A few days ago, the Thunder made an addition to their roster by acquiring Dion Waiters from the Cavaliers as part of a three-team trade.
On the floor, Waiters gives the Thunder another scoring option off the bench to go along with Reggie Jackson. It also gives them insurance for next season in case Jackson, who will be a free agent, does not return. Before any of that happens, there was the matter of what uniform number Waiters would wear for his new team.
Waiters will be suiting up in No. 23, but that wasn’t his preferred choice. No. 3, which he wore with Cleveland and in college, is unavailable. So is No. 1, another favorite of his. Combining them for No. 13 also wasn’t an option because, apparently, the Thunder didn’t want him to wear the number previously used by James Harden.
“(The Thunder) didn’t want me to wear (number) 13,” Waiters said per Sam Amick of USA Today. “I guess they wanted me to have my own identity. We’re going to make 23 look good, though.”
While the Thunder want Waiters to carve out his own niche and have his own identity with them, the immediate thought of many people was that he would assume (or attempt to) a Harden-like role for Oklahoma City. If Dion Waiters can come to close to that, it would bode well for the Thunder. He just won’t be doing it in James Harden’s old number.
