The thing is, Wade had two years left on a $41.8 million contract with Miami. If Lebron leaves, where is Wade going to get any where close to this amount of money unless he takes Wade with him. I do not see Lebron leaving Wade hanging. Bosh can get his money on the open market.
While I agree it can easily be that, it could also be that he won't want to be in Miami if Lebron leaves.
He won't make nearly as much money, but he can still make a ton of money somewhere, and might actually enjoy the rest of his career. If Lebron leaves, no one on the heat will enjoy the next few seasons.
To me, and it's just a guess, I feel that there is simply been too many bad signals coming from both sides to say it's a slam dunk. The owner, the GM, the lack of talent around him compared to a number of teams he could go to now, and the uncoordinated mess the whole situation is.
The fact Lebron let everyone know he opted out before the draft giving every team time to make moves and formulate a plan was not necessary if he planned on most likely staying.
True they met, but it was AFTER Lebron had already opted out. At that point he may have told him he was likely to leave, and that their best professional move might be to move as well (to the team he's going or another one).
Based on this I think many teams have a legitimate shot at him. If Miami keeps him/them, I see it more because they lucked into it, not because they did anything to deserve so, besides getting Napier. Perhaps familiarity with being in Miami and all it would mean to move might play a bigger role then anything the Heat have done. Even the tweet about Napier said nothing about welcoming to the team, or that he'll take him under his wing, or anything like that. The tweet was very neutral, just stating he was his favorite player in the draft.
If Lebron is leaning towards Miami, there would be nothing wrong in stating he'll take him under his wing. Since he didn't, it may indeed indicate he is serious about leaving or at least looking at his options. Most people seem to agree that professionally other clubs have the edge in overall better options.
It would look weird if he said he'll take him under his wing and then leave, and I simply don't understand why he seems to be taking all these precautions, and all these moves alone and first, if he genuinely thinks he's going to stay.
If this was a poker hand, he's playing it perfect, and maybe he is. I just don't see the point of why he would need to play it that way, unless he is simply trying to exert max pressure to get what he wants, because he feels the need to, but again, since everyone else is going to try to give Lebron what he wants, and if he's afraid Miami won't, that would just be another reason to leave. If he has to at this point play this game, why stay? Were ownership, GM, fellow players all scoffing early on? One would think just opting out would be enough to scare them, why all this other stuff?
Where there is smoke, there's generally fire, and I really think there's plenty of example of potential smoke. Perhaps they put it out and everything is fine, perhaps even the meeting put out the fire, but I see somewhere around a dozen instances of smoke, and perhaps only one thing possibly negating that.
