Dwyane Wade and the state of basketball purgatory
We’ve got some updates on a potential Wade buyout
Yesterday, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley reported that the starting price for a Dwyane Wade buyout would be $20 million of the $23.8 million he opted in for this season. Cowley also made it clear the Bulls do not plan to pay that much in a buyout. CBS reported that neither Wade nor his people have reached out to the Bulls formally about a buyout.
And this is where we stand in one of the weirdest PR-related tug-of-wars of all-time.
Most reports have stated that the buyout has to be beneficial for the Chicago Bulls franchise for them to explore the option. Our overlord Gar Forman went as far as to say to Cowley in a text:
“We’re looking forward to having Dwyane with us.”
-Gar Foreman
That’s an interesting thing to say. Especially when ESPNChicago’s Nick Friedell stated on Tuesday:
“ The young players on the Bulls really can’t stand Dwyane…”
Wade feeling the need to call out the young guys on the roster for their effort was the start of the initial rift, and guys like Jerian Grant took to social media to let Wade know it was not alright to question their effort and commitment. Now, apparently, Wade does not want to look like “the bad guy” according to unnamed sources. That is maybe the most laughable thing of all, as accepting a HUGE player option was Wade’s choice. There is perhaps no more of an NBA bad guy thing to do: literally halting a team’s rebuilding plans by sticking around and then demanding a buyout without actually demanding a buyout.
$20 million is roughly 84 percent of Wade’s salary for 2017–18, and from what we know of the Bulls, that is an extremely unlikely figure. I believe the Bulls and Wade will eventually meet halfway on a buyout as we near the March 1 deadline for waived players to join playoff-eligible teams.
The interesting thing is right now we are at the stage where everyone is saying the right thing, while nothing actually happens. It will be intriguing to see how the Bulls’ lineups shake out at the start of the season. Wade has said he’s open to coming off the bench, and Fred Hoiberg has stated that he thinks Zach LaVine can come back in time for the start of the season (which by the way is a bad idea, but whatever). This all seems to be leading to one of the more dysfunctional sagas in recent history.
I ultimately think GarPax will get Wade to agree on a figure between $10–15 million, as Wade ultimately decides being happy (with his team) is more important to him than his last big contract. The sad part is that we are in the time period of the NBA where the two camps will dance around the issue as Wade continues to hurt team chemistry and the new culture that GarPax are trying to layout for the “Rebuild-a-Bulls”.
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