Pat Riley and the Miami Heat have been put on notice—Dwyane Wade could leave in 2016 NBA free agency if the negotiations don’t go his way.
Sounds silly, right? Wade has been with the team since 2003 and even helped the Heat land LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Him leaving would be as weird as Dirk Nowitzki leaving the Dallas Mavericks, though more meaningful.
The closer Friday gets, though, the odder the situation between Wade and the Heat becomes. ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst dropped something of a bombshell:
Dwyane Wade’s initial contract discussions with the Miami Heat have not produced a common ground between the parties, and he is preparing to field outside offers when free agency opens Friday, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that Wade’s representatives have made it known to multiple teams over the past several days that he will be on the market. Some teams have been skeptical, wondering whether Wade would seriously consider leaving the franchise where he has played 13 seasons and won three titles.
Wade would have plenty of suitors if this isn’t a simple ploy to get the Heat to give him what he wants in a new deal.
Is it really that crazy? The Heat could lose Hassan Whiteside in free agency and it’s hard to know what the future holds for Chris Bosh. Now 34 years old, does Wade really want to struggle through a rebuild?
Maybe not for the right price.
There’s no shortage of contenders who could use Wade. The Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks, San Antonio Spurs and even Oklahoma City Thunder surely wouldn’t mind picking Wade up and giving him a few more years of contention.
Right now, Wade doesn’t sound like a guy willing to take a discount so Whiteside or someone like Durant can get paid. And this is just another layer of what is quickly becoming the most interesting free-agency period of all time.
