Is Dwyane Wade still a top ten player?

Thunder forward Kevin Durant was quoted in an interview saying that Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade should be replaced in Sport’s Illustrated’s top ten list of NBA players.

While Durant’s comments sparked a little back and forth between he and Wade on Twitter, Durant raised a viable question. Is Wade still a top ten player?

Although his scoring was down a bit last year, his overall numbers say he is.

Sure Wade’s 21.2 points per game represented his worst scoring output since his rookie season but you do have to take into account the changes Wade has had to make to his game since LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined the team.

All three players have seen drops statistically in their overall numbers but Wade and Bosh’s numbers have taken the biggest hits.

Wade’s game has many similarities to James’s game and Wade, who loves having the ball in his hands, has adjusted his game to allow James to have the ball more.

Wade is still one of the most versatile players in the league though. Despite playing with a stat machine who dominates the ball the way James does, Wade was still one of only a few players in the league who averaged at least 20 points, five assists and five rebounds last season.

He also averaged nearly two steals per game, shot a career-best .521 from the field and is a stout defender. On the downside, Wade’s free throw and shot attempts have been on a three-year decline.

Wade has also suffered knee injuries that have caused him to miss numerous games the past two seasons and robbed him of some of the quickness that makes him so dangerous in the open court.

His knee woes were definitely noticeable during the postseason as the Heat struggled to manufacture points. The image of Wade limping through the 2013 NBA playoffs is probably the reason why Wade’s top ten ranking is even debatable in the first place.

Wade averaged a career-low 15.9 points per game during last year’s postseason.  On top of that, his shot attempts, shooting percentage, free throw attempts and rebounds all dropped dramatically from his regular season numbers.

Wade has never seen such a dramatic drop off between his regular season and playoff numbers signifying just how severe his knee injury may have been.

But Wade’s playoff numbers and performance really aren’t that important to this argument. The only numbers used in Sport’s Illustrated’s ranking are last year’s regular season numbers and by that standard Wade still fits the bill.

There is one last part of Durant’s statement that should be looked into though. Durant said that he believed his ex-teammate James Harden should have replaced Wade on the list.

James had more points, shot attempts, free throw attempts and assists than Wade did. James’s numbers are deceiving though.

James is a good player, but some of his numbers may be due to what I call the Tracy McGrady effect.

Harden was his team’s only real scoring threat at times. Kind of like when McGrady played in Orlando, Harden got to jack up tons of shots because no one else on the team was much of a threat.

Harden’s numbers were considerably lower when he played in Oklahoma City with Durant and Russell Westbrook though. It’s likely his numbers will drop again this season when he is paired with Dwight Howard.

There is still one facet of Harden’s game that is still way behind Wade’s and that is his defense.

Sure he averaged almost as many steals as Wade, Harden’s overall defense is far behind Wade’s though.

Plus Harden’s only been a starter for one season. Wade has been putting up great numbers for years now and has three rings to show for it.

But credit Durant for showing loyalty to his friend even if he had to start a Twitter-beef with Wade to prove it.

So now Wade is on a mission to prove to Durant and all the doubters that he should in fact be on that list.

Wade even left a message on his Instagram account for Durant telling him, “Don’t believe me just watch.”

We’ll all be watching this year.

 Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He can be contacted at sportmentalist@yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.