Chris Bosh discussed Miami as a possible destination next summer.

“As of right now, I’m not sure. I like Miami, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t know what comes along with being a part of that organization. I don’t even have any friends in Miami, which was the funniest part. A close friend of mine hit me yesterday and was like ‘Hey there’s another article out’ and I was like ‘What now?’ ‘Apparently a friend in Miami said you’re going to Miami.’ He sent me the article and I read it, and I’m like, ‘now they’re just making stuff up.’”

For Heat fans, re-signing Dwyane Wade and signing Bosh would be a dream scenario next summer. The best thing Miami has going for it (other than South Beach, of course) is Wade, so if Bosh signs he better hope that Wade doesn’t pull an Elton Brand and bolt. Speaking of…

Dwyane Wade discussed his hometown of Chicago as a possible destination next summer.

“I’m not ruling out a lot of places, including Chicago, but I’m not really thinking about those places. Like I said, 2010 is the year when I will sit down and open up my options and, hopefully, I’m still blessed and healthy to have those options and then go from there. But Miami is my number one option and I’ve made that clear. That’s where I want to be and, hopefully, we can get everything right here in Miami.”

Wade is just keeping his options open. He has said repeatedly that he’d like to stay in Miami, but he’s keeping the organization’s feet to the fire by insinuating that he still might leave if the franchise is unable to surround him with good players. The Heat are projected to have significant cap space next summer, so they could conceivably sign Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire or even LeBron James.

If the Knicks draft Jordan Hill, then David Lee may be moved in a sign-and-trade.

Adding Hill would mean the Knicks will attempt to deal free agent David Lee in a sign-and-trade in July, possibly with Portland.

The Eastern Conference’s road to The Finals no longer goes through LeBron James’ palace. It goes through Dwight Howard’s Magic Kingdom.

An ability to defend the post is tantamount — something King James’ Cavaliers failed to do. Currently, the Knicks probably have the NBA’s worst post defense. Hence, Donnie Walsh’s fascination with Hill.

Portland doesn’t make a lot of sense other than the fact that they could use some toughness and rebounding inside. I don’t know what’s in it for the Knicks. The Blazers don’t have any expiring contracts, so New York would need to pry away one of the Blazers’ young pieces. With Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge seemingly off the table, would Portland give up Rudy Fernandez or Greg Oden to land Lee? Jerryd Bayless, Travis Outlaw, Sergio Rodriguez and Nicolas Batum are other possibilities.

The Knicks currently project to have about $34 million in cap space heading into the 2010 season, enough to sign two big name free agents. If they take on more than $4 or $5 million in salary as part of this potential trade, they’re only going to have enough cap space to sign one superstar. (Unless of course, they can rid themselves of Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries.)

According to the LA Times, the Magic need to get rid of Rafer Alston.

The Magic’s first order of business during this all-important off-season must be to do whatever’s necessary to get rid of point guard Rafer Alston.

You heard me. “Skip to My Lou” must skip outta town if the Magic is to move forward with Jameer Nelson as the starting point guard and de facto leader of the team. Just call it addition by subtraction.

Alston only has one year remaining on his contract, so he shouldn’t be difficult to move and it shouldn’t have much of an impact on the Magic’s attempt to re-sign Hedo Turkoglu. He’s a borderline starter in this league, so it’s not inconceivable that Orlando could keep him to backup Jameer Nelson, since he says he won’t be a distraction.

The Golden State brass reportedly promised Ellis that they wouldn’t draft a playmaking guard.

One source indicates that Ellis came out of the Nelson/Riley meeting with the understanding that they would not draft a play-making guard to usurp Ellis’ standing.

I assume that Brandon Jennings, Ricky Rubio, Jrue Holiday, Jonny Flynn, Stephen Curry and Tyreke Evans would all fall into that promise-won’t-draft category.

This is a little different than promising not to draft a point guard. While I would classify Rubio, Jennings, Flynn, Evans and probably Holiday as “playmakers,” I would not describe Curry that way. Curry is at his best when he’s shooting, and if he’s spotting up with his feet set, even better. He and Ellis could conceivably share the backcourt duties in Golden State, and might actually fit well together.

