A) Hometown factor in NBA history has always been overrated and often factors very little into decisions. B) C) Does Wade REALLY want to share the spotlight with James? Especially since he's likely going to play the role of the sidekick in such a scenario? Again, NBA history suggest Ego > Chance winning rings. Especially since Wade already has one. D) Not the sexiest scenario for Wade. And I know it's a long shot. But it's not impossible.
WOW...Yao does not equal Olajuwon by any stretch...I guess Tmac and Yao wasn't enough of "olajuwon and drexler pt. 2" for some ppl
Btw, if the rox can prove that they can compete with the squad this yr AND get a productive Tracy to resign, why wouldn't Wade pick us over a crap NYK, Miami or Bulls squad? We have a team of some extremely solid role players (Landry, Brooks, Scola and Hayes), a couple of side-kicks (Tracy, Ariza and Battier), a solid big man (Yao) and a huge vacancy for a star player to shine, right now! Put me on the "we have a chance" band wagon!
The problem is the matter of ego. Rarely would you have two superstar perimeter players simply because of the "pippen" label....nobody really wants to the Pippen to someone's Jordan. That's why even if a Lebron/Wade pairing would guarantee a championship it would probably not happen. On the other I'm really worried how long Dwade can keep his body together. I would guess he would start beaking down 2 years from now, when he reaches 30 and is in the middle of his Max contract....
Do we even have enough money to offer the max? I believe someone already made a detailing why we won't be able to offer a max contract without giving up some of our core players
The key players are Battier and Scola's rights(we have to renounce it). If those two are gone with no salary coming back, then we'd have money. Otherwise, may require some SnT to work.
We would have to dump a big chunk of that "extremely solid role players" and/or that "a couple of sidekicks" to have the cap room to sign Wade. See BimaThug's thread. If either Wade (or LeBron) wants to come to Houston next year, he will have to settle with a very modest salary... for what?
Like Lebron and Bosh said, they had a plan with their original extensions and they're gonna stick with that plan of becoming a free agent. None of them were going to re-up on an extension and mess up the strategy. Except the Wade situation sounds different in that he's open to test the free agent market.
My bad, I didn't read that thread...I guess he would have to choose in btwn a max contract + unrealistic chance at a title vs. a more modest contract + a much more legit chance at a title. All that probably equals to a poor chance for us... Then again, maybe LeBron wants a chance at a title with us(while forgoing a max contract)?
Wade definitely wants to go to Chicago to heighten the Jordan comparisons. I could definitely see Wade being 'Jordan-esque' in a Bulls jersey...his addition to the Bulls young and promising team would instantly turn them into quite a formidable team with many stellar campaigns ahead of them.
When a big name player changes teams, it creates a domino effect that usually results in multiple teams shaking up their roster. Just like LA getting Pau Gasol. I think this might be part of Morey's plan, to be in a position to exploit the chaos to his advantage, to be ready to make a deal with that desperate GM who just saw a division rival upgrade or maybe be the facilitator in a three way trade. In this way, the Rockets don't have to be the team that acquires Dwyane Wade in order to benefit from his leaving Miami. Of course, you'd have to have a shrewed GM, with an abundance of expiring contracts, and young affordable players with tremendous upside to be in that position. Not to mention needing an owner unafraid to spend some cash or roll the dice to get something done. Yeah, too bad that doesn't really sound like us. Oh wait....
Thanks, I completely even forgot about this, making it even more unlikely and probably sufficient to completely rule out the possibility. Whenever folks here tout our chances at a max free agent, the only reason presented with even an ounce of plausibility, and the primary one, is our great group of gritty role players and how any star would want to come be the missing piece. Forget about the fact that no max free agent has joined a team for this reason (Grant Hill and the Orlando Magic are frequently cited, but he joined because he and Tracy McGrady had both agreed to join, not because of that team's role players), subtract Battier and Scola and that completely decimates the very group whose existence was the theoretical enticement. It's not happening.
but has two superstar guards ever been able to lead a dynasty?? Derrick Rose is a surefire superstar in the future (in fact hes already a star in his rookie year on a playoff team [where you aren't allowed to chuck up shots and dribble out the clock in the name of "developping"]). Sure, D-Wade can go to Chicago his hometown and create the Bulls version of Jordan 2.0 but Jordan didn't have a ball-dominant point guard to share the ball with him and if Derrick Rose is ever going to play next to D-Wade, both of them being ball-dominant guards will make each other less effective than they would be if they had an average guard next to them. They each need to handle the ball quite a fair amount and they would be limiting each other in the process. D-Wade + LeBron = Jordan + Pippen 2.0 but on which team?
