Why the Cavaliers won the 3-team trade with the Knicks and Thunder

In his letter to announce his return to Cleveland, LeBron James said he hoped to help elevate Dion Waiters's game. Six months later, Waiters is on his way to Oklahoma City as part of a three-team deal involving the Cavaliers, Thunder and New York Knicks.

That says something about Waiters, who couldn't take advantage of a new role with James and Kevin Love in town, drawing attention away from him.

Taking on J.R. Smith and his nearly $6.4-million player option for 2015-16 is hardly a victory - Smith resembles Waiters in his shot selection, allergy to defense and ball-stopping. Plus, Smith's six years older and holds little future upside.

But Smith, the 2013 Sixth Man of the Year, at least offers something right now in the form of 3-point shooting. While Waiters has struggled to knock down threes at a 25.6 percent clip this season and a 32.8 percent clip over his three-year career, Smith has converted over 35 percent of his long-range attempts this season and 37 percent over the last three seasons.

More importantly, the Cavs added Iman Shumpert's defensive ability on the perimeter to a team that entered Monday with the 23rd-ranked defense (105.5 points allowed per 100 possessions) and often struggles to contain dribble-penetration.

The Cavs still need to find a rim protector - and it's a shame they couldn't turn whatever was left of Waiters's trade value into one - but stopping that dribble-penetration is a form of protecting the rim in its own right.

Cleveland also acquired a protected first-round draft pick from OKC, which should be conveyed this June so long as the Thunder continue to surge.

Giving up on Waiters, the No. 4 overall pick in 2012, so soon without addressing the team's biggest area of weakness is a tough pill to swallow, and a reminder of Cleveland's largely poor drafting over the last four years or so. But forgetting for a moment that Waiters was a top-five pick - or that Shumpert will be a restricted free agent this summer - the Cavs traded one disappointing, frustrating player for two better players and a first-round pick likely coming this year.

For a team as invested in win-now mode as Cleveland is, that's a fine haul, and a better one than either New York or Oklahoma City received.

The Knicks dumped Smith's contract, grabbed a future second-round pick, netted a couple trade exceptions and cleared cap space ahead of a big summer for the franchise. But they also watched Shumpert, once their only valuable young asset, depart without a tangible return.

While the Thunder added some scoring ability, the last thing they need is another ball-stopper to stagnate Scott Brooks's offense, and they shouldn't count on Waiters suddenly knocking down his shots in a system that offers less spacing than Cleveland's. It could be a low-risk, high-reward move for OKC. It could also be seen as giving up a first-round pick for a player who may define subtraction by addition.