Miami Heat: How LeBron James and Dwyane Wade Are NBA's New Jordan-Pippen Combo

Last night on NBA on TNT, there was some discussion about whether LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were the new Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. It's not an unfair comparison. 

There are definite similarities. Both pairs of players played the 2 and 3. Both pairs of players were diverse and proficient scorers, passers and rebounders. Both pairs of players were extraordinarily athletic. Both pairs played at an All-NBA level on both sides of the court. 

Statistically, the duos are strikingly similar. Here is this year's James and Wade compared to the 1996 Jordan and Pippen. 

Player	FG	FGA	FG%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PTS
Jordan and Pippen	18.5	38.4	0.482	13	10.2	3.9	1.2	5.1	49.8
James and Wade	18.7	35.5	0.527	12.5	11.8	3.6	2.1	6.2	50.5

Surprisingly, the Heat tandem has a slight edge statistically, albeit a very slight one. On the other hand, even though Wade and James are All-NBA defensively, the edge there would go to the Jordan-Pippen duo, as Jordan was a former Defensive Player of the Year and Pippen finished second on multiple occasions. 

Furthermore, the way the players played together is similar. Both pairs used athleticism to turn defense into offense and run the fastbreak together. Compare the following two clips:

There are also some other comparisons. With both sets, the third-best player on the team was their power forward, with Chris Bosh for the Heat duo and either Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman for the Bulls duo. 

Finally, both teams relied on their duos for most of their scoring in the paint. 

While there are a ton of similarities, there is one huge distinction. Actually, not one, not two, not three...You get where I'm going with this, right?