Miami Heat: Should Dwyane Wade Focus Less On Defense?

I saw an interesting article a few days ago from SB Nation’s Tom Ziller that focused on one-dimensional players, most notably James Harden. The Houston Rockets star is widely considered the top shooting guard in the NBA. He’s an All-Star, an Olympic gold medalist and an offensive virtuoso; but his deficiencies on the defensive end are well known.

The articles premise was that, in a league filled with many players that are effective in only one area, why can’t players like Harden be appreciated for what they do well?

Dwyane Wade, meanwhile, is a player in decline. While still considered one of the top guards in the league, his health has been a well-documented problem. Wade was limited to only 54 regular-season games last season. His many absences caused some friction with former teammate LeBron James and may have been a factor in sending James back to Cleveland.

Wade is still a major factor offensively. Even on a team that featured James and Chris Bosh, the 32-year-old Wade set a career-high in field-goal percentage (.545), and averaged 19 points and 4.7 assists per game. His offensive repertoire appears limited but that’s simply a by-product of consistency over his 11-year career. He continues doing – at least offensively – what he’s always done well; creating his own shot, finding ways to slip past defenders and, in 1-on-1 situations, able to hit his mid-range jumper or draw a foul with his patented up-fake maneuver.

Allowing for the presence of James and Bosh (and subsequent impact on shot selection), here are Wade’s shot charts over the last four seasons of Miami’s “Big 3” era, courtesy of Nylon Calculus:

The consistency is evident and, given James’ departure and Wade’s career-long troubles from 3-point range (under 29 percent, historically poor for someone with as many shot attempts – 1,211 – in his career) this isn’t likely to change.

But his defensive struggles are another matter.

He had a defensive rating of 106 last year – Wade’s second-lowest mark ever – while also setting career-lows in steals (57) and blocks (29). His season-long “maintenance program” was designed to help Wade take time off during the regular season in the hopes that he would be more effective in the postseason. However, video evidence shows that Wade’s defensive struggles were only magnified during the NBA Finals:

At issue here is why Wade’s slippage is such a problem, given Ziller’s valid point that many players are appreciated despite being one-dimensional. The overall feeling is that Wade is held to an unusually-high standard that he helped set; his early career featured dynamic athleticism both offensively and defensively.

More from Miami Heat

• 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Report: Miami Heat hoping to keep key player out of Lillard trade talks
• Grade the Trade: The Heat pass on Lillard to land an MVP in this proposal
• NBA Rumors: Heat have big plans to upgrade frontcourt if they land Lillard

It is, perhaps, what truly defines how some view players as “superstars,” for their complete impact. Wade had an overall effect that was measurable on both sides of the game, and that placed him among other historically great shooting guards like

and

. Harden, for all his offensive mastery, has never had that same impact.

Perhaps Wade should focus only on what he does well and force us to ask the question no one wants to pose; with his defensive skills in obvious decline, can he take the same approach to defense as Harden?

The answer is clear when you realize that Houston has something Miami doesn’t, namely an elite shot-blocker in the form of Dwight Howard. The Rockets center (along with Omer Asik, now with New Orleans) could make up for Harden’s frequent failures to come off screens or stay in front of his man.

Rather, Wade was a part of a swirling defense-to-offense system, sometimes referred to as the “Flying Death Machine.” It was what worked when you have no Howard-type player and versatile defenders like Wade, James and Bosh that could swarm a ball-handler, force a turnover and lead to a fast break opportunity within seconds. A major part of the Machine is now in Cleveland and Wade, a significant cog, might be worn beyond repair.

Unless Heat president Pat Riley acquires an elite rim protector – say, Roy Hibbert – Wade must continue to provide what defense he can, hoping that new parts to the roster like Luol Deng and Josh McRoberts can make up for his declining skills.

Miami needs a team-wide effort on defense and Wade’s contributions on that end, although declining, are still essential.

Ultimately, even a significantly worse version of Dwyane Wade – like the one seen in the Finals – is still better defensively than Harden and other one-dimensional scorers in the NBA.