The Miami Heat have quietly been building for this 12:01 July 1st deadline for years. Yes, years. Ever since they won the 2006 title, you could say.
Sure, the Heat fielded a competitive team to try and repeat for 2006-2007 season, but the Bulls had other plans that season, sending the Heat out of the playoffs in the first round. It was clear Miami’s championship runs had finished with that squad. It was, after all, the acquisition of Shaquille O’neal that lead to Miami’s title runs during the mid 2000′s.
Coming off the heals of a successful 2003 campaign that watched a young team built around Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, and a young rookie Dwyane Wade, the Heat pulled the trigger and gambled it all for Shaq. The architect? Pat Riley. In fact, every significant run the Heat franchise has made has been done with Riley’s sleight of hand.
He is why Miami is in the best position to control this off-season with over $45M in salary cap free to spend. The potential of this offseason is also why Riley curiously said that coaching was not something he would rule out – much to Erik Spoelstra’s surprise. Riley also is the reason why Miami is a legit destination for Lebron James; some even go so far as to put Chris Bosh in Miami despite the impossibility of a sign-and-trade.
This is not something that happens without foresight. Pat Riley has had to shrewdly keep in mind this offseason when acquiring players. Take James Jones’ contract. He had an option for over $4.5M – but it was a team option. Riley had to final say on whether or not to extend James’ contract and since they needed the extra cap space, the answer was “no, thanks”.
Daequan Cook is a solid, promising shooter off the bench. His contract, however, got in the way. Riley shipped him off undervalued, to be sure, along with the 18th pick to get out of the first round for the 32nd pick. Clearly no one would make that deal – unless you are Pat Riley and you have a plan.
Now, the plan is a tough one, but one that Riley has been looking forward to for years. He has to re-sign Wade, and to do that he has to convince him Miami is the place to be. Which means, Riley has to make a splash right away – either a sign and trade for Chris Bosh or a straight up signing of either Carlos Boozer or Amare Stoudemire. Toronto has scoffed at the idea of getting Michael Beasley, Mario Chalmers, and Joel Anthony in return for Bosh, but they are open to getting a trade exception (about $16M!) and their first round pick back (which was dealt as part of the Jermaine O’neal deal) so don’t rule them out.
Then, after all of that, King James awaits. Perhaps he stays in Cleveland and nothing happens. But most likely, he is waiting to see how things will shake out. If the Heat can keep Wade, land a marquee power forward, then Riley has everything in place to pull off yet another major acquisition: his biggest yet. Alonzo? Shaq? Drafting Wade? Signing Lebron James just may trump all of those considering all the competition out there – but it wouldn’t have been done without a solid plan and vision in place running on years of creation.
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Dwyane Wade is playing like an MVP and the Heat roll into Cleveland tonight on a back to back to face another MVP candidate. Perhaps the two best players in the league right now are Wade and Lebron James (heres hoping to a 2010 union in Miami!) and the Heat have a chance also to slide into the 4th playoff spot.
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Wade’s Choice Stradles the Edge of a Knife
This free agency thing is tearing apart the lives of hundreds of journalists and fans, all wondering where the next team for some of the biggest names in the sport will end up. And the players are being tortured over this – sure, it is great to be wanted but the deliberation part is going to prove hard for each one of these young men.
Dwyane Wade’s decision seemed straight forward. Yet, the emotions are coming into play here. Ira Winderman summarized what might be a major feather in Chicago’s cap – Dwyane Wade’s divorce and pending custody hearing. We discussed Wade’s divorce in an earlier post and how this may have given Wade a sense of relief as his ex-wife could not any longer stake a claim to his future earnings The hearing, however, is scheduled for July 19th and Wade is struggling over what his decision should be. Should he be based in Chicago for the sake of his family or should he stay in Miami and hope to get fully custody? Either way, it is a difficult choice to make and this could be at the heart, pun not intended, of the matter.
Or maybe it has nothing to do with any of this at all. Chris Broussard at ESPN notes that both Wade and Chris Bosh are filming documentaries of this free agency process and that Wade may be playing up his indecisiveness to make a more dramatic piece. Take a look:
One thing is for sure – Wade will be expecting big things from Pat Riley. The other teams in this have at least serviceable rosters that can arm Wade with enough support to put up a respectable run during the season. David Hyde has noted this.
It is also interesting to note that the Raptors are starting to back off a sign-and-trade option at least for Chris Bosh in regards to sending him to the Heat. This doesn’t make sense as the Raptors would surely lose out on compensation and Bosh would be able to land in Miami – but short about $30M in cash. Yet, it certainly gives the Heat an even greater advantage to bringing Bosh to Miami and thereby getting Wade’s assurance to keep building his legacy in south Florida.
Still, all of this can and will probably drive people crazy. The best thing is to do what Lebron James is going to do – hang out Sunday, celebrate with family the birth of this great nation’s most bold move – it’s announcement to the world for independence. Now it is up to the players to make their choices and take their stands.