Wade needs to be shut down

[hra8700]

He just doesn't look himself right now. His knees are sore, his shooting efficiency is way down, his turnovers are way down, and the team is doing worse when he's on the court than when he's off.

Skipping back to backs isn't enough. Shut him down for a month if need be. His health is the key to not only a championship this year but retaining Lebron down the road. Not sure what the Heat are thinking here, they have been impressively cavalier with Wade's health the last few years. This isn't a team barely trying to scrape into the playoffs that needs to win as many regular season games as possible. We have plenty of depth and will do just fine with Wade out of the lineup in the short term.

[toneoz]

Have you watched ANY games outside of Saturdays?

.533
.474
.591
.500
.571
.500
.143

Those are Wade's Field Goal % from the Washington game down to Charlotte.

Wade's mid range game has been great the last couple games.
Shutting down Wade would just force more of a work load on LeBron. It's the first month of the season. CHILLLL

[hra8700]

If you take into account free throws and threes, his "true shooting percentage" on the season is 52% (57% last year), his turnovers are up almost 1 per 36 minutes, and he's shooting less (about 2 less attempts per 36 minutes than last year). His offensive rating the previous 5 years (115, 113, 114, 112, 112). This year: 97. It is a small sample, and if his knees weren't clearly sore, I might not have thought anything of it.

But this isn't about his performance, it's the fact that his knees are sore AFTER games. The problem last year and the year before in the playoffs was that wade was playing through injuries in the second half of the season. He needs to be fully healed before he plays. If he plays through this injury the entire season, he's not going to heal.

The moment I read (after the first game) that he was not fully healed and is being held out of back to backs, I thought he should be shut down. Once I saw his performance has been CONSISTENTLY down this entire season, it confirmed my thoughts. Once he had to leave the last game due to soreness, I think it's ridiculous to keep playing him. Very short sighted.

[toneoz]

You need to come to a realization that this is who Dwyane Wade is now. a 31 year old who spent the first half of his career completely ignoring his health by his style of play. Shutting him down and moving on without him will put the lid on the Big 3. Wade is part of the every day equation towards success. Sore knees & all.

[Heat fan06]

He looked fine vs Clippers and mavs

[toneoz]

You're proposing shutting down a player who TS% is 52%.
What do you expect from Wade? I just don't understand the expectations.
He's playing just under an elite level and that's not good enough for you?
That's not good enough for this team? How would this team react without Wade for a month? How will Wade get his legs under him a month after being shut down?
He's getting healthier by PLAYING basketball. He had a whole off season off. Another month will not change ANYTHING.

[RexBoyWonder]

OP needs to be shut down.

[MisterHibachi]

Clearly Wade is not going back to MVP-candidate Wade. That said, he's playing fine right now. I don't think he should play back to backs, he clearly doesn't have the legs, especially at this point in the season. But, if you watch him in other games, he's been playing fine. His midrange is on point and he's running the offense fine with LeBron on the bench. He just needs to camp out in the post now, no great need for bursts of speed or quick changes of direction down there.

No way should we shut him down completely; back to backs, I agree with and I'm sure he wouldn't have played last game if Mario and Ray were available.

[Chosen01]

Before the Charlotte game Wade was averaging 18 5 5.5 54%TS 2.5spg(career high). Stop the knee jerking, anyone who has watched Wade for his who career knows he almost ALWAYS starts slow then by mid-season looks into great form where he plays like a top 2-3 player.

Remember how LeBron was so "passive" or "guys I don't think he's gonna win MVP this year" and now he's averaging 27 on incredibly stupid efficient numbers? Yea.. patience my friend.

[Gwynplaine]

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..... I don't even....

[aquaadverse]

Pretty sure they wouldn't be playing him if he was in danger of getting worse or if the answer to his issues was complete rest. He's trying to build up his legs by playing and resting.

[Js2k0516]

I actually agree with the op. Not necessarily shut him down though.

On back to backs he shouldn't play or atleast cut his minutes significantly. If we are playing bobcats first then pacers next day you play him small spurts the first game, regular minutes for the tougher opponent.

