Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters hasn't been happy with his role in preseason, and he was just suspended one game for conduct detrimental to the team. Instead of just accepting the suspension quietly, Waiters is only pouring more gasoline on the fire with his posts on social media.
There's a lot going on here, including some jabs at Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and rookie guard Tyler Herro:
https://twitter.com/Brendan_Tobin/status/1185902848942452736
— Brendan Tobin (@Brendan_Tobin) October 20, 2019
Waiters isn't pleased with Spoelstra using him in limited minutes off the bench in preseason. Meanwhile, Herro got multiple starts and saw a sizable role even when he was coming off the bench. In the final preseason game, Herro played 32 minutes in a reserve role, while Waiters played just 10.
The 27-year-old Waiters is trying to find his groove in the NBA again after several injury-plagued seasons. Since playing 78 games for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015-16, Waiters hasn't played in more than 46 games in a season.
Waiters used a strong 46-game run with the Heat in 2016-17 to earn a four-year, $52 million contract, but he only played in 30 games in 2017-18 and 44 games last season. The guard averaged 12.0 points, 2.8 assists and 2.6 rebounds while shooting 41.4% overall and 37.7% on 3-pointers in 2018-19.
The veteran used this offseason to get into better shape, but things clearly aren't going as planned. Waiters going off on social media isn't going to help his cause, though, so he needs to tread lightly unless he just plans on causing enough of a ruckus in order to get traded.