PG: HEAT up 3-1, BRICK IN YO FACE

[DWadeno3]

My biggest problem with Wade has been his defense.

Offensively, this is what he is. He's not fast enough to blow by people anymore, he's a very mediocre shooter, and and he isn't much of a playmaker anymore, either. His offensive game is based on posting up perimeter players and back-door cuts. Against the Nets, their perimeter players are so big that he can't really post effectively. He needs to develop a 3. Unless he does, he doesn't have much time left as an all-star quality player.

His defense has been inexcusable, though. He's constantly late getting back, his focus isn't there, and he's getting abused by Livingston. He's been just as bad defensively as Ray Allen in this series.

This is nonsense. His midrange jumper has been good this year over the course of the season, he just refuses to use it consistently and instead prefers to pump fake most of the time, which is usually a sign of injury with him because he doesn't trust his shot.
Your playmaking skills don't disappear, he's still a very good passer, he is just not aggressive. In order to create a situation, you have to pull a trigger by attacking the defense and forcing it to react. That can either be created by action off the ball, as in cuts, screens or a combination of the two or by action with the ball, as in drives or post-ups. The problem is, Wade barely attempts to drive into traffic, most likely to avoid injury. The few times he does attempt to do so, he's pulled a good trigger for our offense. I think it was game 1 when he didn't score much but was valuable by constantly putting pressure on the Nets defense for his attacks.

His athleticism has obviously declined heavily, so I agree about his quickness being gone, but Wade is crafty enough and has more than good enough ball handling skills to still get to the basket. Again, the problem is his reluctance to draw contact, as evidenced by his low amount of FT attempts.

His post-ups have actually been pretty good. He's used his body well to shield the ball, covered a good amount of ground and used his quick feet and crafty moves to get a shot off, even against taller defenders such as Livingston or Kirilenko.

I also agree about his defense being atrocious. It's one thing if you lack size, but Livingston flat out blows by him, Wade is often late on rotations and he doesn't put enough of a body on Livingston on those post-ups. I'm with you and severely disappointed in his defensive effort. I just don't consider this to be what Wade is offensively and thus am equally disappointed in his offensive play.

I'm also done with the "don't doubt Wade" notion. Even if he was to have a strong game or two, it's not enough. In order to make up for his performances so far, he'd have to play well every night from here on out, not just visibly but also statistically and most importantly on both ends of the floor, although you're gonna be more giving for a defensive lapse when he covers up for it on the other end. LeBron hasn't always been great defensively in the playoffs, but he's too good on the other end to make it much of an issue.

[NBA82]

My biggest problem with Wade has been his defense.

Offensively, this is what he is. He's not fast enough to blow by people anymore, he's a very mediocre shooter, and and he isn't much of a playmaker anymore, either. His offensive game is based on posting up perimeter players and back-door cuts. Against the Nets, their perimeter players are so big that he can't really post effectively. He needs to develop a 3. Unless he does, he doesn't have much time left as an all-star quality player.

His defense has been inexcusable, though. He's constantly late getting back, his focus isn't there, and he's getting abused by Livingston. He's been just as bad defensively as Ray Allen in this series.

This is nonsense. His midrange jumper has been good this year over the course of the season, he just refuses to use it consistently and instead prefers to pump fake most of the time, which is usually a sign of injury with him because he doesn't trust his shot.
Your playmaking skills don't disappear, he's still a very good passer, he is just not aggressive. In order to create a situation, you have to pull a trigger by attacking the defense and forcing it to react. That can either be created by action off the ball, as in cuts, screens or a combination of the two or by action with the ball, as in drives or post-ups. The problem is, Wade barely attempts to drive into traffic, most likely to avoid injury. The few times he does attempt to do so, he's pulled a good trigger for our offense. I think it was game 1 when he didn't score much but was valuable by constantly putting pressure on the Nets defense for his attacks.

His athleticism has obviously declined heavily, so I agree about his quickness being gone, but Wade is crafty enough and has more than good enough ball handling skills to still get to the basket. Again, the problem is his reluctance to draw contact, as evidenced by his low amount of FT attempts.

His post-ups have actually been pretty good. He's used his body well to shield the ball, covered a good amount of ground and used his quick feet and crafty moves to get a shot off, even against taller defenders such as Livingston or Kirilenko.

I also agree about his defense being atrocious. It's one thing if you lack size, but Livingston flat out blows by him, Wade is often late on rotations and he doesn't put enough of a body on Livingston on those post-ups. I'm with you and severely disappointed in his defensive effort. I just don't consider this to be what Wade is offensively and thus am equally disappointed in his offensive play.

I'm also done with the "don't doubt Wade" notion. Even if he was to have a strong game or two, it's not enough. In order to make up for his performances so far, he'd have to play well every night from here on out, not just visibly but also statistically and most importantly on both ends of the floor, although you're gonna be more giving for a defensive lapse when he covers up for it on the other end. LeBron hasn't always been great defensively in the playoffs, but he's too good on the other end to make it much of an issue.

I mean, you start by calling what I said nonsense, but we don't actually disagree on anything. You say he's not using his jumper or attempting to create off the dribble offensively because he's shying from contact. That's fine. I didn't even get into the "why", besides saying he's not fast enough to consistently blow by his man anymore. You seemed to agree with that. I don't necessarily buy the idea that it's got anything to do with injury. I personally think it has more to do with the fact that it takes a lot out of him to go to the rim at this point of his career. He has bursts of explosion, but he can't sustain it anymore. His conditioning also leaves a lot to be desired. But that's neither here nor there.

