Dwyane Wade handles the ball during a home court game in Miami. (Photo : Mike Ehrmann | Getty Images Sport)
The Miami Heat are seen as the losers in free agency because of the departure of Dwyane Wade.
However, there are now various reports coming out that there may be more than meets the eye for the team. With Pat Riley running the show, this is not entirely farfetched.
First of all, this is not the first time the Heat and Wade had an impasse. Last summer, Dwyane Wade threatened to leave Miami and the negotiation was extended. Somehow, they got Wade to sign a $20 million, one year contract.
Most observers thought all was now well in South Beach and the reason for the terms was the expected spike in the salary cap. It seemed reasonable and Wade even had a resurgent season and the Heat eventually made the playoffs again.
However, Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald paints a different picture. He described the relationship between Wade and the Heat as "fractured" and painted the picture from Wade's point of view.
"The frustration with always feeling like he was second to someone else, created by overconfidence that, no matter what, he would always come back. The amusement about the perception that it was Pat Riley, not him, who had created the Big 3 bonanza. The lack of conviction that the Heat, as constructed, could really contend in the near term - that it was likely closer to the middle than the championship," Skolnick wrote.
It was also revealed that Pat Riley never tried to contact Dwyane Wade during this entire process-which is a very peculiar way to treat a "Heat Lifer."
Tom Ziller of SB Nation could not subscribe to the idea that Riley was blindsided by Wade's departure even though that it what he would want us to believe.
"This was Pat Riley's endgame all along: string Wade along until he leaves," Ziller said.
Riley is already planning to build their next team, with Whiteside as the anchor (he was the first to be contacted-which caught Wade's ire). Ziller believes that Riley will go after the 2017 free agents like Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook and Gordon Hayward for instance.
The only time that Riley was caught off guard was when LeBron suddenly left to return to Cleveland. Riley would not forget that and he's too smart not to make sure it happens again as Ziller said, "there's always something up their sleeve."
