Dwyane Wade's Future with the Miami Heat

In the fall out from the Shaquille O'Neal trade, Pat Riley said that having his new tandem of Dwyane Wade and Shawn Marion reminded him of the beginnings of the Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen era with the Chicago Bulls.

I, nor most people with a legitimate basketball I.Q., are willing to go that far.

In fact, I would be quite surprised if Dwyane Wade were to be a member of the Miami Heat at the start of the 2010-2011 NBA Basketball season.

That season follows the off-season in which Wade can become an unrestricted free agent. And when you take into account some of the issues going on with the Miami Heat organization, I'm not too sure that Wade's free agency will end with a re-signing with the Heat.

Pat Riley is old. Not really old, not even old in the sense of his age. Frankly, he could probably coach for another decade if he really wanted to and if there were no more significant health issues with him going forward. However, Riley is very, very, old in terms of his mindset and feelings toward the game. As you all know, there were strong rumors suggesting Riley wanted to leave his head coaching position because he just couldn't take the losing. And even though it appears that he won't leave his post in 2008, he has done it before. With a mentality like that, how concrete is the future of Riley as the coach of the Miami Heat? Even if he were around for the 2010-2011 season, would he be there for the long haul. Wade would probably prefer to be with one coach over the prime years of his career, as opposed to Riley giving him the okie-doke sometime down the road.