Dwyane Wade will go up against the Cavs for the first time since he was traded at the deadline from Cleveland to Miami in what was a rare moment in which the dreaded “business of basketball” coincided with being able to do something helpful for a player’s happiness.
Trades that aren’t precipitated by a player’s demand, such as Kyrie Irving being dealt to Boston, often leave the players involved feeling somewhat hurt, even if they take the most positive of approaches and choose to make the most of their new situation — like Blake Griffin in Detroit. However, in the case of Wade and the Cavs, it was fairly apparent that both sides could use to split up and sending Wade back to Miami allowed him to go home, in a sense, and play for the franchise with which he’s had almost all of his personal success in the NBA.
Wade’s family was also more than onboard with the move back to sunny Miami, and ahead of that matchup with the Cavs on Tuesday night, we learned more details from both sides about what happened leading up to the trade.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin posted a story on Tuesday detailing exactly how the trade went down in Cleveland, with the initial conversation between the Cavs and Heat coming about a month prior to the deadline when Wade’s name came up as a possibility and was jotted down for future reference.
When Cleveland managed to pull off it’s blockbuster moves with the Lakers and Jazz to completely shuffle the roster, Wade was no longer going to have a significant role and GM Koby Altman got back in touch with the Heat to see if there was still interest in bringing their legend back home. Miami, of course, said yes and from there the Cavs needed the final blessing from LeBron James and Wade himself to make the deal happen, with LeBron happy to let Wade do whatever he felt was best for him.
Much as Lue approached whether Wade would start to begin the season, Altman wanted to leave it up to Wade: stay in Cleveland with a reduced role or return to the franchise that drafted him and made him the star he is today.
“Absolutely. It should be his decision,” James told Altman, according to sources.
Wade understood the direction the Cavs were going and appreciated the option. Miami was an easy choice.
On Wade’s side, he was happy to go back to a place where he was wanted and, to an extent, needed. With the roster as it was in Cleveland after the deals with L.A. and Utah, he no longer would’ve had much opportunity to be jelly to LeBron’s peanut butter, and Miami is a place where Wade is comfortable and with injuries to Dion Waiters and others, there was a defined role for him to step into.
As Wade told Yahoo Sports’ Michael Lee, the situation in Cleveland simply wasn’t working out and the team wasn’t winning games, so it was time for both sides to make a move. In the end, all three parties — Wade, the Cavs and the Heat — managed to come away happy with the end result of the deadline.
“It was seamless as it could be,” Wade told Yahoo Sports of the trade that yielded a second-round pick for Cleveland. “It was the best trade deadline for me. Like I told the GM, I appreciate him for putting me in a good position. Sending me to a place where I should be and I wanted to be. But outside of that, everyone is happy, I think. After a while, everyone was seeing it wasn’t fitting. It wasn’t working. I think everyone is happy with their respective teams, where they’re at. We move on.”
The Cavs and Heat have both tread water since the deadline, but on both sides there’s some optimism for the postseason. In Miami, it’s the hope that Wade’s veteran experience can help them through a first round series, while the Cavs are building momentum as they are beginning to see what their squad can do at full strength.
