This might be the first year that Kemba has some adequate shot makers to pass to, which should help his numbers. Kemba has been expected to do a lot in their system and has to create most of his own shots. The fact that the Hornets haven't been able to space the floor out with any shooters hasn't helped Kemba out at all - the lanes are clogged for him and he has to jack up a lot of late second shots at the shot clock. Hopefully Jeremy Lamb and Nic Batum will help him out a lot in this regard. I'm also under the assumption that this is a big reason the Hornets wanted to draft Frank Kaminsky - he's 7 feet and can stretch the floor.
Dion Waiters has a totally different role on his team, anyways. He's not expected to be the lead point guard. He wasn't on Cleveland and he wasn't in OKC. In fact, he had a ton of other talented players around him to open up shots for him. His shooting numbers should be better than Kemba's based off of this, but they're not.
Kemba is absolutely a better player, and is certainly respected here in Charlotte. I think he's a much better dude than Waiters, he plays hard every time on the court, and it really seems like his teammates respect him and often look to him at the end of games. I realize the point of the article is to say that having a good personality, good body language, being a good dude etc. can be a huge difference - which is fine. It's just that the idea that you can even compare Waiters and Kemba in the first place is kind of moot.
