Dwyane Wade was never going to leave the Miami Heat. We’ve seen Wade and the Heat run this game of contentious contract talks in the past and we always thought they were ultimately trying to throw the CBA Circumvention Police off the scent when the whole league assumed there were secret verbal deals of post-retirement makeup money.

Wade was going to meet with the Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets and even his hometown Chicago Bulls, stare at each other and their phones for a couple of hours to pretend like they were sincere talks to get a few extra million from the Heat, and then re-sign. But instead neither side was willing to budge with the Heat offering a two-year, $40 million deal and Wade wanting more money or more years. Wade wasn’t bluffing and decided to return to his hometown of Chicago by signing a two-year, $47.5 million deal with the Bulls.

The Bulls couldn’t catch a flight to meet with Wade in New York on Wednesday morning and signed him to this league-shocking deal by the end of the evening.

A resurgent Wade played over 2,000 minutes this past season for the first time since 12-13. Wade continued to deal with the knee soreness that has plagued his entire career since having his meniscus removed while at Marquette, but he managed to play through it and was productive.

Wade never developed a reliable three-point shot although he astonishingly all of a sudden became a 50+ percent shooter during the playoffs. Without the ability to stretch the floor, we keep waiting for Wade to fall off dramatically when his craftiness and explosion off the dribble fades but that still hasn’t happened yet. 

With Rajon Rondo already signed and Jimmy Butler moving to small forward, Chicago’s floor spacing will be incredibly problematic. The Bulls will need Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott to have productive seasons otherwise defenses will pack the paint entirely. As Rondo seemed like an awful fit for Fred Hoiberg’s offense, Wade is just as problematic in a system that wants to be about pace-and-space. Butler is one of the NBA's best wings but the Bulls couldn't have done worse in signing Rondo and Wade as his talented but ill-fitted perimeter running mates.

Wade scored just 0.72 points per possession on isolations, which is far from efficient offense but the Heat offense was 1.7 points per 100 possessions better with Wade on the floor. 

Wade’s defense is still an on/off switch though he’s aging out of even playing at a passable level. Miami was 5.5 points per 100 possessions better on defense without Wade last season.

The Bulls began the offseason by trading away Derrick Rose, seemed to nearly trade Butler for Kris Dunn, signed Rondo and now they’ve signed Wade. Chicago seems to have no coherent plan whatsoever in what they want to be other than interesting.

Grade for Bulls: D+

Wade clearly had lost trust in Riley and Micky Arison, moving away from his expected path of taking less money to accommodate a more competitive team with the expectation that he would be made whole in retirement with a long anticipated, high paying executive position with the Heat.

Wade seemed to give the Heat every opportunity in the world to compromise, but they never improved their offer from $40 million over two years and he chose to sign with the Bulls instead.

It is hard to imagine Wade and the Heat ever fully reconciling so he very well may have cost himself more money with this decision, but it went beyond money and into the understandably irrational realm of pride and respect.

Miami had a promising playoff run even without Chris Bosh and they re-signed Whiteside this offseason to go with Goran Dragic, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson and possibly Tyler Johnson. A completely healthy Miami team could have competed for the Eastern Conference with the Cavaliers and now Wade is going to a decidedly worst team with Chicago. There's a lot of talent still left in Miami and they'll still be better than the Bulls despite their loss and Chicago's gain of Wade.

Grade for Dwyane Wade: B- 

As shocking as it feels for Wade to actually leave the Heat, Pat Riley has never been a sentimental guy and he had no tolerance for limiting what was available to them in upcoming offseasons. Riley traded Tim Hardaway away towards the end and let Alonzo Mourning sign with the Nets in 2003.

Riley insulted Wade by declaring Whiteside their top priority in free agency and then moved onto an improbable pursuit of Kevin Durant before moving onto Wade. 

Miami will be better in the medium-term getting younger without Wade on the type of contract he was seeking, but in the real long-term, it benefits the franchise to be known as one that takes care of their best players without question. The Lakers received a lot of criticism for bidding against themselves and signing Kobe Bryant to a two-year, $48.5 million extension, but the opportunity cost in the short-term was negligible as they were rebuilding anyways and they will be able to drop that decision into every free agent meeting they ever hold. 

Players will always be interested in Miami with its advantages of weather, culture and no state income tax. Maybe they sign Russell Westbrook next summer. But the reality of even Dwyane Wade being unable to trust his 13-year relationship with Pat Riley has caused irrevocable damage to that Miami Mafia reputation. 

This follows LeBron James confirming his “extra motivation” was about Riley telling him he was “making the biggest mistake of (his) life.” Riley has been smarter, more competitive and more charisma than his peers for 30 years, but he’s putting something other than his championship rings onto the table lately.

Grade for Heat: D