Cavs' Waiters on early-season frustration: 'I would be mad before I even got in the game'
Dion Waiters spent his Friday night in the hospital with abdominal pain, but that was nothing compared to the pain of losing his spot in the Cleveland Cavaliers starting rotation after just three games.
Perhaps emboldened by the Cavaliers' titanic offseason, Waiters went on record before the season started, refuting a proclamation by Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal and laying claim (along with point guard Kyrie Irving) to the mantle of best starting backcourt in the NBA.
Barely a week into the season, though, Waiters wasn't even starting. A month later, he was still shooting well below 40 percent and getting the quick hook, playing the fewest minutes of his career.
"I would be mad before I even got in the game," Waiters told Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group, about dealing with sporadic playing time early in the season. "I was mad, [but] it is what it is."
Waiters compared the initial frustration to how he felt having to play a sixth man role during his time at Syracuse University, where he felt he deserved a bigger part.
"It was like Deja Vu all over again," he said.
Thankfully for the Cavs, Waiters finally seems to be embracing his role and finding a groove. In the three games prior to Friday night's loss to the New Orleans Pelicans - in which he missed the second half due to the abdominal pain that hospitalized him - Waiters averaged 19.3 points on 52 percent shooting, including a season-high 26 points in a Dec. 8 win over the Brooklyn Nets, with the British Royal Couple in attendance.
Waiters said he met with head coach David Blatt multiple times to address his struggles, but that the two didn't immediately see eye-to-eye.
"Yeah, we talked," Waiters said. "He said his side of the story and I said mine. It took a while. It took a while for us to actually start getting it."
If Waiters "getting it" resembles his last handful of games - in which he's picked his spots, attacked the basket, and gotten quality, high-percentage looks - the Cavs could have a fourth weapon to bolster their already frightening offense. Waiters seems to feel that the worst is behind him.
"I was just fighting myself, man," he said. "That's what I was doing. I just left it alone. I'm going to make the best of it. I got good people in my corner who actually care for me. I'll be good."