Heat sweat lodge could await Waiters, Johnson

BOCA RATON — It is everything the Miami Heat insist they stand for, pushing to the limit, digging deeper, never capitulating.

But sometimes the good fight becomes the extended fight, one that impacts not only one season but also the next.

That is where the team stands with Dion Waiters and James Johnson as they break camp.

Eighteen teammates are ready for what comes next.

Two ostensibly have yet to report to boot camp.

What awaits Waiters and Johnson figures to be more grueling than anything Erik Spoelstra has put his other players through. And it will have to be completed with the clock ticking, paid in sweat equity.

Waiters and Johnson are not in NBA shape, let alone Heat shape. No one with the team is denying that, as Waiters recovers from January ankle surgery, Johnson from May hernia surgery.

For the Heat, the upcoming timetable is clear, the preseason opening with Sunday’s exhibition in San Antonio, the regular season opening Oct. 17 in Orlando.

For Waiters and Johnson, a sweat lodge of sorts awaits.

Waiters again was on the court Friday at Florida Atlantic University, getting up jumpers in a controlled session with assistant coach Anthony Carter. Johnson said he again is dunking.

The Waiters story has been well chronicled, signed to an extension in July 2017 at a time the team was aware of his ankle issue, reporting pain during last year’s training camp and then finally undergoing surgery in January with a recovery timetable of eight to 10 months.

But Johnson’s status largely was unknown last season, as he attempted to push through his discomfort.

“Obviously they knew something was wrong with it,” Johnson said Friday, “but it wasn’t for certain until I got the X-rays.”

Johnson said the intention never was to deceive, but rather to push through pain, as would be expected of a tri-captain.

“It was really no secret,” he said. “I went out there and gave it the best I got and, ’I’m not going to have this be no excuse,’ or, ’He

could have been better if he hadn’t had this or hadn’t had that.’

“To me, I was out there playing. It was no secret. I got treatment on it. I did everything I had to do for treatment and I’ll leave it as that.”

What the Heat wound up with was a less-thanoptimal Johnson for half of last season and now no guarantee of a return in time for opening night.

“I was definitely in my peak shape before,” he said of the start of last season, before the injury in late January. “I was 6.75 body fat. I was 240, 239. I was feeling good, flying at the beginning of the season.

“But it’s hard to work when it hurts. And there’s a difference between just working out and working on your game and running on the treadmill and riding the bike when it’s not game time.”

Spoelstra said the Heat last season, in consultation with trainer Jay Sabol, followed what they believed to be the most prudent approach.

“We were aware and we worked together with Jay and the medical staff for the best plan to get through the season,” he said. “In this case, everybody was involved in the process, the training, the medical staff and J.J.”

But it also was clear it was not the same player who had helped spark the Heat to a 30-11 finish in 2016-17.

“In testing,” Spoelstra said, “there was an idea of what it could be.”

The hope now, after the conditioning gets back to the Heat’s expectations, is that the explosion will return.

“I think so,” Johnson said. “Everything is never assured when it comes to surgery. Doctors can say one thing. But I firmly believe in our doctors, and I believe in our rehab staff, our training staff. I feel like I’m on the right road right now. I’m already dunking a little bit. So I know it’s coming back just a little bit.”