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After dalliances with the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, free agent guard Dion Waiters has re-signed with the Miami HEAT, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Waiters was arguably the top option left on the market for Los Angeles, but it appears that once Miami missed out on free agent Gordon Hayward they redoubled their efforts to bring Waiters back to the table.
The terms of Waiters’ deal were not immediately reported (Update: The two sides “are discussing a 4-year, $52 million deal,” according to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders).
The Lakers were only offering one-year deals in free agency, and according Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times, the two sides were never that serious about a union.
It also appears Waiters opted for longer-term security and familiarity over the chance for a big one-year offer to play under his former agent, Rob Pelinka.
The Lakers will now continue their search for backcourt help elsewhere, and have been rumored to be looking at players like Rajon Rondo, Tyler Ennis and Rodney Stuckey.
You can keep track of all the players the Lakers have met with here.
Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here, or listen to our top options below), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.