The Miami Heat have popped up on a lot of people's radars recently after they crushed the Cavaliers in their meeting last week. Miami came back down to earth on Wednesday night when they were blown out by the San Antonio Spurs but this team still seems to be hitting their stride.
A big key to Miami's very good season has been the health and production of Dwyane Wade especially since Chris Bosh has been out. The Heat are unsure when or if Bosh will come back this season so they need Wade to keep up the production but it's hard to imagine he won't.
Wade's name came up in the news earlier this week when LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony both said they would take a pay cut to form a super team of Wade, LeBron, Anthony and Chris Paul. Wade was asked about this possibility and didn't even want to respond to it because he is focused on this year's team and getting the most out of them.
One would think Wade would be interested in joining a team like that at some point but the question becomes how much longer Wade has in the league. Wade is 34 years old and is currently playing in his 13th NBA season so retirement has come up to him before. Wade has never said anything about wanting to retire but given what he has accomplished it wouldn't be a surprise if he was somewhat close.
Heat president Pat Riley doesn't think Wade is anywhere close to retirement as he said that Wade may play until he is 40 years old. Age 40 is still six years away for Wade but where he is now, he is still an extremely productive and efficient player so you can see it happening. Of course the main thing in all of this would be injuries. Wade has dealt with injuries throughout his career that have caused him to miss significant time so there is always the possibility that if he gets hurt again it ends his career before he hoped.
This season Wade has been healthy for the most part as he has played in 65 games and he is having another very good season. The former Marquette star is averaging 19.1 points, 4.7 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game while shooting 45 percent from the field. If Wade continues to play at a high level then it is certainly a possibility he can push 40 in the NBA but as of right now there are way too many obstacles in the way to assume he will play that long.
