5 Reasons Dwyane Wade Should Lead the Miami Heat, Not LeBron James

I can't be the only one who's gotten addicted to NBA highlight videos on YouTube this summer. With nothing but baseball highlights and no talk about NBA free agency or predictions going into the season, the Internet, or for the lucky ones that have NBA TV, has helped me cope immensely with this lockout that has already dragged on a little less than two months before the start of the season.

Some of the most popular highlight reels involve Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, who hooked up a number of times for the NBA's top plays of the year.

The duo went through their ups and downs throughout their first season together and managed to overcome each time they appeared down and out. They started off the season 9-8, won 20 of 21 games through early November and December, and lost five games in a row by way of letting up on a huge lead against an elite opponent.

They still finished 58-24 which was good for second in the Eastern Conference behind the Chicago Bulls.

Led by James and Wade, the Heat ran through a gauntlet of Eastern Conference foes and championship contenders with ease before reaching a standstill in the NBA Finals.

With James stymied by the Dallas Mavericks defense, the Heat had to look for other options. Wade supported the cause, but it wasn't enough without an impact player like James, who had the led the team the previous three series.

Following the finals loss, James' leadership skills were questioned. He let the team down after averaging only 17 points, eight points fewer than his regular-season average, and couldn't find any way to make a positive impact.

Instead, it was Wade bearing the load on offense and James stopping those possessions with his inability to make jumpers or break the zone.

It should have been Wade the whole time. He had proven in the first game of the series and mostly through the second that the team should have realized it was Wade's time to take over instead of allowing James to force the issue.

For next season, maybe the organization can listen to these five reasons why Wade should lead the team.

Can Score at Any Given Moment, Against Any Defense

I hate to revisit it, but let's take a look at the Heat's 2011 NBA Finals appearance.

The obvious story here is what exactly happened to LeBron James? After three Eastern Conference series where James dominated and hit numerous clutch shots to keep the Heat alive, he fell apart and appeared to not want anything to do with the ball at any point during the last four games of the series.

His jump shot was gone, which meant his confidence was disappearing as well, and he couldn't figure out how to post up nor how to break the Dallas Mavericks zone.

James only averaged 17 points per during the series, including eight points in a game where the Heat lost by three points. You can't put it all on James since coach Erik Spoelstra should have implemented shooters to break the zone, but you should still expect a player like LeBron to find some way to score, whether it's from the foul line or just attacking at all costs.

To show just how badly James struggled against the Mavs zone defense, take a look at the free-throw numbers: Wade finished with 49 free-throw attempts compared to James, who finished with 20.

LeBron struggled, so it was up to Wade and Chris Bosh to handle everything. The team struggled because rather than having James and Wade combine for the 51 points they were averaging together during the regular season, Wade and Bosh only combined for 45 points.

If not for Mario Chalmers chipping in a surprising 12 points, the Heat would have been dead in the water for most of their games.

Unlike James, Wade was able to have success against the zone. He managed to average nearly 27 points on an extremely impressive 55 percent from the field to go along with seven rebounds, five assists, nearly two steals and a block. It was Wade doing everything again and the Heat would have easily taken the series had James just performed up to his average.

Wade was able to have success against the zone because he's still fast and agile enough to break it, unlike James who uses speed and power to beat his defenders. The zone was run to perfection, as there would always be at least one player there to keep James at bay unlike Wade, who was either quick enough to avoid the defender or agile enough to split the defense.

Dwyane's taken on every type of defense, and he's always had success against them. You need a consistent scorer who can always lead a team when called upon and it should have always been Dwyane from the start.

The Right Mindset To Lead and Win

When you've played with teams like Dwyane Wade has, you develop a strong mindset and belief that you're capable of winning anything with any team.

Take, for instance, the 2006 championship team. They started out the season 11-10 and were already in the middle of a coaching controversy between Pat Riley and Stan Van Gundy.

It was also considerably difficult for Wade to even take hold of the reins since he was a third-year guard playing alongside future Hall of Famers in Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton as well as other veterans in Antoine Walker and Jason Williams.

They also managed to win despite being the party monsters of South Beach.

Following the championship win came a dark period for Wade, as his team got swept in the first round the next season after a woeful, injury-plagued season. The next would be the worst of his career as he ended the season early to get surgery with the team finishing a league-worst 15-67.

Wade would come back from those injuries with some less-than-stellar rosters, but he was back and stronger than ever and led those rosters to the postseason twice.

Whether he was leading his team as a rookie, playing with future Hall of Famers, receiving possible career-ending surgery or leading a team of aged veterans and rookies, Wade has been through anything and everything, and it's greatly assisted in the production of his career.

He has developed a strong mindset over the years and has a desire to win that's only matched by the likes of Kobe Bryant.

