Dion Waiters will be watching from the sidelines when the Miami Heat host the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night, following a disagreement he had with head coach Erik Spoelstra during Friday's preseason finale. The Heat ultimately opted to suspend Waiters for the season opener, citing "conduct detrimental to the team."
Pat Riley issued the following statement regarding the suspension:
"There were a number of unacceptable incidents this week, culminating with his unprofessional conduct on the bench last night. As a consequence, I feel we had to suspend him."
Waiters, 27, has come off the bench in each of the four preseason games he appeared in, and he clearly isn't happy with his role right now. He took some jabs at Spolestra on social media over the weekend, writing that he only won a title because he had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on his roster. Additionally, he laughed at a comment about Heat rookie Tyler Herro being better than him, and "liked" comments about him being waived or traded.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1185858355077582848
The Heat signed Waiters to a four-year, $52 million extension in July of 2017, and he has averaged 12.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in his 74 appearances since then.
According to Heavy.com's Sean Deveney, an anonymous NBA GM says the team has been trying to trade Waiters for almost a year now.
"They've been trying to trade him since last Christmas. No one was trying to take him on then. And after this kind of thing [suspension], it would be really hard to take him on now. He has had just kind of junk attached to him just about his whole career."
https://twitter.com/_/status/1185888393189740544
