Quote:
Originally Posted by sefant77
Na, his agent told him to do this. To make sure Riley has the max contract in his pocket at midnight
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I'm about 95% sure Riley offers him a max contract right away, but the only hesitation I have with that is that it's going to be really tough for the Heat to sign Wade to a long-term contract too if they give Whiteside $21M. Of course, they might get some cap relief (though a HUGE talent reduction) if Bosh is medically forced to retire, but that seems unlikely. Miami would basically have to have a fire sale to afford near-max deals for both players.
Between Bosh, Dragic, McRoberts, Josh Richardson and Winslow the Heat have $48M on their cap. Their significant free agents (i.e. guys that I expect they'll be interested in bringing back), in order of importance, are Whiteside, Wade, Deng, Tyler Johnson, Joe Johnson, Udonis Haslem, and Gerald Green. That's $46M to divvy out. Deng and Johnson are the likeliest casualties considering their price tags, but you're still talking about giving Whiteside $22M and having $26M, before cap holds etc, to fill out the rest of your roster. Seems like it would take a LOT of maneuvering to bring Wade/Whiteside back at fair market value.
All of that aside, the good organizations seem to find a way to do the unthinkable cap-wise, so it's entirely possible that they salary dump McRoberts and Dragic (or again, lose their obligations to Bosh via retirement) so they can bring absolutely everyone else back.
TL;DR -- wut