Miami Heat: 5 goals for guard Dion Waiters in 2017-18
By Simon Smith
5. Play in at least 70 games
Although it was just a small sample size, Waiters’ importance to the Heat was felt immensely when his season was ended prematurely due to an ankle injury. Having reeled off a 23-5 record when Waiters went down, the Heat stumbled to finish the season 7-6, and hence narrowly missed out on the postseason action.
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Without a recognized backup point guard on the roster, Waiters’ ability as a secondary ball-handler and playmaker was a key ingredient in what led the Heat to posting the league’s second best record after Jan. 17. Without his presence on the floor, far too much fell in the hands of his backcourt partner, point guard Goran Dragic.
After Waiters went down, Dragic’s noted efficiency took a sizeable hit, converting at just a 43.2 percent clip from the field and 32.1 percent from 3-point range over the final 13 games in which Waiters was sidelined.
Last season’s 46 games were by far the lowest of Waiters’ five-year career. On top of the season-ending ankle injury, Waiters also sustained an early season groin injury that sidelined for 20 consecutive games. However, the Heat and Waiters have got reason to be optimistic moving forward.
Waiters admitted in an article for The Players’ Tribune that upon arriving in Miami that he overestimated his level of conditioning and overall place in the league:
"“When Pat (Riley) said ‘world-class shape,’ I thought it sounded cool, but in my head, I was like, Yeah, I got this. I’m in world-class shape. You already know. So I show up for camp, and after one week, my body is shot. I was damn near throwing up in trash cans like in the movies. And I realized, You know what? Pat was not just talking that smooth talk. This Heat thing is the real deal.”"
Fast forward 12 months, with another summer experiencing the entire Heat approach under his belt, and playing 70 games this season shouldn’t be an issue for Waiters. When you consider the headline for his article was “The NBA is lucky I’m home doing damn articles,” motivation certainly isn’t the issue.