NBA Rumors: Latest on Dwyane Wade, Potential Rudy Gay Trade and More
While the last 85ish hours of NBA free agency have been a whirlwind of massive deals never before seen in league history, there are still a number of questions left to be decided.
And, no, thankfully we're not talking about Kevin Durant this time. His announcement that he is joining the Golden State Warriors has sent a ripple effect across the league.
Teams that missed out on Durant—and some that didn't even try—are still sitting around with millions in cap space burning through their pocket. The NBA salary floor for 2016-17 is $84.729 million, which is nearly $15 million more than the cap from last season.
While teams are not necessarily required to spend up to the floor—the money is redistributed to their own players if they don't—most will hit that mark, for better or for worse. Here's a look at a few rumors floating around on how some teams with cap space could look to spend their money.
Mavericks, Bucks, Nuggets Lining Up as D-Wade Suitors
For the second straight offseason, the Miami Heat have entered contentious negotiations with the best player in franchise history. The saga lasted only until July 2 a year ago. Twelve months later, Independence Day is here without a long-term agreement from Wade and Miami.
While Wade has spent most of this time vacationing in Spain with LeBron James and Chris Paul (and their families), teams have begun lining up in case he chooses to bolt.
ESPN.com's Marc Stein reported the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks are among the teams ready to talk. The Nuggets and Mavericks both have enough cap space to pay Wade well more than the $20 million he earned in 2015-16. Miami has only $19 million in space after retaining Hassan Whiteside, but it could easily shave a deal or two and get within Wade's range.
Jordan Schultz of the Huffington Post reported Wade signing with the Milwaukee Bucks is a "real" possibility. Dallas and Milwaukee feel like the most realistic options. The Mavericks have become a late-career safe haven for veterans, allowing them to increase their value before jumping out again on the open market. The Bucks are a promising young team in need of a go-to scorer, and it doesn't hurt that Wade played his college in Milwaukee's Bradley Center while at Marquette.
Of course, none of this is going to happen. Wade is going to return to Miami. These three teams are willingly playing along as negotiating ploys. Sure, if Wade suddenly decided to bounce over hurt feelings, they all would be there ready to go with a contract offer. But no one on earth believes Wade is actually entertaining the idea of leaving the Heat.
He'll smartly use other teams' cap space to strong-arm Miami into trading Josh McRoberts for cap filler and get the contract he wants—still at a relative discount in this market. Basically, this:
"wade: ill sign w the bucks
— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) July 2, 2016"
riley: ok
wade (goes to door): ill do it!
riley: ok. better buy a coat.
wade (standing halfway out: im going!
Kings Pushing to Trade Rudy Gay
Fun, unintended consequence of the salary cap skyrocketing: Contracts that formerly looked untradeable are now bargains.
The Kings are looking at a case-in-point with Rudy Gay, who saw his numbers decrease last season from his contract-year highs. Gay has long been the butt of jokes among analytical basketball fans for his dribble-heavy tendencies, lack of defensive effort and empty-numbers production.
But he is by no means a bad basketball player. Gay has developed into a perfectly average three-point shooter over the last few years, flashed a better-than-ever aptitude for passing in 2014-15 and is good at creating shots for himself. Those are valuable NBA traits, even if Gay should probably be shooting 10-12 shots a night instead of 14-16.
Good thing for the Kings: Gay is suddenly cheap. He will make $27.6 million over the next two seasons, which is the rough equivalent of $20.5 million under the old cap. The spike didn't cost Gay any actual capital, but he now takes up less space than an average starter.
Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee reported the Kings will try to take advantage of that by trading Gay now. They've added Matt Barnes, Arron Afflalo and Garrett Temple on the wing in free agency; the Barnes signing takes them to 15 players with guaranteed contracts. Something has to give here, and it seems like Gay is the answer.
Sacramento shouldn't have any trouble finding a team for Gay in this market. The question is why it feels the need to move on. The trio of Barnes, Afflalo and Temple isn't moving the needle. Gay is a flawed player approaching his 30th birthday, but you'd take him over any of those three in a heartbeat.
Other News and Notes
Lance Thomas Considering Discount to Stay With Knicks
The Knicks have spent their offseason assembling a roster that would have looked super dope in NBA 2K13. Derrick Rose, Courtney Lee and Joakim Noah have joined Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis in a series of win-now moves that seem to fundamentally misunderstand how to win now. It's been a wholly Knicksy offseason, though we should probably acknowledge they are better now than last season.
Just still not very good.
That improvement has been enough to impress free-agent forward Lance Thomas, who reportedly wants to stick in New York.
“He still wants to stay,” a source told Marc Berman of the New York Post. “He likes the moves they’ve done.”
The Knicks can offer Thomas around $6 million as a starting point, which would have been enough for him to leap at the contract a year ago. Now, with the likes of Solomon Hill landing eight figures per season, it's fair to wonder if Thomas could have a higher offer on the table. He hit 40.4 percent of his threes in 2015-16 and has made massive strides since arriving in New York.
