…assuming Pat Riley can get him some help. Here’s what he had to say after the Heat’s loss to the Celtics in Game 5, per TrueHoop…

“I’m looking forward to a good team to build, and being with some great players next year, and to continue to beef up our roster,” Wade said.

Notice his use of the pronoun “our.”

And also note that at no point did Wade ever expressly state a desire to head elsewhere. But he did place the onus on Pat Riley to make things happen over the summer.

“I’m not putting no pressure on myself. I think I put myself in a great situation three years ago to sign this deal to make sure that my team stays competitive. We’ve got some work to do, the front office has to do it, and there’s no pressure on me,” Wade said. “I’ve said where my heart is, and I think any player that’s thinking about wanting to come to Miami, they know where my heart is. You just have to see things being done and accomplished.

“We see that, and we’ll be talking again.”

I don’t see Wade leaving town at this point. After the Heat played pretty well over the last half of the season, he started talking about how Miami is where his heart is and that it’s the Heat’s gig to lose, and since the franchise is in a great position to add talent this offseason, he’s a good bet to stay put.

Michael Beasley, on the other hand, appears to be on the outs. He was benched for the entire second half of Game 5, and looks to be expendable heading into the offseason. This opens up another possibility that was seemingly closed a few months ago — the signing/acquisition of Carlos Boozer, who was once considered “too similar” to Beasley.

So if the Heat strike out on LeBron James and/or Chris Bosh, Boozer and/or Amare Stoudemire would be a good backup plan. I think either player would convince Wade to stay put.

With $42 million in cap space, the Heat are basically a blank slate. If they were able to move Beasley and his salary ($5 million), they would almost have enough to sign three max free agents. The problem is that the top guys all seem to play power forward or shooting guard. However, the Heat could have enough to add Rudy Gay and Bosh/Stoudemire/Boozer, or even David Lee.

If I were Pat Riley, I’d be in constant communication with Wade to see which players he’d most like to play with. By having his buy in, you would ensure that he’s happy with the players you’re bringing in. I wonder if Riley’s ego is too big for that…

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Dwyane Wade appeared on the “Mike & Mike” show and reiterated his desire to re-sign with the Heat.

“Chicago is my home city, and I love Chicago,” Wade said. “But my heart is here in Miami.

“All the cards are in Miami, and it’s their game to lose, more than anything. I appreciate that organizations want me to be a part of them, but right now Miami is in the driver’s seat.”

A couple of things to note here: 1) Wade seems pleased with the play of the Heat over the last month of the season. Even if they had an easy schedule, they took care of business and went into the postseason as one of the hottest teams in the league. Whether or not they lose to Boston may not matter. 2) Wade mentions the Bulls, but he doesn’t mention the Knicks. I don’t know the context of his response, but he does mention Chicago and doesn’t mention any other team save for the Heat.

It sounds to me that if Miami is able to sign a sidekick (Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer) then Wade is likely to re-sign.

The soon-to-be free agent has had a career season for the Knicks, averaging 20-12, while shooting almost 55% from the field en route to his first All-Star nod. He told the New York Times that he doesn’t have any idea what’s going to happen this summer.

“I don’t know how the Knicks are going to do timetable-wise, or if LeBron is going to have a decision made by July 1 or Sept. 1,” Lee said. “I don’t know how it’s going to work. At this point, I’m just going to look at everything as it comes to me and let my agent do his job.”

Ideally, the Knicks would sign two superstars, with James and Bosh the top targets. That would require renouncing the rights to all of their free agents, including Lee. But there are countless ways to spend the cap space. They could sign one marquee player and have enough left to sign Lee and another solid free agent. Or they could strike out entirely on the marquee players, in which case they will have plenty of room for Lee — and a long line of depressed season-ticket holders.

Chris Sheridan writes that it’s likely that another team will make him a sizable offer early in free agency and ask him to make a quick decision.

There’s a significant chance someone makes David Lee a take-it-or-leave-it offer that he’ll have to make a choice on almost instantly, and that could happen on the second or third day of July if the Knicks are still waiting on James. If Lee bolts, their best sign-and-trade asset will have disappeared, too. Gonna be an interesting July, eh?

