Will Graves: Wade dealing with twists and turns

Consider this season a pretty good internship for the Miami Heat rookie point guard.

The unexpected started early. Less than three weeks after being the fifth player taken in the NBA Draft, Wade watched as longtime Miami center Alonzo Mourning signed with the New Jersey Nets.

Just before training camp began, second-year forward Caron Butler went down with a knee injury that sidelined him for the entire preseason and Miami's first five games of the regular season.

Four days before the season-opener, head coach Pat Riley stepped down and moved into the front office full-time as team president, then named longtime assistant Stan Van Gundy head coach.

Not exactly the situation Wade thought he was getting himself into after two standout years at Marquette, including a 2002-03 season in which he led the Warriors to the Final Four and was named a first-team All-American.

Instead of getting to play for a Hall-of-Fame head coach on a team that appeared to be reloading with the addition of small forward Lamar Odom, Wade finds himself making the transition from shooting guard to point guard on one of the worst teams in the league.

Wednesday night at American Airlines Arena, Wade knew most of the 15,329 in the stands came to see the guy selected four spots ahead of him in the draft -- Cleveland Cavaliers rookie LeBron James -- and not Wade and the then-winless Heat.

"You know everyone is here to see him, but this is our home," Wade said. "We know if we play the way we're capable of playing, we can be just as exciting as they are."

And for a night, he was right.

Wade matched James play for play in Miami's 88-83 victory and won the battle of the "SportsCenter" highlights.

During one three-possession stretch in the first quarter, Wade fed teammate Eddie Jones for an alley-oop, froze James with a crossover dribble and executed a perfect bounce pass to Butler on a fast break for a dunk.

"I'm just trying to get my teammates involved," Wade said. "When you're making that transition, you have to look for them first and get your shot later."

James wasn't bad himself, but Wade finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists as the Heat won their first game of the season.

"It's nice to finally get a win," Wade said. "I didn't look at it like me against LeBron. It was us against them."

But this was just one night out of 82.

As the Heat search for an identity in the post-Riley era, Wade knows it's on the young guys like himself, Odom and Butler to be the nucleus of a team in transition.

"It's OK now," Wade said. "As a rookie, you're excited just to be out there."

And how will he feel if the team continues to struggle, the bumps and bruises pile up and they play in half-full houses?

"I don't know," Wade said. "Ask me after 50 games."

And then he smiled. Or tried to anyway.