece by piece on Twitter, before it self-combusted.

My first impression of this trade is some serious LOL. Zach Lowe described it in his write-up as potentially a win-win-win transaction, but it seems to me more as a minor move where a couple of flawed teams exchanged headaches. Iman Shumpert is probably the best player in the deal, and his average abilities as a ball-handler, defender, and shooter from the two-guard spot will help a Cavaliers franchise that has relied on Joe Harris, Matthew Dellavedova, and Shawn Marion to soak up minutes on the perimeter lately. J.R. Smith will give the team a more polished version of Dion Waiters, but he’s a much better catch-and-shoot player and a more entertaining character than Waiters. He’ll grate on head coach David Blatt’s nerves and is clearly a “LeBron James-approved” addition, but Earl Jr. will also make plenty of open 3’s and give the Cavs some depth at a position of need. The move may have broken up the NBA’s best backcourt but the addition of two perimeter players for Waiters might enable Blatt to run out a LeBron/Kevin Love frontcourt for extended minutes (AKA the layup lines defense).

The Knicks reportedly could have traded Shump to Oklahoma City during last year’s trade deadline for the Thunder’s first-round pick (#29), but the trade fell apart in the final hours and general manager Sam Presti would go on to waste the first-rounder by drafting and stashing Josh Huestis in the Developmental League. The Knicks, this season, will get just a future second-round pick in return for Shumpert and J.R., plus some players on partially-guaranteed contracts who will probably never wear a Knicks jersey. Fans were mostly disappointed in dealing away some long-time Knicks (as frustrating as they may have been) without Reggie Jackson in return or any players that will help the team next year, but Shump was an impending-free agent and clearing Smith’s $6.5 million next season will comfortably free up a max-salary slot over the summer. The good news is that after a season filled with miserable basketball and Carmelo Anthony knee drama, the Knicks finally have a figurehead in the front office who sees the benefit in long-term planning. Enjoy those Duke and Kentucky games, Knicks fans (coming from a bitter Celtics fan whose team needs a big man, badly).

It’s the Oklahoma City Thunder that made the most interesting and confounding trade, of all three teams involved. Dion Waiters is just in his third NBA season and still has potential as a bench scorer and “irrational confidence guy” who desperately needed a change of scenery, but his ball-dominance and irrational confidence will be a difficult adjustment on a team with a clear hierarchy of superstars. He might be the only player on the roster outside of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Reggie Jackson who can create his own shot and will probably be groomed to replace Jackson as their sixth man, much as Jackson filled in for James Harden. Reggie is a year away from free agency himself and the rumors of his involvement in this trade probably won’t be the only trade proposals his name will come up in this season, before he hits the market and commands real money. Waiters probably has more upside than any other young player (non-Big 3) on the Thunder besides Steven Adams, but that might speak more to Sam Presti’s recent drafting and player evaluation process than Waiters’s actual abilities.

Taking the chance on Waiters will cost Presti a first-round pick in a year where the Thunder are still fighting for the eighth-seed in the Western Conference playoffs. The pick will be highly protected to prevent it from being in the lottery but it should still be the highest selection in recent Thunder history, given the injury absences of Durant and Russell over the first couple of months. Presti didn’t exactly value his picks in the 2013 Draft very highly, as he reached on a center coming off of a back injury at #21 and drafted a player at #29 that wasn’t on many draft experts’ Top 100 lists, but it’s still surprising to see him relinquish a pick just to take on the substantial risk that is Dion Waiters.

I’m not the first to make this comparison, but the trade from Oklahoma City’s perspective reminds me a bit of the Evan Turner to the Indiana Pacers trade from last season. That deal backfired spectacularly, as Evan Turner duplicated Lance Stephenson’s style of play and the trade eroded the remnants of Indiana’s team chemistry. Unlike Turner, Waiters has another year of team control left before hitting free agency, but his skills and preference for handling the ball directly contradict those of the incumbent player (Reggie Jackson). The Thunder team camaraderie is miles better than the Pacers’ (due to the lack of Lance Stephenson), and it’ll be tough for Waiters to commandeer the ball while playing with two of the five best players in the world. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure we said the same thing about the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, and Dion Waiters, and here we are.