I agree with Sheridan. Some savvy, second-tier team with cap space — I’m talking New Jersey, Washington, Sacramento, LA Clippers, Oklahoma City or Minnesota — will realize that their chances of landing a top-tier free agent like LeBron James or Dwyane Wade is next to nil, and will make a move on the Knicks’ backup plan (Lee) when they’re still wooing one of the big-name free agents. (By the way, when I say “second-tier,” I’m talking about the size of the market, the quality of the team and the franchise, etc. I would say that the Bulls, Knicks and Heat are top-tier free agent landing spots.)

If a team like the Nets makes Lee an offer averaging $10-$11 million per season and puts a time limit on it, it’s going to be tough for Lee to sit around while the Knicks figure out who they can and cannot sign. And if Lee is no longer an option, then there goes the Knicks’ best sign-and-trade chip, which is why Peter Vescey advocated last week that the franchise should re-sign Lee as soon as possible this summer.

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Looking for a few different takes on whether or not Dwyane Wade is going to re-sign with the Heat? ESPN’s Free Agency Dime has a nice overview of all of their analysts’ opinions about where Wade will land this summer.

The consensus seems to be that Miami has the best bet of re-signing him, but that the Bulls are the next most likely option. Personally, I think the Heat will sign/acquire Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire or Carlos Boozer and re-sign Wade. If the Cavs lose in the Eastern Conference Finals, or even in the Finals, then LeBron is the darkhorse.

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The title of Marc Berman’s New York Post piece — “LeBron-to-Knicks hope fading” — says it all.

With each passing day, as the Knicks disgrace themselves and the Cavaliers march to their potential first NBA championship, the Knicks’ chances of free-agent glory in landing LeBron James this summer gets more remote.

A bit dramatic, don’t you think? What if the Cavs lose in the Eastern Semifinals — wouldn’t all this talk just start back up again?

James clung to his mid-November policy of not talking about his free-agent options, but he has left enough hints to New York fans that the Knicks’ bid is a longshot.

In his lone appearance at the Garden, Nov. 6, James said in strong terms the only factor is whether he can win at his new destination. At All-Star weekend, he reiterated, “It’s all about winning.”

Well, it’s not all about winning, is it? I thought LeBron’s #1 goal was to become a “global icon.” But there’s a strong argument that says that to truly become a global icon, LeBron needs an NBA championship.

As bad as the Knicks may be, if LeBron sees a scenario where he and, say, Chris Bosh can play in New York (or even the LeBron-Wade-Bosh trio) then it’s hard not to think that the Knicks would be vastly improved in just one season. Throw in a few savvy vets willing to play for the minimum for a shot at the ring and suddenly the Knicks are an Eastern Conference power.

Team sources indicated D’Antoni would be very pleased to add overshadowed free agent Joe Johnson as a fallback. D’Antoni thinks Johnson is a great piece to build around.

But Johnson, the potential re-signing of David Lee and another mid-level free agent, does not put the Knicks in position to compete for a championship.

No, it doesn’t. I like Joe Johnson, but he’s turning 29 this June and Basketball Prospectus predicts Johnson’s three-year value to be the least amongst this summer’s big-name free agents.

It sounds like the Knicks are already doing some damage control in case the Cavs win a title this summer and LeBron stays put. In that case, I suspect Chris Bosh would join Dwyane Wade in Miami and the Knicks would be looking at the likes of Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, David Lee and Rudy Gay. Two of those players would probably get the Knicks to the playoffs, but they aren’t going to win a title anytime soon.

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Gene Wojciechowski makes a strong case that this summer’s three biggest free agents should put their salaries aside and team up in NYC.

But if James, Wade and Bosh truly want to make history, they could do the unthinkable and split the Knicks’ $33 million three ways. It would cost them salary money, but can you imagine how much they’d make on the back end if they started reeling in NBA titles? In New York?

Whatever they’d lose on their paycheck stubs, they’d make up in endorsements. And it’s not as if they’re filing simple federal tax returns these days. According to a 2009 Forbes analysis, LeBron earned about $42.4 million in salary and endorsements — more than Britney Spears, Jay-Z or Tom Cruise and almost as much as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie combined.

Wade was No. 12 on Sports Illustrated’s 2009 Fortunate 50, earning $26.4 million in salary and endorsements. Bosh didn’t make the top 50, but he is making $15.7 million from the Raptors this season.

