With Dwyane Wade’s departure before last season, Dion Waiters has taken over the mantle as the Miami Heat’s go-to guy with the game on the line. He famously made a game-winning 3-pointer to give the Heat a huge win over the Golden State Warriors at home and has had a number of other strong moments in the clutch.
According to Anthony Chiang of the Palm Beach Post, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra wants to help Waiters keep getting better during the other parts of the game apart from crunch time, which are equally as important.
“The other side of that is helping him improve all the other 45 minutes of the game offensively, which he is coming a long way,” Spoelstra said. “I really like the progress he’s making. … I think his shooting percentage will come up, because he’s starting to understand different reads, different coverages, the responsibility of having to make plays for our basketball team. He’s seeing that at a deeper level.”
Waiters is averaging 15.6 points on 40 percent shooting this season, and is once again impressing late in games. According to Chiang, Waiters is third in the league in scoring during “clutch” situations (margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter) behind former teammates Kyrie Irving and LeBron James.
But after signing a big four-year, $52 million contract in the summer, the Heat are only right to expect a bit more consistency from Waiters beyond the final fourth-quarter minutes.
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