Wade's Defense

[bigkevatoz]

I am a fan of wade, but i watched the heat vs. chicago game the other day and realised he is beginning to look like a burden on defense. sefolosha and gordon were burning him on the wings all game. has this always been the case (wade did make all defensive 2nd team one year)?

[JORDANRETURNS]

YO make sure you are looking just as closely at other players defenses when you look at Wade's, even the best defenders in the NBA get scored on by guys like Gordon.

[BrooklynBulls]

Thabo just had a decent game offensively. Gordon makes Wade look like a fool routinely. Gordon would average 27 if Wade guarded him nightly. Its just a bad matchup for Wade. Thank god we've got Hinrich to guard Wade...BG on Wade would be painful.

Wade is a really good team defender. He is a below average man defender in my opinion.

[L&H_05]

He's an average on ball defender, but is a pretty good help defender..

He does tend to gamble a bit too much on the defensive end however...I can't tell you how many times I've seen him go for a passing lane steal, and his man either scores, or gets into the paint and sets up someone else off the easy dribble penetration..

[MagicFan3]

Keith Bogans, a generally good on-ball defender, got scorched for 39 points by Gordon. I wouldn't worry about it.

[10scott10]

He's an average on ball defender, but is a pretty good help defender..

He does tend to gamble a bit too much on the defensive end however...I can't tell you how many times I've seen him go for a passing lane steal, and his man either scores, or gets into the paint and sets up someone else off the easy dribble penetration..

its a problem that is really becoming common. players would rather try to get the steal and have a guy get an open shot at the basket over playing 24 second of hard defense and trying to secure the rebound. the heat have exhibit A regarding that in the case of smush parker.

[MagicFan3]

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its a problem that is really becoming common. players would rather try to get the steal and have a guy get an open shot at the basket over playing 24 second of hard defense and trying to secure the rebound. the heat have exhibit A regarding that in the case of smush parker.

It's because no one in today's NBA knows how to be patient on defense. They want to just get the ball back and play offense so much that they're willing to screw up on defense while trying to get the ball back quickly.

[BrooklynBulls]

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It's because no one in today's NBA knows how to be patient on defense. They want to just get the ball back and play offense so much that they're willing to screw up on defense while trying to get the ball back quickly.

Actually, I feel that the disallowing of hand-checking, and generally physical perimeter play has led to defenders preferring to go for the ball rather than guard the man. The man has become basically unguardable by man on man D if he's got a great first step, and it becomes the help defense's responsibility to stop him. So the man defender would rather gamble right away and hope to get back in the play if he misses.

[NetsForce]

Wade gambles a lot on defense that's what his real problem is...

[CB4MiamiHeat]

Wade is generally good...hes a decent on ball defender, but hes a great help defender, best shotblocking guard in the league, and closes out well and rotates well.

This year hes gambling a lot and rotating slow late in games...hes also struggling to get around people on offense late in games so it might have something to do with injury or fatigue or something.

[Flash is the Future]

Wade hasn't really played much D this year. He's been excused because he's still recovering from the knee surgery (which doctors told him would take 9-12 months for him to return to normal). His shoulder's fine though.

[Harry Heinous]

yea he's 'resting' more than ever on D this year. He seems to be out of shape still or just the knee thing.

[Rasheeed!!!]

it's obvious that the effort isn't there.....but, i also think it's more noticeable because the Heat have lost pretty much every player that's capable of D. It was much easier when he had GP, Eddie Jones, Posey or Mourning to cover a potential mistake. Now the only good defender is Haslem. Everyone else is below average.

[BBallFreak]

it's obvious that the effort isn't there.....but, i also think it's more noticeable because the Heat have lost pretty much every player that's capable of D. It was much easier when he had GP, Eddie Jones, Posey or Mourning to cover a potential mistake. Now the only good defender is Haslem. Everyone else is below average.

With the exception of the effort comment, you're dead on. Wade's putting in the effort, he just doesn't have the backing to do what he's best at defensively, and that is gambling. He also doesn't look right, physically. As a for instance, he's settling for the jumper much more than he ever did in the past. Far less "Did he just do that?" moments than I've ever seen from him, before. That's the knee being nto quite right yet. As was mentioned, that's to be expected.

But as you mentioned, the team is very different. Last year, we could throw any combination of GP, Eddie Jones, James Posey, Alonzo Mourning, and Udonis Haslem in their with Wade, and they were going to stop people. The year before, it was the same defensive lineup with Shandon Anderson in place of Eddie Jones. Those guys made Wade's life a hell of a lot easier. He doesn't have that luxury right now...