Heat clarifies where Waiters stands after suspension. And teammates eager to have him back
Dion Waiters is back with the Heat, and he made clear to teammates on Saturday that he was remorseful for his conduct that led to a 10-game suspension and also issued a public apology.
In the wake of Waiters’ suspension ending late Friday night, Waiters practiced with the team on Saturday and accompanied the Heat on a three-game road trip that begins Sunday in Brooklyn.
“He gave us his apology and his thoughts and we accept them and move forward,” guard Kendrick Nunn said.
Waiters was not made available for comment, but said in a statement issued by the team Saturday afternoon: “I would like to apologize to my teammates, coaches, basketball staff, the fans and the entire organization for the incident that happened on the team plane. I was wrong and take responsibility for what happened and am sorry for what it put everyone through.
“I am happy to be back with my teammates and am looking forward to getting back on the court playing basketball.”
In the statement, Waiters is referring to a medical situation he was involved in on the Heat’s flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles on the night of Nov. 7 in which he reportedly ingested a THC-infused gummy.
Erik Spoelstra said Waiters returned to the team Saturday in good shape.
“His conditioning is at least at a level we can work with him and get him to the next step,” he said. “We want to put this all behind us, get him with the team and move on from here.”
Asked if Waiters was remorseful, Spoelstra said: “Yeah, of course, that goes without saying. But everything that happened in our team meeting, I want to keep between us.”
Guard Goran Dragic said: “I am not going to say what he was talking, because it’s personal, but he did say some good things and we’re happy to have him back. We move on and hopefully we can play together again.”
Waiters returns to a deep Heat team, especially at the wing positions, and it’s undetermined when he will play in a game.
Asked if he can help on the court this season, Spoelstra said: “I’ve been around enough teams that no matter what happens during a season, you need everybody on your roster. As a head coach, I’ll continue to be open minded to whatever is best for this team.”
Spoelstra said chemistry has been unaffected by Waiters’ missteps: “We have a good group in that locker-room and this won’t change that at all.”
Udonis Haslem - who has spoken with Waiters during the suspension - said Waiters does not want to be traded and appears determined to make it right here.
Does he want to come back to the Heat? “Of course he does,” Haslem said.
Is he ready to accept any role? “I can’t tell you what his mindset is,” Haslem said, “but everybody understands the sacrifice that needs to be made to reach our goals.”
Asked Friday night - before Waiters’ apology to the team - if Waiters feels bad about what happened, Haslem said: “We don’t talk about that. We talk about the next step, what’s coming now, how we can build from that point on. Those are the conversations that I have with him, and I express my support for him. It’s not a time to turn your back and have a beat-down session. It’s time to be there for your brother.”
Asked if he wants to make things right here, Haslem said: “I’m sure he does. He understands what the situation was and he understands what he needs to do moving forward. That’s what we expect.”
Several other Heat players also made clear they welcomed Waiters back after he missed 11 of the team’s first 18 games for assorted violations of team rules, including complaining on the bench, declining to do one mandatory weigh-in, criticizing the Heat on social media and, most recently, the incident on the team plane earlier this month.
“He’s been in the trenches with us in the preseason; we want him back,” Jimmy Butler said. “Great, great individual. Hell of a ball player. We’re going to get him back in here and do what we’ve continually been doing.”
And Kelly Olynyk said: “You always want him back. He’s one of our brothers. I love Dion. Unbelievable basketball player, super talented. I think he can really help us in a lot of ways.”
The Heat is getting a second player back: Derrick Jones Jr., who has missed 10 games with a hip injury but is probable for Sunday’s game.
SCHEDULE TOUGHENS
The Heat is 10-0 so far this season against teams that don’t hold playoff seeds at the moment and 3-5 against teams that do. So this three-game road trip --- against three teams in playoff position (Brooklyn on Sunday, Toronto on Tuesday and Boston on Wednesday) --- will be telling.
“Against playoff opponents, we need to do a better job,” Dragic said. “This road trip will be a good test for us. It will be good to us to see where we’re at.”
But asked if the Heat has something to prove, Butler said: “Prove to who? All we need to work about is ourselves, trying to get Spo from cussing us out every halftime because we’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing. We need to lock in on ourselves. That’s the only people we need to prove something to.”
▪ Spoelstra said one factor in Tyler Herro’s rookie success - including 19 points and 5-for-6 three point shooting in Friday’s 122-105 win against Golden State - is “he’s playing with an All Star point guard coming in off the bench [Dragic]. I don’t think you can overstate that. That gives him confidence; he can be himself. We have great screeners with that unit he plays with. He can observe the start of the game and see the flow of things. He puts in a lot of time. I really commend him for that.”
▪ Having Justise Winslow play on the second unit, at least for now, gives him a level of familiarity after missing nine games with concussion symptoms.
“He and Goran and KO, they already have a great chemistry, among the three of them,” Spoelstra said. “So that, those minutes with those guys, it’s almost like [riding] a bike, again. And I think that helps him find his rhythm, and he’ll continue to get better as we get more games.
“With the second unit, we really have three guys that can be primary ball-handlers with Goran, Justise [Winslow] and Tyler, and they are all very different, which helps the diversity of the bench.”
▪ Golden State coach Steve Kerr said the fact the Heat has kept Haslem on the roster is a “message is that continuity matters. One of the things I respect about the Heat is no matter what kind of season they have, you know they’re going to play their ass off.”
▪ Spoelstra, on the Warriors struggling after making the NBA Finals five years in a row: “It’s the way of life in pro sports unless you’re the Patriots.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2019 at 2:44 PM.
