If only the Cleveland Cavaliers had $20-plus million in cap space, then LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, now of the Chicago Bulls, would be teammates again.
Never mind that the Cavaliers still haven’t re-signed J.R. Smith, who is a few million dollars cheaper and roughly four years younger. LeBron, it seems, would have pushed Cleveland to sign Wade if it was financially feasible, per ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin:
With the Bulls and Cavaliers set to play a preseason game Friday, James confirmed that he hoped Wade would have ended up in Cleveland with him.
“We couldn’t afford him,” James said. “It’s that simple.”
So, like, I get it. LeBron and D-Wade are buddies. They would love to play together again. If we’re being honest, it kind of feels like they will join forces again, sometime in the distant, but not too distant, future just before they retire.
But it’s probably a good thing for the Cavaliers that they couldn’t afford Wade, despite James’ interest.
For one, Wade cost a ton. Two years and $47 million is a lot for an aging ball-dominant point guard who doesn’t space the floor. And more than that, Wade is a big-time piece the Cavaliers would have needed to incorporate. Smaller-scale additions, like that of Mike Dunleavy, don’t require an extensive transition period.
Who knows, maybe Wade could have helped the Cavaliers. They could have brought him off the bench, as if he were the Eastern Conference Manu Ginobili or Will Barton or whatever. And yet, the money being equal, even though it wasn’t, the safer play for Cleveland, given that its working off a title, would have still been to never find out.
