Sure Wade is another year older but he is only 32 and he's coming off a season where he averaged 19, 5 and 5 shooting 55% and netting a PER of 22. If you round his 4.6's and 4.7's up he has averaged 20+ points 5 rebounds and 5 assists every year of his career except his rookie season, 08 where he averaged 4.2 rebounds, and last year when he missed 20 ppg. His game has slowed and he'll always be an injury risk but being the second banana to Lebron he still averaged 20, 5 and 5 consistently. It's like people think Wade has fallen off the face of the earth when he is still capable of putting up good numbers and proves it by doing it.
A Bosh, Wade, Deng trio might not be number one in the east but there is no reason to think they won't be fighting for home court advantage come playoff time. And with their playoff experience they could easily be a ECF contender.
Wade played 49, 69 and 54 games the last 3 seasons, averaging 3 to 5 minutes less than he usually had before that, and he STILL looked physically shot at times over the last two years. That, and the fact that they lost their team leader in points, rebounds, assists and steals, is why folks doubt the heat.
Mike
Yea also "only 32" , for players with a history of injuries that are missing 15-30 games a year 32 can be a lot closer to role player than people would think. If you look at the recent history of all nba guards (last ten seasons) a lot of them really fell off a cliff around 30-32, particularly ones with injury histories. In the first group you will notice players that never really had any injuries until very late in their career (eg nash and kobe were injured at 38). The second group were players that had nagging or serious injuries, and sadly many of them knee injuries like Wade. Which group does it seem like he is going to end up in? That 4 year contract could be horrible for them.
Recent all NBA guards that aged really well from last 8 seasons(effective past 32)
Kobe
Nash
Chauncey Billups
Ray Allen
Kidd
Burnt out of the league
Tmac (last all star level season 29)
Iverson (Last all star level season 33)
Arenas (Only 32 now!)
Brandon Roy (obviously severe injuries)
Baron Davis (last all star level season 28)
Steve Francis
Michael Redd (Last all star level season 29)
Too early to tell:
Deron Williams (certainly seems like on the back night at age 30)
Chris Paul (aged 29 no sign of slowing down)