Miami Heat: Healthy Dwyane Wade Outlast Knicks; Bosh Looking for Role

Dwyane Wade seems to thrive at points in his career, when doubt looms. The last nine games for the Miami Heat, where they went 8-1, have been followed by discussions of Miami being better-off without Wade.

In fact, so often social media began to chime in on the topic. The hash-tag #withoutwade was a worldwide trending topic to which Wade took part in, with good taste. He tweeted 4 to 5 times joking at the topic.

Wade may not be at full strength yet, however, his game against the Knicks was essential if he wants to perform his best against the top team in the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Bulls, on Sunday. Wade's career is filled with sub-par performances against Chicago, his hometown team. Many blame the distractions of getting friends and family tickets, or the self-motivated effort to perform better against them.

The media’s chatter about the Heat being better minus Wade was relentless and ignorant. Wade seemed to hear the chatter and responded with a very motivated performance, reminiscent of the 2006 shooting-clinic he gave the Dallas Mavericks—known as the NBA Finals—once he got word of their strategy to make him a jump shooter. The superstar thrives off challenges similar to the notion that Miami was better off with out him.

Chris Bosh shined in the absence of Wade, due to the excess shots that were available in the offense. However, Bosh seemed to be forcing his shots in the offense against the Knicks. I will not assume that Bosh’s lack of a performance had anything to do Wade’s return. However, lets not leave the possibility that Bosh is still searching for his place in the offensive sets.

I see it as one of two roles.  

The first of which is the third option. Lebron James and Dwyane Wade simply drive and kick it out to him if the defense rotates to help, becoming a spot-up shooter.

The second role would be one which he is given a number of offensive sets that are run for him during the periods where Wade and James are on the bench and the second unit is in.

A combination of these two roles is a huge key to the success of the Heat, magnified by the condensed 66 game schedule of the 2012 Regular season.