Miami Heat: The much-anticipated return of Dion Waiters

The encouraging return of Dion Waiters to the court after 12 months on the sidelines has the Miami Heat more optimistic moving forward.

Prior to stepping on the court on Jan. 2 to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers, the last time Dion Waiters had competed in an NBA game was Dec. 22, 2017. So with such an extended time on the sidelines, it was difficult to ascertain just how Waiters would perform coming out of the blocks.

Thus far, the results would’ve exceeded even the expectations of the Miami Heat.

In his opening game, Waiters started the game on fire, hitting his first three field goal attempts on his way to seven points and three assists in 11 minutes of play.

However, with Dwyane Wade returning from a one-game absence and the Heat roster at full capacity, Waiters was forced to watch from the bench the next game as they were blown out on the road against the Atlanta Hawks.

This would be a short-lived stint on the sidelines, as Waiters made his first home appearance for the season with 47 seconds remaining in the first quarter against the Denver Nuggets. Immediately getting to work, Waiters demonstrated that he had fully recovered from the serious ankle injury that required reconstructive surgery at the beginning of last year.

Attacking the rim to either score for himself or set up a teammate, Waiters registered nine points and three assists in the first half alone. By the end of play, Waiters had posted 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go along with four assists in 25 minutes of action.

Following the game, head coach Erik Spoelstra was full of praise for Waiters’ performance:

"“It was big [the lift he gave]….He’s been putting in a lot of work, I know I’ve been asking him to be very patient with this, and he’s been pretty steady with his work, he gives us something a little bit different obviously. He gave us a big boost, we were struggling to score and he was able to create some things for us, and that part was very good for us.”"

While the performance was extremely encouraging, this is far from foreign territory for Waiters. In his first season with the Heat, the now 27-year-old Waiters had a career purple patch during the latter part of the season. Over a 21-game stretch, Waiters posted 19.6 points, 5.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 31.5 minutes per game while shooting at a blistering 46.4 percent clip from long range on 6.0 attempts per game.

The one area that particularly stood out in the Nuggets’ game, in addition to his 3-of-7 shooting from 3-point range, was Waiters’ ability to drive to the rim. Over the aforementioned 21-game hot stretch, Waiters averaged 15.4 drives per game, which ranked sixth overall in the league. In this game, Waiters had seven recorded drives, from which he contributed to seven points while dishing out three assists.

Once he becomes more established in the rotation, and his overall level of game fitness improves, look for these numbers to gradually progress to the levels he previously achieved.

In looking ahead, it’s clear Dion Waiters has plenty to provide to the Heat.

With the team ranked 26th in scoring and 22nd in offensive rating overall, the spark he can provide either as a reserve or eventually as a starter should ensure the Heat stay strongly in the hunt for a playoff spot.