Regardless of how well Wade is playing, the fact still remains that he is playing injured. This leads to an interesting debate. Your team is the worst in the league. The next worst teams in the East have lost 12 of their last 14 and 13 of their last 16 respectively and are still 6+ games ahead of Miami in the standings. What benefit can you possibly be getting from having Wade continue to play this season?

It could be argued that there are still season ticket holders and fans in general who paid good money to see this Miami team - to the tune of 19,600 per game (6th best in the league). These fans didn't plunk down their cash to watch a team give up by packing in Wade for the season. At the same time, the team has Wade and has still been blown out by embarrassing margins (15+ points) five times in their last 14 games.

On top of that already poor performance, you have to take into account that Dwayne Wade is, without a doubt, the face of the Miami franchise for the remainder of this decade and likely most of the next one. The best way for Wade to succeed as that primary player is to be healthy. The best way for him to be healthy is to shut himself down as soon as possible and give himself as much rehabilitation time as possible. His team hasn't played a meaningful game since the new year turned over, and Dwayne hanging around to help his team maybe reach the 20-win threshhold isn't making the games - wins or losses - any more meaningful to anyone but the bean counters.

Perhaps that's the bottom line - the bottom line. In a state as sports saturated as Florida - two baseball teams, two football teams, two hockey teams, arena football, major league soccer, and on - it becomes necessary to push to have the best and most entertaining product on the court every night, or you run the risk of losing revenue to everything else there is to do in the area. However, you would like to think that the Miami brass are forward-thinking enough to realize that every night that D-Wade remains in the lineup this season may get a few extra butts in seats and dollars in pockets, but is also compromising their ability to have a fully competitive team next season and beyond.