Dion Waiters has quietly improved this season. He's not using as many possessions as in past years, and as a result, he's found a role as a floor spacer and energy guy for the Thunder. He's having a career year as an outside shooter, connecting on a whopping 46 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. He even has the best plus/minus of all of the Thunder's bench players.
Dion Waiters actually isn’t that bad at shooting layups
Waiters missed a breakaway layup in embarrassing fashion on Wednesday, but he’s actually better at making them than many stars.
Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Of course, this is Dion Waiters, one of the Internet’s favorite whipping boys. Even when he’s having a good year by his standards, there is always something to mock. This year, it has been his inability to hit layups.
During the Thunder's win against the Pelicans, Waiters missed a breakaway layup with no one even close to him.
That is funny and embarrassing, but the stat ESPN dug up is terribly misleading.
Dion Waiters has now missed more layups (14) than he's made this season (13)
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) noviembre 19, 2015 That tweet was sent out during the game. Waiters went on to make two other layups, raising his percentage to 51.7 for the season. Barely cracking 50 percent on one of the easiest shots in basketball sounds terrible, right?
If you consider Russell Westbrook terrible at layups, then yes. Westbrook is shooting 51.8 percent at layups, according to NBA.com's stats page. Superstar-in-the-making Andrew Wiggins has actually missed more layups (28) than he's made (23). So have Kevin Durant (11-for-23), Jimmy Butler (14-for-33) and Carmelo Anthony (21-for-48), among many others.
Waiters is considered a joke, so it’s easy to believe he’s an anomaly when it comes to making layups. But overall, he’s actually been a decent finisher at the rim. What is causing his very low 38 percent mark on two-point shots is his dreadful mid-range shooting, not his inability to finish.
It’s perfectly fine to laugh at Waiters for missing that wide open layup, but that’s not what makes him a mediocre player. Terrible shot selection, poor defense and some of the worst body language in the league are the reasons he’s yet to reach his potential.
While Waiters is marginally improving, there are still plenty of reasons to mock him. We don’t need to make another one-up.
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