Dwyane Wade's Career Crossroad

Once upon a time, Dwyane Wade was on top of the NBA.

Solidifying himself as one of the NBA's elite, Wade was named the finals MVP in route to winning the 2006 NBA Championship.

That was the last many NBA fans heard from this once upper-echelon NBA talent.  Injuries have riddled this once-glorified star the past few seasons, but his performance in Beijing has basketball fans around the globe thinking the same thing—"Flash is back!"

That's right.  Dwyane Wade seems to be well on his way back to being the player that he once was—and possibly even better. It appears he has really regained his hunger, and seems determined to prove all of the fans that wrote him off completely wrong. Wade's establishment of himself as one of the better players on the US Men’s Olympic squad has teams all throughout the Eastern Conference shaking in their boots.

It's no surprise, and it seems almost inevitable that Dwyane is going to have a monstrous year in the '08-09 campaign. All that being said, there's realistically only one thing that can derail this seemingly-destined Hall Of Famer from fulfilling his true potential—injuries.

The way Dwyane consistently attacks the basket with such reckless abandon is undoubtedly the cause of him missing 62 games over the course of the past two seasons. His body breaking down is its way of telling him that it cannot endure that type of punishment 82 times a year.

I for one, am ecstatic about the rejuvenation of D-Wade's game and excited as anyone to see how he performs.  But one thing is for certain—his game needs to evolve along with his deteriorating durability.

Wade's body has already proven that it cannot withstand the rigors of his physical style of play. With that being said, look for Wade to really start utilizing his jump-shot to cut down on the punishment his body absorbs—a la Michael Jordan.

Wade possesses some of the same qualities that MJ had, as far as facing his man up and being able to get to the rim at will. Where their games differ is the jump shot.

Jordan had one of—if not the—best mid-Range games of all time, and the man defending him had to respect that. This made it easier for Jordan to drive past his man, or, if he was giving him too much slack, pull up over him. This is a facet of Wade's repertoire that needs drastic improvement, for the sake of extending his career.

It will be interesting to see how his career unfolds. He has much more potential than probably most of us are aware of. He just needs to make the proper adjustments to his game to extend his career.

I write this article not to depict the defects in Wade’s game, but more of an attempt of what I'm hoping materializes. He is at a crossroad in his career and now more than ever it is important that changes aren't implemented immediately to preserve it.

This could very well be determining factor in him becoming the next Michael Jordan, versus the next Jamal Mashburn.