The Ripple Effects Of Dwyane Wade Signing With The Chicago Bulls

Miami Heat

As the franchise leader in points, minutes, assists, steals and win shares, there’s no question that Wade represented the Miami Heat franchise in a way that no one ever has. Simply put, Dwyane Wade and the Heat were synonymous ever since they selected him with the fifth overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.

In his third season, he brought the Heat the franchise’s first championship. In his time in South Beach, he made 12 All-Star appearances, was named to eight All-NBA teams, earned one Finals MVP Award, an All-Star Game MVP Award and he led the league in scoring once.

That’s what makes this recent turn of events so hard for the Heat fan base to stomach. Here was the franchise’s greatest and most iconic player ever, and Riley was still unwilling to bend after missing out on Durant.

It never felt like Wade would leave an organization he had defined for more than a decade, especially after the two sides played a similar game of chicken last summer. Unfortunately for Riley, the head of that chicken has been cut off, and the organization’s 2016-17 season may have, well, a chicken-running-around-with-its-head-cut-off feel to it.

That’s not to say the Heat are down and out for the long-term. Riley vastly overestimated his negotiating skills, as well as Wade’s growing resentment toward an organization that he felt he had paid his dues to, but Miami could be armed with cap space next summer depending on what happens with Chris Bosh‘s health situation, the four-year, $50 million offer made to restricted free agent Tyler Johnson and Goran Dragic.

If Bosh is unable to play next season or announces his retirement due to blood clots, the Heat find cap relief. This would obviously be a heartbreaking and premature end to a Hall of Fame career for an even better person, and that takeaway would take precedence over anything else.

Bosh playing a single game next season would mean the Heat are on the hook for his $25.3 million salary in 2017-18, but if he’s unable to return to the court for the second season in a row, that’d be a ton of extra cap space for Riley to play with next summer.

Wade leaving the Heat also frees up enough cap space to match the Brooklyn Nets’ offer on Johnson, a useful backup who may be thrust into a starting role with minutes now available at shooting guard. If Miami were to match, they could smooth it out to an even $12.5 million a year on a team-friendly contract.

Johnson probably isn’t ready to take over Miami’s backcourt, which is why suggestions of trading Goran Dragic seem misplaced for the time being. The Dragon failed to live up to his namesake alongside Wade last season, but he thrived for the limited stretches where No. 3 was resting or out.

With four years and $70.2 million left on his contract (with a $19.2 million player option in the final year), Dragic’s deal has become much more manageable under the new cap, but his value isn’t particularly high after an underwhelming season at age 30.

However, if Riley felt it was finally time to fully rebuild through the draft (unlikely), he could trade Dragic to a team that needs a talented point guard and boost his available cap space into the $50 million range.

For the time being, the Heat emerge as one of the big losers in free agency, signing Hassan Whiteside to a four-year, $98 million contract, losing Luol Deng, Joe Johnson and now Wade in free agency, and facing the prospect of a Whiteside-Dragic-Justise Winslow–Josh Richardson core if Bosh’s health is not permitting.

That’s a pretty terrible end result for a franchise that already missed out in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes and lost the opportunity to land other quality free agents because they were tied up in those proceedings.

By assuming Wade wouldn’t go anywhere, by assuming that better offers from other teams weren’t coming, by overlooking all the sacrifices Wade made over the years for the only team he ever pledged allegiance to, Riley overstepped the lines of a functional relationship, and that affront was finally enough to end it.

Coming off a seven-game loss in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Riley and the Heat will have to hope they can sign useful players to one-year deals to keep their options open for another free agency bonanza in 2017.

In the meantime, however, Miami will grieve for the unexpected end to the most prosperous 13-year run in franchise history. If not for Riley’s pride, if not for Wade’s pride, if not for the demands of a three-year contract, the Heat might still have the most identifiable namesake in franchise history.

Wade deserved to be a “Heat Lifer,” but at such a high price for an aging player, it wasn’t meant to be.

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