Paying Dion Waiters is scary as Zach Lowe and Tom Haberstroh mentioned on the Lowe Post, but it is high risk, high reward in my opinion. Waiters is a feast or famine type player. He can carry your offense for a whole game or he can torpedo your team. With Spoelstra coaching, I feel that Dion Waiters is going to continue to produce. He had one of the best seasons of his career with Miami and there is hope that he can continue to flourish playing opposite Dragic in the backcourt. He is a solid defensive player and he can get you buckets in isolation. He shot almost 40% from three and if he can duplicate that for your team, 13 million does not look so bad. It will be interesting to see how he does for a whole season with the Heat.
James Johnson was a safer bet in my opinion. By all accounts, he is a great teammate and a good guy. He raved last season about Miami's culture and how they had helped him get into the best shape of his life. He played great for them last season and if he can continue to play at a high level he is the perfect big for today's NBA. He rebounds, he can do good stuff on the offensive end, but defensively he is great. He can switch onto wings and he can bang down low. It will be interesting if the Heat decide to start him next to Whiteside next year or if they continue to bring him off the bench. I think he fits with Whiteside nicely.
Miami's big move this summer is the signing of Kelly Olynyk from the Celtics for 4 years and 50 million dollars. Olynyk comes off a good season with the Celtics where he had the game of his life in game 7 against the Wizards, but was not asked to come back to the Celtics to make room for Hayward. Olynyk will thrive in Miami in my opinion. He shoots it well with a career three point percentage of 37%. He is also surprisingly effective in the pick and roll, which will allow him to play well with Dragic, but in lineups with Whiteside, he is a competent floor spacer. Boston and Miami are somewhat similar offensively with the biggest difference being that Olynyk never played with a quality big in the post like Whiteside. Spoelstra has an interesting decision in that do you start Olynyk next to Whiteside or do you bring him off the bench? Defensively, Olynyk is not great. He struggles to defend in isolation and in the post, but if he is able to play with a great shot blocker like Whiteside or an elite defender like Johnson at all times it might help soften the blow of his defense.
Overall, I like Miami's moves and I think that they might not be able to crack a top 4 seed in the East, but there are a team I would not want to play. Whiteside will have a field day against a lot of the Eastern Conference teams that do not have a lot of length up front. I feel that Miami could compete with any team in the East in a 7 game series. They have shooters, a good point guard, and a game changer in the post. Spoelstra has a lot of interesting choices to make before the season starts.