Actually this is kind of sad for me, because I have a feeling he may end up retiring after this season. Heat are not going to sign him to a large deal after this season (maybe he wont want one though?) and I doubt he does a "homecoming" only to leave again several months later. Just my guess. He still has some left in the tank but my guess is that he probably feels he can still be a difference maker and contribute on a team. I dont think he is that guy anymore still but I do want to watch more heat games though to see how it plays out.
I thought the same but maybe not? Him and Riley made up. He wanted one more big contract for sacrificing and taking less to make the heatles. Obviously hat didn’t happen and instead he went to Chicago. Maybe they agree on a 1yr 10m “retirement tour” next year ala Kobe? Give him some payback money and let him travel and retire the greatest heat player of all time. Just a thought
For a second round pick in...... 2024. Damn... I think that’s close to when Matt Maloney’s contract finally comes off our books.
Do they have the cap? They dont have his bird rights anymore. Perhaps they will give him the MLE for 2 or 3 years.
Cavs FO allegedly thrilled Wade was traded because he behaved “unprofessionally and sapped the team’s energy and spirit."
There is no question that the Cavs trades were addition by subtraction. Thomas, Crowder, Wade, Rose. Just parts that didn't fit and didn't mesh. Just be virtue of them leaving the Cavs tightened up. The new Cavs will help of course and fit better as role players.
The Cavs are such a trash org, somehow Wade who is a 3x champ was the problem. One of the biggest problem is they have Tyron Lue as the coach, look at the Rox when they had "Mr. Play Hard" as coach vs now. You can't have a dude who doesn't know what he is doing making plays for the team.
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2018/02/how_koby_altman_lebron_james_a.html 'Peanut butter and jelly' Wade and James sat with ESPN's Rachel Nichols in October. They called themselves "peanut butter and jelly." They're Team Banana Boat. Best friends and two-time champions together. Does that sound like a pair of superstars who'd be OK with a trade to break them apart some four months after they were reunited? Yet, neither James nor Wade batted an eye when Altman traded Wade back to the Miami Heat (where Wade and James won those titles) for a 2024 second-round pick. On the surface, this seems unfathomable. James' previous distrust of Altman and contempt for Gilbert were well known. And yet they peeled the jelly right off of peanut butter without so much as a peep from James. James and Wade both said post-trade that Wade's heart was in Miami, and that James was "happy as hell" for Wade. Wade told ESPN's Jorge Sedano that he would not try to recruit James to join him on the Heat as a free agent. "There's no story there," James insisted, when pressed about the Wade trade. A team source said if anything, James felt relief from the Wade trade -- relief from a pressure point he'd helped create. Santa Barbara When James held his annual, voluntary preseason workouts in Santa Barbara, Calif., Rose looked fast and sharp. He knew he'd open the season as the team's starting point guard, with Thomas out for at least three months rehabbing hip injuries. The team, with seven new players total since the Cavs' 2017 Finals loss to the Warriors -- including Jeff Green, Jose Calderon, and rookies Cedi Osman, and Ante Zizic -- had a positive, free-flowing vibe coming out of Santa Barbara. In the hours leading up to the start of training camp, though, Wade secured a buyout of his lucrative contract from the Chicago Bulls. He wanted to join James, at James' urging, on the Cavs, and the team's front office didn't feel it was in a position to say no. The move crushed JR Smith, who is otherwise close to James and is represented by the same agent, Rich Paul. Lue wanted Wade to come off the bench and for Smith to remain in the starting lineup, but Wade had never been a bench player in each of his first 14 seasons. So when Wade opened the season starting alongside Rose, Smith was devastated. It took just three games for Wade -- who struggled as a starter -- to request a move to the bench, but Smith's recovery took months. Wade's arrival also meant the team had to trade Richard Jefferson, a popular veteran who was here for the 2016 championship. But by far Wade's biggest impact was on Smith. Good move, bad move Wade's move to the bench was good for him. By the time he was traded, he was averaging 11.2 points for the Cavs and shooting a career-high .329 from 3-point range. He'd taken command of the team's second unit as its point guard. Lue was using Wade to close games with James, and in November and December the Cavs won 18 of 19. Wade was being pushed as an early Sixth Man of the Year candidate. But Wade turned 36 in January. The wear and tear of his career would show some nights. When he played on the second night of back-to-back games he struggled, and coaches grumbled that he was slow to get back on defense. As things started heading south for the Cavs in January, Wade was an instigator in the infamous team meeting Jan. 22, hours before they flew to San Antonio. Yes, Thomas was upset that Kevin Love went home with an illness before a 24-point loss to Oklahoma City had concluded on Jan. 20, and that he was not at practice the following day. But, sources said, it was Wade who first made an issue of it at practice Monday, challenging Lue to disclose where Love had been. Numerous players verbally attacked Love, who eventually explained his absence to the team as part of a wide-ranging, heated discussion in which virtually no one was immune from criticism. Wade's name began to arise in trade discussions then, sources said. Days later, when Wade's agent Henry Thomas died, Heat president Pat Riley sought out Wade at Thomas' funeral to smooth over rough edges from their falling out when Wade left the Heat as a free agent in the summer of 2016, sources said. Altman said Wade was not traded because of the meeting, but because of fit. Lue wanted to give more playing time to younger players, like Osman, and Altman wanted to afford Wade the choice to stay or go back to the Heat. Wade took the ticket home.
