Don’t expect Chris Bosh to put on an NBA uniform this season.
You probably were already expecting that. But it’s widely known that Bosh plans to fight the Miami Heat’s refusal to clear him for duty. We just weren’t sure when or how he planned on doing that.
Apparently, though, he will wait to make a return attempt until next season, according to the Miami Herald‘s Barry Jackson:
According to a league-employed source connected to Bosh, the mindset at the moment is that he’s more likely to attempt a comeback next season than this season.
The Heat eventually needs clarity on that, because if Miami goes through the process of removing his salary from its cap in February (it cannot happen before Feb. 9) instead of, say, April, it would leave Miami at risk if Bosh makes a comeback elsewhere this season because his salary would go back on the Heat’s cap if he plays 25 games with another team (regular season and/or playoffs).
If the Heat is comfortable that Bosh is not going to try to come back this season, it could likely purge Bosh from its cap — pending an independent doctor’s ruling — before the Feb. 23 trade deadline, freeing $23.6 million in space this season (which is not pro-rated, cap expert Larry Coon said). That means Miami would not need to trade similar money away to acquire a player earning substantially more.
If and when Bosh returns to the NBA is almost irrelevant at this point, cruel as it sounds. It seems like his money for this season and next will at least be wiped off the Heat’s books temporarily, allowing them to be major players in the trade market and free agency.
Should Bosh make his return to another team next season and appear in 25 games, as Jackson noted, the rest of his contract would be tacked onto the Heat’s books. While that would limit how much they can spend through 2019-20, the initial period would give them one trade go-round and one free agency to build a contender that is unaffected by the hold on the court. If the Heat strike out in free agency only to have Bosh’s salary be put back on their books, that’s a problem for obvious reasons.
Still, this is about Bosh, and his life outside of basketball. That’s all that matters. You hope to see him back on the court, healthy and able, but if he can’t play, it’s more important he remain healthy and able in life itself.
