LeBron James, Tyronn Lue confirm Cavaliers wanted to sign Dwyane Wade
It turns out there was very much something in those brief Dwyane Wade to Cleveland rumors during the offseason.
Both LeBron James and coach Tyronn Lue confirmed on Wednesday that they had wanted Wade, but simply didn’t have the money.
“We couldn’t afford him,” James said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “It’s that simple.”
“Who wouldn’t be interested in a Hall of Famer?” Lue added. “That don’t even make sense. Yeah, we wanted him.”
In the end, Wade got $47 million over two years from Chicago. Cleveland could have offered a taxpayer midlevel exception in the $3.5 million range, which never would have gotten it done. That money instead went toward retaining Richard Jefferson.
Wade recently confirmed that the Cavs were on his radar, but he made it sound like it wasn’t necessarily money that chiefly drove his decision to look elsewhere.