Anyway, they all can afford to do something daring. Just think: James, Wade and Bosh at Madison Square Garden.

Seriously, who would touch them? Wade at guard. LeBron at point forward. Bosh in the post or on the wing. Three good guys who could handle the New York media. Three seven-year veterans who understand you get only so many chances to hug the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Three singular players who know careers are defined by championships, not just checkbooks.

It’s fun to think about, but does anyone believe this is actually going to happen? Will these three NBA superstars put their egos aside and take $5-$6 million less per season to team up in New York? Wojciechowski’s point that they’d make even more in endorsements is completely valid, but leaving $30-$35 million on the table is a tough pill to swallow.

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Of all of the big-name players that will become free agents this summer, Chris Bosh’s situation seems to be the most delicate. The Raptors are playing pretty well — they’ve won eight of their last 11 and are currently the #6 seed in the East — but it’s not clear what his threshold is for staying in Toronto. A postseason berth? It’s probably going to take more than that. 50 wins and an appearance in the Eastern Conference Semis? Maybe.

But with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade basically untradeable, and with Joe Johnson and Amare Stoudemire playing well on winning teams, Bosh’s situation is the most fluid.

Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo told Peter Vescey of the New York Post the following via email:

“For the record, I am not actively seeking a deal or discussing Bosh with any team, much less the Lakers.

“I haven’t traded him yet and our position has been the same. We will not make a deal just to make a deal. Our intention is to keep him here long term.

“Additionally, I have not yet offered an extension as Dwyane Wade and LeBron James both received [from their respective teams]. So technically he has not said no.

“I honestly don’t think C.B. knows what the future holds, or what he wants to do, so I would say we’re still in the game as far as his pending free agency.”

Colangelo’s language is interesting: “I haven’t traded him yet.” Yet. That means he’s open to trading him, right? The Raptors are under the gun because they face the prospect of losing Bosh with zero compensation this summer. The deal that Vescey discusses in his article is a Andrew Bynum-for-Bosh swap with the Lakers. That deal would be feasible in the summer if the teams executed a sign-and-trade with Bosh. Otherwise, I don’t know that there’s a scenario where Bosh would agree to a sign-and-trade because he’d be effectively decimating his future team. The Lakers are the exception due to the presence of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. The deal makes some sense because the Raptors would get a true center with All-Star potential to play alongside Andrea Bargnani, who would be able to play his natural position — power forward. For the Lakers, the deal makes sense because while Bynum has played well in spurts, he and Pau Gasol don’t work all that well together when they’re both on the floor.

Chad Ford writes (via TrueHoop) that other teams around the league are reacting to the news that Bosh might be on the move:

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In his latest (6900-word?) column, Bill Simmons plays GM and suggests several “fake trade offers” for teams looking to save money this season.

He made an interesting point about Chris Bosh.

As I wrote in July, there’s nothing more dangerous than a GM worried about his job who dumps the team’s long-term interests to protect the short term. Everything Bryan Colangelo did this past summer screamed, “I need to keep my job!!!” Now the Raptors are hamstrung with an overpaid, below-.500 roster that doubles as the worst defensive team of this decade — seriously, what did they think would happen when Jose Calderon, Hedo Turkoglu and Andrea Bargnani were three of the team’s best four guys? — and Chris Bosh seems like a mortal lock to leave. You can’t do the Frank Drebin Memorial “Please disperse, nothing to see here, please disperse” routine. Raptors fans are too smart. They get it.

By dealing Bosh, Colangelo would be effectively saying, “I made some mistakes, we need to press the RESET button and start over.” Translation: “Fire me, I deserve it.” Because nobody would ever sabotage his job like that, he probably will keep Bosh, make a smaller trade and pray things turn around. If they don’t, the Raptors will get nothing for him. Not fair to the Raptor Truthers. At all.

If Colangelo is feeling the heat, then it is unlikely that he’ll move Bosh before the February deadline. He’s going to have a tough time getting equal value because the whole league knows that since the Raptors are losing, Bosh is likely to bolt. Why would other teams trade for a guy that they can sign in six months?

