Miami Heat: The wait is almost over for Dion Waiters
Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters is almost ready to make his return.
It looks like the wait may finally be over for 27-year-old shooting guard Dion Waiters.
On Friday, Waiters agreed to join the Miami Heat’s G League team. He traveled with the Sioux Falls Skyforce and plans to stay there and practice until Sunday, where he’ll join the team in Miami against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It’s not for certain if he’ll be suiting up or not against Minnesota, but his return is now closer than ever.
While we continue to be held in suspense of will he or won’t he, let’s take a look at the journey so far of Miami’s own “Philly Cheese” himself, Waiters.
Waiters, a former No. 4 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, signed with the Heat as a free agent in 2016 and soon showed the team exactly why he belonged.
He tied his career-high of 33 points in back-to-back wins against the Milwaukee Bucks, and the unforgettable game against the Golden State Warriors, where he made an amazing 3-pointer, leaving 0.6 seconds on the clock and pushing the Heat ahead 105-102.
His performance in these games also led to him being named NBA Eastern Conference Player of the week for the week ending on January 29, 2017.
Great things were expected of Waiters, who at this point earned the nickname 7-11 with other Heat guard Goran Dragic.
Together, they were a backcourt duo that some teams dreamed of. At one point, they were averaging more 3-pointers than the Splash Brothers Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, more assists than the former Toronto dynamic duo Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, and shooting 51 percent from the field, more than any other duo at the time.
Together, they were going to make magic happen and they did… until they didn’t.
A pectineus tear and personal reasons kept him out of stints of games throughout the year, and Waiters ultimately ended his season early with an ankle injury causing him to miss the last 13 games. He finished with an average 15.8 points, and a career-high 4.3 assists, and 39 percent shooting from behind the 3-point line.
He only played a total of 46 games.
Impressed with what Waiters brought to the team, even through his injuries, the Heat offered him a four-year, $52 million contract in July of 2017, making sure that he would be with the team until at least 2021.
Unfortunately, since signing his contract over a year ago, Waiters has only played in 30 games with this Heat team.
In the beginning of the 2017-18 season, Waiters did what Waiters does.
His overall playing wasn’t spectacular, but neither was the rest of the team’s. His only standout game of the season came against the Timberwolves, where he scored another tied career-high 33 points, but that number was overshadowed by the fact that the team lost the game in overtime.
The continued averaging playing of the Heat that we all know and love lasted through the season ending in a record of 44-38.
Being slightly above average got them into the playoffs, but were knocked out 4-1 by the ever-growing Philadelphia 76ers.
This playoffs run, of course, was without the help of Waiters.
Waiters started in all 30 games that he had played in the season and missed another two because of the birth of his daughter. He last suited up with the Heat on December 23, 2017 and missed the last 50 games of the season.
He elected to have surgery on his ankle in January of 2018, in hopes of it no longer hindering his hoop dreams, and on January 22 he underwent a successful surgery where they repaired his ankle and also a pre-existing navicular bone.
He was expected to miss the rest of the season and had a recovery time of eight to ten months.
Finally, 11 months later and here we are finally expecting to see Waiters in action within the next coming days, or more realistically, weeks.
In Sioux Falls with the SkyForce G League team, Waiters will finally participate in full-on five-on-five practices. His time spent with the developmental team is going to be one of the final determinations to see if he’s ready to re-join the team.
At 17-17 and winning six out of their last eight games, the Heat’s momentum is finally picking up and Waiters would be an extra piece of support in helping the guys execute and complete their run to the playoffs.
Next. Miami Heat: How Hassan Whiteside, Bam Adebayo are causing a revolution. dark
Here’s to a prompt and healthy return.