Miami Heat forward LeBron James will be opting out of his contract, making him an unrestricted free agent come July 1.
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Now, the attention will turn to the other two members of the Heat’s big three, guard Dwyane Wade and big man Chris Bosh. Bosh and Wade can also terminate their contracts and become unrestricted free agents.
According to Joe Kotoch of Pro Basketball Draft, Bosh will likely opt out of his deal, but there is no feeling on what Wade will do yet.
A league source believes Chris Bosh will opt out but is not sure Wade will. "Bosh can still get a max deal, D-Wade no way."
— Joe Kotoch Real Estate (@luxuryagentchi) June 25, 2014
For the sake of trying to win a title, the best option is for each player to opt out, but like Kotoch says, Wade doesn’t have nearly that value he did four years ago while teams would likely still give Bosh a big money deal.
It makes sense. Not only is Bosh a big man, but he is 30 years old and has been mostly healthy throughout his career, never missing more than 15 games in a season. Bosh had missed just 25 games in four seasons with the Heat. Wade is now 32 years old, has bad knees and clearly isn’t even close to the player he once was.
Bosh averaged 16.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.o steals per game while shooting 51.6% from the field, 33.9% from beyond the arc and 82.0% from the free throw line last season while Wade went for 19.0 points, 4.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 54.5% from the floor, 28.1% from three and 73.3% from the charity stripe.