Dion Waiters is a shot-chucking, seldom-making shooting guard for the Miami Heat and he’s making everyone eat those words. 

The 2012 NBA Draft class wasn’t weak per say, but the Cleveland Cavaliers were high enough on Waiters to pick him over Damian Lillard and Harrison Barnes. It took just two seasons at Syracuse for Waiters to get selected fourth overall, and those seasons weren’t particularly impressive.

He was a prospect who could’ve benefitted from a third year, but if he felt it was necessary to make the jump to the league, I can’t fault him.

Waiters’ first two campaigns with the Cavs were mildly impressive, especially when you take into consideration his minimal production with the Orange. He averaged just 12.6 points a night as a sophomore but eclipsed that in his rookie season in Cleveland with 14.7 a night. Highly-efficient shooting isn’t his forte, and Waiters finished the 2012-13 campaign with a 41.2 percent clip.

When you compare that to the other guards who finished higher than him in the Rookie of the Year voting, he wasn’t a total abomination. The winner, Damian Lillard, shot 42.9 percent overall and the third-place finisher, Bradley Beal, netted just 41 percent.

The next year, Waiters got even better! His scoring jumped up to about 16 a night (15.9), and he turned into a respectable three-point shooter with a 36.8 percent clip.

Cleveland traded him early in 2015 as a part of the three-team deal that stole Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith from the New York Knicks, and the ensuing seasons were tough.

Now, Waiters is in Miami and playing like his old self again. Fortunately for him, the Heat are almost devoid of offense, and that means Waiters can do whatever necessary to try and put points on the board. He’s Miami’s third-leading scorer with 14.9 points a night, and he’s found his three-point stroke again.

More Heat: 

On the year, Waiters is nailing about 38 percent of his threes, and he’s been scorching during the Heat’s five-game winning streak.

Oh, yeah — Miami’s on a five-game winning streak.

He’s shooting 60 percent on threes during that stretch, which puts him at fourth in the league, per NBA.com. Waiters is also taking a nice amount of threes (five a night), and the only three guys ahead of him have played in just one of their team’s last five. Of course, Kobe Wade (I’m not sure if anyone actually calls him that) is much more than a three-point marksman.

Against the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors, Waiters tallied back-to-back 33-point games but limited himself to just five and six threes made, respectively. One three, however, won the game against the Dubs when Klay Thompson foolishly let Waiters get to his sweet spot.

It didn’t stop in South Beach. Waiters’ hot hand chartered a flight to Brooklyn and torched the Nets to the tune of 24 points on 10-of-18 shooting. He was the driving force behind Miami erasing Brooklyn’s 18-point fourth quarter lead, and the 25-year-old poured in 14 points in the final frame and drilled yet another game-winner.

Dwyane Wade who?

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