Turkoglu looking for $10 million per season?

When Turkoglu opts out of the final year of a six-year, $36 million contract on June 30, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent starting July 1. He’ll assuredly be looking for a five-year contract and likely one worth the $10 million a season that Corey Maggette got last summer from the Golden State Warriors.

Turkoglu is a lot better than Maggette, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to get the same kind of contract. The Maggette signing was even considered lavish last year when it went down (and the NBA economy was better), so why should the Magic base Turkoglu’s contract on a bad deal that the Warriors made in knee-jerk reaction to losing Baron Davis and missing out on Elton Brand? The Magic should pay him his market value and he should take it. I don’t think there are too many teams in a position to give him $10 million per season, so I’d start with a deal averaging $8 million and go from there. I think the Magic could get this done for $8.5-$9 million per season. Turkoglu needs to remember who gave him a chance to flourish. More importantly, he has a good thing going in Orlando and he shouldn’t sacrifice several guaranteed playoff runs for a few extra million.

Luke Walton is a genius.

Luke Walton said he told general manager Mitch Kupchak and Coach Phil Jackson during his season-ending meeting on Tuesday that “if we can bring everyone back, we’ll definitely be competing for an NBA title, at least for the next couple years.”

Really? He’s saying that if the team that just won the title can bring everyone back, they’ll be a contender next season. Did he major in rocket science at the University of Arizona?

If Phil Jackson retires, will Coach K take over?

At least one well-informed NBA informant insists that Lakers coach Phil Jackson will hang up the clipboard this summer and his successor could be Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski — especially if his highly-influential agent (Kobe Bryant) puts the heat on Lakers management.

File this one under pure speculation. Besides, other than a crapload of money, I don’t see the upside here for Mike Krzyzewski. The Lakers just won the title and are expected to win it again next season. If he takes over, and the Lakers lose, he’ll get the blame. If they win, then no one will give him any credit because they were supposed to win.

Can you imagine how this will affect all the Laker and Duke haters around the country? Their heads will explode.

Yesterday’s rumors…
Does Ben Gordon have a promise from the Pistons?

With the Finals behind us and the draft and free agency looming, the rumors are flying fast and furious. Here’s a rundown of the latest scuttlebutt…

Things are rumored to be getting worse in Golden State.

The talk is that Monta Ellis is unhappy with the direction the organization is heading in, and still holds a bit of grief over the way they held his contract status in limbo for months following his moped injury. For weeks we’ve heard that Ellis is no longer interested in playing for Golden State, and apparently it had reached a point where it was “close to popping off” in the words of one NBA executive—meaning going to the media and publicly demanding a trade.

Let me get this straight — the franchise gives Ellis $66 million over six years and he rewards them by tearing up his ankle in a moped accident, missing 57 games this season. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about the 30-game suspension he served with no pay, but he wasn’t going to play in those games anyway. Shouldn’t he be punished for being boneheaded enough to tool around on a moped?

It sounds like the team has promised Ellis that he’ll be running the point next season and may have promised that they wouldn’t take a point guard at #7, prompting several prospects — Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans and Ricky Rubio — to refuse to work out for Golden State. Suddenly, Jordan Hill looks like a stronger possibility if he’s still on the board when the Warriors pick.

In addition to the Shaq rumors, the Cavs might be thinking about adding Antawn Jamison.

The deal would essentially be a cost-cutting move for the Wizards, sending Antawn Jamison and filler (Mike James) to the Cavs for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic. Wallace seems likely to retire, and Pavlovic is on a non-guaranteed contract for next season. It’s not clear whether the Wizards would need to surrender the #5 pick. Jamison is attractive to the Cavs since he’s exactly the type of combo forward they were missing to match up with Orlando’s Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.

Jamison, 33, is due more than $40 million over the next three years, so if the Cavs were to take on his contract, it would eat up most of the cap space they’re projected to have next summer. They’re on the hook for $20.2 million heading into 2010 (not counting the final year of LeBron’s contract), so if you add in Jamison’s $13.4 million, that puts the Cavs’ projected payroll at $33.6 million, leaving roughly $25 million to sign LeBron and another free agent or two. That’s not enough money to lock up a big name like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire, so if the Cavs were to acquire Jamison, they’d have to move Mo Williams or Daniel Gibson to clear enough cap space to add a player like that.

