Dwyane Wade has some sound advice for JJ Redick and how he thinks the Lakers head coach should utilize his newest acquisition, Luka Doncic, to the best of his abilities. The three-time NBA Champion addressed the topic on the latest edition of his “The Why With Dwyane Wade” podcast — and even used an example from his playing days with the Heat to illustrate his point.
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Wade mentioned that a big issue that coaches in the NBA tend to have is leaving their superstar players on the court for far too long. He explained that he once butted heads with his former coach, Eric Spoelstra, because the latter restricted his minutes on the court.
However, Spoelstra broke down to Wade why he would be more effective with fewer minutes.
“This is a conversation I had with Spo (Spoelstra) over the years and I didn’t like it. As a player, you want to be out there your max minutes, but as I started getting older Spo would take my minutes down. He was like, ‘You going to be more productive in the least amount of minutes because you out there getting rest, because you’re doing so much on offense,'” Wade stated.
The 13-time All-Star clearly remembered the advice from his coach fondly and told Redick that he should take the same approach with Doncic once he returns from injury and debuts for the team.
“JJ, you have to make sure that you are looking at Luka, because he’s so great with the ball, that you are not just keeping him on the floor all the time. You may have to cut back Luka’s minutes a bit. Doesn’t mean his scoring is going to go down because he scores at a high clip anyway.”
The strategy did seem to pay off. In Wade’s final season in 2018-2019, he averaged only 26 minutes per game as opposed to earlier in his career when he was doing 35+ with ease. Despite the cut-off, he still averaged 15 PPG and was selected to his 13th All-Star game that year. The Heat did miss the playoffs that year though.
Dwyane Wade believes Luka Doncic trade was a remarkable business move for the NBA
While many have spoken about the on-the-court benefits of the Luka Doncic trade, Wade instead has viewed the business positives of the historical move. On a previous episode of his podcast, he broke down why Doncic going to the league’s most popular team will only benefit viewership — especially due to the Slovenian superstar’s international appeal.
“The top international player in LA, so viewership, ticket sales, Europe, Spain, they all coming into LA. I’m looking at the business and I’m like, ‘Hold up, this was an amazing business deal by billionaires,'” Wade stated.
The Heat legend also mentioned that Doncic teaming with LeBron James isn’t just beneficial for both players’ championship chances — it’s great for the NBA’s image as well. Wade believes that James could tutor Doncic into being the new face of the league before retiring from the NBA.
