Dwyane Wade Is Willing To Leave Miami

Dwyane Wade entered the league as a member of the Miami Heat thirteen years ago. Thirteen years later, he could leave the team that drafted him.

After contract talks were slow to kindle for the second year in a row, Dwyane Wade now seems open to leaving Miami, according to ESPN‘s Brian Windhorst. Wade has had his agent let multiple teams know he’s willing to negotiate a contract with them.

Now, the following tidbit may be unrelated, but recently an anonymous NBA free agent listed his top four free agent destinations as, all things being equal, according to Basketball Insider‘s Alex Kennedy: the San Antonio Spurs, the Toronto Raptors, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the New York Knicks.

What NBA player is a free agent, would feel like his anonymous listing of teams was relevant, and could and would think the Cavaliers would sign him?

May 24, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James and guard Dwyane Wade talks with the media following the Heat 99-87 victory over the Indiana Pacers in game three of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2014 NBA Playoffs at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports /

There could be others, but it could be Wade. Each destination listed makes sense for Wade on multiple levels.

The Spurs are the model team of the NBA. Gregg Popovich is unapologetic as he rests his older players. Meanwhile, the Spurs are perennial championship contenders and have All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge to play alongside Kawhi Leonard. The team will still have Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, and Tim Duncan on it’s roster.

Recent reports indicate there’s mutual interest between Pau Gasol and the Spurs, according to The Vertical’s Adrain Wojnarowski on The Vertical Podcast. The team only has one starter not spoken for, the shooting guard.

Toronto is an established team after going six games with the heavily favored Cavaliers in this year’s Eastern Conference Finals. They have the type of foreign metropolitan market that could benefit Wade off-the-court, who has been successfully targeting countries such as China for product launches since 2014. The Raptors star shooting guard, DeMar DeRozan, wants to stay and should. DeRozan could still slide to small forward.

With Wade’s presence, the Raptors would both play with a better pace as the unit essentially is replacing Patrick Patterson with Wade in staring lineup. The unit would be impressive with the starting lineup.

Cleveland has LeBron James, the best player in the NBA and is Wade’s best friend. They have the 24-year-old Olympian and NBA champion Kyrie Irving at point guard. They have Kevin Love, a double-double machine who shot 36.0 percent from three last year. They also just won a championship largely playing 2-on-5 offensively. There’s a basketball fit as J.R. Smith and his 11 shots per game aren’t currently employed by the team and the Cavs need a playmaker to supplant the heady play of free agent Matthew Dellavedova.

Besides that, the Cleveland Cavaliers struggle without LeBron on the floor because Kyrie doesn’t play like a floor general but like a war general. Wade’s style of play is not a relentless attack, but instead is controlled.

The Knicks have one of Wade’s best friends in Carmelo Anthony who may have quietly just had one of his best seasons as a playmaker as he was averaging a career-high 4.2 assists per game last season. They also recently acquired fellow Chicago-native Derrick Rose.

Rose, 27, may not return to MVP-form but then again how many NBA point guards currently average 16.1 points per game? After watching Joe Johnson look revitalized with the Heat, it looks possible that the bounce and explosiveness that went “missing” from Rose weren’t drained by injuries but were a byproduct of the mental drain and toll from people’s expectations.

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The Knicks are being led by Phil Jackson, who took part in the careers of the only two shooting guards more legendary than Wade. It would cement him in the conversation with Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan to establish a connection with the Zen Master. New York is a great market as well, and the Knicks, like the other two squads listed, have a commitment to winning.

Is it possible another team would sign Wade? Yes. Yet, as news broke about Wade being open to leaving Miami, news was being broke about LeBron opting out of his contract.

After recently having his teammates watch a video on connecting the dots in the 2016 NBA Finals, it’s not hard to apply the lessons they learned in the video to determining one of Wade’s possible moves.

Next: The Cleveland Cavaliers Should Sign Dwyane Wade

If they already aren’t trying, which is hard to believe, the Cleveland Cavaliers should sign Dwyane Wade.