As a long time Dwyane Wade fan, the last few weeks have been very uncomfortable. There are just so many questions that I have no answers too. Watching Wade throughout this season has been a roller coaster.
In some ways he has added to his legacy this year, shooting an outrageous 55% from the field and being a star on a team who made it to their 4th straight finals. In other ways he has shown more of his age than ever before, clearly unable to play at a high level every night of the NBA season. Through the playoffs, Wade looked very good in patches, again being very efficient and making huge plays on both ends. He also had a strong start to the finals. He then faded quickly over the last three games, showing the state of his body and also state of his mind. He’s simply missed too many games and hasn’t taken enough shots over the past year to maintain his very important level on confidence.
This heat roster, Wade being the prime case, looked far worse in the Spurs series than they probably are. Coming up against a hungry, ready force like the 2014 spurs would have been very tough. On the back of three straight finals appearances, and with a team so reliant on players at the very end of their careers, the heat simply didn’t have the energy to play with the spurs, and they knew it. I cant imagine how hard it would be mentally to play with a high level on energy and commitment when your opponent is running an almostperfect offence and not missing any shots in doing it. There were many times throughout the series when the heat simply didn’t work hard enough, or weren’t able to contest the shots that they had easily contested in the previous three years. Even when they did play adequate defense, the spurs hit the shots anyway. This made the heat look so much worse than they probably deserved to look. The spurs were the worst possible team to come up against, and they took full advantage of the heats deficiencies. Also, a team like Miami thrive off missed shots and getting out in transition. Its very hard to do that when your opposition literally never misses a shot. The boys were flat, deflated, exhausted, and outmatched, Wade included. By the end of the series Wade could not play the defense required, and on the other he consistently beat his man off the dribble (often spectacularly) but then almost never attempted to finish at the rim. His confidence and energy were shot. Wade constantly and effectively made outrageous passes to wide open perimeter shooters, who missed every time. Chalmers, Cole, Battier etc were awful, and Wade couldn’t simply go into top 20 all time mode anymore. That season is over.
So as a Wade fan, what do I want to happen now? As a fan who likes seeing him win championships, the ideal situation this off season is obvious. Wade follows Lebrons lead in opting out, and the signs a new 3 or 4 year deal worth less per year allowing the heat to retool. Wade could still be paid respectfully, but allow the team to add depth of which the heat had literally none of for most of the season. The perfect comparison here is Tim Duncan ,who in my mind has become the all time great franchise player. In 2012, Duncan had 4 rings, multiple MVPs and a top 10 NBA career. If Duncan had asked the Spurs for a max deal to see him out, he would have earned it,though it would have prevented the Spurs from filling out their roster withquality role players as they have now. Instead Duncan took a 3 year deal worth around 10 million per year. Still an amount that aligned with his worth in terms of production, but not a deal that handcuffed his team financially.
On the other hand Kobe was in a similar position last year, coming off a majorinjury after a very productive, but in no way elite season. Kobe decided totake a 2 year deal worth roughly 24 million per year. Again, Kobe had earned this pay day after all he has done during his great career for the Lakers. Even though his current production did not warrant anywhere near that money, hiscareer had justified giving Kobe whatever he asked for. The issue here is that Kobe has long said that his only motivation to keep playing is to win championships. By signing that contract, Kobe signed away any chance he had of achieving that dream, and he knew it. So now the narrative quite tragicallygoes, that Kobe has been let down by the Laker front office for not surrounding him with quality teammates, while Tim Duncan is lucky to continue to play with great team mates. The truth is that both of these players sealed their fatewhen they signed these last contracts. This brings us back to Wade. Wade could easily decide to opt in to his current deal, and earn just over 20 million for the next 2 years. This would leave him at age 35 with 3 rings, and a top 20 NBA career.
Nothing to sneeze at and he has earned the right to do this. If this is his decision, I will be disappointed that Wades championship window has closed, but not angry. The media of course will go after Wade as they often seem to do. While Kobe was signing an extension, Wade would simply be playing out his current deal, and should not be heavily criticized for it. If he wants to win however, he will opt out and sign or more Duncanesque deal. I think that Wade probably will do the winning thing over the money thing, but I cant be sure. I would not be surprised if Wade already knows his plan, and knows exactly how things will go from here. Theres no way that he, LeBron , Riley and Co haven’t already discussed this in detail. Wade is probably waiting it out, letting the world talk about him as he has always liked the attention (so does every other player in the L, Durant and Rose included).
This whole thing is just very uncomfortable, rooting for your boy to accept that hes not as good as he used to be. Im not ready for this heat team to stop competing for rings, although Im not the one who has to give up 10 million a year. Of course the average NBA fan can just move on, find a new guy, treat their old favorite like that Great Aunt with dementia that you have stopped talking about. But I cant, even at this point he's still worth watching for the chance that he will fake right, go left while splitting the double team, gather with two strides going opposite directions and then finish at the rim. It still happens sometimes, but not as much as I would like.
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