WELL THEN THIS WAS UNEXPECTED:
Chris Bosh is finalizing an agreement to return to Miami on a five-year, $118M deal, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 11, 2014
Everything's coming up Mark Cuban's way -- thus far. Once LeBron James made the decision earlier today to return to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, it was widely expected Bosh would leave Miami to join the Rockets. As Tim explained earlier today, Houston was then expected to match Dallas' offer to Chandler Parsons, using Bird Rights to go over the salary cap.
David Lord elaborates on why Bosh chose Miami:
Bosh takes MIA's 5 yr offer of $118,705,300 over HOU "near-max" of $81,347,018 (keeping Beverley, Howard, Harden, Parsons hold) ..huge diff
— David Lord (@DLord_DBdotcom) July 11, 2014
Houston was able to put a number of trades tentatively in motion to facilitate their offer to Bosh (Asik to the Pelicans; Lin to the Lakers) that now could be reconsidered as they still decide whether to match Dallas' offer. Speculation had been that they might balk at the numbers in the deal and look to get an Ariza or Deng for less money.
They have until 5:00 p.m. Sunday to decide. Presumably, they won't let Dallas know, even if they decide, until the last possible minute -- again, leaving us Mavericks fans to wait with baited breath.
It's going to be a long weekend.