With All The Scorers, What’s Dwyane Wade’s Role?

Against the Phoenix Suns in their previous game, the Miami Heat had three players that scored more than 16 points and neither one of them was Dwyane Wade. Up until the Heat acquired Goran Dragic, Wade (and Chris Bosh) had been called upon to get the team a lot of buckets.

Early on, the plan worked. His legs seemed fresher, and he lost weight in the offseason in preparation for the long season.

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All good things must come to an end.

Those once-fresh legs became less fresh once he sustained hamstring injuries to both legs and sat for an extended time. He got knocked off his rhythm completely, and he hasn’t been able to recover as fast as he was able to in the beginning of the season.

I’m not sure whether he has gained a little bit of weight since being out, or whether it is simply a matter of his knees not cooperating with him, but he isn’t getting any of the lift that he was getting. Do you remember Christmas Day? When he chased a shot that he knew would be missed and tip slammed it right on the Cleveland Cavaliers? That is what I mean by fresh.

Thankfully, the Heat have taken measures to surround him with other scorers, and doing so by not just acquiring Dragic, but also picking up free agents like Tyler Johnson, Hassan Whiteside and Henry Walker (who will always be Bill to me). This has allowed Wade to try to catch his rhythm but also allows him to lay off the scoring load and really try to find his teammates.

It seems as though Dragic and Wade have switched. I thought Wade would score while Dragic would play point guard, but it is the opposite.

Wade’s passing has always been an underrated part of his game. But it is something he has always been good at. For his career he is averaging six assists per game, something that is not often spoken about. Several times in his career, he averaged seven assists per game. For a player like LeBron James, that is spoken about ad nauseam, but for Wade, he is still looked at as the scorer that he is, not as a playmaker.

In the last four games, Wade is averaging seven assists per game, making plays for other teammates, setting up people and putting them in positions to score. All of this while he is able to get his legs under him and get his own scoring up. In the last five games, Wade has shot 39 percent from the filed, which is not typical of Wade’s play.

So what does he do? He goes into playmaking mode, where he can still help his team. Sure, he is still looking to score, evidenced by his low percentage, but that takes time and rhythm.

His defense has been stepped up as well, for he is averaging 2.2 steals per game in the last five games. Three games out of the five, he snagged three steals or more. Heat fans have to like his new role.

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