Dwyane Wade reportedly hasn’t spoken to the Bulls’ front office for the last couple months, and hasn’t publicly indicated that he wants to be bought out of his contract. However, he’s aware that there’s plenty of speculation about a possible buyout, and seemed to acknowledge on Thursday in an NBA TV interview that those discussions figure to happen at some point (link via Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel).
“When the time is right for me and the Chicago Bulls organization to sit down and talk about the future, we will do that,” Wade told NBA TV’s David Aldridge. “The time hasn’t been right, obviously, to this point. But I’ll be in Chicago soon enough and hopefully we’ll get an opportunity to sit down and just talk about the future and the direction and go from there. I’m 35 years old. I’m a grown man. I can definitely sit across the room from you and listen to your truth and hopefully hear mine and go from there.”
[RELATED: Wade to consider Miami, L.A. if bought out?]
While Wade didn’t state outright that a buyout from his current contract is probable, it isn’t hard to read between the lines and deduce that he wouldn’t mind moving from the rebuilding Bulls to a team with a better chance of contending.
“It’s no secret,” Wade said, per Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, when asked if he’d like to be part of a team that could contend for a title. “And everyone knows that. I’ve been lucky. I’ve been to five Finals. So If I never go to another one, I can’t complain. But I would love to. I would love to because I feel I can add to something a team that’s in that position. That’s not something I can focus on or something I can worry about right now.”
For now, Wade says he plans to be in attendance when training camp opens for the Bulls in less than three weeks, writes K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. While the veteran guard may not relish the idea of spending most of the season with a team not expected to make the playoffs, buyout talks won’t necessarily move quickly — the Bulls indicated earlier this summer that any buyout would have to be “advantageous” to the franchise, meaning Wade would likely have to give up a substantial portion of his $23.8MM salary.
Just get it over with. Why didn’t this happen during the summer? He’s not gonna play for a rebuilding, bad team at his age.
Wade and Melo should just start their own expansion team
I did that on 2k a couple months ago. The LA stars had melo, cp3, LeBron, and dwade. And also a couple of other players that played with them, like I think maybe Mario Chalmers.
if he gets bought out for 16million can the Bulls use the stretch provision and stretch it out over 4 years or so? Just a question. Seems logical for a rebuilding team. Seems advantageous to them just for using the stretch provision?
The deadline for teams to stretch the 2017/18 salary of a waived player passed on August 31, so they wouldn’t be able to stretch it. (If he had two years remaining on his contract, they’d theoretically be able to stretch the second year). Not sure it’d be advantageous to stretch it even if they could though — they’ll need the cap room more in future seasons than they will this year.
I don’t think stretching it would be logical at all. Wouldn’t just paying it all now while they stink be better then having 4 million eaten up a couple years from now?