Reports that Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade wanted a lofty raise prior to his decision to officially opt out don’t look too crazy now. The 33-year-old guard is apparently looking for a max contract from the team.
No, seriously.
In reporting Goran Dragic’s new five-year, $90 million contract with Miami, Yahoo Sports NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski threw that interesting piece of information out there for public consumption.
The argument in favor of giving Wade a max deal would be his efforts to help build a contender in Miami by taking considerably less than what he could have earned in the past. The argument against such a deal is that he’s 33, has had multiple injury issues and is coming off a 2014-15 campaign that saw him average less than 32 minutes in 62 games.
Any max deal for Wade would come in at an average salary of $22.1 million. Considering he’s been reportedly asking for a long term deal, potentially of the three-year variety, that would be $66.3 million over the next three seasons.
Despite playing limited minutes last year, Wade still averaged 21.5 points per game. He might not be a top option on a contending team, but he still has a lot to offer.
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