The latest leak in the Dwyane Wade-Miami Heat contract showdown came Wednesday, with an associate of the player telling the Miami Herald that Wade is petitioning for a deal worth an average of $20 million annually over the next three years.
On Tuesday, word spread that the Heat's initial offer to their longtime superstar was under $10 million per season.
If correct, those numbers represent a gulf wider than Biscayne Bay.
Wade is expected to opt out of his contract this summer - worth just over $16 million for next season - and is basically now calling in the cap-space favors he provided the Heat over the last few years. The team would reportedly prefer Wade opt in for next season, possibly allowing them to chase Kevin Durant in 2016, and then ask him to take a pay cut as his career winds down.
The Marquette product turns 34 in January, and, despite all he's done for the Heat organization, at some point business wins out over all else. Wade has not played more than 69 games since the 2010-11 season, and even with a skyrocketing salary cap, the team is likely leery of tying up too much money with a player in his mid-30s.
That point becomes more salient when you consider the Heat plan to re-sign point guard Goran Dragic this summer and center Hassan Whiteside next, while keeping themselves in the 2016 Kevin Durant sweepstakes.
As Dan Le Batard of ESPN and the Herald wrote over the weekend, all of this only becomes possible if Wade opts in.
Wade inked a two-year, $31-million deal last summer with the opt-out clause, taking a discount so the Heat could also add Luol Deng after the departure of LeBron James. The shooting guard proclaimed himself a "Heat lifer" at the time.
A future Hall of Famer, Wade has played his entire 12-year career in Miami, winning three NBA titles.
