South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Waiters won’t let words get in the way
In return, guard’s solid play does all his talking
MIAMI — It wasn’t a mic drop, but Dion Waiters decided to let his play do the talking.
So, no, still not a single comment from the enigmatic Miami Heat guard this season in a team setting, but now at least there are minutes, points and an actual sighting.
Mostly out of view — and fully out of earshot — this season, Waiters, after three team suspensions, again can be found in the Heat’s team statistics. His Friday return saw him go 17 minutes, 59 seconds in a 122-117 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers at AmericanAirlines Arena.
It was a performance that featured 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting, including 4 of 9 on 3-pointers, with four rebounds, two blocked shots, an assist, three fouls and two turnovers. The Heat outscored the Clippers by eight when Waiters was on the court.
And then — silence. He left the locker room before it was opened to media, after previously being placed off limits for comment by the team until his first appearance.
There was some team-related talk for Waiters, but that came hours earlier, when coach Erik Spoelstra took to Facetime to let the 28-year-old guard know that after 44 games of spectating there likely would be minutes, with Goran
Dragic out with a calf issue and Kendrick Nunn with an Achilles injury.
“That’s the whole deal nowadays,” said Spoelstra, particularly proud of his tech savvy. “You don’t just call anybody; you have to Facetime. And when I called him, in typical Dion fashion, he said, ‘I’m ready.’ And it was good to have him back out there.”
It was a sentiment echoed in the locker room as the Heat moved into a two-day break before Monday’s return against the visiting Orlando Magic.
Because for all the terms put out by the team regarding those three Waiters suspensions totaling 17 games without pay — including “conduct detrimental to the team” and “insubordination” — the affection for the 2012 first-round pick out of Syracuse never waned.
“Dion’s the best,” guard Duncan Robinson said. “He’s just fun to be around.”
“He came in every single day with a great mindset and a great attitude,” rookie guard Tyler Herro added.
“He’s done his best as a true professional,” center Meyers Leonard stressed.
While there was a question of when, or even if, Waiters would escape the doghouse, there was little doubt about the eventual bark, in this case a pair of late blocked shots against Lou Williams, followed by a 3-pointer that drew the Heat within three with 34.2 seconds to play after they had trailed by 18.
“He’s got big cojones, man,” center Bam Adebayo said. “You can definitely see it in his swagger. And that’s what Dion is all about — Dion making the big shots, the big plays. He’s built for those moments.”
And the moment was built for him. Spoelstra was left with limited options once Dragic and Nunn were ruled out, and then when Jimmy Butler hobbled to the locker room midway through the fourth quarter, lost for the night — and possibly longer — with a sprained right ankle.
“Inevitably, during a long NBA season, you need everybody to contribute,” Spoelstra said. “It’s not always necessarily going to be on your terms. But [the] last two or three weeks, he’s been a lot more consistent.
“He’s fearless. He wants those moments.”
With his teammates embracing more, circumstances allowing.
“I felt great for Dion,” Adebayo said, “seeing him bounce back from all the things he went through, all the ups and downs he’s had throughout the season and the offseason. I’m proud of Dion, of the way he had this game. Now hopefully he can keep that going, moving forward.”
Of that, from an attitude perspective, there is little doubt.
“Hey man, scorers score,” center Kelly Olynyk said. “Dion does that very well.
“Obviously, he stayed ready. He’s been ready, and he has that mentality that he’s going to go out, play his game and shoot the ball and score and do what he does well.”
With teammates appreciative of the journey, as circuitous as it has proved.
“First of all, that just shows you how talented he is,” Leonard said. “Everybody in this locker room knows that, everybody in this organization knows that.
“I would just say that behind the scenes, he’s done his best to stay ready, and I suppose earn the trust that it takes to make your way back into the lineup. People make mistakes. That’s part of life.”