Waiters offers some advice to Whiteside
‘The best thing to do is just bite your tongue sometimes,’ he says on ESPN.
MIAMI — Dion Waiters has some advice for Hassan Whiteside.
During an appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up” morning show last week, host Jalen Rose asked about White
side’s complaints about his diminished playing time and role. Waiters said the Heat’s $98 million center should have handled it differently.
“As far as Hassan, the best thing to do is just bite your tongue sometimes,” Waiters answered. “So I think he should learn from this. But ... it should motivate him. At the end of the day, you don’t cry about that.”
Whiteside averaged 25.3 minutes of playing time in the regular season after logging a career-high 32.6 minutes in 2016-17. His averages also declined from 17.0 to 14.0 points per game and from 14.1 to 11.4 rebounds per game this season.
Whiteside was fined by the organization in March for a profanity-laced rant about his lack of playing time and also expressed his dissatisfaction about how he
was being used by coach Erik Spoelstra in the Heat’s firstround playoff series against the Sixers, which Miami lost in five games. Whiteside averaged 5.2 points and 6.0 rebounds in 15.4 minutes in the postseason.
“Me personally, whatever happened, whatever went on, I would have got right in the gym,” Waiters said. “I’m going to prove myself, I’m going to prove it to everybody else.”
But Waiters didn’t have a chance to prove himself down the stretch this past season. He’s been out since December after undergoing season-ending ankle surgery, forcing him to miss the Heat’s playoff series against his hometown Sixers.
“For me, personally, it was tough,” Waiters said, “because that’s something I always dreamed about, just being home, in Philly, in the playoffs, the atmosphere, you know my family, my friends, everybody who watched me grow up. I wasn’t able to partake in that. It was so hard to watch. I felt I let my team down, but there’s nothing I could do but just try to get better and come back stronger next year.”
Don’t bet on Kawhi to Heat: Outside of whether Heat president Pat Riley can move Whiteside, perhaps the biggest question surrounding the team entering the offseason is if the Heat have a chance to acquire Kawhi Leonard, if the Spurs decide it’s time to trade the 6-foot-7 forward. Leonard and the Spurs have been in a bizarre standoff most of the season over a quad injury, with coach Gregg Popovich having given up on Leonard playing by the end of the season.
All of which has led to speculation that San Antonio is ready to move on from the 26-year-old, who has twice been named All-NBA first team and Defensive Player of the Year.
If the situation is irreparable, and the Spurs put Leonard on the market, can the Heat get in the conversation?
One Las Vegas book does not think so. In fact, the Heat aren’t even on their board.
Bovada still has San Antonio at the top of the list of teams Leonard could be on when next season starts. But if Leonard is moved, eight teams appear on the board, with the best odds going to Philadelphia and the longest to Charlotte and Milwaukee.
Most of the teams mentioned have young, budding talent or a perennial All-Star or an attractive draft choice to offer the Spurs. With Riley saying that nobody is untouchable this summer, the Heat might be able to get into the game by offering a combination of their top young players — Bam Adebayo, Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow — or perhaps all three, along with their 2019 first-round pick. But that still probably isn’t enough.