Paul Pierce and Dwyane Wade are some of the rare players that have put their own mark on the post-Jordan era. They were heavyweights in the Eastern Conference for over a decade, Wade winning 3 championship rings with Miami and Pierce leading his Boston Celtics to the 2008 NBA championship.

[su_button url=”http://www.interbasket.net/forums/” target=”blank” style=”soft” size=”3″ wide=”no” center=”no” icon=”icon: comments-o”]Discuss this on our forum[/su_button]

Today both of them are at the end of their careers. Pierce tried to reach the conference finals together with Bradley Beal and John Wall this year failing to the Atlanta Hawks, while Dwyane Wade sit out one third of the season due to various injuries seeing how his team fails to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in six years and in the first season after LeBron James went back to Cleveland.

Wade has one year left on his contract with Miami, but he also has a player opt-out option that he can exercise at any moment. There has been significant interest from the Los Angeles Lakers on signing Wade in free agency this year and offering him an alleged three year contract worth around $50 million. The future of Kobe Bryant is uncertain and it seems like Wade can be the successor of the throne until some of the rookies steps up.

Paul Pierce has a player option on his $5 million contract with the Wizards and it’s possible that he’ll want to reunite with Doc Rivers after the Clippers decided to trade Matt Barnes and Spencer Hawes, freeing up some cap space. The award for Pierce will be the chance to win one more championship right before he retires, and the Chris Paul and Blake Griffin due makes this dream a possibility.