Dwyane Wade: All-Defensive Team?

First things first. I have tremendous respect for Dwyane Wade as a player and as a person, and I feel that this year he is playing his finest basketball season and deserves plenty of the recognition for his accomplishments thus far. This article is in no way a shot at him or his defensive ability.

However, I do feel that it is important to look at his defensive abilities and stats.

I see people like NBA TV's Rick Kamla (much respect to him) saying how he is a defensive monster when discussing his stats of averaging nearly two blocks and two steals-per-game, and how this warrants All-Defensive Team credentials or even the Defensive Player of the Year.

I do believe that Dwyane has improved his defense and his ability to block shots at his height is amazing.

Unfortunately, the stats he produces can overshadow the defensive shortcomings that he still has.

The way Wade has played defense is great for fantasy basketball owners, but it also leaves a bit to be desired in traditional basketball team defense. For all the amazing blocks and steals that he produces, Wade plays a gambling style of defense, shooting the gaps, attempting to get a steal or leaving his man to block a shot that had little chance of going in.

He will occasionally come up with steal or block, but each time he misses, he leaves his team struggling to recover defensively as he has left himself out of the play and his man wide open.

It is usually taught in basketball that the best defense is played with your feet, and not your hands. If you can control the offensive player into taking a bad shot or preventing them from getting the ball, it will provide a highlight-less defensive stop.

I am really impressed that Wade is making such and effort on the defensive end to begin with, but his talents and athleticism could make him a fixture on the All-Defensive Team without the misleading stats.

For example: In the 05-06 season, Gerald Wallace, playing Small Forward, was able to average over two-and-a-half steals- and two blocks-per-game, but was not named to the All-Defensive team.

While Bruce Bowen, (who I am not a huge fan of for his questionable defensive tactics) has been on either the first or second All-Defensive team for eight consecutive years while only averaging 0.8 steals- and 0.4 blocks-per-game for his career. Tim Duncan is another example.

Solid defense is, in my opinion, more important than spectacular defensive gambles (even though I love to see a great steal or huge block and I know they can change the momentum of the game).

So I hope Wade can find a nice balance between the amazing and the fundamental, then he will put himself into the upper echelon of the NBA elite.