Heat makes move in Dion Waiters saga
The Heat said Monday that the organization will reinstate guard Dion Waiters after his six-game suspension ends with the conclusion of Monday night’s game against Utah.
The Heat said Waiters will re-join the team, participate in practice and be with the team on the bench during games.
But whether Waiters ever appears in a game again is very much in question.
Waiters is completing his third suspension for violation of team rules and insubordination. He has been suspended for 17 of the Heat’s first 30 games.
According to multiple sources, the Heat would prefer to move on from Waiters but there aren’t appealing options to do so. For example, it would take an agreement between Waiters and the Heat to keep him away from the team, while still being paid and no such agreement is in place.
With no team interested in trading for Waiters, it serves Miami’s best interests to keep Waiters on the books because his salary could be used as filler in a trade.
A source briefed on the situation said the Heat has been open to a buyout of the final year-and-a-half of his contract, but Waiters at this point has been disinclined to accept anything less than $12.1 million he’s owed this year and the $12.7 million he’s due to make next season.
That $12.1 million salary for this season has been reduced by $1.4 million because of the three suspensions.
No team has shown interest in trading for Waiters, and Miami is disinclined to attach an asset - or do anything to affect 2021 cap space - for the purpose of purging Waiters.
The ongoing six-game suspension, which ends Monday, was partly the byproduct of Waiters posting Instagram pictures of himself on a boat during a period last week when he told the team he was unable to practice or play because of an illness, as reported by fivereasonssports.com and also told to The Miami Herald.
There have been more than a half dozen team violations by Waiters this season, including complaining on the bench during the preseason finale, refusing to do a required weigh-in and several inappropriate posts on social media.
The Heat has declined to comment on the current suspension beyond saying it resulted from “his failure to adhere to team policies, violation of team rules and continued insubordination.”
Waiters’ agent, Rich Paul, has declined to comment on the situation.
Earlier in the day, ESPN insider and former Nets executive Bobby Marks said after speaking with executives around the league, “one thing that every team agreed upon: Waiters’ career is likely over, barring an incredibly unlikely turnaround.
“That is why Waiters’ entertaining a buyout should be off the table,” Marks wrote. “Even if he signed a contract next season, it would be for a minimum, non-guaranteed $2.6 million salary, making it difficult for him to recoup whatever he would give up in buyout talks.”
Marks added every executive agreed that Waiters “is untouchable when it comes to a trade.”
This story was originally published December 23, 2019 at 6:00 PM.