Jamison would be a nice matchup for Lewis and Turkoglu, but at 33 years-old, I don’t know if it’s a wise investment for the Cavs.

Kevin Love to Memphis?

No GM in the NBA is apparently more active right now than Minnesota’s David Kahn, as he’s apparently set on “making a big splash in his first draft” according to one NBA executive, and is “talking to everyone” at the moment. One rumor that is making the rounds has Minnesota sending Memphis Kevin Love in exchange for the #2 pick (and filler). Minnesota would then draft Ricky Rubio, which could help them significantly with their ticket sales, and still have the #6 pick at their disposal, which they could use to take someone like Jordan Hill.

The move does make sense for the Grizzlies, as they would get a semi-proven power forward in Love, who averaged 11.1 points and 9.1 rebounds in around 25 minutes of playing time in his rookie season. His PER (18.39) is 13th amongst qualified power forwards. Love would seemingly be a nice fit with the core of O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol and Mike Conley.

For the T-Wolves, it’s pretty risky to give up on Love. If they’re trying to upgrade at point guard, they can do so at #6 without trading Love. The best thing about this draft is the depth at point guard, but if they’re desperate to land Rubio, they’re probably not going to get him at #6. This is essentially a Love-for-Rubio swap, and Rubio is a big unknown right now. However, this is Kahn’s first draft, so he holds no allegiance to Love, so the rumors may very well be true.

The Lakers may be able to keep both Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom.

The recent sentiment is that there might be room for both Ariza and Odom. Lakers Coach Phil Jackson even said as much last week, saying it wasn’t “written in stone” that the team would have to make an either/or decision with the two players.

The great unknown, however, is the spending culture of NBA owners this summer in a bedraggled economy. Will Odom and Ariza find fewer offers than they would have entertained in past free-agent markets? If so, the Lakers might be able to retain both.

Another important economic figure for the Lakers will be the luxury-tax threshold for the 2009-10 season, which will be announced by the NBA in July. The team is already expected to pay between $5 million and $7 million in luxury taxes this season, a number that would jump significantly next season if Odom and Ariza are re-signed. Buss will have to dip much more deeply into his own pockets to re-sign the two free-agent forwards.

Winning simply makes everything easier. Everyone is happy in Los Angeles, so Jerry Buss is more likely to pony up to keep the team together and the players are more likely to give a hometown discount. Odom has said in the past that he can’t imagine not living at the beach, but it’s unclear just how much less he’d be willing to take to stay in Los Angeles. There aren’t that many teams in a position to offer him a fat contract, so I could see him signing for $7-$8 million per season.

Ariza is a bigger priority from a long term perspective. He’s just 23 and has improved by leaps and bounds since he has joined the Lakers. While he shot just 32% from long range on the season, he hit about 35% of his attempts over the last half of the season and an astounding 48% in the playoffs. And don’t underestimate the value of his defense. He’s able to cover the opposition’s best wing, which allows Kobe to float and to get a breather if necessary.

The Lakers are already well over the luxury tax threshold, so either contract is going to cost Jerry Buss twice as much as its face value. If Kobe really wants to keep this team together and have a shot to win another title or two, he could take a pay cut to convince Buss to pony up for Ariza and Odom, but don’t hold your breath.

The Knicks are apparently more interested in Jordan Hill than they are in Stephen Curry.

The Post has learned Knicks president Donnie Walsh has secretly coveted Hill, the 6-foot-10 big man whom they would take in a heartbeat over Curry. Walsh told confidants that after the draft order was established he thought a better chance existed of Hill slipping to them. That’s because some teams picking before the Knicks weren’t in the market for bigs.

It has been stated the Knicks’ priority has been a point guard, but Walsh says that perception is there only because a slew of point guards are considered viable in that range.

For a few days there it seemed like Hill might slip to the Bucks at #10, but a couple of teams picking just before them — the Warriors at #7 and the Knicks at #8 — are rumored to be interested. He is raw, but has a lot of upside and his measurables were great.