Well, one reason to believe that Bosh may indeed be on the move is that a team out there (like, say, the Miami Heat, who have their own superstar to worry about) might want to acquire Bosh now and not wait until the summer to try to sign him. In the case of the Heat, it would be doubly important because trading for Bosh would almost certainly convince Wade to stay in sunny Miami next summer. (Unless, of course, he already has other plans.)

Doesn’t a deal that would send Bosh and the bad contracts of Marcus Banks and Reggie Evans to Miami for Michael Beasley and Jermaine O’Neal’s expiring contract make a lot of sense for both teams? Yes, it’s not equal value for Bosh, but the Raptors would get a good young player (Beasley) and would save almost $10 million next season. In fact, they’d have $8 million of cap space to spend if they so choose. All of this for a guy they have almost no chance of re-signing anyway.

I know Heat fans would want to do this. What about Raptor fans?

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According to Adrian Wojnarowski…

Several sources believe the Bulls are agreeable to a package of Thomas and Jerome James(notes) for Knicks forward Al Harrington(notes). Thus far, Walsh has resisted parting with Harrington, but discussions are still active and the teams have explored different combinations in recent days that would ultimately deliver Thomas to the Knicks.

Intuitively, this deal makes some sense. The Bulls are going to have to shed some salary in order to have enough cap space to offer a max contract to someone like Dwyane Wade, LeBron James or Chris Bosh, and Thomas’s name is the one that most often comes up since he’s nearing the end of his rookie contract. The Bulls would need to give up their rights to Thomas (or hope that John Salmons exercises an early termination on the final year of his contract) to have enough cap space to offer a max contract. Jerome James is only included to make the numbers work since both teams are over the cap.

For the Knicks, Thomas would be another piece to the puzzle, though he would eat into the team’s projected cap space. Right now, assuming a cap of $50 million, the Knicks would have roughly $23 million to spend, which is enough for one max contract, but not two. A trade for Thomas would reduce that cap space to $16-$17 million, so they would add a talented up-and-comer (who looks to be a perfect fit at power forward in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system) and still be able to sign LeBron or Wade (or some other big-name free agent). All at the expense of Al Harrington, whom the Knicks aren’t going to re-sign anyway.

Another angle on this deal is that the Knicks are essentially assisting the Bulls in becoming a competitor for LeBron and Wade next summer. However, the Bulls could simply hold onto Thomas and let him become a free agent next summer, so the upside for the Knicks is that they get the rights to Thomas knowing that the Bulls are going to be a competitor anyway. By trading for Harrington, the Bulls’ prospects for this season would improve. So since they’re probably going to lose Thomas anyway, they might as well improve in the short-term.

One the Knicks have to consider is the chances that they can move either Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries. If they’re able to unload one of those players for expiring salary, they would have enough cap space to offer two max contracts next summer, so LeBron/Bosh or LeBron/Amare suddenly becomes a possibility. The likelihood of the Knicks moving either player seems slim, unless they are willing to give up David Lee or Danilo Gallinari in the deal.

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We knew this was coming eventually. We weren’t sure which soon-to-be free agent would be the first one to crack (Bosh? Stoudemire? Joe Johnson?), but the smart money was on Bosh since it has been some time since the Raptors were part of the East’s elite. The team is off to a 7-13 start, punctuated by last night’s 146-115 loss to the Hawks.

Per the Toronto Star:

“The defensive effort hasn’t been there for a while. We didn’t magically appear last on the charts defensively,” said Chris Bosh. “I mean, tonight was just a total embarrassment. We couldn’t stop anybody. We haven’t stopped anybody all year.”

It’s nice that he’s using the term “we” there, but Bosh has a reputation for being a pretty good defender, and the guys around him — Jose Calderon, Hedo Turkoglu, Andrea Bargnani — are far more offensive-minded.

Then there’s this bit of info from the Miami Herald…

Not only will the Heat’s chances of signing Chris Bosh next summer be helped if the Raptors keep struggling, but a former Raptors official said Bosh doesn’t like Toronto’s cold winters. Bosh isn’t keen on playing in his native Texas but has said the Heat “seems to be an attractive place, playing with Dwyane Wade and playing in Miami.”

If the Raptors keep playing sub-.500 ball, there’s a great chance that Bosh lands in Miami next year. If that happens, Dwyane Wade is almost sure to re-sign, and the Heat will once again join the East’s elite.

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