National Basketball Association

Miami Heat: The Rebirth Of Dion Waiters

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Thrust into an ideal empowering position, Dion Waiters is poised to enjoy a career year for the new look Miami Heat.

Over the last four years, Dion Waiters has built quite a reputation for himself.

Drafted with the 4th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers rolled the dice on the stocky 6’4″ combo guard in hopes he could form, alongside Kyrie Irving, the next great backcourt in the association.

However, the sentiment surrounding the former Syracuse Orangemen, who didn’t even start for his college team, quickly soured, as his ball-halting, isolation-dependent style irked not only the Cleveland faithful, but his teammates as well.

Instead of cultivating a cohesive kinship with Kyrie, the two butted heads; and as Irving’s popularity rose to national prominence, Waiters’ jealousy towards Uncle Drew grew just as big.

Eventually, when LeBron James brought his talents back to the Land, Cleveland would get rid of the inefficient chucking guard once and for all.

By the time he landed in Oklahoma City in 2014, he was known as a ball hog who didn’t play defense. He would also be a staple on Shaqtin’ a Fool — a distinction no NBA player ever wants.

But, something clicked with Dion last season — and in particular, the postseason.

Instead of settling for contested 19-foot jumpers off-the-bounce, Waiters began using his devastating acceleration to blow past the initial line of defense; and instead of having his blinders on as he took it to the hole, he began to make the right kick-out pass more often than not.

Defensively, Waiters was an absolute revelation — famously harassing Kawhi Leonard with his rare concoction of cat-like lateral quickness and country-brute strength during the Western Conference Semi-Finals.

Seemingly overnight, Dion Waiters evolved into a serviceable NBA player; a player that had a profound impact on winning.

Yes, he would still get on his teammates’ nerves at times (see: Kevin Durant cursing at Dion), but for the most part, Waiters had really turned the corner as a member of the Thunder. His numbers didn’t exactly wow you, but for the first time in his career, he passed the eye test.

Yet, when the 2016 offseason approached, few teams came calling to Waiters. Despite a proven, albeit brief, resume of contributing to winning basketball, contending teams like the Warriors and the Spurs shied away from reaching out to the 5th year guard.

The Thunder, meanwhile, made their intentions known early by trading for Victor Oladipo right before the NBA Draft.

And as his contemporaries were rewarded with huge paydays, Waiters sat idle, “waiting” for the right opportunity to surface.

It wasn’t until late July when the Miami Heat finally rolled the dice on Dion, as a replacement of sorts for another ball-dominant two-guard in Dwyane Wade. He signed for a laughable, by today’s standards, 2-year $6 million deal, with a player option in the second year.

As we head into the 2016-17 NBA season, though, Waiters may have inadvertently stumbled in an ideal situation for his future earnings.

With the aforesaid Wade departure and Chris Bosh’s reoccurring health issues, the Heat, all of a sudden, are in desperate need of offense — more specifically, offensive creativity.

It’s been only one game, and a preseason game at that, but Waiters was absolutely electrifying in his debut with the black and red on Tuesday night.

At first glance, I thought I had put on a retro Heat game circa 2009, when Dion sliced through the Wizard D with a deadly hesitation crossover that ended with a punctuating two-handed slam — eerily reminiscent to a prime (albeit, homeless man’s version of) D-Wade.

Dion would finish the game scoring 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting, but it was his team-high eight assists that stood out — routinely spoonfeeding Hassan Whiteside with the havoc he caused with his penetration.

“He’s been doing that since the first day of training camp,” coach Eric Spoelstra told the Miami Herald. “I think he’s made a conscious effort to show this team that he can make plays. That doesn’t necessarily have to be scoring, but in space and in transition, where he can be a handful. Because of his ability to attack and get into the paint, we want him to be aggressive. We don’t want him to settle. We want him to really get two feet in the paint as often as he can.

“For eight straight days, he’s been very unselfish. He’s been consistently finding the open man and making the right play.”