Waiters, Spoelstra in agreement on health
MIAMI When it comes to conditioning, Dion Waiters says he is on the same page with Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
When it comes to continuity, the two appear chapters apart.
In the wake of his 19-point first-half breakout in the road preseason win Wednesday over the Charlotte Hornets, Waiters said it was evident that Spoelstra is holding him out of the starting lineup as a means of motivation.
The thing is, Waiters said, the motivation is working as he works back from ankle surgery and conditioning missteps.
“I’ll continue to stay on the top of my stuff and make sure I’m doing all of the right things,” Waiters said, with the Heat in the midst of a four-day break before a Monday exhibition against the Atlanta Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“At the end of the day, it only can help me. I know what’s best for me; Coach does too. And it shows.
“So I got to keep trusting it and stick with what I’ve been doing, continue to get better each day and continue to keep working to get where I want to.”
That, more than Waiters bristling at the reserve role he has played in the first two preseason games, is what Spoelstra wants to hear.
“The main thing right now is to keep Dion progressing and get [him] in world-class shape, and he’s committed to that process,” Spoelstra said. “He’s not there yet.
“He still has another couple of gears he can get to that we have seen when he gets to the right type of shape that we want him to get to. But that’s encouraging what we saw.
“We want to get him in Miami Heat shape, and he’s getting there. But he’s getting his legs under him and he can give us that kind of boost when his body is feeling right.”
Being able to push through back-to-back exhibitions in the end likely means more than when Waiters’ minutes are coming.
“It felt good without no pain,” he said of his previously troublesome ankle. “It definitely felt good.
“Being able to play in back-to-backs and don’t be sore, man, that’s truly a blessing.”
Waiters said when he is shooting jumpers now it is because opponents again are respecting his ability to get into the paint with greater explosiveness than displayed the past two seasons.
“I’m drawing so much attention because most of the time people want to keep me out of the paint,” he said. Dion Waiters was active and aggressive Wednesday in
“But I feel like I can get into the paint. A lot of times, with the teams, everybody’s coming into the paint, so I’m able to find guys on the outside or find guys that are cutting.
“Once that happens during the games, it opens up for me.”
Nunn sense: Given the opportunity to start Wednesday with the absences of Goran Dragic, Jimmy Butler and Justise Winslow, summer-league standout Kendrick Nunn not only thrived in Charlotte as the starting point guard but also when he played off the ball.
“All Kendrick Nunn needs is an opportunity and minutes, which are not easy to come by with our roster,” Spoelstra said. “But he is a mature, steady, complete basketball player.
“What position is he? I don’t know. He’s a guard. He’s a handler. He does play well off the ball. He’s an efficient player, but he knows how to make an impact.
“When you put the ball in his hands, I feel very comfortable he’s going to make a solid play. His assist-to-turnover ratio has always been good for us in summer league. He makes shots. And if you have to play him off the ball, he’s not just going to stand around; e’s going to cut. As we say, the ball will find energy.” Former NBA player Yao Ming, now president of the Chinese Basketball Association, announced the association was suspending ties with the NBA’s Houston Rockets.
affect their bottom line. Oh, there were probably some upset fans when the Heat of the Big Three era donned hoodies like murdered teen Trayvon Martin.
But China really hits the owners’ and players’ partnership. The teams want the billions to be had in TV views.
And the players? Retired Heat star Dwyane Wade has a reported 10 shoe stores in China. His annual visits are a social media boon of business.
Think he wants to give that up over a tweet? Think any of them do? Answer this: Would you? Still, the NBA has become a place where stars who rightfully point out the hypocrisy of others have gone mum this time. Kerr and Popovich, like others, said they needed time to think about this Chinese situation.
“I just don’t know about Chinese history and how that’s influenced modern society and that interaction to speak on it,’’ Golden State guard Stephen Curry said.
That sounds like Chinese to me, but fine. Let Curry study up. It’ll take about 10 minutes to grasp the repressive society that’s making him millions.
The Chinese government said its people were offended by Morey’s words and canceled the televising
of some preseason games. Still, more than 18,000 fans filled a Shanghai arena Thursday to watch the Los Angeles Lakers play the Brooklyn Nets.
Either to punish or bless them, NBA players and Commissioner Adam Silver weren’t allowed to talk to the media, the Chinese government said. Silver surely wants anything but to have to talk more on this subject.
When a reporter asked Houston Rockets stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook about this controversy, a team official quickly said only basketball questions were being taken. The team later apologized. But Harden and Westbrook, to be sure, sat quiet.
The league that’s been the voice of social progress in recent years found the price of its silence. It’s the same price corporations across the board have.
Once, in a distant world, Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi downplayed the outcome of the 1967 Super Bowl by saying, “One billion Chinese won’t even know who won.”
Now they know seven simple words tweeted and deleted.
We know something too: The voice of social activism in sports has the same price to go silent as any company wanting to make money in China.