Dion Waiters’ future in question after NBA executive calls his contract ‘untradeable’

It looks like Dion Waiters isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

According to ESPN, the trade market for the Miami Heat guard is reportedly nonexistent.

“The Waiters contract is as close to untradeable that I have ever seen in the NBA,” a league executive told NBA Insider Bobby Marks at last week’s G League Showcase in Las Vegas.

That, unfortunately, doesn’t bode well for the Heat. Waiters has already missed 17 games this season because of suspension, forfeiting roughly $1.4 million in the process. He had yet to appear in a game prior to his latest six-game suspension and that probably won’t change once he’s eligible to return after Monday’s home matchup against the Jazz.

With trading him off the table, the Heat’s options are limited. Waiters still has two years left on the four-year, $52 million deal he signed with the Heat in the summer of 2017.

Cutting him would be a viable short-term solution, however, he’d still be owed roughly $25 million. They could waive him and stretch next year’s contract to $4.2 million over the next three seasons but with the Heat’s eyes set on the lauded 2021 free agency class, they’ll want to have as much cap room as possible. Plus they’ll have to still take the $12.1 million cap hit this season.

Or, as the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang reported, the Heat could negotiate a JR Smith type deal where Waiters steps away from the team until he hits free agency in 2021.

While it’s unclear which route the Heat will take, one thing is certain: Waiters’ career is probably over unless he undergoes a historic rebrand. Every team agreed on that point, according to ESPN. That’s why the final option — buying out his contract — doesn’t seem likely because it would be virtually impossible for him to recoup his sacrificed money.