5 Reasons Why Dwyane Wade Is Better Than LeBron James

Recently, ESPN compiled a rankings of the top 500 players currently in the NBA. The rankings were met with much controversy as they actually managed to rank Blake Griffin in the tenth spot ahead of players like Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard ranked second even though he has no offensive skill set, and possibly the most controversial was their selection of Kobe Bryant at No. 7.

The rankings also placed Dwyane Wade at third, two spots behind the number one player in teammate LeBron James.

Why this hasn't been met with more controversy I'll never know. LeBron James may be the best player in the league when it comes to using the physical aspects of his game, but the 2011 NBA Finals should have shown every one that the true best player in the league was right there next to him on his own team. James took up most of the attention after averaging only 18 points per game, but nobody seemed to notice that Wade was averaging 27 points per game on 55 percent shooting from the field.

This isn't uncommon to see either as Wade has proven to us time and time again that he's one of the league's greatest players in pressure situations, and can also be one of the most reliable players throughout a game as well. Wade has been underrated for years and it's showing now more than ever with the supposed No. 1 player on his team.

If the rankings were up to me, I would have had Dwyane Wade and LeBron James at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. They're by and far the two best players in the league and they only came two games away from winning a title during a tumultuous year where the team had to deal with the loss of two key role players while still learning how to adjust to each other.

I've said for the past year now that Dwyane Wade is the best player in the league and I continue to stand by it. Here are five reasons as to why Wade is the No. 1 player currently playing in the NBA.

Lives for the Moment

With seconds left on the clock and the game decided by only one possession, there will always be that one player that a team can look to and depend on to live for that moment.

They're a rare breed of player. Players that will sometimes either finish what they started after leading their team the entire game or manage to show up just at the right time when their team needed them most. These are the players that help us weed out the average All-Star from the elite players that embrace moments like the ones that will live on throughout history.

Currently, there are only a few players that you can even mention in this conversation. Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Paul Pierce to name a few are all players that live for that moment and the glory that comes on afterwards. They recognize the repercussions of missing a shot, but they only look to making it and always embrace the idea of being a hero and not failing their team when they need them most.

Dwyane Wade is that type of player and he has been since he came into the league. He proved it to us when he hit the game-winner in his first ever postseason game, he reaffirmed that with a performance for the ages in the 2006 NBA Finals and he continues to prove that today after attempting to lead the Miami Heat to their second championship.

LeBron James can be clutch. It's rather annoying to hear critics claim that James isn't clutch when we all clearly saw that he absolutely dominated the Eastern Conference playoffs and led the Heat to wins over the rival Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls. The only problem with James is that he has yet to prove to us that he consistently hit shots down the stretch and be the reliable player that the team wishes him to be.

Wade has proven time and time again just how consistent he can be in the clutch. He's had a great number of game winners and has led his team back from fourth quarter deficits more than you could ever imagine. He lives for those moments because he truly believes that he's going to come through for his team each and every time the ball is in his hands with the game on the line.

The Ability To Take over

This isn't to say LeBron James can't take over games. We've seen him do it before many, many times with his Game 5 performance against the Boston Celtics being the greatest example when James scored the final ten points of the game to give the Heat the series. He's done it before his time with the Heat, too, as he scored 29 of the final 30 Cleveland Cavalier points in their win over the Detroit Pistons back in 2007.

James can take over games. We're just saying that he can't take over a game like Dwyane Wade can.

As I stated before, Wade is one of the league's most consistent players when it comes to playing in pressure situations. If his team needs him to make a score or make a defensive stand, the chances are extremely high that he'll be able to follow through. Even before those types of situations though, Wade has proven to us that he can also take over a game whenever called upon.

Take for instance his performance against the Detroit Pistons back in 2005. The Heat were down by double-digits in the fourth quarter against their Eastern Conference foe until Wade decided to take the game into his own hands. This was a second-year player playing alongside the likes of Shaquille O'Neal and Gary Payton attempting to win a game on his own against the East's best defense at the time.

Wade scored the final 15 points of the game and hit the game-winner with a little more than a second left to give the team an improbable two point victory.

What separates Wade from James is that he knows when and how to start playing up to his full potential when his team needs him. While James can be erratic when it comes to taking over a game, watch his attempts in the 2011 Finals, Wade will always be there to depend on as he showed in the 2011 Finals where he was arguably the best player on the floor.

Another perfect example of Wade taking over would be his Game 4 performance against the Boston Celtics in 2010 when he scored 46 points to lead the Heat to a victory to help the team avoid an embarrassing sweep.

Whether it's in the regular or postseason, Dwyane Wade can take over a game whenever he decides he wants to.

Can Score Against Any Defense

Everyone knows the story about the 2011 NBA Finals and how the Dallas Mavericks managed to topple a certain Miami Heat victory. Rather than going by the usual 2-3 defense that the majority of NBA teams utilize, the Mavericks instead went with a zone defense that they had used against the Heat before. What the zone defense intends to do is to limit the slashing and driving and instead forcing the opposition into jump shots.