I would be ok with him being shut down vs most of the below avg teams like bucs, cavs, celtics etc etc.

Wade needs to be 100% by playoffs. For us to win.

[Ratchet_Rio]

It seems most of you want the play scared approach. If recent history has showed us anything its that it doesnt matter what Wade's status is before the playoffs he'll likely get hurt/banged up anyway.

[Smash3]

At this point there´s no such thing as a healthy Dwyane Wade you´ll see stretches where he plays without pain but at the end of the day this is what it is. If the training staff want´s to keep him out of back to backs for the first part of the season fine, but I doubt he is going to be healthy before the playoffs, it´s still going to be an uphill battle against his knees in May.

Don´t delude yourself into thinking that shutting him down for a month will return him to vintage form. This is something that´s going to linger for the rest of his career.

[DWadeno3]

Pretty sure they wouldn't be playing him if he was in danger of getting worse or if the answer to his issues was complete rest. He's trying to build up his legs by playing and resting.

But they did let him play through a bone bruise last year and it only made things worse.

I don't agree with the OP about shutting him down though because I don't see the point in it. He was basically shut down half of the summer, where he was ordered just to rest. He then allegedly reported to camp in the shape of his life, yet has only had one good game so far this season. Him being passive is usually a sign of him not feeling his legs. When he only took 7 shots against Milwaukee, I knew something was up. Now on this team, he doesn't have to score much every single night for us to win, but he needs to be one of the trigger guys, especially when LeBron isn't on the court, to initiate our offense.

The thing is, I don't know what's gonna help at this point. It just seems like his knees are permanently f***ed and he'll head down the Vince Carter road pretty quickly.

[aquaadverse]

Pretty sure they wouldn't be playing him if he was in danger of getting worse or if the answer to his issues was complete rest. He's trying to build up his legs by playing and resting.

But they did let him play through a bone bruise last year and it only made things worse.

The difference is the cure for the bone bruises is a month or so of rest, which wasn't an option at the time and it didn't cause any structural damage. He had 3 bones bruises and it was the last one that really did him in. If it happened in November they would give him the time off.

[Js2k0516]

It's sad that it has come to this for wade. Don't go m wrong he is still a great efficient player when he is healthy.

But I hope he takes a MASSIVE pay cut this off season.

I'm talking 7-9 mil level.

[hra8700]

To the people that say this is just who wade is now or the people that say he isn't having problems, here is his quote from before the start of the season:

""I'm getting better every day," Wade said. "But I'm not where I want to be. When the season starts, I won't be where I want to be. But as the season goes on, I'll get stronger and stronger and better.""

It's clear this is a health issue. He has tendinitis, this is not because of the bone bruises from last playoffs (which he had for months leading up to the playoffs but continued to play deep into the regular season despite a high seed being all but guaranteed; he continued to cause damage and got worse and worse). This is tendinitis, and 2 months off in the summer will not make it go away. Rafael Nadal took 7 months off for his tendinitis, and returned playing the best tennis of career (rather than hobbling through the season as per usual). Sure he can play through it, he will improve slowly, but the best way to treat this for now and the long-term is to shut him down for as long as it takes. Even without Wade the Heat will at worse be the 2 seed in the East. It's worth it for a healthy Wade come playoff time.

This is not an overreaction on my part because of a few games. I've thought for a while now that Wade needs to be shut down for an extensive period of time to get him back. The fact that he continues to suffer from his knee problems is just further evidence.

[DWadeno3]

It's sad that it has come to this for wade. Don't go m wrong he is still a great efficient player when he is healthy.

But I hope he takes a MASSIVE pay cut this off season.

I'm talking 7-9 mil level.

I'm on Wade too but this figure is flat out disrespectful.

[Smash3]

It's sad that it has come to this for wade. Don't go m wrong he is still a great efficient player when he is healthy.

But I hope he takes a MASSIVE pay cut this off season.

I'm talking 7-9 mil level.

Oh wait you were serious?