LeBron James Likes Dion Waiters Coming Off The Bench For Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers are still looking for a perfect rhythm in the just starting 2014-2015 National Basketball Association (NBA) season and LeBron James has a few ideas on how the team can get optimum performance from their line-up: put Dion Waiters permanently as the sixth man for the team.

“For the best of the team, that should be Dion's role," James said via cleveland.com. "Dion comes off the bench and brings us that scoring mentality but more than that, he brings us another defender off the bench, which we need. Someone that's tough, someone that can guard one through three. It's a new role, but it's a good role for him.”

James opinion is not new as it’s something that has been discussed both inside the Cavaliers camp and by basketball pundits. Before the season started, Waiters was not warm to the idea of player of his caliber coming off the bench. It appears Waiters’ wish for a spot in the starting line-up will be in the back burner especially if he can come off the bench and contribute more like he did in a recent win versus the Denver Nuggets. In the team’s 110-101 victory at Denver, Waiters finished with 17 points— his highest scoring output for the season.

He has so far started 3 of 5 games for the Cavaliers this season and has season averages of 9.4 points and 1.2 rebounds per game, both career-lows. He started the first three games against the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers and the team went 1-2. Waiters came off the bench against the Utah Jazz, which beat the Cavaliers 102-100 and the game against Denver.

With the trio of James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving all starting for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team doesn’t really need Waiters’ offence in the first five. But with a thinner bench than other NBA teams, Waiters’ role as a sixth man and the primary scorer off the bench can bode well not only for his production but for the Cavaliers’ overall efficiency.