Dwyane Wade Rumors Abound As Heat Visit Knicks On Sunday

The big question surrounding the Heat-Knicks game on Sunday isn’t which team will win. The Heat are guaranteed a playoff spot, and New York will do it’s best to try and screw the world by winning the NBA draft lottery again. The lingering elephant in tonight’s game will be whether Dwyane Wade will be wearing  a Knicks uniform the next time he plays at Madison Square Garden.

It’s been a long spinning rumor that Dwyane Wade would leave the Miami Heat to play for either the New York Knicks or the Chicago Bulls this summer. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would want to leave South Beach, especially after winning a championship there.

Yet Wade has been adamant about the team bringing in better talent. Michael Beasley has been a much better player this season, but he’s nowhere near the realm of consistency that warrants the “stud” tag. In the past five games he’s scored 2, 28, 12, 12 and 4 points.

What makes things more cloudy for New York fans is the sudden rumor that Joe Johnson appears to have an “under the table” deal in place with New York already. Since the salary cap will be very low next year, it’s hard to imagine the suddenly cap savvy Knicks paying through the nose to have two shooting guards.

The problem for Miami, which will have a ridiculous amount of cap space this summer, is that to keep Wade in South Beach they’re going to have to bring in either Chris Bosh or Carlos Boozer and both guys are going to be very hard to lure to Miami since the team has no roster stability or prospects to attract you.

Wade is the ultimate master of his own destiny, but his course will ultimately be affected by Joe Johnson, LeBron and Bosh. The former in that list is actually the guy that will steer Wade away from New York if that supposed “deal” is already in place to and Johnson in New York city.

As the rumors persist, things will only get much more ramped up in the most exciting phase of free agency we have yet to see. For the Knicks, caring about one of their final regular season games isn’t nearly as fun as hoping for a promising future.

Unless you’re betting on the game.

Miami Heat vs. New York Knicks

Sunday, April 11th — Madison Square Garden — 6:00pm EST

NBA Betting Trend: Miami is 5-5 SU and 6-4 ATS against NYK

Miami has gone 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games against the Knicks. At Madison Square Garden, the Heat are also a pretty strong 3-2 ATS when playing against New York.

What makes this game lopsided isn’t the presence of Dwyane Wade, but more so the absence of Al Harrington who has been knocked out of action due to a sprained ankle. Without Harrington, the Knicks don’t have that low-post scoring that they usually rely on when the “Seven Seconds” offense falls short.

And besides, the Knicks don’t care about this game. They want to see if Stern will have the balls to try and screw up the 2010 Draft again and give the Knicks John Wall. They want to see LeBron and/or Wade in a Knicks uniform. Everything is against New York in this game.

The Heat at least have a playoff spot to chase after. Avoiding the instant death matchups against top-seeded Cleveland or second place Orlando is a must, so they have to keep winning.

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