Let’s get a little ahead of ourselves here.
Say, Chris Bosh suddenly comes to his $enses and, as a willing adult, gives his consent to participate in the sign-and-trade arrangement essentially worked out between the Raptors and Cavaliers.
Say, Bosh breaks down and accepts the bonus $29 million guarantee/extra season he can get in a sign-and-trade — that’s above and beyond the maximum $96M and five years he can probably get from various owners almost frantic to recruit an ‘elite’ free agent and therefore justify the risks their teams took, or the pain they put their fans though, to create gargantuan cap space for the summer of 2010.
Say, Bosh suffers a change of heart or simply caves to LeBron James’ inveterate recruiting pitch and stoops to become The Chosen One’s Chosen One.
What is Dwyane Wade’s move then?
It virtually forces him to bolt Miami and split for native Chicago — boasting Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and Taj Gibson — or for New York, where Amar’e Stoudemire will now call home and where Mike D’Antoni coaches a sprint-medley offense, a reindeer game players love to join.
(The crucial rationalization for committing an outlandish $99.7M to Stoudemire: The Knicks have him as a tempting playmate for Wade or LeBron should the Cavs-Raptors handshake go kiBosh . . . and the Heat and Nets don’t take advantage. Why David Lee, for $12M per over six seasons, wouldn’t be equally appealing to either player defies logical explanation.)
That is, if Wade is reasonably interested in competing for more championships . . . and the money/residuals he’s pocketing from phone commercials is so off the hook the recently divorced, father of two can afford the $29M he’d forfeit from forsaking his parent team.
I’m trying to imagine Miami minus Wade. Already hemorrhaging fans since winning the title in ‘06, the franchise might bleed into extinction. Obviously four of the six teams vying for the affections and a long-term relationship with LeBron and Wade had to lose big.
However, when the parent team loses its child prodigy, as most observers predicted would happen to the Cavs, or its genius, which nobody saw coming in Miami, it’s acutely demoralizing and destructive.
Especially in view of last week’s unchecked speculation that LeBron and Bosh was prepared to party hearty with Wade on South Beach, and Pat Riley was going dust off his whistle and return to the lifeguard stand.
OK, it’s now time to backpeddle a little.
Say Bosh joins LeBron in Cleveland and Wade stays put. Will signing Carlos Boozer or Lee or both placate Wade? Are there other free agents or trades that turn him on more?
Wade clearly wasn’t happy starring for a one-and-done playoff team. So I just can’t see him settling for relatively the same situation when he has a chance to pick a plume.
Who knows, maybe Bosh simply would prefer to ride shotgun alongside Wade in Chicago or in Miami, rather than play a subservient role to LeBron.
Maybe he’s gullible enough to think his immediate family and the next generation or two somehow can subsist on his $96M take over the next five seasons vs. $125 over six.
Or maybe his agent told him there figures to be more where that came from — although the way money is being squandered on fringe starters this might be fallacious — in 2015 when the 5-year deal expires and he’ll only be 31.
As for Wade, should he shake the sand from his sneakers, it’ll be Padre Riles’ toughest defeat in his entire coaching/executive career.
➤ Is Richard Jefferson of sound mind? What would possess him to opt out of next season’s $15M salary? Clearly, there’s a side deal in place to re-sign him ($45M over five years) that starts at $7M. That allows San Antonio to get under the luxury tax and save roughly $20M, the $8M lopped off his original deal (doubled) and the $3M-to-$4M the team figures to pocket from the equally divided loot paid by the teams over the luxury tax.
“Damn, five more years of Jefferson’s junk!” groans Spurs activist Gregg Siegel. “Plus, they don’t get to trade his expiring contract for some real pieces! What a colossal disappointment! I understand why they did it, especially coming from the same people who dumped Luis Scola to save $5M, but no way does this help their team get better. Maybe they could pull a reverse Carlos Boozer and not re-sign him.”
➤ Warning to the Knicks: “Mike Miller’s career as a scorer is over,” concludes column contributor Pete Hoffman. “He can still do other things but scoring is a mentality and he’s lost that. We’ve seen it happen before where players digress as scorers (Wilt, Ralph Sampson, Mike Bibby and Steve Francis) for whatever reason.”
I concur. I don’t care what Miller’s percentage (40) was from three last year; he averaged under 10 points. When he joined Minny Ha Ha the T’Wolves needed a shooter. So what did he do? Passed up a ton of open shots. Maybe it was his way of protesting an offense designed nearly exclusively to get off on-the-block Al Jefferson.
Yes, Miller can shoot. Yes, he can pass. Yes, he’s a terrific defensive rebounder as an off guard. On the other hand, he can’t defend and is always hurt. Not that it stops him from playing, but it’s often at the expense of his team.
peter.vecsey@nypost.com