Healthy Wade rediscovers his scoring prowess
Instead of relying on floater, veteran Miami star is feeling comfortable taking it to hoop
“I’m learning this new body right now and trying to figure it out.” DWYANE WADE HEAT GUARD
MIAMI— The floater had become his salvation, a means to a scoring end amid the uncertainty of whether a finish at the rim was even possible. Dwyane Wade grew comfortable with the move.
Then came a revelation, that the burst was back this season, that there no longer was a need to stop short of the ultimate goal. That, too, required an adjustment.
To say Wade finds himself in a better place is an understatement.
“A few years ago, I stopped going all the way. I really used my floater,” he said. “And I don’t really even have to use it as much as I’ve probably shot it this year. I probably can get closer to the basket.”
No, he is not getting any younger, noting, “I’m turning 34 this month.” But he is feeling better, better than he has in years, still without a game missed due to injury this season.
Because he is in a better place than perhaps even he anticipated, he said it has required a reassessment of his approach.
“I kind of had to play a certain way because of the bone bruise and everything I had on my knee, the pain I was dealing with,” he said of his play in recent years. “But once all that subsided, I was able to kind of make the moves and do the things I wanted to do. Obviously it’s a different scale.
“I still can do certain things at certain times. But it’s just about picking those pockets and doing those. But I feel pretty good.”
Some of Wade’s most athletic play has come over the past week. He was asked whether the recent results have been a revelation.
“It’s funny, because at times I had to even let myself know that I still can,” he said. “Sometimes I revert to just playing a certain way because I’ve played that way for a few years. And sometimes, I have to let myself know that, ‘You know what, I can go down here and finish’ and stuff like that.
“So, to me, it’s even moments where it has to click back to me that I don’t want to throw my body down there but I can go down there and get all the way to the basket.”
In an odd way, sustained health has forced Wade to recalibrate.
“I’m healthier than I was, than I have been,” he said. “But it makes the game a lot different for me. And I’m learning this new body right now and trying to figure it out.”
It is a freedom that had been lost for an extended period.
“It is a lot better mentally to be able to play that way,” he said of no longer taking constant measure of his wellness.
“It’s very taxing mentally when you have to play through pain, when every movement is painful. It’s very, very taxing. But when it’s not, you can just play basketball and it’s the joys of the game.”
It’s not that he expects to get back to where he was during the 2006 NBA Finals against the Mavericks, when the brilliance was enduring. But there is a comfort that such moments again are attainable.
“Out of the 31 games this year, the 30 I’ve played in, they haven’t all been amazing,” he said. “But I’ve enjoyed ’em from the standpoint of just being able to be physical and do the things that I want to do on the floor.”
The latest statement was playing through a bruised left hip in Tuesday’s overtime loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
“I want to be available every night,” he said, his lone absence coming when his youngest son was ill. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen. But I’m conscious of it to myself, that if I’m able to play and I’m not hurting myself even more, I’m going to get out there on the floor.”