All indi­ca­tions are that LeBron James is lean­ing toward sign­ing with the Miami Heat on Thurs­day night, accord­ing to sev­eral sources with knowl­edge of the situation.

Bar­ring a late change of heart, sources say James has decided to join fel­low All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form a poten­tial NBA powerhouse.

James will make his announce­ment from the Boys and Girls Club of Green­wich, Conn., dur­ing an hour­long spe­cial called “The Deci­sion” on ESPN at 9 p.m. ET Thursday.

ESPN.com

Jason Williams

The Miami Heat have already got Chris Bosh sign­ing on and Dwyane Wade return­ing, as well as, the pos­si­ble addi­tion of a young fella named LeBron James com­ing its way.

Accord­ing to reports, another name may be added to the ros­ter soon enough: point guard Jason Williams.

Two sources tell the site that Wade has been lob­by­ing to have his old back­court mate back in Miami where the pair led the team to the NBA Cham­pi­onship in 2006.

Yahoo Sports

Dwyane Wade

Dwyane Wade is lean­ing toward com­mit­ting to the Chicago Bulls, a source close to the sit­u­a­tion told ESPN.com’s Chad Ford on Friday.

Wade requested a sec­ond meet­ing with the Bulls on Fri­day, accord­ing to the source.

Wade needed to clar­ify issues around pos­si­bly join­ing the Bulls.

Real GM

Derek Fisher

The Miami Heat and Cleve­land Cav­a­liers have expressed inter­est in Derek Fisher, who “wants to go to a cham­pi­onship team,” said a source close to Fisher who requested anonymity dur­ing the nego­ti­a­tion process. “He feels he can be the final piece that can push a team over the top.”

The Lak­ers hope to meet with Fisher’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives next week.

Fisher is seek­ing a two-year deal in the neigh­bor­hood of $10 mil­lion from the Lakers.

Real GM

Dwyane Wade, LeBron James

When Miami Heat pres­i­dent Pat Riley met with Amare Stoudemire last night, he tried to sell the power for­ward on the idea of team­ing him up with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.

The lack of a state income tax in Florida is one of Riley’s big sell­ing points, which is good because the three play­ers would each have to take about $15 mil­lion to start on five-year deals, less than what they could get elsewhere.

Riley’s pitch was mostly about how all great cham­pi­onships are built on three great play­ers, the source revealed.

Yahoo Sports

Dwyane Wade

Dwyane Wade spent Fri­day morn­ing at a down­town Chicago hotel hear­ing a pitch from the New York Knicks, the third team in two days hop­ing to pull one of free agency’s top play­ers away from the Miami Heat.

“It was a good meet­ing, a real good meet­ing,” Wade said after the meet­ing that lasted about two hours and 15 min­utes. “I will say I’m intrigued.”

Before­hand, Wade got out of a black Sub­ur­ban and told reporters he was “in a New York state of mind right now, so we’ll see” how it goes.

ESPN.com

Larry Coon details just how much salary-cap space each of the teams have enter­ing the free-agent mar­ket which offi­cially opens at mid­night on Thursday.

The fol­low­ing are best-case sce­nar­ios for each of the teams with the most pro­jected cap room:

The Knicks could hold 2.06 max contracts.

The Nets could hold 2.00 max contracts.

The Bulls could hold 1.76 max contracts.

The Heat could hold 1.67 max con­tracts, even after the team signs its own free agent, Dwyane Wade, to a max contract.

The Clip­pers could hold 1.02 max contracts.

Real GM

Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade

Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James met over the week­end in Miami to seri­ously dis­cuss their impend­ing free agency and the pos­si­bil­ity of all play­ing together for the Heat.

Sources with knowl­edge of the meet­ing stressed to ESPN.com that James has not com­mit­ted to leav­ing Cleve­land for Miami.

One source did label Miami as the new fron­trun­ner to land James in a pack­age deal with Bosh and a re-signed Wade but also cau­tioned that James was “non-committal” with the start of free agency fast approaching.

Real GM

Mario Chalmers

The Heat will pick up Mario Chalmers’ con­tract for the 10–11 season.

The Heat had until June 24, the day of the NBA Draft, to make its decision.

Chalmers now joins for­ward Michael Beasley and guard Dae­quan Cook as the only Heat play­ers locked into 10–11 salaries.

Real GM

Udo­nis Haslem

Udo­nis Haslem, whose second-biggest off­sea­son deci­sion is whether to cut his braids, is not sure where he will end up in 2010-11, but he believes Dwyane Wade, after whom a county will be named (“Miami-Wade”) in early July, will return to Miami.

Asked if he expected Wade, his clos­est friend on the team, to be back next sea­son, Haslem said “I think he will.”

Asked if he thought he would be back, Haslem was less con­vinc­ing. … “In a per­fect world, it won’t have to come to that. But that’s obvi­ously just the nature of the business.”

Fan­Na­tion