As one super sidekick leaves town another one may be returning. Amidst all of the craziness surrounding the mega blockbuster trade between the two top teams in the eastern conference with Kyrie Irving being swapped for a pretty awesome package featuring Isaiah Thomas, some more good news may be on the way for the Cavs: Dwyane Wade could be teaming up with LeBron James again very soon.
According to multiple reports from ESPN and The Vertical, the Bulls are likely to buy Wade out of the final year of his contract which would enable him to be a free agent and essentially play anywhere as he wouldn’t command much salary.
According to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com, that means he is very likely to re-spark his alliance with LeBron James and rekindle one of the greatest duos in NBA history.
“As of right now, people close to James are fairly confident that, at some point this year, Dwyane Wade is going to end up on the Cavs.”
He went on to say the only people he characterizes that are close to LeBron are the following:
Rich Paul
Maverick Carter
Savanah James
Adam Mendelsohn
LeBron is usually a few steps ahead on and off the court, so if he feels strongly that means this is pretty likely to happen.
The one thing that could hold this whole process up is the fact that his exorbitant salary as an expiring contract could be an appealing trade chip for teams trying to clear space for next summer. The Bulls would be smart to try and see what kind of return they could get for Wade as the season progresses.
Wade clearly does not want to be in the role of mentor for a tanking team though and may make it pretty clear that he doesn’t want to play in those circumstances and could strong arm the Bulls with a refusal to fill that role with their young core, which would make it best for them to move on from him.
The 2018 Draft could be incredible at the top and having any sort of veteran with a championship pedigree could help the Bulls win just enough games to fall out of the top five of the lottery, that is not worth holding on to him for if you aren’t assured of value in return of a trade.
It would be pretty awesome to see Wade back as a contender next to LeBron James. What seemed like doom and gloom for Cleveland may not be so bad after all with the additions of a lot of experienced veteran talent like Thomas, Crowder, Rose and now maybe Wade.
Next summer will probably be a different story though…
