Wade 'not going to be high-flying forever'

MILWAUKEE — It has been nearly one month since Dwyane Wade turned 30 years old. Though Wade is still scoring more than 20 points a game, the eight-time NBA All Star has realized that he can't do it in the way he used to.

"You've got to evolve," Wade said. "When I first came in the league, everything was (going vertical), now I've really worked on everything being (horizontal). I've really changed the directions, getting comfortable with playing below the basket because you're not going to be high-flying forever, so I'm just being smart about it.

"I've changed."

Wade is still throwing down dunks on occasion and at times looks just as he did at age 24 when Shaquille O'Neal called him "Flash" and the Miami Heat won the NBA Championship. But now, especially in a compressed 66-game season, Wade just can't do it on a nightly basis.

"I'm content with the ball just going in the rim more so than trying to make top 10 plays like I was when I was a young kid," Wade said. "The way I play, I get banged up a lot. If I'm blessed with a couple more years of athleticism, then I'll take it. But right now I don't use it all the time. I use it at certain moments."

Wade has missed 10 games already this season and his minutes are lower than at any point in his nine-year career. Wade's rebounds are also at a career low and his 22 points-per-game average is his lowest since his rookie season in 2003. However, Wade is playing alongside LeBron James for a second season, and James has helped to take a lot of the offensive pressure off of Wade.

"Even when I was still high-flying two years ago, I still saw that I needed to make a change," Wade said. "That's when I started adding certain things to my game, Euro-step, certain things that weren't all about athleticism. I knew eventually that 30, 32, 33, all that's down the line and I want to still be effective when I get up in age, so I just started making a change slowly."

Wade isn't the first high-flying player to need to make a change to his game after the age of 30. Former two-time slam-dunk champion and nightly highlight reel Jason Richardson is now 31 years old and can relate to what Wade is going through.

"Thirty is that magic number," Richardson said. "The bodies (over 30) don't jump as high and don't move as fast. But you get a little bit of what I call grown-men strength where you don't have to do the explosive moves or the quick moves. Now you can use your body and position yourself to get free throws and get fouls and get easy layups. The game does change a little bit, but you still have that explosiveness some, but not like you used to when you were young."

Richardson and Wade both said that it was at 28 years old that their legs just couldn't do what they once did.

"That's when you realize that not every day you feel like going to do a 360 or a windmill," Richardson said. "You realize that you need to find subtle ways to score and there's nothing wrong with that. Now you've got younger guys coming in, guys that are 20 years old where you used to be and now you're 10 years older than them and they're a little bit faster than you.

"You have to think the game more."

It has been the mental aspect of the game that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has noticed as the biggest improvement from Wade over the past two seasons.

"He's a more mature, much more developed player," Spoelstra said. "When he came in, he hadn't really developed a jump shot. He's developed that. He's really become one of the more efficient post-up players at his position. He's developed that in the last two or three years. He does a perfect job of taking care of his body, so even though it's been through a lot of battles, his body acts younger than its age."

While Wade's points are down and he's not finishing above the rim as frequently as he once did, it was unanimous among players and coaches that the former Marquette star is a better player now than he's ever been.

"Yeah, his game is changing, but he's getting better," Heat teammate Chris Bosh said. "He gets better day by day. Sometimes in this game you just better with age and you become smarter.

"He's still athletic and he's still quick, even if all that athleticism is declining."


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