Miami Heat: Dwyane Wade Comps – Victor Oladipo, Anthony Edwards, And Donovan Mitchell
Victor Oladipo is one of those players that could fit in each of the categories. He looked up to Wade as a kid, was mentored by him, and currently plays in the same arena the legend dubbed his house.
"“It was easy just to try to mold my game like his and compare the two because he was someone I could relate to. He was a 6-4 guard in the NBA, and that’s what I wanted to be,” Victor Oladipo told the Athletic."
To take it even further and when healthy, Oladipo provided steals and blocks statistics that are right on par. And on the other side, he ended the season by becoming the first Heat player to have a 40-point and 10 rebound game since Wade in 2011.
Oladipo did more than match the height and mannerisms. He incorporated something that The Athletic’s (subscription required) Jon Krawczynski referenced in regards to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards:
"Anthony Edwards says he watches Dwyane Wade a lot on how he ran the pick-and-roll. “He’s one of the greatest shooting guards to ever play so if I can mimic him …”"
This is the same pick-and-roll pattern that Wade perfected so much that Kobe Bryant sought after him to figure out its mechanics. And Edwards, like Oladipo and Bryant before him, is beginning to master the Wade nuances.
Splitting the pick, euro-stepping, then being physical with the finish or rejecting the screen to render defenders useless. This is all while not being afraid to get into an offensive player when he is on defense.
It’s part of the reason why Edwards was branded Wade 2.0 by ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. He also labeled Donovan Mitchell the same thing the year prior.
So, take that for what it is worth.
But ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan traced things back to how Mitchell worked his way to the comparisons:
"Mitchell’s affinity for Wade can be traced to his days as a teenager attending Greenwich Country Day school. He loved how Wade used his strength and explosiveness to score, and so he began to model his game after his."
Mitchell is the only one out of these three without the common Wade thread of coach Tom Crean. Yet, it did not stop him from being linked to Wade so much that it was believed the Heat would have drafted him before the Jazz made a trade to jump them with the pick.
Now with Wade as part-owner in Utah, Mitchell gets the luxury of being mentored from courtside while the next set of stars relies on it from a distance.