Is a LeBron James, Dwyane Wade Reunion with Cavs Real Rumor or Pure Fantasy?

In the dreamscape of unfounded offseason NBA rumors, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have already teamed up for the Cleveland Cavaliers' 2015-16 championship run.

It's a delightful place, this fantasy land.

In it, James and head coach David Blatt spend their weekends paddling down the Cuyahoga in a tandem canoe, J.R. Smith agrees to a new contract with incentives that pay only for uncontested shots and both Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are perfectly healthy.

Fun, huh?

Back here in the real world, we're stuck with troubling realities like the logic of roster building, financial obstacles and one nagging little detail: There's no basis for believing Wade will end up in Cleveland.

Sorry to be a buzzkill, but the truth is that we have precisely two benign events that have, somehow, given rise to the ridiculous, implausible notion of Wade and James playing together next year on the Cavaliers.

Benign event No. 1 was a minor slip in verb tense perpetrated by Wade during his duties as an NBA Finals analyst for ABC, captured by SB Nation:

Did you catch that? He said "When I was in Miami." Clearly, that means he does not intend to be in Miami in the future, and neither does he consider himself to be in Miami now. That's it then, I guess. Wade is done with the Heat.

Either that, or he misspoke on live television.

But wait! Wade's father was spotted wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers shirt (via Bleacher Report):

There's your clincher. Everyone knows marquee NBA talents control family members' wardrobe decisions, and what's more, they also use that control to send subtle messages about their career intentions.

Sigh.

So thanks to those two things happening, we now have to entertain this idea of Wade playing in Cleveland—if only so we can dismiss it.

ESPN's Ryen Russillo laid down a reality check:

So did Tim Bontemps of the New York Post:

B/R's Ethan Skolnick spoke with Chris Fedor on the Ken Carman Show (via CBS Cleveland) in Cleveland to explain the difference between Wade being miffed by the way the Heat are treating him and actually wanting to join up with the Cavs:

"

In talking to various people and getting a sense of his position at this moment...we have to start here: It's not about him wanting to go somewhere else. It's about him being annoyed. ... He's angry at [the Heat].

This organization in Miami has built itself on this Heat Lifer premise and this idea that our guys are our guys...and Dwyane is kind of the poster child for Heat Lifer. And he felt that they were going to take care of him.

"

Would a Wade-James reunion be cool? Absolutely.

Everybody loves it when the band gets back together (except maybe Chris Bosh), and these two guys combined to win a pair of rings in Miami. Maybe Wade would be the missing ingredient in Cleveland.

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

Exciting as that sounds, there'd be questions.

Would the Cavaliers really want to add another defender whose sporadic effort makes him a liability as often as not? Especially with Love and Irving (two shoddy defensive players) already occupying key roles in the franchise's future?

How would they integrate a player who needs the ball to be successful when James' usage rate is already so high, and both Love and Irving need lots of touches to maximize their impact?

Is Wade supposed to become a spot-up shooter? A defensive specialist?

And would...oh no! I'm letting the rumor drag me into the nonsense vortex.

There's no sense getting sucked into fantasizing about the on-court possibilities (and problems) of Wade winding up in Cleveland. It's crazy to get analytical because the real obstacle cuts those concerns off at the pass.

Wade can't get to Cleveland in the first place unless he's willing to make enormous sacrifices—and we're not just talking about giving up perennial 85-degree days for a winter in the Rust Belt.

For starters, Wade would have to surrender the $16.1 million he's guaranteed to make next season. It's fairly likely he'll opt out of that final year of his contract with the Heat, but at the time of this writing, he hasn't yet. And the logical assumption following any potential opt-out would be that a multiyear offer was on the way in short order.

Signing with the Cavs could only happen in one of two ways, and both cost Wade millions—not to mention his legacy as a Heat Lifer.

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Cleveland is capped out, a surefire tax team next year. So Wade can take its taxpayer's midlevel exception or a veteran's minimum. In either case, he'd make a fraction of what he could get from the Heat or any other team with money to spend. And at 33, he'd have to forego the security of what will likely be the last long-term deal of his career.

Again, that's if he opts out.

Let's also not forget that the Cavs have a bevy of internal personnel decisions to make before even considering outside help. Love and Smith have already opted out, according to Shams Charania of Real GM and Marc Stein of ESPN, respectively.

James will do the same, barring something totally unforeseen.

Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova will be restricted free agents.

Tristan Thompson will hit the market, too, and he might command a max deal.

Is it possible Wade could play with LeBron in Cleveland next season?

Sure.

It's also possible that in 2015-16 we'll see DeAndre Jordan shoot 88 percent from the foul line, Stephen Curry miss 100 straight open three-pointers and DeMarcus Cousins and George Karl living happily ever after.

Probable? No.

Likely? Forget it.

Strap in, folks. We've got a long summer of this ahead.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @gt_hughes.