Dwyane Wade’s drop in production last season definitely didn’t go unnoticed by anyone including him. However over the past eight games he’s had a career-high shooting percentage and blistering 61 percent clip over and it’s all due in part to a shooting coach. Read more after the jump.
The Heat’s second leading scorer admitted he has been working with a shooting coach during the season.
“You have to know your problem,” Wade said. “When I’m missing, I already know how and why I’m missing. I know that I don’t have a lot of arc on my shot. So I know that me shooting on the way down is really fighting against the wind.
“For me, it was just to get somebody to come in, different than what I’m used to, a different voice.”
The plan had been to hire a coach in the offseason and work with him then, but Wade’s knee surgery and ensuing rehabilitation didn’t allow him the court time to make it worthwhile.
As a result, Wade is finding time during the season to work on his shooting mechanics with his coach.
Wade won’t divulge who is helping him out, saying he’d prefer to know it’s truly working before he gets into specifics.
The idea, however, is to help him fit even better into an offense in which LeBron James is the primary playmaker, as well as prepare for a future when he won’t be able to rely solely on his quickness and athleticism.
“It’s a combination of it all,” he said. “Obviously you have to plan for [the future]. At the same time, you understand that you want to open up the game. You want to get better.
“And then, I have a different role on this team. I know that I don’t have the ball all the time to be able to get the shots I want to, so I need to take shots that come and are available. So I need to be ready to shoot them and feel comfortable shooting them.”
Wade has been working out of the post more this season, so he hasn’t shown off his outside touch too often. But he is shooting 5-of-15 from 3-point range this month, compared to a 1-of-6 start to the season. Wade also is shooting 82.3 percent (56-of-68) from the foul line in December after shooting just more than 75 percent in his first 11 games of the season.
