UPDATE: The salary cap will be higher than the $56.1M projection, according to a league executive. The moratorium ends on Thursday morning at 12:01 AM and it will be when the NBA releases its official cap figure for the 10-11 season.

Well, it’s unofficially official. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh each has publicly declared his intention to sign with the Miami Heat.

That leaves Lebron James as the only member of the triumvirate yet to make a decision.

There has been much discussion as to whether the Heat can actually afford to pay him the max within the confines of the salary cap. Of course, that depends on what the salary cap is.

The latest estimates provided by Commissioner David Stern, on April 16, called for a cap of $56.1 million. The final figure is expected to be released by tonight.

Keep these two figures in mind:

$55,986,936: If the cap meets or exceeds this figure, the Heat will be able to offer three max contracts IF it moves Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers

$56,367,721: If the cap meets or exceeds this figure, the Heat will be able to offer three max contracts IF it moves Michael Beasley

Whether fans are sick of the Lebron’s self-glorification or not, he has done a good job of keeping people guessing.

It’s probably safe to eliminate the Bulls, Clippers and Nets from the running. Otherwise, the Cavs, Heat and Knicks are all still mentioned as viable candidates to sign the two-time MVP.

One theory has Cleveland emerging as the clear-cut favorite to retain James. The thinking would be that even he would have the nerve to break the hearts of his hometown Cavs fans in a grueling, one-hour ESPN special (Thursday, 9:00 pm). It just seems so unreasonably cruel. But then it was reported that James had long planned some kind of agreement with ESPN regarding his much-hyped free agency, well before the notion that James would even consider leaving Cleveland surfaced.

If Lebron’s sole focus is to win a championship, as he has so emphatically claimed it to be, signing alongside Wade and Bosh in Miami gives him the best chance to do it.

James tried desperately to recruit Bosh to Cleveland, with no luck. Maybe this was all a charade. Maybe it was all part of James’ exit strategy. He can now say to his hometown fans, “I did everything I could to bring an all-star caliber player to Cleveland, but it didn’t work out.”

Per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:

Official with team that made a formal presentation to LeBron tells Y! Sports: ‘It’s down to Cleveland or Miami for him.

Of course, this is only a theory.

Whatever the case, the Heat appears to be the clear-cut winners, as much for what it did get as for what its rivals did not, of the biggest free agency sweepstakes in league history.

Per Chris Broussard of ESPN:

Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are teaming up together on the Miami Heat, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

ESPN’s Shelley Smith also reported the pending move through independent sources.

Whether LeBron James, the kingpin of this summer’s celebrated free agent class, will join them remains to be seen. James will announce his decision Thursday night at 9 ET during a one-hour special on ESPN.

Wade and Bosh are expected to announce their decision on Wednesday, according to the source.

If the reports are true, on July 8 the Heat will have Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers under contract, and $15,601,383 of remaining cap space available, of which up to $11,812,551 can be spent on any one player.

Yeah, baby!!!! None of us ever had a doubt!

The triumvirate is planning one final conference call on Wednesday to decide its fate.

Per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are expected to share a conference call on Wednesday to discuss free agency and try to move closer to finalizing their decisions, a league source with knowledge of the plan told Yahoo! Sports.

The three players are motivated to reach resolutions and make their choices public by Thursday, several sources told Yahoo! Sports. The stars and their agents with CAA continued on Tuesday to churn through numerous machinations and possibilities.

Cleveland has emerged as the clear-cut favorite to retain James. I can’t imagine that even he would have the nerve to break the hearts of his hometown Cavs fans in a grueling, one-hour ESPN special (Thursday, 9:00 pm). It just seems so unreasonably cruel.

So it could all come down to whether Wade and Bosh choose to team up in Miami or Chicago, or part ways altogether.

Bosh seems unlikely to take a discount. He wants to sign for the maximum, and he wants to do so for six full years. As it stands, the Bulls don’t have the money, and the Heat doesn’t have the required trade partner.

If Bosh can get Toronto to sign-and-trade him to Miami, you’ve got the think the Heat is in the driver’s seat. Despite the heavy-handed talk, common sense would dictate general manager Brian Colangelo would ultimately cede to Bosh’s wish, and grant him his sign-and-trade. At the very least, he would acquire a $16.6 million trade exception – and perhaps a first round pick or two – with which to make a run at a player(s) of his choosing. At the same time, he would be increasing Chris’ future salary, and thus decreasing the future available cap space of a conference rival. Not a bad combination when the alternative is losing your best and most powerful asset for nothing.

