Miami Heat shooting guard Dion Waiters recently underwent successful surgery on Jan. 23 to repair the instability in his left ankle, as well as a preexisting navicular bone fracture. The former Syracuse stand-out has been ruled out for the remainder of this season. As a result, the NBA has awarded the Heat with a $5.5 million disabled player exception, according to a report from Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports.
Sources: The NBA has granted the Miami Heat a $5.5M disabled player exception for injured guard Dion Waiters.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 1, 2018
The disabled player exception comes with a March 12 deadline and only can be used to acquire players with contracts that expire this season.
Via Ira Winderman of sun-sentinel.com:
“In order to utilize the exception, the Heat would have to waive a player from their current roster, already at the NBA's 15-player limit.”
Waiters, now 26 years of age, opted to shy away from surgery last season, but after receiving several professional opinions in January, he decided that the time was now.
Losing Waiters is certainly a tough blow for Heat fans. The former No. 4 overall pick in the 2012 Draft made 30 appearances with the Heat this season prior to his injury, averaging 14.3 points on 39.8 percent shooting from the field (30.6 percent from beyond the arc), 3.8 assists, and 2.6 rebounds.
What the Heat will choose to do with their added cash remains to be seen. Be sure to keep your browsers locked on ClutchPoints for more updates on this topic as they become available.
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