Waiters’ contract a limited payoff for all
Even without bonus, guard will earn $11.6 million this season
Heat guard Dion Waiters is
NEW YORK — To this stage, the four-year, $52 million contract the Miami Heat extended to Dion Waiters in the 2017 offseason has provided minimal payoff.
Oddly, because of that, there will be a net gain on the team’s financial ledger again this season.
As part of the contract signed in the wake of the Heat being unable to lure Gordon Hayward in 2017 free agency, the Heat included a bonus clause in Waiters’ deal for appearing in at least 70 games each season.
Because he was coming off a 2016-17 season when he appeared in only 46 games, the bonus was deemed as “unlikely,” therefore only counting against the salary cap and luxury tax if achieved.
Waiters appeared in just 30 games last season, undergoing January ankle surgery, losing out on that $1.1 million bonus.
Now, as he continues to work back from surgery, the $1.2 million bonus on the second year of the fouryear contract also was extinguished this week.
Waiters, 26, had been available far more often at the start of his career. After appearing in 61 games as a rookie with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2012-13, he played in 70 for the Cavaliers in 2013-14, a combined 80 with the Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder in 2014-15 and 78 with the Thunder in 2015-16.
The Heat signed Waiters to his current contract after he was limited by ankle soreness at the end of 2016-17, electing to bypass surgery during his freeagency summer.
Waiters has not traveled with the Heat since his January surgery — including this two-game trip of Wednesday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center and Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse — working extensively instead recently at AmericanAirlines Arena with assistant coach Anthony Carter.
Waiters had not earned more than $5.1 million in a season before signing his current contract, which will pay $11.6 million this season now that the bonus has been excluded.
The Heat worked incentive clauses into the contracts of Waiters and Kelly Olynyk in the 2017 offseason as a means of having the salary-cap space to re-sign Wayne Ellington, who again re-signed with the Heat this summer.
Olynyk met his bonus for playing 1,700 or more minutes last season, with that $1.4 million bonus for this season since folded into his salary for cap and tax purposes going forward.
Waiters underwent surgery to repair instability in the left ankle on Jan. 22, with a preexisting navicular bone fracture also repaired.
The Heat said they were aware of the navicular issue when the current agreement was signed.
The Heat received a $5.5 million salary-cap injury exception from the NBA last season for Waiters’ surgery, but did not utilize it before it expired at season’s end. It was available only to add a replacement player for the balance of 2017-18.
Waiters said at the start of his current contract that he would not prioritize the bonus over his health.
“I don’t care about that,” he said. “I get it or I don’t. If it’s something serious and I’ve got to sit out, I’m going to sit out.”
Sixth sense: With Dwyane Wade out, Erik Spoelstra has been going with Tyler Johnson as the Heat’s sixth man.
“He’s ignitable,” Spoelstra said of Johnson’s ability to score in bursts. “He can come in and be aggressive, right when he steps in and makes something happen. He does it on both sides of the floor, which is important for us.” . . .
Spoelstra said the tandem of Olynyk and Bam Adebayo continues to emerge as a workable combination of power players.
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