This defensive system is used mostly at the NCAA level because NBA players usually could break a zone easily with the plethora of jump shooters on the floor. The problem with the Heat was that their three stars all found the majority of their offense come in the paint with Wade and James playing the role of slashers and Chris Bosh either hitting mid-range jumpers or taking it to the rim.

With no shooters to pay too much attention to, the Mavericks were able to focus on the slashing of Wade and James. The Heat attempted pick and rolls but the Mavs defense always seemed to switch off just in time to keep either of the slashers at bay and behind the perimeter. With the offense remaining stagnant and 25 feet away from the rim, there was no flow or rhythm and it greatly hurt the team when it came to consistently scoring.

We all know how James fared. It was the worst postseason series of his career as he averaged 18 points per game on 48 percent shooting from the field. Those stats are what caused the Heat to fare so poorly as James averaged ten points less than what he was averaging in the regular and postseason, and it came as a huge surprise to the Heat who had depended on him throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.

What no one has mentioned though is just how prolific Wade was throughout the entire series. Besides Bosh, Wade was the only player who could consistently score as he lit up the Mavericks to 27 points on an absurd 55 percent from the field. All of the defensive maneuvers that the Mavs were using on James weren't working on Wade because he's too multi-dimensional of a player to limit.

Take for instance when the Mavs forced James to post up. They recognized that he didn't have the footwork to truly have a consistent game in the paint and it allowed the Mavs to limit James because he couldn't produce.

Compare that to Wade and when he was posted up by Jason Kidd and how Wade easily powered himself in for the easy slam. It shows just how multi-dimensional of a player Wade is considering that he can still rely on his major aspect being slashing, can come alive with a jump shot and can post up against the same defenders that were limiting James in the same series.

Keeps the Offense Involved

There are many members of the Miami Heat fanbase that question as to why LeBron James doesn't become the team's starting point guard. It seems like it would be a good idea considering that James would easily have an offensive and defensive advantage over the opposition's point guard and it would also allow James to be a Magic Johnson-type of point guard that would hold the advantage of being able to see the court better than most point guards.

The reason why the Heat aren't going for this idea? Go review some 2011 NBA Finals tape and it'll show you exactly why. When James holds the ball at the top of the perimeter as the teams point guard, you become accustomed to hearing the word pound because that's what James likes to do when he has the ball in his hands.

By pound, we mean the sound of the basketball hitting the same spot on the floor over and over again with no intention of passing the ball around or attempting a drive in any way. There are too many times where James still has the Cavaliers mentality in him and thinks that this is an effective way of playing on a team with two superstars and a few quality role players.

James sometimes wants to be the hero at the wrong time and it results in the offense losing rhythm and any sort of flow that was there. With the ball stuck in his hands at the perimeter and the ball not moving, players lose their shooting rhythm and it allows the defense to get its energy back, which is the last thing the Heat want since that's their secret weapon to winning games.

Wade has said before that he doesn't want to be a point guard, but he does control the pace of the offense when the team needs him to and he manages to do so at an efficient rate. What makes Wade a special player is that he's always looking to drive and that a jump shot is basically the worst case scenario for him.

He will always look to drive and when he does it causes the defense to collapse on him, which allows Wade's teammates to get open for easy scores.

Strong Mentality

To be the greatest, you have to know when to be the greatest. There has to be moments on the floor where you separate yourself from everyone and emerge as the player that strives to be the greatest in the game. Only the greatest players have a mental game that can keep up with their physical game and it allows that player to lead their team to victories when it was originally thought impossible.

With this new generation and breed of players that are dunking from impossible distances, we need to remember just how much of this game is based on your mentality. Basketball is purely mental and having the wrong mentality will send your game into a tailspin whether you miss a few jump shots in a row or turn the ball over one or two times too many.

Much like golf, getting frustrated only makes your game worse. If you continue to try to force the issue of making a jump shot despite continually missing, you're only hurting your overall performance and the outlook of a victory for your team. Players can get very self-centered when being concerned about their own performance rather than finding other ways to contribute to the cause rather than just attempting to figure out a problem mid-game.

Let's bring up the 2011 NBA Finals one more time. When James was taking deep jumper after deep jumper, did you ever think to wonder that maybe there was another way he could find an impact in the game? Or just instead of taking those jump shots, drive in and force the team to foul you as you have done so for the first eight years of your career.

Being at that level and coming so close to his first NBA title probably threw James off and it led to him forcing the issue of taking jumpers way too much as opposed to his reliable offensive onslaught which includes him driving, slashing, and drawing fouls.

The defense of Dallas and the pressure on James was too immense, but it wasn't for Wade who had been in this spot before and embraced the situation he was in. Wade knows to how to respond to these pressure situations because he has the right mentality going into it. Dwyane's fearless and it's led the former Finals MVP to heights that James can only wish he has reached by this point.