Heat reinstates Waiters from suspension. Why he won’t join team immediately
Dion Waiters’ one-game suspension is over, but he will not travel with the Miami Heat on its upcoming two-game trip after being away from the team all week.
The Heat guard will miss Saturday’s road game against the Milwaukee Bucks and Sunday’s road game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Waiters is expected to rejoin the team on Miami’s off-day on Monday, and thus is expected to be available for Tuesday’s home matchup against the Hawks.
Waiters was suspended for Wednesday’s season-opening win over the Grizzlies for conduct detrimental to the team.
A statement issued by the Heat on Saturday night read: “The Miami Heat announced today that Dion Waiters has been suspended for one game for conduct detrimental to the team. He will be able to return to the team on Thursday.”
“There were a number of unacceptable incidents this week, culminating with his unprofessional conduct on the bench last night,” Heat president Pat Riley said in the statement issued by the team on Saturday. “As a consequence, I feel we had to suspend him.”
According to a source, there was a disagreement between Waiters and coach Erik Spoelstra on the bench during Friday’s preseason finale against the Rockets. Waiters finished with two points, two rebounds and one assist in 10 minutes as a reserve against Houston, with nine players logging more minutes than him in the game.
Waiters played off the bench in each of the four preseason games he appeared in, but he has made it clear that he wants to be a starter. Spoelstra has remained non-committal about that, and he started guards Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn in the season opener with Jimmy Butler unavailable due to personal reasons.
In four preseason games, Waiters averaged eight points on 44.8 percent shooting, one rebound and 2.5 assists in 14.3 minutes.
It’s unclear whether Waiters’ “unprofessional conduct” is related to his current bench role, but it is clear there is a disconnect between Waiters and Spoelstra on this issue.
In response to an Instagram post questioning why Waiters won’t accept a bench role, Waiters posted Tuesday: “It’s not my ego. I’ll play whateva role it’s has nothing to do with basketball. I seen the writing on the wall.”
Hours after news of Waiters’ suspension surfaced Saturday night, he posted on his Instagram story: “Eventually the truth will come to the light.” Waiters’ account also responded elsewhere to an Instagram post with, “I would win to if I had Bron & wade plus bosh,” in reference to Spoelstra’s success coaching LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh during the Heat’s Big 3 era.
To a comment that read, “[Tyler] Herro as a rookie is far and away better than dion,” Waiters responded by commenting “lol.”
Waiters never reached optimal shape last season after returning from injury, but he dedicated this offseason to reshaping his body. He said he dropped 15 pounds this past summer, but Spoelstra said during training camp that Waiters wasn’t yet in “Miami Heat shape.”
“I know I got a ways to go,” Waiters acknowledged during the preseason. “We’re taking it one day at a time. As long as I continue to stay on top of my stuff and make sure I’m doing all the right things. At the end of the day, it only can help me. I know what’s best for me, coach does, too.”
Waiters is entering the third season of a four-year, $52 million contract he signed with the Heat in the summer of 2017. He has a $1.1 million bonus in his contract for appearing in at least 70 of Miami’s 82 games this season.
With Waiters now ruled out for the Heat’s first three games of the season, it reduces his chance of achieving that bonus.
Waiters, 27, is entering his fourth season with the Heat. He has missed 126 of a possible 246 regular-season games over his first three seasons with Miami, with January 2018 surgery on his left ankle accounting for most of those.
This story was originally published October 24, 2019 at 8:16 PM.