He's only been on one losing team and he was injured for most of the year. Wade has a winning mentality, and it's the type of mentality you want from a player that's set to lead you to the ultimate goal of winning a championship.

Keeps the Offense in Motion and Involved

You can't argue against the fact that LeBron James in an isolation setting is probably the last thing a defense wants to see.

There are only a few individuals in the league who could possibly defend James in a one-on-one setting, with Andre Iguodala and Shawn Marion being the two best options.

Iguodala is strong and athletic enough to keep James in check, while Marion is just as athletic and wise as a defender to know James' weaknesses, thus the reason for seeing James posting up Marion so many times during the finals.

While James running the isolation is the reason for the Cleveland Cavaliers seeing so much regular-season success, it was also the reason for the team not having as much postseason success.

The organization was under the firm belief that James having the ball in his hands and dictating the show was enough for the team to win a title. James could win 66 games in the regular season when he distributes to his shooters, but it doesn't fly in the postseason because defenses can adjust to that very easily.

There were too many times during the finals where we saw a repeat of these mistakes—James sitting on the perimeter and pounding the ball until the shot clock wore out and he was forced to take a difficult jumper from 25 feet out. For any team to win a championship, they need to work as a team and not as one individual dictating what's going to happen.

Wade's go-to move is the pick-and-roll which requires one player setting the pick and then either rolling himself or allowing Dwyane to continue and finish at the rim with either two points near the basket or potential foul shots.

They need to run plays like this that involve teammates and keep the offense moving rather than allowing one player to run their play while making the other four players on the floor stand and watch.

Dwyane isn't accustomed to running isolations unless it's during a dire moment of the game when he needs to score. The team needs to avoid allowing James, or anyone else on the team, from running isolations and should instead allow the whole team to get involved on the offense.

Championship Experience

If you want someone to lead your team to a championship, why not ask a player who has actually been there before and had success?

While I completely understand Coach Spoelstra's intuition of allow LeBron James to lead the team since he had a lot of success in the three series prior, he should have never taken the reins from Wade in Game 2.

The coach should have allowed Wade to be the No. 1 option from there on out instead of forcing the issue with James and allowing him to snap out of his slump in the middle of the NBA Finals.

In Game 2, Wade nearly had the series wrapped up. He had just hit a huge three-pointer to give himself 36 points with eight minutes remaining to put the Heat up by 15 points with full momentum and a raucous home crowd right behind them.

Rather than allowing Wade to lead the rest of the way, they decided to give the ball to James, who immediately switched up the offense to one that centered on him, as he saw most of his shots come from the perimeter while the Mavericks slowly but surely inched their way back to the game.

The Heat coaching staff did the exact opposite of what they were intending to do the whole season: allow the team to look like the Cleveland Cavaliers with James doing everything and everyone else watching.

Wade has been to this show before and he knows how to win it. We've seen him pull off miracles before with that dominant 35-point-per-game performance against Dallas in 2006 and he was well on his way to doing it again had the team allowed him to lead the way for the rest of that game and the rest of the series.

Think about it too: Had Wade continued to lead the team to a Game 2 win, they could have been up 2-0 and would have been up 3-0 since they won Game 3. Too many coulds and woulds here though, so it doesn't really matter to speculate what could have happened.

Next time the finals come around and the Heat are in it, they need to allow Wade to work his magic and make James take the back seat that he should have taken the majority of the way.

Much in the Clutch

Deciding who is the leader of this Miami Heat team is one of the hottest debates in the NBA today.

Both players come from backgrounds where they led a team for seven seasons with Dwyane Wade creating a mini-dynasty in Miami during the mid-2000s with Shaquille O'Neal and a plethora of other veterans, and LeBron James leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA's best record for two consecutive seasons before departing for the Heat.

James led the Cavs to a finals appearance in 2007, but only saw one conference finals appearance after.

It took all their talent to reach that point and for their teams to be successful and that's what makes it so difficult to differentiate these two players. They're arguably the two best players currently playing with one accolade and one aspect of each other's game that puts Wade over the top.

The accolade being Wade's championship as well as his Finals MVP, and the reason for him getting those rewards is how he plays in late-game situations compared to James.

While James has just started showing flashes that he could master playing in the clutch, as documented during the Heat's recent Eastern Conference playoff run, it still doesn't compare to what Wade has done this past season and the seven years before.

He's hit a number of game-winners, from bank shots to three-pointers, and has consistently been doing so since joining the league.

Obviously his crowning achievement came in 2006 when he led the Heat in their Game 3 finals victory from a 13-point deficit with a little under six minutes remaining.

He also managed to hit clutch shots and free throws during the team's Game 5 overtime victory before leading the team to a clinching 95-93 Game 6 victory.

James has just shown he can be clutch, while Wade has shown us for the past eight years. Whom do you trust?

You can follow John Friel and his rants on twitter @JohnFtheheatgod. You'll be sorry if you don't.