Miami Heat: What to make of this Dion Waiters trade scenario

An ESPN writer pondered how Golden State might look to fill the voids left by KD and Klay Thompson. The Miami Heat’s Dion Waiters was a name he mentioned.

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton pondered recently about how the Golden State Warriors might look to fill the offensive voids left in the wake of injuries to Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson. The piece was titled “Ten Warriors free-agency and trade targets to help replace KD and Klay“, and among the ten options was none other than the Miami Heat’s own, Dion Waiters.

Coming off a season in which he averaged 12 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game on 41.4 overall shooting and 37.7 from 3, Dion Waiters didn’t exactly set the world on fire. On top of the fact that these numbers are down across the board from the season that earned him a four year/$52 million dollar deal from the Miami Heat, Waiters only played 44 games this past season.

While this should come as no surprise, as he has only played 70 or more games twice in his seven-year career, Waiters hasn’t played more than 46 games during any of his three seasons with the Heat. While he can be a scoring machine when he is all the way right, he hasn’t seemingly been that way over the past few seasons.

When it comes to potential interest from another team, whether it be the Golden State Warriors or the Harlem Globetrotters, the Miami Heat should and would probably welcome a trade. As he hasn’t been a total failure during his tenure, you wouldn’t go anywhere near saying that it has been a success either.

Injury has been the thing that has hurt Waiters the most during his tenure with the Miami Heat, but that hasn’t been the only thing. When analyzing his time, something else that has hurt him is the extra attention.

Waiters is arguably one of the most offensively gifted players on the Miami Heat roster when it comes to perimeter play, and it’s safe to say the opposing teams knew it. While other players on the team struggled to create offense for themselves or score in general, defenses could then key in on stopping Waiters whenever he was in the game.

This would not be a problem if he were somewhere like Golden State, because even if he were in the starting lineup, he would at best be the second option behind Stephen Curry and perhaps the third as Draymond Green will have to improve his offensive output for much of next season.

When it’s all taken into consideration, a move like this would probably be the best thing for all parties involved. This is completely a three-sided notion though.

The Golden State Warriors obviously need help to replace what they were getting from those two superstars that went down in the playoffs. The Miami Heat are probably in a place where they would rather not pay Waiters the $24 and 3 quarters of a million dollars that they owe him over the next two seasons, based on the production or lack thereof he has provided across the first two. Waiters would probably welcome a change of scenery as well after performing as he has over the last two seasons and besides, who doesn’t want to go to a team that is moving into a shiny new arena and that’s competed for titles the last four seasons or so.

If there is an opportunity to make a deal with Golden State, the Miami Heat should seize the opportunity. After all and as mentioned, that would probably be the best thing for all three parties involved in the equation.