NBA Free Agency rumors: Dion Waiters will re-sign with Miami Heat

The Miami Heat will keep their starting back-court intact, as they are going to re-sign shooting guard Dion Waiters to a contract.

After the Miami Heat lost out on the Gordon Hayward sweepstakes, as he chose the Boston Celtics, they wanted to make sure to keep their core together from last year. Their starting back-court of Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters in 2016-17 was highly effective, as both guards could penetrate, score off the dribble and put the pressure on an opposing defense.

Pat Riley wanted to make sure that Waiters didn’t go anywhere and Riley made sure to close this deal. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Heat will re-sign Waiters to a contract, keeping him in South Beach.

Waiters was considering a lot of different destinations, between New York, Los Angeles and Miami. Three teams that need shooting guards and were willing to pay top dollar for the shooting guard. At the end of the day, the Heat were willing to meet Waiters’ financial demands, especially after losing out on Hayward.

That was likely good enough for the Heat star, who will look to build on his success this past season. He had a lot of career highs with Miami, scoring 15.8 points per game on 42 percent shooting from the field and 39 percent from three-point range.

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Dragic and Waiters were lethal down the stretch of games and Waiters was able to hit clutch shot after clutch shot, especially in games against the Warriors and Cavaliers. He embodied the spirit of the team and after he got hurt with an ankle injury, the Heat failed to make the playoffs.

This means that the Heat can really build around their young core of Dragic, Waiters and Whiteside. They may have swung and missed on Hayward, but with the likes of Riley and the call of South Beach, free agents will surely want to join Miami in years to come.