Heat suspend Waiters for conduct detrimental to the team

The Miami Heat announced the suspension of guard Dion Waiters for the regular season opener for conduct detrimental to the team.

The team issued a statement late Saturday night on why Heat team president Pat Riley made the decision to suspend him.

“There were a number of unacceptable incidents this week, culminating with his unprofessional conduct on the bench last night. As a consequence, I feel we had to suspend him.”

The press release does not mention any specific incidents, though Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press reported that “Waiters got into a discussion with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra during Friday night’s game” and that he could miss additional games.

Waiters will officially be allowed to rejoin the team on Thursday, though he could continue to sit out games as James Johnson did during the preseason. He averaged 8.0 points (11th on the team) while shooting 44.8 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from 3-point territory in 14.3 minutes (10th on the team) during the preseason.