NBA Free Agency: Cavaliers expected to talk to Dwyane Wade but can't offer big money

Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal is reporting that the Cavaliers are expected to talk to Dwyane Wade now that Wade's vacation in Spain with LeBron James has finished.

Lloyd lays out the case that we already sort of knew. The Cavaliers, as currently constructed, only have the mini-midlevel exception to pay Dwyane Wade, and Wade wants $20M per year.

The Cavaliers might be able to renounce J.R. Smith, dump Iman Shumpert and Channing Frye, but it still wouldn't get them to the room they need to pay Wade what he wants, and at that point, it's probably not wise.

It seems like expecting a Wade arrival in Cleveland would require Wade to give up around $17 million per year. I know he's angry at Riley, but I can't imagine he's so angry that he's ready to leave the GDP of a small nation on the table out of pure spite. Some (me) have made jokes of back room deals or Lebron taking a massive paycut as well to help bring Wade in, but that seems unlikely too. James is a leader in the National Basketball Players' Association, and it's not good for the players in labor negotiations to have their stars take huge pay cuts.

As for now, it seems like Wade is a pipe dream for the Cavaliers, but, at the least, it's made Twitter a lot of fun today.