When will Dwyane Wade come back to the Miami Heat?

Dion Waiters just signed a big contract with the Miami Heat, and now he’s hoping to bring his hero Dwyane Wade back to South Beach.

What should we make of Dion Waiters openly recruiting Dwyane Wade back to the Miami Heat? On the latest episode of Locked On Heat, Wes Goldberg and David Ramil are joined by the Palm Beach Post’s Anthony Chiang to talk about if Waiters’ efforts should be taken seriously, and what it might mean for Wade should he return to the Heat.

Anthony Chiang: I think too much if being made of the Dion Waiters, Dwyane Wade stuff to be honest. I think it’s great for off-season fodder and people love reading about that stuff and it’s nice that Dion seems willing to sacrifice some playing time, some spotlight, to make room for Dwyane–one of the guys he idolizes–but he doesn’t control Dwyane’s future.

So I’ll be interested to see what Chicago and Dwyane do and how they handle things and, if Dwyane is bought out, he’ll have plenty of options. It’s not going to be just Miami. Obviously Miami will be one of the teams that’s mentioned the most but Houston, Cleveland to go play with LeBron, he’ll have plenty of options.

I don’t think this is a sign that he’s coming or anything like that but I do think it’s fun to keep us busy in a down time in the NBA.

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Wes Goldberg: I’m not sure it is. I agree with you that it’s overblown that I don’t think that just because Dion is doing this Wade is suddenly going to force a buyout from Chicago to rejoin Miami. But there is a little bit of significance here because Chris Bosh isn’t with the team, LeBron obviously left before Dwyane did, Dion Waiters here is extending an olive branch. He is giving Dwyane Wade maybe a friend to say “I want to go play with that guy in Miami.”

My prediction has been–and I’ve said it on the podcast–after 40-something games, Dwyane Wade gets bought out by Chicago, that way they’re not paying him the full $24 million. They can pay him some percentage of the $12 million left on his salary from there on. That’s a lot cheaper of a buyout for Chicago’s front office. He gets bought out, goes to Cleveland for a half-a-season run, goes to the playoffs with his buddy LeBron, and then he’s in Miami next year.

That’s just a dumb or an educated guess, I’m not sure which.

Do you have a prediction, Anthony?

Chiang: My prediction is that he’ll play for the Miami Heat before he retires. I don’t know when. I know that was kind of a cop out.

Goldberg: Yeah it was a little bit.

David Ramil: Totally.

Chiang: That’s my prediction. He’s going to play for the Miami Heat again before he hangs it up. And it’s not a big window between now and then.

Goldberg: It’s not going to be one of those crappy Paul Pierce things, though, right? Where Paul Pierce gets signed on the last day and then retires as a Celtic while wearing Brooklyn Nets shorts?

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Ramil: No. Worse. It’s going to be like Paul Pierce on the Clippers last year where he was just a cadaver on the bench.

Chiang: I think he’ll play for the Heat in a bench role. But that’s going to be weird, watching Dwyane come off the bench. That’ll be interesting. And that’ll be a role he’d have to except, even if he came this year.