Miami Heat: 3 players who need to work hard leading up to training camp
Dion Waiters
Ankle surgery last January unfortunately sidelined him for the remainder of the 2017-18 season, but Dion Waiters is finally back on the practice court and ready to get back to work. Like Tyler Johnson, Waiters signed a stout four-year, $52 million contract with Miami, that runs until the 2020-21 NBA season.
When healthy, Waiters has proven that he can be the squad leader that the Miami Heat desperately need, especially on the offensive end of things.
When the Heat went on their incredible 25-game run between January and March of 2017, Waiters was a focal point in turning an 11-30 start into a 30-11 run, averaging 18.4 points per game and shooting just under 50 percent from the field. That kind of play from Waiters is exactly what the Heat need to in order to be successful this upcoming season.
The only problem is, that was in 2016-17.
Last year, before his season-ending surgery, Waiters ranked among the bottom in the league for shooting guards in both shooting percentage (39.8 percent) and 3-point percentage (30.6). Add those stats to both coming off of an injury and rust from not playing, and you’ve got a very uncertain future for Heat fans.
It’s promising knowing that Waiters is back on the practice court after rehabbing, but we can only hope he’s pushing himself to strive to get back to his January of 2017 form, and not the shell we saw last season before his injury.
Heat fans will just have to wait until the start of the season to see which version of Dion Waiters we get.