Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade. AFP FILE PHOTO
NEW YORK, United States — Dwyane Wade, a three-time NBA champion with Miami, and Ray Allen, the NBA’s all-time 3-point shooter who retired in 2014, were pondering moves to title contenders Wednesday.
In the final hours before Thursday’s start of NBA teams being able to sign contracts with free agents, 2013 NBA championship teammates Wade and Allen were looking at rich deals and contending teams and considering their options.
NBA clubs can agree to terms with players but no signs can take place until one minute into Thursday morning on the US East Coast.
Wade hosted several meetings in New York, including the 34-year-old guard meeting with Miami Heat owner Micky Arison after a two-year offer for $40 million that was $10 million less than what Wade had been seeking.
Wade, a 12-time NBA All-Star who played on the 2008 US Olympic gold medal team of NBA stars, has never been the Heat’s top-paid player despite his key roles on championship teams in 2006, 2012 and 2013.
The Denver Nuggets reportedly pitched as much as $52 million for two years while Chicago Bulls guard Rajon Rondo and Jimmy Butler reportedly have been pushing Wade to come play for his hometown club and multiple reports have Miami trying to peddle forward Josh McRoberts to free enough salary cap room to boost their Wade offer by $11 million.
An X-factor in Wade’s future is his friendship with LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar who sparked the greatest NBA Finals comeback in history to bring his hometown its sports sport champion since 1964.
While Wade might settle for less money to join a defending champion, and provide the same sort of talent boost for the Cavs that Kevin Durant did for Golden State earlier this week, it would take James sacrificing his free agent salary, yet to be established, to open room for Wade.
The Cavaliers’ Twitter account began following Wade and his wife, Gabrielle Union, on the messsage posting system on Tuesday. Wade also began following the Twitter account of Cavs’ guard J.R. Smith.
Allen, two weeks shy of his 41st bithday, was looking at the Cavaliers and the Warriors, his 3-point record form an easy fit for a Golden State squad that set an NBA season record for 3-pointers led by a record 402 hoops from beyond the arc from two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry.
ESPN reported Allen’s representatives reached out to the Warriors while Cleveland.com said he had contacted the Cavaliers of his interest in returning to the NBA after two seasons off. he also reportedly has shown interest in the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs as he seeks a third title after crowns with Boston in 2008 and Miami in 2013.
In 18 NBA seasons, Allen averaged 18.9 points and made 40 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
‘We’re going to kill the golden goose’
Charles Barkley, a retired NBA star now serving as a television commentator, said he hated seeing Durant’s move because it left some teams stockpiling talent and others forced to overpay for leftover talent.
“We’re going to have guys on bad teams making $25 million a year. And we’re going to have three or four competitive teams,” Barkley told ESPN radio. “Fans love their teams, they love sports. But they are not going to go see Sacramento, Indiana, Miami, these bad teams where guys are making $10, 20, 30 million a year and they don’t have a chance to compete. That’s where we’re going.
“We’re going to kill the golden goose. Everybody’s going to be making a lot of money, but other than five teams we’re going to be putting a shabby product out there. That’s what’s going to kill the NBA in the next few years in my opinion.”