If asked for a prediction, I would say the Heat secures both Wade and Bosh, the Bulls settle on Carlos Boozer, the Nets wind up with David Lee, and the Knicks are left to scramble for a bunch of overpriced short-term contracts with which to surround Amare Stoudemire in the desperate hope of landing Tony Parker and Carmelo Anthony next season.

Not too bad an outcome if you ask me!

Lebron James wants desperately to play with Chris Bosh. He sees Bosh as the key to a team that can win multiple titles. As such, he’s been trying to recruit the All-Star to Cleveland for several weeks. The capped out Cavaliers have even worked out a sign-and-trade with the Raptors to make it happen.

Per Chris Broussard of ESPN:

Everything is set for Chris Bosh to join LeBron James in Cleveland. Everything, that is, except Bosh’s approval.

The Toronto Raptors have told the Cleveland Cavaliers they will do a sign-and-trade with them for Bosh, according to several league sources.

The exact details of the potential trade have not been solidified, but Toronto likely would get Anderson Varejao and or J.J. Hickson, Delonte West, and perhaps Anthony Parker. A draft pick could be involved as well.

The Raptors are certainly doing their part to drive their departing power forward toward a potential union with James, disingenuously suggesting it would not be willing to cooperate in a sign-and-trade with the Miami Heat.

But Chris has not exactly warmed to the idea of playing in Cleveland. And for good reason. The average temperature in Cleveland is 49 degrees; the average temperature in Miami is 75 degrees. Cleveland has factories; Miami has South Beach.

And for a guy who’s so motivated by the money, he’d be paying approximately $750,000 more in annual taxes (state, net of federal deductions) in Ohio than on an equivalent contract in Florida. Read more…

The first highly-touted power forward is off the boards. And it’s not a bad outcome for the Miami Heat.

As expected, the New York Knicks have come to terms with Amare Stoudemire on a contract worth nearly $100 million over five seasons.

Said Stoudemire:

I feel great, really, about being a pioneer and showing my leadership. It’s a situation where no one wanted to make that first move. Totally comfortable, totally confident that my leadership qualities will uplift all of us to do something great this upcoming season. So again, the Knicks are back.

Sounds like a man with some doubt still lingering. Stoudemire would have preferred to join Dwyane Wade and the Heat. But Miami has bigger plans. And those plans look more and more promising with each passing moment.

Wade and Chris Bosh seem inexorably linked. The two have been friends for some time. They share the same agent. They dine together. They laugh together. They appear to want to play together.

There have been rumors stating that a D-Wade and Chris Bosh partnership is imminent. With just over two days left to go until projected commitment time (Thursday), South Florida is currently the only place where that can happen. Chicago, the only other destination where such a pairing is even remotely being considered, remains below the second max threshold by $2,730,417. And neither Wade nor Bosh strikes me as willing to forgo that excess cash.

Amare in New York, with nothing surrounding him, is manageable. They’re getting him at an excessive price. And they won’t be getting Steve Nash with him. Read more…

Before you shoot me down as being overly pessimistic, I am on record as saying that I believe Dwyane will re-sign with the Heat, and that all will be well in South Florida. But I believe it is important to be fair and objective and, particularly in light of all the questions I’ve been getting about it, to depict the alternate scenario. I will talk about it this once, and then leave it be. The Heat are a big part of my life, and I don’t like to think about it.

To fully comprehend the gravity of the impending Dwyane Wade decision is to understand the (lack of) alternatives should he decide to leave South Florida.

A number of NBA teams have cleared up cap space to recruit one, or possibly two, of the 2010 free agent megastars. The New York Knicks have cleared the decks, and are home to the center of the world. The New Jersey Nets have Jay Z and a new billionaire owner from Russia. The LA Clippers have cap space and the allure of SoCal. The Cleveland Cavaliers are Lebron’s hometown team and can pay him the most money. The Chicago Bulls have a truckload of cap space, and have the best core group of players under contract to build around.

Which brings us to the most intriguing team in the mix: our Miami Heat.

The Heat has burned the entire roster to the ground. It has pushed all of its chips into the middle of the poker table. We’re all in. We could hit the jackpot we’ve long been seeking and land two, or even three, maximum contract talents, or we could fall flat on our collective face.

The Heat currently has just Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasley under contract. It has been long assumed that Wade would be back, and that his presence alone would be a major recruiting asset.

