Did Pat Riley really want Dwyane Wade to stay?

Pat Riley spoke about Dwyane Wade heading from the Miami Heat to the Chicago Bulls.

You could see it coming from a mile away, even if most people couldn’t or didn’t want to. Dwyane Wade was tired of making sacrifices for an organization he felt no longer respected him. Plenty of sportswriters were sure that Wade would return to the Heat, but it didn’t happen.

The real question is—did the Heat even WANT to bring Wade back?

We all know the terms of the negotiations and what they broke over. Wade wanted a third year from wherever he went, but no one was willing to give it to him. The Nuggets offered the most money, Miami offered the most likely chance for success, and the Bulls offered home. Riley himself admits that Wade left because he dropped the ball:

"“What happened with Dwyane floored me,” Riley said. “I’m going to miss the fact of what I might have had planned for him and his future and how I saw the end and my thought process in how I could see his end here with the Heat… It’s my responsibility to sort of make that happen. I didn’t make it happen. Dwyane left, and the buck stops here.”"

These are the right things to say. It’s important to pay lip-service to your outgoing superstar and talk about what you should have done to keep him. However, if Riley had wanted to be in the middle of this to keep Wade around … he would have. But he really, really wasn’t:

Riley left all of the negotiation to owner Micky Arison. So the “buck” stops with Riley, who didn’t even want to make a phone call? That might make some sense, if we didn’t know this story about Riley:

"‘Knowing that James desperately wanted to avoid ending his career as a one-man band without a title, Riley told him that dynastic runs are another thing he knows something about. He tossed a bag with his championship rings onto the table and playfully told James, “Go ahead. Why don’t you try one on?”‘"

So for LeBron James, they rolled out the red carpet. They brought out the rings. They did everything they could to explain to him that they needed to be there. Then when he left, and only one true franchise star remained (Bosh’s health has hurt his status), Riley’s actions were to not even show up to the meeting.

Yeah, how could Wade possibly feel disrespected?

I have another theory. It revolves around the fact that in 2019, the Miami Heat owe the first of two first round picks to the Phoenix Suns per the Goran Dragic trade. Another one comes to Phoenix in 2021. If Miami had signed Wade to a three-year deal and his knees gave out in that time frame, Miami would be in a bad scenario where they were tanking without draft picks. They would be the current Brooklyn Nets. With no picks to build the team back, Miami is left only with free agency; and they need every single dollar they can get.

This move was about taking a quick step back to take two steps forward, as Miami wanted to have the most cap space to lure a star or two over the coming summers. We all know how well Riley does as a free agent recruiter, which is why the idea that he simply failed to bring Wade back makes no sense. He didn’t want to, especially not at a number that wasn’t incredibly team friendly.

Pat Riley is a cold, calculating guy. He’s got the destination. He’s got the coach. He’s got a few young, talented pieces on an incomplete roster. He decided that his franchise player was no longer worthy of being a franchise player, and moved on.

But nobody, not even the Ice King himself, could say that publicly:

"“I wasn’t there in the middle of the negotiation, and that’s my job. It’s not going to be the same without him. We will forge ahead.”"

Because that was always the plan.

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