I really dislike this trade from Oklahoma City’s perspective on two folds: acquiring Dion Waiters and acquiring Dion Waiters for a first-round pick. Much like the Evan Turner trade last year, this move reeks of desperation from a GM looking to shake things up, without any regard for his team’s chemistry or player roles. Waiters could help solve the team’s bench scoring issues and come into his own next season after Reggie leaves for a bigger contract, or he could be Dion Waiters. Presti has to be confident that Waiters won’t disrupt the locker room or cause personality conflicts with Westbrook or Reggie (two players who also need the ball in their hands), but acquiring Dion Waiters is a classic buy-low move from a GM without many resources left to upgrade his team. Giving up a first-round pick for that opportunity seems unnecessarily risky, to me, but I guess it’s better than drafting Josh Huestis.

What do you think, Chris? Was this Presti’s best return for a first-round pick? Dion Waiters definitely needed a change of scenery, but can he adapt to Oklahoma City’s situation on the fly and as they battle to get back into the playoffs? I’m fascinated by Presti’s thought process behind this move, but how did the Knicks and Cavaliers do?

Chris:

One quick thing about Dion in OKC.  It’s definitely perplexing.  A part of me thinks Dion could really benefit from a player hierarchy that is so well-established in OKC compared to a player hierarchical upheaval in Cleveland heading into this season.  But I don’t quite see the fit.  Some have called Dion and Jackson the D-level duo of Durant and Westbrook, but in the NBA you don’t play A-line/B-line.  Either Durant and/or Westbrook is on the court at all times for OKC.  Durant often plays heavy minutes with the bench unit (as Dirk does in Dallas).  He has played a total of 121 minutes with the starters, what lineup has he spent the second highest amount of minutes playing with?  Morrow-Durant-Jackson-Perkins-Collison ... or the bench.  So Dion will need to accept that he’s a supporting player no matter what lineup in on the floor.  It’ll be interesting for sure.

As for the Knicks and Cavs, both teams got what they wanted.  The Knicks dumped salary have more flexibility in free agency.  J.R. Smith had completely lost his appeal and for some reason the Knicks never seemed to be interested in Shumpert.  He’s the key in this deal to me.  Cavs fans were legitimately asking me how good a defender I thought Delladova has been this season.  As if to convince themselves he could be their wing stopper.  He was guarding Durant in that matchup against OKC; good luck with that.  Shumpert gives them the (Wiggins-esque) wing defender to take the pressure off of LeBron (and let’s be honest, Shumpert is more suited to guard smaller, quicker guards than LeBron at this point).  

And only good can happen from taking one of the most notorious partiers in the current NBA out of the City That Is Never Asleep to Cleveland.  Is J.R. Smith happy he was just traded from the worst team in the NBA to a playoff team, or sad because he can’t get out to his favorite club this Thursday night?  Seriously though, J.R. Smith can score and maybe more importantly, he can catch and shoot (37% on catch and shoot 3-pointers).  Dion didn't want to catch and shoot, if Cleveland can convince J.R. to do so, he'll be effective.

Also, wasn't the fact that Reggie Jackson was rumored to be a part of this deal the ultimate trolling of Knicks fans?  How did that happen?  Knicks fans (and other NBA fans, myself included) were daydreaming of Jackson scoring 25 a night in Madison Square Garden attacking the rim relentlessly as Carmelo watched in street clothes from the sidelines.  It could have been Linsanity reborn and at least given Knicks something to root for over the next three months before he ultimately spurned them in free agency.  And then Woj drops the hammer on our dreams and Jackson mysteriously drops out of the deal.  Weird.

In both cases, OKC and Cleveland, the move does suggest their desperation to improve and probably reflects how wide open the league is this season.  I wouldn’t be surprised if either one of them made another move before the deadline. *

*Side note:  I can't shake Jeff Green for Perkins as thebasis for a deal out of my head.  Let's call it the Undo.  Throw in Bass, and Jackson and Perry Jones and count me in as a C's fan.  That gives OKC a core of Westbrook-Roberson-Waiters-Durant-Green-Ibaka-Bass-Collison-Adams.  That's better than waiting for Perry Jones or Lamb or McGary to develop, isn't it?

Overall, I like the trade most for Cleveland (they still desperately need a center), I’m curious about Dion in OKC, and I’m so apathetic about the Knicks it’s not even funny.  Across the league though, was this the main course as far as deadline deals, or was it an oh so delicious appetizer that leads to fireworks in early February?  Time (and twitter) will tell.