Could Dwyane Wade's time in Miami be coming to an end? Don't laugh at the question. According to this excellent column in the Miami Herald by Dan Le Batard, the blissful Wade-Heat marriage could be headed for an ugly divorce.
The contract situation between Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat could get messy
The Heat’s star wants to finally get paid like a superstar, but Pat Riley’s plan is contingent on Wade remaining underpaid. Wade’s time in Miami could be coming to an end.
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Last summer Wade opted out of his contract, which had two years and $41.6 million remaining, and signed a new two-year deal worth $31 million. The final season of that deal was a player option, meaning Wade could terminate the contract after one season if he wanted.
The point of all this was to give the Heat more cap flexibility, either to keep LeBron James for the future or to add other talent. The first goal didn't work, but still, given the nature of the relationship between the franchise and Wade, the Heat assumed that their star would play out the remainder of his contract and become a free agent in July 2016. Then Miami and Wade would assess the market together, and use the team's cap space to target a star like Kevin Durant.
The goal, according to Le Batard, was to build another star-studded roster like the one Pat Riley and Wade had put together in 2010.
"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," Le Batard writes. "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."
That trust seemingly no longer exists, which is what happens in business when you have different parties who want different things.
What Wade wants
To stop leaving money on the table and get paid what he's worth. As Le Batard points out, it was Wade who volunteered to take a salary cut to give the Heat room to re-sign Udonis Haslem. Also brought up by Le Batard: Wade, incredibly, has never been the highest paid player on his team. Since 2010, Wade has earned about $20 million less than he could have had he forced Miami to pay a maximum contract.
Now Wade wants to get some of that money back. Last week, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported that Wade was now "open to considering other teams this summer if the Heat does not raise its offer." According to that report, "Wade wants to opt out this summer, with the hope that the Heat would give him a lucrative three-year deal that would extend past his 36th birthday."
Is he still worth a “lucrative deal”? The short answer is yes. At 33, Wade might not be the player he once was, but he’s one who could fetch something close to a max salary on the open market. Last season, he averaged 21.5 points and 4.8 assists, shot 47 percent from the field and posted a PER of 21. He can still get to the basket and create his own shot, both in the paint and with his midrange game. He only played in 62 games in 2014-15 and health is going to be a problem for him going forward, but the shooting guard remains one of the top 25 players in the league, and one numerous teams would take as their No. 2.
That includes the Heat. The problem for them is it’s not that simple.
What the Heat want
For Wade to retire as a member of the franchise, but on their terms. Riley wants Wade to play out the last year of his deal and then sign another two-year, cap-friendly deal next offseason. This is part of the post-LeBron blueprint -- get Wade to take a cut in his pay now, sign some stars and repay him later on. Writes Le Batard:
“Heat lifer,” an expression Wade coined, can echo in employment and eternity after Wade’s playing days if he’s willing to do what he has always done — help the team a little more by helping himself a little less.
Chris Bosh and Josh McRoberts are the only players on the roster right now whose contracts go through the 2016-17 season, but that doesn't include future deals for Miami's two new stars, Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside. Dragic is a free agent this summer and is likely to command a maximum contract. Whiteside, a 7-footer who's just 25 and has already proven that he has some skills, is a free agent next summer, and due to a salary-cap quirk, the Heat will not have the right to exceed the cap to give him a big offer. Both will likely receive lucrative offers from other teams, meaning the Heat are going to have to maintain salary-cap flexibility to keep them in Miami.
In order to do so, and fit them in with Bosh, Wade is going to have to take another major pay cut. Even if Riley convinced Dragic and Whiteside to leave some money on the table, it won’t be much. These are two players looking to cash in for the first time. It would be foolish for them not to take every dime they possibly could.
Wade has done this before, but only for players with whom he was close with and respected. The same cannot be said for Dragic and Whiteside. As Le Batard writes, “this is a big ask -- Wade being OK with newcomers who haven’t done much of anything for the organization, like Dragic and Whiteside, earning more than he does.”
And none of that even touches on the main goal here: signing Durant. We know what Riley wants, but if Wade forces the Heat to give him a big deal this offseason, the cap room needed to sign Durant will no longer be available.
What the union wants
For stars to stop taking discounts. This is an interesting wrinkle here, one that makes the situation more complicated. Le Batard touches on this:
The player's union, led by a new litigator who enjoys a good fight, wants this to stop immediately. So, too, does power broker LeBron James. James didn't make much clear at the start of free agency last offseason, but he did make this abundantly so: He was not playing for one penny less than the max. James, now the union's vice president, and Michele Roberts, now the union's head, don't see why stars should be taking discounts while the Clippers are selling for $2 billion and a new TV contract in 2016 is about to be an oil-well spewing money.
We know James and Wade are close even though LeBron’s decision not to inform him of his plan last summer to head back to Cleveland contributed to Wade losing money. One can assume James is pushing Wade to get as much as he can. The same can be said about Michele Roberts. (Tom Ziller elaborated on this Monday morning.)
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That all leads us to where we are now: a star no longer interested in leaving millions on the table, a franchise stuck between doing right by its greatest player, who’s always put the group first, and building the best possible team, and a fan base unsure of whose side to take.
Does Riley care more about sticking to his original blueprint or appeasing Wade and the team’s fans? Does Wade care more about getting his millions now or playing out the rest of his career in Miami, and then cashing in even more? And where does winning fit into all of this?
There hasn’t been a boring offseason in Miami for about five years. It doesn’t seem like this one is going to end that trend.
★★★
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