If Wade joins, Chris will follow, and maybe even Lebron.

But if Wade bolts, the Heat certainly doesn’t bring in Bosh or James. It would have to make an immediate about face, and turn its attention to other free agents, which doesn’t seem promising. Read more…

While the South Florida community sits on pins and needles in anticipation of the decision of its superstar shooting guard, Dwyane Wade today suggested that he will do what is best for his family amid his custody dispute over his children currently living with him in Chicago.

Wade’s contentious divorce from his estranged wife Siohvaughn was confirmed on June 25.

To say the divorce is finalized would be an accurate yet loosely applied statement. While the couple is officially not a couple anymore, critical issues about the division of marital assets and custody of their children two sons, Zaire, 8, and Zion, 3, are still in dispute.

Wade and his wife separated in September of 2007, when Siohvaughn, then living with husband Dwyane in a beautiful Pinecrest mansion, returned to Chicago shortly after the birth of their second child because she “needed help with raising the kids.”

Divorce proceedings commenced the next month. She has refused to return to Miami ever since.

From the outset of the divorce proceedings, Wade has been the bigger person. He hasn’t disrespected his ex-wife in the media, he hardly ever talks about the divorce, and he maintains that his children are what is most important to him at the moment.

Siohvaughn has played the part of the enraged lunatic, the type of ex that isn’t really concerned about the well-being of her children but rather focused on tearing down her ex-husband. Read more…

I am going to work under the assumption that Dwyane Wade is simply a master strategist and that he will eventually re-sign with the Miami Heat. Because if he doesn’t, it’s not worth writing, it’s not worth reading, and it’s certainly not worth watching the team this coming season.

I knew there was a potential Miami Heat storyline somewhere in the Richard Jefferson opt out decision. It just took me a few days to formulate.

The once low-key summer planned by the San Antonio Spurs that centered around the expected signing of Brazilian big man Tiago Splitter has now turned into a mad-dash scramble to find a new starter at the small forward position.

Jefferson’s departure certainly doesn’t sting the wallet of owner Peter Holt at all, but it does leave a gaping hole in a starting rotation that is desperately searching to get younger and more explosive.

Jefferson certainly wasn’t the player the Spurs had hoped for when they traded for him and the accompanying two-years and $29.4 million remaining on his contract, but he was a quality talent. And without the needed cap space to lure such a replacement, the impending end of the Tim Duncan era in San Antonio figures to wind to a quiet and punchless end.

The Spurs are in a difficult position. They are no longer the elite team in the Western Conference that has compiled four championships over the past eleven seasons, but they can’t exactly tear everything apart and start over yet either. After all, they’re still perennial 50-win basketball team.

With a young center (Splitter) and a young point guard (Hill), having re-upped its shooting guard (Ginobli) and selected a replacement in the first round of the draft (Anderson), and with Tim Duncan still in the mix at power forward – a young, immensely talented and inexpensive stretch forward with a floor spacing outside touch could be just what is needed to revitalize a struggling franchise. Read more…

Note: The proposed trade discussed below is now being classified by Hoopsworld as a rumor.

Why would Dwyane Wade consider the Chicago Bulls if they can’t add that coveted second max contract free agent? Neither Dwyane nor Chris would be willing to accept the $2,730,417 pay cut, would they?

Well, maybe they wouldn’t need to.

According to Bill Ingram of Hoopsword:

Now hearing reports that the Trail Blazers are in talks with the Bulls to acquire Luol Deng for a package including Joel Przybilla and Jerryd Bayless.

Sounds like pure and unfounded speculation which doesn’t seem to make much sense.

The two Blazers would certainly seem expendable. Portland has a glut at the center position, having extended Marcus Camby for two additional seasons and having Greg Oden in the final season of his rookie scale contract, and would certainly be amendable to a Przybilla trade. Bayless is a Mario-Chalmers-esque tweener better suited as a perennial backup to Brandon Roy at shooting guard than as a future starter at the point.

However, the suggested trade seems to make little sense for the Blazers. There would be no need for the team to acquire an expensive and injury-prone Luol Deng and the $51.3 million remaining on his contract, just to battle it out for a starting position with the more talented, more healthy, more youthful and more economical Nicolas Batum. If anything, the Blazers would covet a floor spacing outside shooter at the position, to complement the distance challenged Andre Miller and Brandon Roy – something which, despite an impressive 38.6% from beyond the arc last season, Luol Deng is not.

But the rumors are out there, so they’re worth at least analyzing. Read more…