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Originally Posted by OzSome
Wow looks like the powerful Miami Heat is no longer mighty. Chris opted out on his contract so basically the Big 3 all opted out in their contract. Not so sure what is Bosh thinking but good luck finding a team who will overpay him again.
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I think it's still most likely all three remain with the Heat. Bosh can probably still get more with the Heat than just about anywhere else, I wouldn't be surprised if he goes with something like a four year contract starting at around $18 million.
But if it's true that James is still expecting the max ($22 million), then it's going to take a major, major sacrifice by Bosh and Wade to get any sort of big free agent.
I see them working something out so that they're able to use their full MLE (about $5.2 million), and still retain Allen, Andersen, Cole, Napier, and Haslem (assuming Haslem renegotiates his current contract). If you can get those guys for $9 million total, give James his full $22 million, then you can still pay Wade and Bosh $18 million each and sign a $5.2 million UFA.
But if you want to get a bigger contract (like, say, Lowry), you'd need to drop all the way under the salary cap by $10 million (or whatever you're going to offer Lowry). So then you've got shed absolutely everything else on the roster, sign Wade and Bosh to $31 million total, and use minimum contracts to fill in the rest of the roster. I don't see that happening. I think they're far better off going with the first option that allows for a solid bench and one more okay UFA, rather than going all in on one more big-ticket UFA and gutting what else remains of their roster.
For what it's worth, all the Toronto media right now is reporting that Lowry resigning with Toronto is "just about a done deal".