Dwyane Wade - MIA

[Andrei Kirilenko]

^{Dwyane Wade - Miami Heat}

Contract:

Year 1: $2,406,000 (MLE)

Dwyane Wade has decided to return to the Miami Heat. Wade received numerous offers, including other playoff teams such as Minnesota, Houston, and San Antonio. However, these teams were offering minimum contracts for a bench role, which Wade was not necessarily against as he is already being paid a lot on his prior deal, but he saw no real reason to rank those teams over the two most intriguing offers: Miami and Chicago.

Chicago was an enticing offer as it is Wade's hometown and the team is a serious contender (assuming the Bulls players get healthy), and is in an easier Eastern Conference. In fact, due to the weird situation of recently being traded by the Miami Heat, Dwyane was actually ready to sign on the dotted line for the Bulls, but the team refused to match Miami's offer of $2.5m and insisted that Dwyane sign for $1m instead. Again, Dwyane is not necessarily looking to get paid, but with $5m left in their MLE it seemed silly to us that the Bulls were not willing to give half of it to Wade, who at a 78 rated shooting guard is clearly the best free agent that will be available to use that money on. Dwyane did not feel valued by the Bulls and the situation could not be resolved.

On the other hand, Shaquille O'Neal and the Miami Heat have sent me no less than 10 PMs as soon as Wade became a free agent, and showed a ton of commitment to bringing Wade back. Troy was willing to offer what he can of his MLE, and was even willing to give Dwyane a starting position. Again, these things were not necessarily the most important for us, but when differentiating between options it has to be taken into consideration. We acknowledge that it is a bit strange that Miami traded Wade just a few weeks ago and now he is re-signing with the team, but when looking at the options this was really the only one that we felt good about. We could not really justify going to any of the other teams over Miami, as all four teams are in similar positions but Wade has the history, starting position, and money with the Heat. Troy has been loyal to Dwyane for years and Wade is happy to return to finish out the season in Miami. With a 1 year deal, he can evaluate his options again this offseason.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

WECLOME BACK Dwyane Wade!!!!