Pat Riley and the Miami Heat dream big. Five years ago, those lofty aspirations paid off with the best free agency coup in the history of professional sports – signatures from Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh.
One season after his Big Three was abruptly and shockingly dismantled by James’ return to Cleveland, might Riley have hopes for a similar coup in the near future? The Heat’s handling of Wade’s potential free agency this summer could be suggesting as much.
As contract negotiations between Miami and its long-time franchise player remain contentious, Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald submits that the team hopes Wade will opt-in to the final year of his contract so it can chase Kevin Durant in July of 2016.
The Heat seems to want Wade to opt into his contract for next season at $16 million, then become a free agent and leave their and his future blank-check open. This will give the Heat the flexibility it craves to make a run at a player like Kevin Durant.
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The Heat can have room for Wade, Bosh, Goran Dragic, Hassan Whiteside and Durant … but only if Wade opts in for this year and gives them that flexibility by being a free agent in 2016. This requires Wade to have a lot of trust, obviously, and the leap of faith that the team will take care of him in 2016.
The 33-year-old has a $16.1 million player option for the final season of a two-year, $31 million deal he signed last summer. Though it’s highly unlikely Wade would receive a raise from the Heat or a competing team on the open market, he may choose against playing out his current contract in order to ensure long-term financial gain as soon as possible.
With the cap set to spike to approximately $90 million before 2016-2017, most every team in the league will be flush with cap space. Miami only has $29.5 million on the books for next summer, but that’s before counting new salaries of cogs like Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside – let alone Wade.
Even if the Heat extend Dragic the 5-year, $100 million deal he’s likely seeking, they’d have enough room to give Durant a max-level contract of his own a year from now before later securing Wade and Whiteside. Should Wade insist on a new eight-figure salary now, though, Miami’s ability to create a potentially devastating quintet of Dragic, Wade, Durant, Bosh, and Whiteside would be severely compromised.
We’re a long way from that lineup becoming a realistic possibility, of course. Not only is Wade’s dispute with the Heat ongoing, but there’s no telling if Durant will consider leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency – and if he does, whether he’ll seriously consider any suitor but his hometown Washington Wizards.
But smart organizations like Miami always plan ahead. It’s exactly this type of prudent team-building, remember, that led to the Heat inking James and Bosh alongside Wade and subsequently winning two championships in four seasons.
And Riley simply wants to reach that incredible level of success again, even if it means briefly ruffling his aging franchise player’s feathers in the interim.
