Dion Waiters made his 2018-19 debut at the start of the new year, appearing in Miami’s 117-92 win over Cleveland for 11 minutes. Since then, Waiters hasn’t really gotten a ton of run as he’s getting back into the team’s rotation following ankle surgery, and as we learned on Tuesday night, this is not sitting especially well with the Heat guard.
Miami got ran off the floor by the Milwaukee Bucks, traveling to Wisconsin and finding themselves on the wrong side of a 124-86 blowout at the hands of the second-best team in the Eastern Conference. Waiters appeared in 12 minutes, scoring two points on 1-for-4 shooting in the loss.
Waiters spoke to the media following the game and did not hold back, exclaiming a two-word synopsis of how he feels right now: “f*ck patience.”
“I want to play,” Waiters said, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. “I’ve been patient long enough. What do I got to be patient for? Come on man. I’ve been patient. I think everybody knows that. It’s time. What are we waiting for? If I’m out there, play me.”
The veteran guard has appeared in five of a possible seven games since his return to the Heat, averaging 16.3 minutes per game. In that time, Waiters is scoring 8.3 points on 38.2 percent shooting from the floor and 33.3 percent shooting from deep. They’re less than stellar numbers, even if they’re about what you can expect out of a guy who hasn’t played basketball in more than a year. Still, despite the slow start to the year, and despite his frustration, Waiters has no intention of going to Erik Spoelstra to discuss his playing time.
“I ain’t say nothing to nobody,” Waiters said.
It’s a bit of a chicken or the egg argument. Waiters probably believes he needs to play more to get into a rhythm, but Spoelstra can’t afford to give a rusty player too much time when the Heat look like they’re going to have to fight to earn a spot in the postseason. Besides, while Waiters might not like it, Spoelstra’s comments from Monday make it sound like he has been happy with what he’s seen out of him so far.
“My big word for him is patience,” Spoelstra said, per Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel. “But I like the work that’s been putting in, and the minutes that he’s played have been good and important for us.”
If Waiters is patient, it certainly sounds like more playing time will come. But for the guy who started 73 of the 76 games he appeared in during his first two years in Miami, it sounds like he might be running low on patience right now.
