Luke

Easily the most difficult superstar to project going into next season. We have all seen him play at a remarkably high level for the majority of his career, but last year was absolutely a let down. People focus on his playoff shortcomings but the reality is that he was mediocre (by his very high standards) all year long. This could be a result of a variety of things; injuries, condensed schedule, age etc.

My question is: will Wade return to his old form or is this the natural progression of a reckless player that has taken a major beating in the last near decade?

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Formerly VanillaPrice

23AJ

It' all boils down to health. Clearly Wade was hampered all season and post season with a bum knee. Quite remarkable really he was able to sustain the level he did all things considered. If Wades surgery is a success and his knee holds up all season, he should be back to his old form. If not, we could see another year of Wade battling injuries. And that would obviously give Ray Allen a much bigger role for the Heat.

E.H. Munro

That depends on his offseason "training regimen".

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Dynasty Raider

Dwayne had a ton of REAL personal issues last year. *He came into training late because of his court/legal matters to obtain full custody of his boys. *Then, the crazy "ex" continued to stress him throughout the year by keeping the boys longer than she should have them during visitation and then purposely hiding the boys during the Finals; *stressing him to the point where he had to get a relative to search for her to get the boys.

Now that he has had surgery, he should be much better. Although, he is aging and has done a lot to his body physically, he can't return to the Dwayne that took the Heat to the Finals before LeBron arrived.

R-Star

Ha. I agree 100%


I love the guys giving him excuses though. Dwyane Wade has dealt with nothing other athletes haven't already. And nothing he did last year was impressive.

I fully expect Wade to Penny the rest of his career.

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Dee-Zy

It will also depend a lot on his shooting. We saw how Kobe and Allen were able to play long into their career by keeping their body fit and developing a killer shot. If Wade's shot improves, he won't have to take as much beating driving to the hole.

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Champions.

23AJ

Now Ray Allen will be his teammate, not a bad older vet to have around to show these guys the kind of work he's put in to help develop and sustain the prettiest jump shot in NBA history.

Luke

I think it's somewhere in the middle. I think peak Wade as we knew him is gone. He's lost a step athletically and the injuries are clearly starting to get to him. That being said, he's crafty and talented enough to be able to sustain a top ten player in the league status for at least another season or two.

I do think that Bosh is going to have to assume more of a second option mentality sooner rather than later though.

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Formerly VanillaPrice

Diable

He could miss the entire regular season and it wouldn't really hurt the Heat that much. They can't afford for him to repeat last season's playoff performance though. They need to make sure he's healthy when it matters. Hard to see his game aging well at this point. He doesn't do much that isn't predicated on his athleticism and that's not good at his age and mileage.

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mwlegend

I've seen countless idiots predict this guy's demise for years now. First it was in 2005 after the injuries in the ECF. Then in 2007, when he was having an MVP caliber season and messed his shoulder up. Then messed his knee up the next season, only to come back that summer in the Olympics and in 2009, as strong as ever ... individually in 2009 was probably the leagues BEST player.

In 2011, he beasted, and if it wasn't for his hip flexor in the Finals ... was EASILY the best player on the floor by a large margin. Then in 2012, he plays hurt, takes a deliberate backseat to LeBron to boost his self esteem ... and still puts up what? 24 / 5 / 5? And with a summer of rest all of a sudden he's a bum? He's still the best or at worst 2nd best SG in the entire league. Haters keep hating.

R-Star

Keep hating?

I'll only keep hating if you promise to keep dick riding this hard.

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R-Star

Awwww. You banned him?

Dwyane haters!

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hobojoe

I don't know what will happen, but for the Heat to repeat this year I think the transition from Wade to Bosh as the second option needs to happen. Wade will show his flashes of brilliance this year, but probably just as often he'll show that he's a shell of his former self and a detriment to the team when he tries to "take over".

E.H. Munro

It's been this way for a couple of years, in the playoffs opponents try to get Wade to "take over" games because that represents their best chance at winning. He's never been a great shooter, but if he can learn to be a third option and run off double and triple screens he should get enough mid range jumpers to hold up as a third option. But the question with Wade is whether his ego will let him do that. Last year the injuries took that choice away from him. And the Heat won as a result.

__________________
If everyone loves you you're doing it wrong.

"Opium is the religion of the masses." Fred Reed

The Power of 99 Press

"He thinks it's going to be fun being governor. It's only fun being governor of New York if you have money to spend, and I spent it all." Nelson Rockefeller on his successor, Hugh Carey.

Luke

I hate it when people say that Wade was the best player in the world in 2009. LeBron was very clearly better than him in the regular season and Kobe responded after a mediocre (by his standards) regular season with an incredible playoff run. Overall they both absolutely had more impressive campaigns.

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Formerly VanillaPrice