Dwyane Wade Can Redefine Career Again in the Post-LeBron James Era
Dwyane Wade won't be the same player without LeBron James, and he can't go back to where he was before the pair joined forces.
That's neither a blessing nor a curse, though, elements of both are surely present. Rather, his venture into the post-James era is just the latest in a long line of NBA challenges, tests he has readily embraced in the past and continues to do so now.
"Dwyane is the first guy in the facility every day," Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told the South Florida Sun Sentinel's Ira Winderman (subscription required). "He's here early every day. He's put in a full, American work day."
Wade is putting in full work days, because these are more than simple trips to the office. They have to be in order for him to successfully transition into this chapter of his career.
It won't be easy, but nothing really has been for him of late. During his four years with James, Wade's job title shifted from co-franchise-face to willing superstar sidekick. Despite never having left Miami-Wade County, the spotlight that once tracked his every move started leaving him alone, save for the occasional update on his troublesome knees.
As injuries became more of an issue—17 games missed in 2011-12, 28 last season—the former franchise savior was picked apart as its convenient scapegoat.
With the Heat's shot at making history having left with James, Wade shouldn't be held to the same unrealistic standards he has faced in recent years. The same ones that last season led him being discarded as "washed up" by the masses, despite him being the only player other than James and MVP Kevin Durant to average at least 19 points on 50-plus percent shooting, four assists and four rebounds.
In some ways, Wade's reinvention has more to do with our perception of him than anything.
He may not be the dominant force he was a few years back, but he's closer to that level than people realize.
Over the last two seasons, he averaged 20.3 points, 4.9 assists and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 53.1 percent from the field. Only James has cleared those marks over that stretch, and remember—those were a few of Wade's "down years."
Even more remarkable is that some of the volume lost from his stat sheet was voluntarily sacrificed. With James gone and Miami's additions not being nearly as ball-dominant, Wade has the chance to get some of the quantity back.
As he told Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick, Wade wants to see how he will respond to the adversity of no longer having the world's best player as a teammate:
"Individually, you sacrifice so much of your game, you want to see if you can do some of the things that are called upon you to do, when called upon.
It's not saying, 'Oh, I'm excited this person left so I can do that.' It's more, 'OK, it's a challenge,' and as athletes we not only love challenges, but we need them. Especially if we want to continue to rise.
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For Wade, this new challenge should come with a familiar role.
He should be the Heat's Robin again, only with Chris Bosh serving as Batman this time around. Bosh is younger (30 to 32), better paid ($20.6 million to $15 million) and, through two preseason games, more involved in the offense (13 field-goal attempts per game to Wade's 8.5).
Looking ahead, the versatile big man should only see further increases in his scoring chances and on his stat sheet.
"It's easy to envision a matured Bosh returning to something like the production of his Toronto days, when he averaged over 22 points per game in each of his last five seasons and broke 10 rebounds thrice," wrote Bleacher Report's Tom Sunnergren.
That would put Wade back in the passenger seat, but his responsibilities would be heavier than before.
After letting James pilot the offense for the past four seasons, the Heat need someone to take over the playmaking. Wade, who owns a career 6.0 assists-per-game average, stands as the most logical candidate.
Miami has three point guards on the roster in Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole and Shabazz Napier. But Chalmers and Cole haven't had to handle real distributing duties before. And Napier is only a rookie, who struggled mightily at summer league.
Wade said the team still has a long way to go at the position, per Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald:
Barring an unexpected development, it seems likely to stay that way throughout the season.
That means Wade may be the best equipped to the set the table, but the Heat need more from him than that. He'll still be one of the team's top scorers—maybe the best if Bosh has been away from a primary role for too long—though he will need to continue to expand his arsenal, both to help ward off Father Time and to better serve a team that might be light on floor-spacers.
"We want him to work on the corner 3," Spoelstra said, per Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. "He doesn't have to hunt for it, but every once in a while that shot will come available for him in our offense, no question about it."
Wade has never been a very active or accurate three-point shooter. He has converted only 28.9 percent of his career long-range attempts, and he has just one season (2008-09) when he averaged more than one made three per game.
But with Bosh headed back to the post, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel's Shandel Richardson, the Heat need Wade to widen his shooting range. Although he hasn't flashed that touch before, there is a chance he could find it yet.
He is a very good shooter inside the arc, having knocked down 47.0 percent of his looks from 10 to 16 feet away from the basket. Of all the players who attempted at least four pull-up jumpers per game—a shot outside of 10 feet set up by one or more dribbles—only Dirk Nowitzki (47.4) and Tony Parker (44.7) converted those shots at a higher clip than Wade (44.0), per NBA.com's SportVU player tracking data.
Wade has to keep working on his shot, because his explosiveness simply isn't what it used to be.
Last season, he failed to average five free-throw attempts a night for the first time in his career. Even with his touches expected to rise, that number could prove hard to increase, as his body won't let him attack like he did before James' arrival.
"I can't go back five years," Wade told reporters in August. "I ain't trying to go back five years. If we all could, we would, but that's not likely."
There is no need to hedge that bet. It's not going to happen.
Wade might reclaim some of his lost production. He might even hold onto the efficiency he found as James' running mate.
But Wade won't bring back Flash. There is too much mileage on his odometer to put that type of stress on the engine.
Not to mention, he'll have to monitor himself even more closely this season than last. This team does not have the talent to get away with limiting his exposure for maintenance reasons, as ESPN.com's Israel Gutierrez explained:
"Wade will no longer have the luxury of sitting out games knowing the best player in the league would be doing the heavy lifting. He's back in position of being the Miami Heat's most important perimeter player, and his challenge now includes taking on a heavier workload again, potentially playing through more discomfort than he had to last season, and most important, trying to keep the Heat among the elite in the NBA.
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Wade's importance to this franchise hasn't changed, but everything else about his situation has. Again.
However, his past highlights how well he can adapt. From playing the featured role with his own elite sidekick (Shaquille O'Neal) to filling that supportive part himself alongside James, Wade has always played whatever hand he's been dealt—and played it well.
Miami's reshuffled deck won't change the impact Wade his on this team, just the manner in which he goes about imposing his will.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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