Utah Jazz: Boozer to Miami trade talk is warming up

He's been linked to Miami for quite some time, partly because he has an offseason home there, partly because of his relationship with Heat star Dwyane Wade and partly because of his friendship with Heat owner Micky Arrison.

But Miami has no team payroll salary cap space this summer, so for a while talk of Carlos Boozer-to-the-Heat as a free agent cooled.

And now it's warming back up.

Heat star Dwyane Wade — who has been bickering with the franchise lately regarding a contract extension and the team's need to improve its roster — is lobbying, to a degree, for Miami to go after the Jazz's on-the-trade-block power forward.

The two are good friends and were gold medal-winning USA Basketball Olympic teammates.

"Any time you can play with another great player, a fellow Olympian, I mean it's always something that's got to spark your interest," Wade told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Saturday. "But, at the same time, I'm done trying to push (Heat president) Pat (Riley) to do anything. He's going to do a good job for us. And we just have to have patience."

On the same weekend Jazz point guard Deron Williams held his charity golf tournament, Boozer — by the way — was scheduled to take part Sunday in the Summer Groove charity all-star basketball game at Miami, an event Wade co-hosts.

Chicago, New York, Detroit and Miami all supposedly are potential destinations for the two-time NBA All-Star — if he's dealt.

Boozer recently opted in for the final year and last $12.65 million on his current contract — taking him off the free-agency market, but prompting Utah to aggressively try to trade him.

MORE BOOZER BABBLE: The Boston Globe on Sunday reported that Detroit turned down a trade proposal that would have sent Boozer to the Pistons for Tayshaun Prince, but the newspaper didn't time-reference the rejected deal.

Utah also spoke earlier this offseason with Detroit about swapping Boozer for guard Rip Hamilton, as has been widely reported, but that didn't happen either.

With the Jazz now anxious to move Boozer, it remains to be seen if discussions with Detroit will be revisited.

NOT ME: When the Jazz and Bulls were discussing a for-now-dead deal late last week that would have sent Boozer to Chicago and brought forward Tyrus Thomas to Utah, an item on the Bulls' Web site, Bulls.com, suggested Thomas had posted a message on his Facebook social networking page that said "Playing with Deron Williams would be sweet!"