Whatever the reasons, the result is the same: he's not much of a shooter or play-maker these days. Percentage-wise, his mid-range game is alright, but he's not prolific enough to really turn it into a centerpiece. He made less than 100 shots from beyond 16 feet over the course of the entire regular season. And in the playoffs, it's kind of abandoned him. He's under 37% from 16+.

He's still one of the best in the NBA when he can get into the teeth of a defense. He's got great touch around the rim. But getting him into the paint is starting to become difficult. Whether it's a decision he's making or just physical limitations, when he can't get into the paint, he is really not a particularly great player. I would love to see him develop enough of a 3-point shot to at least hit wide open looks. If he could draw guys out toward the 3-point line, he could prolong his effectiveness by a great deal. Even Manu is still quick enough to get past his man when he's being chased all the way out to the 3-point arc.

[HeatNation88]

Smdh people need to stop wasting their time making useless threads

[DWadeno3]

My biggest problem with Wade has been his defense.

Offensively, this is what he is. He's not fast enough to blow by people anymore, he's a very mediocre shooter, and and he isn't much of a playmaker anymore, either. His offensive game is based on posting up perimeter players and back-door cuts. Against the Nets, their perimeter players are so big that he can't really post effectively. He needs to develop a 3. Unless he does, he doesn't have much time left as an all-star quality player.

His defense has been inexcusable, though. He's constantly late getting back, his focus isn't there, and he's getting abused by Livingston. He's been just as bad defensively as Ray Allen in this series.

This is nonsense. His midrange jumper has been good this year over the course of the season, he just refuses to use it consistently and instead prefers to pump fake most of the time, which is usually a sign of injury with him because he doesn't trust his shot.
Your playmaking skills don't disappear, he's still a very good passer, he is just not aggressive. In order to create a situation, you have to pull a trigger by attacking the defense and forcing it to react. That can either be created by action off the ball, as in cuts, screens or a combination of the two or by action with the ball, as in drives or post-ups. The problem is, Wade barely attempts to drive into traffic, most likely to avoid injury. The few times he does attempt to do so, he's pulled a good trigger for our offense. I think it was game 1 when he didn't score much but was valuable by constantly putting pressure on the Nets defense for his attacks.

His athleticism has obviously declined heavily, so I agree about his quickness being gone, but Wade is crafty enough and has more than good enough ball handling skills to still get to the basket. Again, the problem is his reluctance to draw contact, as evidenced by his low amount of FT attempts.

His post-ups have actually been pretty good. He's used his body well to shield the ball, covered a good amount of ground and used his quick feet and crafty moves to get a shot off, even against taller defenders such as Livingston or Kirilenko.

I also agree about his defense being atrocious. It's one thing if you lack size, but Livingston flat out blows by him, Wade is often late on rotations and he doesn't put enough of a body on Livingston on those post-ups. I'm with you and severely disappointed in his defensive effort. I just don't consider this to be what Wade is offensively and thus am equally disappointed in his offensive play.

I'm also done with the "don't doubt Wade" notion. Even if he was to have a strong game or two, it's not enough. In order to make up for his performances so far, he'd have to play well every night from here on out, not just visibly but also statistically and most importantly on both ends of the floor, although you're gonna be more giving for a defensive lapse when he covers up for it on the other end. LeBron hasn't always been great defensively in the playoffs, but he's too good on the other end to make it much of an issue.

I mean, you start by calling what I said nonsense, but we don't actually disagree on anything. You say he's not using his jumper or attempting to create off the dribble offensively because he's shying from contact. That's fine. I didn't even get into the "why", besides saying he's not fast enough to consistently blow by his man anymore. You seemed to agree with that. I don't necessarily buy the idea that it's got anything to do with injury. I personally think it has more to do with the fact that it takes a lot out of him to go to the rim at this point of his career. He has bursts of explosion, but he can't sustain it anymore. His conditioning also leaves a lot to be desired. But that's neither here nor there.

Whatever the reasons, the result is the same: he's not much of a shooter or play-maker these days. Percentage-wise, his mid-range game is alright, but he's not prolific enough to really turn it into a centerpiece. He made less than 100 shots from beyond 16 feet over the course of the entire regular season. And in the playoffs, it's kind of abandoned him. He's under 37% from 16+.

He's still one of the best in the NBA when he can get into the teeth of a defense. He's got great touch around the rim. But getting him into the paint is starting to become difficult. Whether it's a decision he's making or just physical limitations, when he can't get into the paint, he is really not a particularly great player. I would love to see him develop enough of a 3-point shot to at least hit wide open looks. If he could draw guys out toward the 3-point line, he could prolong his effectiveness by a great deal. Even Manu is still quick enough to get past his man when he's being chased all the way out to the 3-point arc.

The disagreement doesn't lie within the result, I simply don't believe his skills are suddenly gone, I just think he doesn't use them anymore because he's afraid to or his body fails him. I said this before the playoffs, this'll be the ultimate test for him. If 30 games of rest and a minute restriction combined with a much smaller burden can't keep him fresh and healthy for the playoffs, I doubt anything else can. You saw two games where his game looked good, where he showed off his versatile offensive game and his good defensive abilities, both happened to be game ones of the respective series. To me, that's simply a sign of his knees not holding up to the schedule of having one day off. It's the playoffs, do you really think Wade wants to play the way he's been playing or is happy with it? If he was, he wouldn't have invested all this time in working out with Grover, because I'm sure the workout regimen he put him through is anything but fun.