Didn't you just answer your own question? If you don't think Pippen is a superstar in his own right you have been drinking too much Jordan kool aide. LBJ is even more of a ball hog than Dwade, what makes LBJ special is he can do anything you can think of with the ball in his hands (post up, slash, shoot, pass). With that said I don't think Wade will entertain the idea of him not being the man, so personally I don't think Wade will go to a team that already has LBJ in it.
You are probably right, but that would be in the case where that city being his hometown is the sole or primary advantage that team has going for it. i.e. Rashard Lewis had some damn good other options so he wasn't going to come to Houston just because he was from here. In the case of Wade, the Heat are a complete mess and having Derrick Rose is a great advantage for the Bulls. The fact that he is from Chicago is only the icing on the cake. This is debatable either way. I think the fact that he already has won a ring would make him more willing to take a backseat. He already single handedly won an NBA Finals, so he knows he has nothing to prove. Perhaps the thinking would be to just go for the sure-thing and collect some more hardware while he is still in the final few years of his prime? For instance, if you are Dwayne Wade, and you are 28 years old with maybe 2 years MAX left at your current MVP level, do you re-sign with Miami (or someone else like the Bulls/Rockets) where you can be 'the man' but still have to wait around for that GM to get you some more help (a decent big in Chi, a decent pair of shoes for Yao in Houston)...or...do you take the sure-fire championship and collude with James, knowing you are the second fiddle? Obviously, pairing James and Wade doesn't guarantee a title and there is a great case to be made that it wouldn't work, but in these guys' minds, with the superstar ego, you have to think they would go in with the assumption of a guaranteed title. So it's essentially more rings + sidekick vs. main man + relative uncertainty. I personally think already having won a title and at age 28, Wade would go for what he thought was the "sure thing." And the fact that they are both great doesn't even take into account the fact that they would probably think it would be genuinely 'fun' to play together. As pointed out above by yourself and Easy, the fact that it would require Battier and Scola pretty much euthenizes any chance we might have had. Our supporting cast was our only selling point. Look, there's a chance Yao fully recovers from this and has a Ilgauskus-like resurgence. But in June 2010, no one will be sure of that, and certainly not a superstar free agent with no dearth of options. If Yao was at full health and we were able to keep our core intact, then you could say we might have had a snowball's hell in chance. But given the circumstances, I would just recommend to anyone divesting their energy in hoping for a star guard to pray for a complete McGrady recovery.
We don't have enough cap room to offer a max contract to D-Wade unless Shane is traded for expiring contracts (assuming the Rox want to re-sign Scola). McGrady has to be renounced too. There's no such thing as "re-sign McGrady at a reasonable price and then offering up a max contract".
Actually, I have to disagree wholeheartedly with this premise. I don't see how you can make this assumption. The idea that a player the caliber of Wade, with a championship under his belt, will play 2nd fiddle to Lebron and let Lebron hog all the spotlight is pretty far fetched. IMO, much more far fetched than Wade to Houston. Heck, Iverson would rather play for Memphis than a top 6th man for a contender. I don't see why Houston's situation is so bad. Versus Chicago, we lose a bit on talent, Yao is a better fit as a center than Rose/Deng simply because he's a post player. And we still have a deeper core than Chicao with Brooks/Ariza/Landry/potential breakout 2nd rounders. And there is the hypothetical top 5 pick that could be added to the team next season. However Houston wins in terms of no-state taxes plus cozy media/fans. As well as access to the Chinese market. Less pressure + more money is never a bad thing. Versus Miami, it really just depends on how Miami builds their team. That's a big question mark until next offseason.
