The Chicago Bulls are ready to drive their tank straight to the 2018 NBA Draft Lottery, but standing in their way of being the NBA’s worst team is Dwyane Wade. Of the Bulls’ current roster, Wade is by far the best player as the veteran opted in to his $24 million option this summer.
The Bulls want to be bad. There’s no way to spin it any other way when you trade your previous best player, Jimmy Butler, for a guy coming off ACL surgery who won’t be ready on opening night, a rookie point guard that struggled mightily, and a swap of first round picks. Chicago has the lowest projected win total in the NBA in Las Vegas, but Wade’s presence can muck up their plans to have the best odds at the top pick.
To this point, nothing has happened with buyout negotiations between Wade and the Bulls, but that could change soon. Chicago needs Wade out and Wade probably doesn’t want to play on a terrible team with a bunch of young guys that make mistakes — few veterans do. However, there are financial reasons for both sides to stall, and, as always, it comes down to the money.
In a radio interview with 670 The Score in Chicago, VP of Basketball Operations John Paxson said that dialogue with Wade has begun and while the Bulls want to work with him, they need it to fit their interests as well (via K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune).
“Some dialogue is going on,” Paxson said on The Score. “We understand where (Wade) is at this time of his career. We’re more than willing to work with him. But as I said when we had the press conference to introduce the new players after the draft, we have to always do what’s in our best interest. So there has to be something that is mutually agreed upon. It can’t be something the player wins because that’s what he wants.
“We want to work with Dwyane because we respect him very much. If he doesn’t want to be here, then we want to do (the buyout). But again, the bottom line is always — and it has to be — that we have to do what’s in our best interest.”
Wade’s desire to make all of the money remaining on his contract is well known. When he opted in, he was asked why and simply responded that he has 24 million reasons. He’s the guy that made the biggest financial sacrifice of the Big 3 in Miami and this is likely his last contract with that much annual money, so it’s hard to fault him for wanting to collect it all. Wade also, unlike Carmelo Anthony in New York, has his three rings and doesn’t need to go chasing championships to bolster his legacy.
That creates a problem for the Bulls. As a Chicago guy, Wade is home, making his money, and doesn’t exactly have any basketball reasons to leave other than not wanting to play on a young, rebuilding squad. The Bulls are notoriously cheap as an organization and will try to squeeze every penny they can out of buyout negotiations, but eventually, one side has to blink. Historically, that tends to be the player, but in this case it might just be the organization that bites the bullet on the financial side to get out.
