Recently, Dion Waiters took to the media to complain about his minutes situation since returning from injury. I can see both sides of this issue. On one side, Erik Spoelstra is kind of hamstrung by the construction of the Heat roster. Wayne Ellington was already getting DNP’s, so it’s apparent that there’s no extra shooting guard minutes to go around. I mean, how else is Rodney McGruder going to get his well-deserved 30 MPG if players like Ellington and Waiters are also heavily represented in the rotation? On the other side, Waiters is a professional basketball player, which means he wants to play professional basketball. He didn’t do all this work rehabbing just to sit on the bench and have his “skills” (notice scare quotes) go to waste.
Think of it this way: say you’re a world-renowned NBA highlight creator, one of the leaders in the field. You get a chance to join a team of other elite highlight creators, but when you start work, they tell you that you only get to make one half of one video every night. The rest of the highlight videos are off-limits for you. Wouldn’t that be the most unfair and demoralizing thing ever?
That’s what Waiters is going through right now. Other than he’s not “elite” at anything other than unwise shot selection.
It’s not that I even want Waiters to get more minutes. That’s the opposite of what I want. But I do understand his frustration. I think his next step is to call a players-only meeting, then beat the crap out of McGruder like he did that one time with Kyrie back in Cleveland.