It's taken a while for the Miami Heat to formulate Plan B to compensate for the loss of LeBron James. But the one element common to both James' arrival and Plan B is their true franchise player.
Dwyane Wade.
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The Miami Herald's Dan LeBatard reported that the Heat want their star guard to opt in to his contract for 2015 at $16 million - not a bad figure for a player who will turn 34 next season and has had to conserve minutes and miss games the last three seasons to make it through the entire season.
LeBatard, however, also notes that Wade made the biggest sacrifice among the Heat's Big Three that included James and Chris Bosh for the sake of the team.
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Wade asked James to forfeit more salary so the team could re-sign Udonis Haslem in 2010. When James refused, Wade assumed a bigger financial hit himself so the team could retain Haslem.
Now, Wade wants to be paid for his loyalty to the team. Both Bosh and James have gone on to acquire max contracts, but Wade and his deteriorating health never has been the highest paid Heat player - even though he is the face of the franchise.
But team president Pat Riley has a Plan B and a reason he wants Wade to settle for $16 million.
The reason is called Kevin Durant.
"The Heat seems to want Wade to opt into his contract for next season at $16 million, then become a free agent and leave their and his future blank-check open. This will give the Heat the flexibility it craves to make a run at a player like Kevin Durant," LeBatard reported.
"... The Heat can have room for Wade, Bosh, Goran Dragic, Hassan Whiteside and Durant ... but only if Wade opts in for this year and gives them that flexibility by being a free agent in 2016. This requires Wade to have a lot of trust, obviously, and the leap of faith that the team will take care of him in 2016."
One potential problem could exist with that scenario. In 2013, Durant dissed Wade, removing Wade from his list of top-10 NBA players to make room for James Harden, according to probasketballtalk.com. Wade responded with an Instagram post vowing to make Durant respect him again.
Durant then followed up with a tweet, saying, "Show me don't tweet me."
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