Woj announces Wade close to committing to Cleveland. Shocker.
Yeah not, but it's interesting to think about that team. I think Wade is underrated by some people. Dude can still play.
I think Wade and LeBron can hold the ship ball handling for sure until IT comes back too. With IT that is extremely dangerous to have to cover those three guys.
Wade isn't dangerous anymore. You don't really have to cover Wade except man-to-man and he's a subpar on defense.
Wade is an exceptionally inefficient volume shooter. 18.3 ppg on 15.9 attempts is awful. His eFG the past 3 years is .483, .459 and .457. That is terrible. His saving grace has been his ability to get to the line. At the peak of his career he averaged about 10 FTA per game. His numbers the last 3 years are 6.0, 5.5 and 4.7. Even that part of his game is failing him. He can't shoot the 3 (28% for his career, 31% last year).
Because Wade can't hit the 3, defenders can sag on him a bit. He's 6'4" and doesn't have the hops anymore to get over people. He doesn't get by them very well either as his quickness has faded. He doesn't get bailed out by the refs anymore. Wade is more reputation than game now. He's not entirely useless (aka Paul Pierce last year) but he's nothing you have to defensively plan for anymore.
What you don't consider with any of your stats is his situation, carrying two bad teams. He's never been a shooter and he can shoot volume, but someone had to shoot volume on those teams. Do you know when Wade had the best eFG%'s of his career? When he was playing on great teams with LeBron.
He is still a great passer and as a 3rd or 4th even option he does wreck gameplans working off those other players.
Notice your 3 point criticism is something Dwayne Wade has never had, yet he is one of the best SGs to ever play basketball. I think he can do without that now too. Of course, he can't be the same without his athleticism and youth, but he can still play.
I am not saying he is a star player. I have seen other people talking like Wade can't play and they are wrong. He helps Cleveland for sure.
You plan defensively for Wade like you plan for any number of players. In fact, the Celtics strategy is usually to let LeBron have his more and cover the other guys, so Wade will be gameplanned for.
How in the world was he "carrying" the Bulls last year? Butler was there best player by a mile. They weren't exactly bad either as they did make the playoffs (obviously not a title contender but people usually mean more like the Orlando magic when they are talking about carrying a bad team). The year before the definition of bad team is even more strange. That Heat team went 48-34 and had Whiteside, Dragic, a still effective Joe Johnson and Deng and Wade along with some ok bench players. Wade was 5th on that team in minutes played and actually even averaged a smidge less points than Bosh in the 53 games Bosh played. This is dramatically misusing the phrase "carrying a bad team."
Okay, you don't agree with my phrasing, and I should not have said that Heat team was bad.
Someone has to carry the offensive load for these teams. Offense does not generate itself, and guys who can't make a play don't make plays. The Bulls have, besides Butler, Wade, and Rondo, basically not a single player who can do that. So Wade has to take shots and have the ball and make plays. When Butler was on the bench, Wade was carrying the load for the team on the floor.
The Heat team you mention had Dragic but not another of those guys ever creates offense, if not is actually kind of bad on offense.
If the team around that guy isn't good at all, that goes into your analysis if you want to actually get a look at things. And so should what a player is asked to do.
Early Brad Stevens years, Avery Bradley was asked to carry that load for this Celtics team and he didn't look good doing it and he was a volume shooter. But he was the guy who could come off screens and get the shots how a Wade does,and that HAS to happen on a team. Later, when you ask Avery to do less alongside IT and Horford, two guys who pass and make plays, he plays better and looks better. That's the kind of thing I am talking about.
I'm not saying Wade is still a star but you have to consider these things with him and especially how he fits going into a better team, where he is asked to do way less. A team with LeBron is quite a bit different than a Heat team with Dragic that went nowhere.