MIAMI _ Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Friday that potential season-ending ankle surgery is not on the table with sidelined guard Dion Waiters, but did not rule out the possibility.
"We're not even at that point right now," Spoelstra said in advance of his team's game against the New York Knicks at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat have been without Waiters for six consecutive games, since he went down with a sprained left ankle in the Dec. 22 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Waiters is seeking an outside opinion on treatment options, a move that has come with Heat knowledge and approval, the Sun Sentinel has been informed
Unlike sidelined forward Justise Winslow, Waiters has not resumed on-court activity. He missed the final 13 games last season with a sprained left ankle and then reported to camp this season with soreness in the ankle.
The 26-year-old guard signed a four-year, $52 million contract in the offseason that features a $1.1 million bonus for appearing in at least 70 of the season's 82 games. Friday's absence stands as Waiters' eighth of the season, when counting two games he missed in November for the birth of his daughter.
Spoelstra said the Heat's focus with Waiters remains in the moment.
"I know he's not playing tonight and he's doing all of his rehab and rest," he said before Friday's game, the second of a three-game homestand. "If anything happens and it takes the next step, between the training staff and Dion, we'll go there.
"But we're not there right now."
Tyler Johnson has been starting in place of Waiters, whose early-season struggles have included .398 shooting from the field and .306 shooting on 3-pointers, with 70 turnovers to his 113 assists.
Waiters said in September he was told last season that the estimated timetable for a return from such surgery would be eight to 10 months. The Heat's regular season ends April 11. The long end of such a timetable could put Waiters in jeopardy of missing the start of next season's training camp even if surgery were to be immediately pursued.
The Heat have not made Waiters available since the onset of this most recent sprain.
At that time, he said, "Until I take care of it and do what I'm supposed to do with it, even if I have the littlest sprain, it's going to be like severe. At this point, you got to see what's best. But I won't write it off ... especially if I'm going to keep going through the same thing, even with like little tweaks and things like that."
Spoelstra said Waiters' writing off this season in favor of surgery has not been broached.
"That hasn't been a conversation right now, no," he said.
The Heat already are without two players following surgery, with Rodney McGruder sidelined following preseason let surgery and Okaro White sidelined since early-season foot surgery.
Winslow missed his 11th consecutive game Friday due to a sprained left knee.
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