Miami Heat: A Healthy, Effective Dwyane Wade Is MIA For The Heat

The Miami Heat need Dwyane Wade to snap out of his recent slump, even if that means shutting himself down for a couple of weeks

It’s easy to simply point out that Dwyane Wade has been bad over the last few games. It doesn’t take a genius to point that out.

And partly, that’s because he’s not healthy. But overall, even Wade will admit that he hasn’t been himself since the NBA All-Star break.

Even though the Miami Heat are 10-5 since the All-Star break, Wade has been the only rotation player that has really struggled over that 15 game stretch. In those 15 games, Wade is shooting 39 percent from the field. He’s still averaging 20 points per game, but it’s taking him almost 17 shots to get there.

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If you know anything about efficiency, that’s not great.

Furthermore, he only has a net rating of 1.3 during that stretch. Goran Dragic, Luol Deng, Hassan Whiteside, Josh Richardson, Joe Johnson, Justise Winslow and Amar’e Stoudemire are all better in that department. No rotation player has a worse net rating than Wade during that span.

Wade has been so ineffective as of late, it’s been a fair argument to say that he shouldn’t be playing late in games. Especially with how well Richardson has been playing as of late. In the end, the Miami Heat will always ride with Wade. And that’s fair. Even if it isn’t always what’s best for the team.

For instance, during the Heat’s most recent loss, against the Charlotte Hornets, Miami needed a 3 to tie the game. There was three seconds left and, for some reason, Dwyane Wade was on the floor – and not Richardson, who has been shooting 65 percent from 3-point range in the team’s last 10 games.

Wade has not made a 3 this calendar year and is 19 percent on the season. Yet, because he was on the floor and the team’s first and second options were covered, was forced to take the 3. He, predictably, missed.

It’s one thing to struggle, but it’s an entirely different thing to hold your team back. And right now, over the last four games, that’s exactly what Dwyane Wade has been doing. During that span, he’s shooting 30 percent from the field. This is also since he was diagnosed with a “thigh bruise.”

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If Wade is hurt, it’s clearly hurting his overall game. He has no explosion, which is resulting in both his attacks to the basket and jump shot negatively.

He needs to shut it down for a while.