Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters saw his 2016-17 season end prematurely due to being sidelined with a badly sprained left ankle injury.
According to Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald, the 25-year-old has revealed that he is still dealing with some issues stemming from the ailment.
“It’s aching a little bit. But if I take a little Tylenol, I’ll be alright,” Waiters said Tuesday. “It’s going to be a process. But we know what we got to do, so it’s manageable. We just got to make sure we keep our eye on it and just keep getting treatment.”
The fact that there are still some lingering problems from the injury should draw concern from the Heat given that the team has just gone through their first full practices on Tuesday morning. If he continues to deal with pain in his ankle, Miami will likely take things slow for precautionary reasons as he's one of the major pieces to their puzzle.
There are also financial reasons for Waiters to not push it physically at this point as he has $1.1 million in incentives on his contract if he can play 70 games this upcoming campaign. This is more than enough reason for him not to risk suffering any setbacks over the next few weeks in training camp and the preseason prior to the start of the regular season.
Dion Waiters had re-signed with the Heat this past summer on a four-year, $52 million deal after a productive first campaign where he averaged 15.8 points along with posting career-highs of 39.5 percent from 3-point range and 4.3 assists per contest despite playing in just 46 games. This includes scoring 20 or more points on 16 occasions and two 30-point performances.
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