Dwyane Wade and the Finals

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Heat superstar shooting guard, Dwyane Wade has made the NBA Finals twice in his 8-year NBA career now. His first time in the finals, Wade was mighty impressive. Wade won the Finals for the Miami Heat that season and was named the NBA Finals MVP. In 2006, Wade led a group of over-the-hill Heat players to a championship against the Dallas Mavericks. In 2011, after dealing with some injuries and some lackluster rosters, (we’re looking at you Smush Parker), Wade made his return to the promised land, once again, against the Mavericks of Dallas. This time, he made it there with the help of some friends, Lebron James and Chris Bosh. The Heat were poised to win the championship again. Wade was once again very impressive until Game 6. In that game, Wade suffered a hip injury and did not look the same in the series again. Here is a look at Wade’s stats in those two series:

Player	Year	PPG	RPG	APG	FG%	PER
Dwyane Wade	2006	34.7	7.8	3.8	46.8	33.8
Dwyane Wade	2011	26.5	7.0	5.2	54.6	30.2

Impressive stats by a very impressive player. In fact, Wade has two of the top ten performances rated by PER in Finals history. Here is a look at that list performances since the merger go, from 1 to 50:

Name	Team	Year	PPG	RPG	APG	FG%	PER
Dwyane Wade	Mia	2006	34.7	7.8	3.8	46.8	33.8
Tim Duncan	SA	2003	24.2	17.0	5.3	49.5	32.0
Michael Jordan	Chi	1991	31.2	6.6	11.4	55.8	31.5
Shaquille O’Neal	LAL	2002	36.3	12.3	3.8	59.5	31.4
Shaquille O’Neal	LAL	2000	38.0	16.7	2.3	61.1	31.1
Michael Jordan	Chi	1998	33.5	4.0	2.3	42.7	30.8
Tim Duncan	SA	1999	27.4	14.0	2.4	53.7	30.7
Dwyane Wade	Mia	2011	26.5	7.0	5.2	54.6	30.2
Michael Jordan	Chi	1997	32.3	7.0	6.0	45.6	29.5
Shaquille O’Neal	LAL	2001	33.0	15.8	4.8	57.3	29.4

Dwyane Wade joins a very impressive group that most around the NBA would call the elite and sure-fire Hall-of-Famers.

Wade may only be 1-1 in the Finals in his career, but his team can’t blame him for that one loss. He was as impressive as anyone in NBA history in that last Finals. With his current Miami Heat team, Wade will have plenty off opportunities to build those stats. Hopefully we can see improvement from his teammate Lebron James, or the Heat won’t be hosting any parades in Miami any time soon.