After losing LeBron James to the Cavaliers, Pat Riley quickly undertook a plan to ensure he didn’t lose his entire big three.
1. Offer Chris Bosh a max contract. (Check)
2. Convince Bosh to stay with the Heat.
3. Convince Dwyane Wade to re-sign, too.
Now Riley can check off step 2 as well and move onto step three.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
Chris Bosh is finalizing an agreement to return to Miami on a five-year, $118M deal, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 11, 2014
Miami is pushing to complete a deal to keep Dwyane Wade now, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 11, 2014
With Bosh back, Miami is trying to complete shorter deals with Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem, league sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 11, 2014
Bosh’s exact max is $118,705,300. I bet he gets every penny.
But with Bosh, Wade and plenty of cap room to upgrade the supporting cast, Miami should be a playoff team next season. As long as Riley doesn’t lowball Wade, the Heat are in good shape.The Heat face competition from Chicago, but I can’t see them losing Wade now. Obviously, though, how much they’re willing to pay Wade will play a huge factor.
The Rockets, who’ve already traded Jeremy Lin to the Lakers and agreed to trade Omer Asik to the Pelicans (a deal will actually might happen), will still have cap room to pursue free agents until they must match Chandler Parsons’ offer sheet Sunday. Or they’ll have plenty of cap room beyond Sunday if they let Parsons go to Dallas.
Either way, Houston isn’t done yet. Bosh isn’t coming, and Carmelo Anthony is reportedly deciding between the Knicks and Bulls, so the top targets are off the market. But the Rockets could still push for other free agents like Luol Deng and Trevor Ariza or even restricted free agents like Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe.
Still, I wonder, does Daryl Morey regret using a first rounder to dump Lin when it didn’t even result in Bosh?
