Nets rooting for Wade to stay in Miami
The Nets are rooting for Dwyane Wade to get his money, so they can get their man. And it looks like it may happen.
A Wade return to Miami would likely keep the Heat from matching Brooklyn’s four-year, $50 million offer to restricted free agent Tyler Johnson. Wade squeezing a third year out of the Heat would guarantee the Nets land their target, a 24-yearold combo guard. And Tuesday night an ESPN report said league sources expect Wade — who cancelled a meeting with Milwaukee — to return to Miami.
According to The Vertical, Wade has also been offered a two-year deal worth approximately $52 million from the Nuggets and will meet with the Nuggets in New York on Wednesday.
Inheriting a team that went 21-61 and doesn’t have control of its first-round pick until 2019, Nets general manager Sean Marks is playing the long game. That means trying to pry away 24-yearold restricted free agents like Johnson and possibly Portland’s Allen Crabbe.
And while Yahoo reported the Blazers are likely to match any offer sheet for Crabbe — and a league source told The Post that Brooklyn hadn’t yet agreed to any deal as of Tuesday morning — the Nets are more hopeful of landing Johnson. And those hopes were buoyed Tuesday night.
The Nets agreed to a fouryear, $50 million deal with Johnson, with a poison pill that boosts the salaries of the last two seasons to nearly $40 million total and makes it nearly impossible for Miami to match. The Heat already have $70 million tied up in three players for 2018-19, and an owner averse to paying any luxury tax.
Brooklyn’s fear was Wade — tired of taking pay cuts and feeling overlooked in Miami’s pursuit of Kevin Durant and Hassan Whiteside — would bolt to Denver, Chicago or even Cleveland. But the parties are expected to eventually find common ground.
If Wade uses his leverage to squeeze a third year out of Miami, Johnson will be a Net. Even if Wade leaves, it’d be hard for the Heat to match the Nets’ offer to Johnson. The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel surmised that Heat president Pat Riley could free up cap space by dealing Josh McRoberts and offering Wade an improved deal. But even that move seems unlikely to allow the Heat to hold only Johnson. So the Nets play the waiting game. The offer can’t be made official until the signing moratorium ends Thursday, and Miami will have three days to match.
The same would be true for Crabbe, 24, who will be harder to get.
Multiple sources refuted reports Crabbe had agreed to a four-year, $70 million offer from the Nets. There is interest, and Crabbe reportedly canceled a meeting with the 76ers — logical since they added wing Gerald Henderson. But even if the Nets extend an offer, it appears increasingly likely Portland will match. The Blazers let Henderson go and passed on Festus Ezeli for the purpose of holding onto Crabbe, Moe Harkless and Meyers Leonard.
And The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski told a Portland radio station he expects them to do just that.
“By all indications they want to keep him,” Wojnarowski told the station. “They developed Allen Crabbe. He’s become a very good bench player. Will he be a starter for them? That remains to be seen down the line. … I’d be surprised if Crabbe wasn’t back.”