LeBron James wants a playmaker. Dwyane Wade wants a team that’s getting better. Hmm …
Wade joined his former teammate in ripping his new team’s roster, bringing up both his player option for next year and the Bulls’ stagnation around .500. The Chicago native who went home this summer seems to be, if not regretting it, certainly wondering if it’s where he wants to be long term.
“I’m 35. I do get concerned. Of course,” Wade told reporters Tuesday in Orlando (via ESPN).
He continued, “I don’t know if (evaluating a team’s potential is) that simple, if it’s that black and white. I think you see certain teams throughout a year can get better and you see certain teams — you will see it. You can tell that it’s just who they are. I’ve been on both. I’ve been on teams that it’s just who you are and you deal with it for the whole year. And some teams you get better as the years go on.
“Right now we are who we are.”
If those quotes look familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen the stuff James has been spouting off in Cleveland. He wants help, especially since Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love have played beneath themselves since the start of 2017. Wade would be help — very familiar help.
It’s probably not happening. I mean, that’d be absurd, right?
But what if … maybe the Cavs trade Iman Shumpert to the Bulls … then you have to balance out salaries … but the Bulls’ best players are on big deals … the Cavs’ aren’t going to give away anything that could cost them a title repeat … so maybe … yeah, this is the best we could come up with:
So yeah, Felicio is a really nice young player, but the Cavs aren’t entering the postseason with him as their starting center. The idea is fun to kick around, but Cleveland’s books are simply too stacked, and the Bulls aren’t taking back injured J.R. Smith’s massive contract only to create even more locker-room issues. (Now if the Cavs want to throw in Kevin Love for Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez, the Bulls probably would listen.)
The salary issue is what kept Wade off the Cavs this offseason in the first place, as he also clarified Tuesday:
“The reason I said that, [the media] asked me a question about going to the Cavs this summer and I said, “Well, I think they had like $2.4 million (to offer). It ain’t that bad. It ain’t that bad for me now. I do got three rings … that’s what I meant. In the sense, when you’re a veteran guy, you’re older, some guys have taken those sacrifices — David West last year, he gave all his money back to go to San Antonio. It’s something that he wanted to do, he wanted to put himself in position to try to win a ring. I have three, I’ve been in five Finals, so I don’t need to do that. But it is a time where you can compete too. It’s just a fine line between what you really want. That’s not what I want.”
Still, when people criticize super teams, they’re ignoring one of the biggest reasons that stars want to play together: trust. LeBron and D-Wade weren’t even all that close with Chris Bosh, but they knew they could trust him. Kevin Durant never even seemed that fond of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green until he realized they were dependable, proven winners.
Factor in the longstanding friendship between James and Wade, and it’s easy to understand why they see their (wildly different) predicaments similarly.
Dennis Wierzbicki, USA TODAY Sports
As far as Wade’s future, he left most of it up in the air.
“I just wanted to come here this season, do the best I can, obviously from a basketball standpoint,” he said. “And also as a leader standpoint. See what kind of change to the culture that you can be a part of. Try to see the growth of the organization and where it could be going, etc. You just never know how nothing is going to shake out. Obviously I’m not happy with being 22-23 (now 23-23), whatever the case may be. Who would be? But there are things around here that I am happy with of individuals. Obviously I’m happy with Jimmy’s growth and our relationship. I’m happy with the organization, how they’ve approached things, but I’m not happy with our record. But no one on this team is. But that [decision] is months away. I haven’t even concerned myself with that. I’ll figure it out later.”
(Thanks to ESPN for the quotes from Orlando.)
