Wade Has Spoken

[Wade's Rings]

But he tried to compare Kobe at 18 to Wade at 22. Is that a fair comparison? Totally different scenarios (draft position, player role) and one is a teenager.

Wade did have 2 more years of College experience.

[aj1987]

People still argue that Shaq deserved MVP in 2005...2006 there's no argument but that doesn't matter here... 2007 they got swept as the defending champs by Luol Deng-led Chicago Bulls in the first round, Deng completely destroyed Wade on both ends

An injured Wade, who only played because the team was making the PO's. Dude put off surgery and played. The guy who played the 2nd most minutes was James freaking Posey and the guy shot 39%. Miami's starting PG shot 25% and the backup SG shot 22%. An injured Wade put off surgery and still managed 24/5/6/1/1 on 43%.

Sure, Shaq was in MVP contention, but Wade was clearly the best player on the team and he was a beast in the first round as well.

Wade - 26/6/9/2/1 on 58% TS
Shaq - 18/9/3/1 on 50% TS

My original post was that 2016 is the first time Wade has led a team past the first round without Shaq or Lebron...which is a fact... arguing that he was the leader in his ROOKIE season while missing a quarter of the season and starting in 56 games while not leading a team in a single category (whether it's averages OR efficiency) is laughable.. he broke out in the 2nd round but wasn't the main reason his team got there.

Yeah, he didn't lead the team in a single category.

Points - 3rd
Blocks - 2nd
Steals - 1st
Assists - 1st
Rebounds - 5th
FG% - 3rd
TS% - 3rd

1st round, he was 2nd in scoring, 1st in assists, and 3rd in steals. He did while he absolutely terrible in 2 games. Minus those 2 games, Wade averaged 19/6/4 on 49%. In the 2nd round, Wade was just amazing for a rookie, who wasn't even projected to go to 10 in the draft.

It's laughable that you put Pau on the same level as a Shaq/Lebron. Shaq joined Miami as a 3-time champion as the best big man in the league

1. Shaq was still Elite in '05, but Wade was just flat out better.
2. Timmy was better than Shaq in '05. Shaq was past him prime. It was the same '00-'02 Shaq.

Pau was irrelevant in Memphis, going 0-16 in the Playoffs as the leader of those teams that actually had decent players...

Kobe without Shaq and Pau either missed the PO's or got destroyed the first round.

Also, how does one go 0-16, when they played only 3 series? Pau wasn't the leader of the team in '13. Since you're saying that the '13 Lakers team was good without Kobe, then it's must've been a great team WITH him, right?

2004 - Played the #2 seed and the defending champs with Tim Duncan. The team outside Pau shot like 40%.
2005 - Shit offense and lost to the #1 seed with the MVP.
2006 - Memphis had a shit offensive team and lost to a team that beat the defending champs Spurs and the Suns with the MVP.

Kobe led his teams to 3 straight Finals appearances and won an MVP (which Wade never did) and b2b FMVPs (which Wade also never did).

Wade in his prime never consistently had teams as good as Kobe's. Kobe from this rookie season till his 9th season had PRIME/PEAK Shaq. You think Wade with prime/peak Shaq from his rookie season would've be able to take teams to 3 straight Finals. Dude would've even won an FMVP from PEAK Shaq. Wade basically had past him prime/washed up Shaq for 2 good seasons and LeBron for 3 years of his prime. If you consider '13 to be the last season of his prime, Wade had good teams for 5/10 seasons of his prime. Kobe, as I said, had PRIME Shaq for 8 straight years.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

If Wade remained healthy, the debate between he and Kobe ALL TIME would be interesting.

Dwyane plays such a smart and efficient style of basketball. Very cerebral and high iq.