The Miami Heat and Dwyane Wade are at a salary impasse which could prompt the latter to opt out of his contract and seek free agency with a team elsewhere, according to various reports. But those reports, particularly the latter part, almost certainly are not coming from those with knowledge of the situation. Wade won’t leave Miami, and team president Pat Riley won’t let him walk. Here are three key reasons why Dwyane Wade will still be with the Heat come opening day:
1. While it was masked this past season by a rash of season ending injuries to just about everyone but Dwyane Wade, the Miami Heat have already rebuilt themselves into mild contenders. Chris Bosh should make a full recovery from the blood clots which derailed what had been his finest season in years. Goran Dragic is benefiting from his first offseason with the Heat. Hassan Whiteside was having a record setting season before lacerating his hand. Josh McRoberts, signed last offseason, never even saw the court due to injury. Put all these broken pieces back together and throw in the #10 draft pick, and Miami has to be the favorite to reach the NBA Finals from the east next season (sorry, LeBron). Why would Wade leave the Heat to either go to a lesser team in the east, or to go to a crowded west? Miami is his best shot at winning another NBA championship. And that’s before getting to the 2016 free agency shuffle, where Riley can transform the Heat roster into something that’s utterly dominant, as he did in the last such window.
2. Wade has far more left in the tank than the “Heat only won championships because of LeBron” national media narrative would suggest. He’s coming off his best and most efficient statistical season in several years. The notion that Miami has to discard him in order to rebuild is nonsensical.
3. Miami Heat lifers are invariably rewarded by the franchise after their retirement. One need only look at the likes of Alonzo Mourning, Keith Askins and others who are still working as Heat employees (without the constraints of a salary cap for that matter) to get a sense of what awaits Dwyane Wade, who at this point stands to go down as the greatest figure in Heat history. Why would he want to risk that by bolting for some other team where he’d have less of a chance of winning a championship and would’t make much (or any) more money anyway? He wouldn’t - which is why he’ll still be with the Miami Heat when the 2015-2016 season tips off.
Jake Robison
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