Should Dwyane Wade shoot more three-pointers next season?

Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade was red hot from beyond the arc this postseason, so should he shoot more three-pointers next season?

The Miami Heat have discovered a lot this past season.

(Like that it is possible to be successful without LeBron James…)

They realized that just because a player is overlooked by other teams in the NBA draft, does not mean you should do the same: Justise Winslow, case in point.

They figured out that some guys like Goran Dragic will not make a big to-do about re-signing to a team, even if said team’s president does wake him up in the middle of the night to do so.

They were hit with the reality of sometimes needing to let go of Heat Nation favorites, as in the case of Mario Chalmers.

They learned that unfortunately, you cannot always plan for the worst, like when Chris Bosh suffered from another blood clot.

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But the postseason was also full of lessons too…the biggest of which was probably that Dwyane Wade can actually hit three-point shots.

There is no disputing that the 34-year-old will go down as one of the best scorers in the game. Over 12 years, Wade has averaged 23.7 points a contest, on 48.8 percent shooting from the field. But what has not been a strong point is his shooting from beyond-the-arc: the guard has only shot a measly 28.4 percent.

However, Wade surprised everyone during this year’s playoffs, when he went on a three-point shooting streak. Although during the regular season Wade only shot 7-of-44, he ended up going 12-for-23 during the postseason. That means he shot a whopping 52.2 percent in 14 playoff games, compared to 15.9 percent in the first 82 games.

Wade was as surprised as the media and fans were. “Listen, trust me, I know — I don’t know, man,” Wade told the Palm Beach Post, trying to make sense of what was going on.

Sadly, the streak could not continue for too much longer, as the Heat fell short to the Toronto Raptors in seven games and missed out on the Eastern Conference Finals by one game. But it was certainly something.

So now the question is, should the veteran try and make three-pointers part of his game?

There could be an argument made for both yes and no.

On the one hand, it’s hard to teach old dogs new tricks. And with Wade being as established as he is by this point, it may not be the best idea to try and switch things up on him. If he starts concentrating on perfecting a new skill, he could potentially lose sight of what he is really good at.

Not to mention that so far his track record from the three-point line is not exactly working in his favor. In 2014-15, it seemed as though Wade tried to fill the scoring void James left behind, having shot 102 three’s. But, unfortunately, he only made 29 of them, or 28.4 percent.

On the other hand, Wade was not so terrible from downtown early on in his career. Or at the very least, he did not shy away from trying. In 2008-09, he made 88-of-278, for 31.7 percent. Likewise, in 2009-10, he went 73-for-273, or 30.0 percent. He even went out on a limb the next year, when the Big Three first formed, shooting 63-for-206, at 30.6 percent.

Right now, Miami is struggling in the three-point department. Although the organization tried to bring on guys like Gerald Green and Joe Johnson to fix the problem, things did not exactly work out as planned. While Green proved to be quite inconsistent, Johnson was totally cold in the playoffs; the forward went 0-of-13 in the first four games against the Raptors.

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It seems reasonable that Wade would just stick to what has already made him a Hall-of-Famer, but that doesn’t mean he cannot be a little more confident in his three-pointer. He won’t and doesn’t need to be Steph Curry, but just enough to make the defense respect it. Enough to help space out the offense, and enough to take his shots in big moments.

Obviously something was working for him in the playoffs and, who knows? Maybe the trend will continue into next season.