SJSF wrote:No interest in Waiters. He has a low PER and has a bad attitude He is also a short SG.
I love the PER stat in general to evaluate players, and think that it is easily the best single stat that most approximates a player's value that I have ever come across. However, it is a statistical measure of production, and not a statistical measure of talent. It measures what you can currently do, but if you are an inch away from success or totally off the mark, it measures you the same way. For example, it measures your shooting percentage, but it has no quantification to show whether you are back rimming shots with a defender or two in your face, or if you are air balling open jump shots.
Waiters is a 22 year old kid in a borderline toxic situation with Irving as his point guard. Waiters and MCW is a dream combination for him compared to Waiters and Irving.
He is also a cranky and immature guy with a bad attitude, which obviously contributes to the problem. I'm not saying that he is blameless, but I do think that these are mitigating factors that keep down his PER.
I agree that ideally we would want a better shooting and defending 2 guard on our team, but the number one skill that he has is one that is absolutely essential on a team. He is a high level scorer. You can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Waiters has the potential on this team to score 20+ points a game with better efficiency due primarily to playing with a better match at the point for him. He is a guy that wants the ball, and those guys are more often than not born, and not made.
He won't reach his potential if he doesn't improve his conditioning and his attitude, and many players that have those problems never do improve them, but his talent is worth a try.
I wouldn't be for signing him if he was a free agent and we were going to have to pay him 10 million a year, but if we can get him for basically just Thad and cash for a couple of years on his rookie deal before we have to decide then it is a no brainer.
