They needed... Dion Waiters. Wait, what?
The Heat signing Waiters late in free agency was a head-scratcher. He seemed like the most non-Miami Heat player ever. Over six seasons bouncing between Cleveland and Oklahoma, Waiters had earned a reputation as a selfish, shoot-first guard with little discipline. That's why the Heat got Waiters at such a bargain — he was a low-risk, high-reward move.
Fast-forward to March 2017. Consider yourselves rewarded! May the Waiters be with you.
Heat fans love Waiters. One could say Heat fans have fallen in love with him. Here are seven reasons why.
7. WaitersDion Waiters vs Dwyane Wade
— Shawn ¯\_(?)_/¯ (@ShawnOnTheNBA) January 24, 2017
This is my house edition pic.twitter.com/OlRjeseUXH
At times, it's eerie how similar Waiters' game is to a young Dwyane Wade's. Waiters
— sam esfandiari (@samesfandiari) February 15, 20176. Dion Waiters gets buckets.
Who doesn't love buckets? Dion Waiters gets the buckets. Do you fancy yourself a bucket lover? Well, then you're going to love you some Dion Waiters. It's a make-or-miss league, and Waiters does both. Often. But when he's on, he does the make more than the miss. When Waiters is NBA Jam on fire, he's the Oprah of bucket-giving. YOU GET A BUCKET. YOU GET A BUCKET. YOUR FACE GETS A BUCKET. HERE'S A BUCKET FOR THAT ASS.
5. Even when Waiters doesn't get any buckets, he'll keep trying to get buckets.And yes, Dion Waiters subquoted a Kobe quote. LOL. #MambaMentality pic.twitter.com/gaE2TEyYdp
— LakersNation PH (@LakersNation_PH) February 2, 2017
Maybe Waiters hasn't given you any buckets in a while. That's
4. Heat fans never envisioned loving Waiters this much."Dion Waiters is my favorite player" pic.twitter.com/4jGMmoyNB8
— Pedro (@plopzki) February 27, 2017
The Heat fan base still has whiplash from
3. Dion Waiters might be the most confident player the Heat has ever had.When Dion Waiters sees Micheal Jordan pic.twitter.com/VpVueFaEWN
— HIGH LIKE KAWHI (@JoseBoatcrash) March 7, 2017
Putting Waiters in the most-confident-Heat-player-ever conversation is saying something. LeBron James? Tim Hardaway? Shaquille O'Neal? Dwyane Wade? Mario Chalmers?! Waiters might top them all in the personal-confidence department.
2. His clutch gene is on point.Opponents when Dion Waiters has the ball with seconds left. pic.twitter.com/PCRSwLwNYP
— ? (@issacowboy) March 9, 2017
When Wade left for Chicago, one of the biggest questions about the new-look Heat was who would step up in the last seconds of a game to take the shot with the game on the line. We quickly figured out the answer to that question. In back-to-back January games, Waiters drained buzzer-beating threes to topple the Warriors and the Nets. That's seriously clutch.
1. He gives himself the absolute worst nicknames.True Dion Waiters story from his Cuse days: he considered his game a combo of Kobe and Dwayne Wade so he had teammates call him Kobe Wade.
— Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) May 31, 2016
How can you not love a guy who takes the names of two of the top three shooting guards in the history of the NBA and decides all of his friends need to call him that? It's just un-American to hate on that sort of bravado. If Dion Waiters keeps this up, one side of the American Airlines arena will chant "Kobe!" followed by the other side chanting "Wade!" Heat fans will call him anything — Santa, Mickey Mouse, Daddy — as long as he keeps up his recent play.