The Chicago Bulls have agreed with the 36-year old all-star shooting guard to buyout his contract. Dwyane Wade picked up his $23.8 million player option on June 20th, just after watching the 2017 NBA Finals go down. With the trade of Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dwyane felt snubbed in Chicago as he was the lone star player at the time. At this stage in his career, he does not want to carry the load anymore, and instead wants to compete for a championship and join a team that already has superstar talent on the roster. Dwyane even gave back $8 million to make this buyout happen.
Wade to the Cavaliers?
There are a few teams that sources close to Dwyane Wade believe have a good chance of signing the 3-time NBA champion, but none of those teams intrigue Mr. Wade more than the Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron James has always been one of Dwyane’s best friends since he stepped into the league. They spent the first seven years of their careers battling it out, putting up crazy regular season performances against each other, and battling for MVP trophy honors. As surprising as it may sound, they both were competing for championships during that time, and both made the NBA Finals a year apart from each other, but neither Wade’s Heat nor LeBron’s Cavs faced-off in a playoff series.
They then joined forces in 2010 to create the "Big 3" of Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James. Playing together, they had a lot of great chemistry, winning two championships in three years. But after LeBron took his talent back home to Cleveland in 2014, Bosh suffered a likely career-ending illness and Wade went to his hometown of Chicago.
We could very well see the duo of Wade and James play together once again, this time in Cleveland. As a free agent Cleveland is the most attractive place to go for the veteran guard.
Other possibilities?
Other teams that have been mentioned as likely landing spots, including the San Antonio Spurs with their all-stars of Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge and legendary coach Gregg Popovich.
Another possibility is a return to the Miami Heat. Maybe the Heat don’t offer the biggest title opportunity, but many believe Wade will return to the place it all started and finish his career there, for sentimental value. Lastly, the Oklahoma City Thunder have emerged as a contender after acquiring Carmelo Anthony, and possessing two of the most gifted players in the league -- Russell Westbrook and Paul George.
