Waiters touching ball less, but apparently it feels like more

At least Dion Waiters sounds happier with the Oklahoma City Thunder. As a player who had become a poster boy for inefficiency with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he's seen his shooting tick up since arriving on Jan. 5. 

Waiters' field-goal percentage is 45.3 percent in five games with the Thunder as opposed to 40.4 with Cleveland and his effective field-goal percentage at 50 percent against 43.6.

Sounds like he feels liberated, as the Syracuse product told The Oklahoman's Darnell Mayberry.

They give me the ball. Like, I touch the ball. Like, I actually, like, you know, touch the ball.

Just a hunch, but the repetition was likely for effect. 

However, the stats say otherwise. Specifically SportVu stats, as pointed out by NBA.com's John Schuhmann. 

Mayberry's piece included a quote from Kevin Durant, the day Waiters was acquired in the J.R. Smith/Iman Shumpert three-way deal.

"We're gonna make him feel wanted," Durant said. "I don't think he felt that the last couple years."

That could be deduced from situations like this, following LeBron James's return to Cleveland.

As Schuhmann also notes, however, Waiters actually got more passes from James per 36 minutes than Durant so far. 

Add Reggie Jackson to the list of non-passers to Waiters. This, from Sunday against the Orlando Magic.

Touches or not, Waiters is cutting into starting shooting guard Andre Roberson's playing time in a big way. Since his first game in Thunder blue on Jan. 7, Waiters has played 138 minutes to Roberson's 67.