If You Can't Stand the Heat

Sources: Trio talk free agency scenarios
By Chris Broussard and Marc Stein/ESPN.com

A modified version of the ballyhooed free-agent summit that was initially suggested and then downplayed by Dwyane Wade has indeed taken place, ESPN.com has learned.

Sources close to the situation said Monday night that three of the biggest names in basketball -- Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James -- met over the weekend in Miami to seriously discuss their futures, with a focus on the increasingly plausible possibility of those three teaming up with Wade's Heat.

Yet sources with knowledge of the meeting stressed to ESPN.com that James, while clearly intrigued by the possibility of forming a star-studded Miami trio with Wade and Bosh, has not yet committed to leaving his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for South Beach.

One source did label Miami as the new frontrunner to land James in a package deal with Bosh and a re-signed Wade but also cautioned that James was "non-committal" with the start of free agency fast approaching.

Sources said James remains committed to fielding free-agent pitches from several teams when free agency officially opens Thursday at 12:01 a.m. ET, with the Chicago Bulls continuing to rank as a highly appealing destination and a return to Cleveland still figuring prominently in his thinking and with the Dallas Mavericks looming as an intriguing outsider.

Earlier Monday, Fox Sports Radio's Stephen A. Smith reported on his morning radio show and via his Twitter feed that James and Bosh have committed to joining Wade in Miami. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, in a report on its website Monday afternoon, quoted a source close to Wade as saying that the 2006 NBA Finals MVP "believes his team is poised to pull off a free-agency coup" by signing James and Bosh and re-signing Wade.

Unless Miami trades away former No. 2 overall pick Michael Beasley to a team with salary-cap space, so it can avoid taking salary back, Heat president Pat Riley will not be able to offer the estimated 2010-11 maximum salary of $16.5 million to all three Team USA stars.

Well I didn't see this one coming a few months ago. It honestly doesn't seem like too long ago that Dwayne Wade was blasting Pat Riley and Heat management for not doing enough to build a winning team. Now it looks like the Heat may very well snatch up the two best free agents in the market (while also ruining my sign-and-trade plans for Bosh to the Lakers). I'll be honest and say that a James-Bosh-Wade trio in Miami scares the piss out of me but I'm not ready to hand over the 2011 Championship trophy yet. There are such things as role players and team chemistry - things the Lakers will trump the Heat in. So go ahead and team up Eastern Conference boys. The villain in the third part of the trilogy always has to be the most daunting. And despite what Lebron does Kobe still rules the world right now.