MIAMI (Sporting Alert) — The Miami Heat are sad to see LeBron James go, but the NBA four-time finalists are already planning for life without the league’s best player.
James, who guided Miami to two NBA titles in four season (all four to the final), returned to his former team the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Heat are now reportedly in discussions to land free agent forward Luol Deng.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski and Yahoo! Sports, the Miami Heat are in talks with Deng and his representatives about a “two-year” contract for “nearly $20 million.”
It’s understood that Heat president Pat Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra met with the former Chicago Bulls and Cleveland star forward in “Chicago last week to discuss a deal with the Heat,” and Wojnarowski reports that those discussions will continue on Sunday.
The report claims that the Atlanta Hawks and the Dallas Mavericks, are also trying to sign Deng.
Following the departure of James, Miami has managed to successfully re-signed Chris Bosh to a five-year, $118 million contract on Friday, and looks well set to keep Dwyane Wade as well.
With Bosh and Wade, as well as the capture of free agents Danny Granger and Josh McRoberts, the Miami Heat believe they have a good setup that can continue to push for titles, and are hoping to convince Deng to join the party.
Splitting his season with the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the 29-year-old Deng averaged 16 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last season.
