Former Heat teammate reminds everyone how good Dwyane Wade was

Unless the public refreshes its mind with old tapes of the past, it could forget the potency of a past great. Memory sometimes isn’t enough and is deceiving. As far as Miami Heat fans go, they luckily have Michael Beasley to remind them about Dwyane Wade at the peak of his powers. On top of that, his story may serve as a blueprint for how young players must take everything one step at a time.

Beasley had two short stints with the Heat, including his most famous one in which he went along for the “D-Wade show” as a rookie, he explained on the Run Your Race podcast.

“You’re talking about [the] Finals MVP. Motherf- was on the team with Shaq and took over. Really can’t tell that Motherf- nothing. I just watched half the games, dog…”

Wade was an acrobatic assassin who averaged 30.2 points per game on a 57.4 true shooting percentage in 2008-09, winning the scoring crown. He was so good that Beasley hilariously said that Wade was the first person he thought was better than himself.

That was also the year the Heat lost in seven games in round one to the Atlanta Hawks. The next scoring option after Wade was Jermaine O'Neal, who averaged 15.8 fewer points. They managed to counter after getting wasted in Game 1 by 26 points, then taking a 2-1 lead, before losing the next two, saving face at home in Game 6 and running out of gas in the series finale.

The Heat focus on player development more than before, and coach Erik Spoelstra has evolved since he was a rookie lead in Beasley’s first season, but one thing that hasn’t changed much is how they don’t expect too much of first-years, unless they’re Wade. Beasley said he wasn’t able to “take the keys and f— the car up,” because Wade was driving, Pat Riley was in the passenger seat, Spoelstra and Udonis Haslem were in the backseat, O’Neal was somewhere in the ride, and he was in the trunk.

Eventually, Haslem was the one to sacrifice as Beasley became a starter in his second season, also the end of his first stint with the team as he got benched in the Game 5 (2010) loss to the Boston Celtics. Wade later said he needed help and the rest is history.

The public is seeing this formula work in real time with Kel’el Ware. He is still a work in progress on defense with massive potential and is leading the Heat in double-doubles this season (9). Consistently coming out with extra force has gotten him more opportunities, but he would still be the guy compared to Beasley in team status, by rolling in the trunk.

Beasley isn’t fazed about his start. He points to his Per 36 stats because they “measure up with all the max players.”