Heat Trade Rumors: Latest on Dion Waiters' Future with Miami

"No palatable trade scenario had emerged" for Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters as of early this week, according to the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson.

Waiters has yet to appear in any of Miami's seven games this season. He was suspended for the season opener as a result of his "unprofessional conduct."

Following the suspension, an NBA general manager told Sean Deveney of Heavy.com that the Heat had been attempting to trade Waiters since Christmas 2018. The GM said "it would be really hard to take him on now" that he has started the season by getting into trouble with his current organization.

Of note, Waiters has two years and $24.75 million remaining on his contract.

Waiters, the fourth overall pick in 2012, has revived his career since arriving in South Beach in 2016. He has averaged 14.0 points on 41.2 percent shooting over the past three seasons.

Waiters' performance earned him a four-year, $52 million contract with Miami in July 2017. Since that deal, though, he has had a hard time getting on the court.

He missed the final 52 games of the 2017-18 campaign and the first 35 games of last season due to injury. He underwent ankle surgery in January 2018 to repair both instability in the left ankle and a pre-existing navicular bone fracture.

The 27-year-old did not start a single game during the 2019 preseason, with coach Erik Spoelstra saying the team wanted Waiters to get into "Miami Heat shape," per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Jackson noted Waiters has dropped 15 pounds. The eighth-year veteran reportedly spent time working on his conditioning on the team's practice court as the Heat battled the Houston Rockets last Sunday.

Miami has not missed a beat without Waiters. The Heat sit atop the Southeast Division, thanks to the offseason signing of four-time All-Star Jimmy Butler and the emergence of rookie Kendrick Nunn (team-high 18.3 points per game).