Play of Dwyane Wade and Kyle Korver paying dividends for Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ bench is going to be their calling card this season, and two veterans are leading the charge as of late coming off the pine.

Let’s face it. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 5-6 overall and many fans are doing their annual early season freak out. If Skip Bayless’ words could become universal law, the Cavaliers are the worst team in the history of basketball at this juncture (as it often is, regardless of the circumstances).

As I like to reassure in a fair amount of my regular season coverage, the Cavs could be a lot better right now. That being said, they seem to show up when it does actually matter in the course of a season.

Last week, the Cavs took on a talented Washington Wizards team that’s led by the big-time backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal. Despite their struggles against low-rung teams, they pulled out a must-needed win against an Eastern Conference Final contender. Obviously, LeBron was the key reason for that, as he poured in a cool 57 points, the league’s highest single-game point total this season.

Although James’ dominance – which was on full display in the nation’s capital – is obviously pivotal to the Cavs’ success, it’s been Dwyane Wade and Kyle Korver’s’ recent play that gives me reason for optimism.

Joe Vardon of cleveland.com touched on how effective Wade’s been since getting comfortable coming off the bench:

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"Since Oct. 24, he’s averaging 10.6 points and shooting .469.He’s second on the team with 4.3 assists per game against just 1.1 turnovers. His offensive and defensive ratings are third best on the team (115.1 and 108.7, measuring points scored or allowed per 100 possessions."

Wade seems to have hit his stride on the floor for Cleveland, and boy, have the Cavs needed it. The Wade starting with Derrick Rose experiment did not work, and that was for evident spacing and defensive issues. “Flash” has been a different dude these last few games for the Cavaliers, though, and that is going to be vital as the season progresses.

Until Isaiah Thomas returns, the Cavs desperately need someone to facilitate and score off-the-bounce besides Rose. Rose has been solid in his own right, but the expectations from his production would seem to dip as the season moves along. At the moment, Rose is currently in the 75th percentile of the NBA as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, per Synergy. That is rock-solid, but Wade has been even more effective in that area.

The veteran is in the 84th percentile, as he’s creating shots and free throw looks for himself and others. With Wade on the floor, the Cavs are more patient, which results in getting good shots and players seem to cut better. With Rose acting as the primary ball-handler, the offensive flow is either at too rapid of a pace, often resulting in turnovers or bad shots, or the reverse happens, where the flow in the halfcourt is totally halted from isolation offense.

With Wade operating in the middle of the floor in pick-and-roll action, or from the baseline on post-ups, the rest of the present players on the floor with him are more free to be active off-ball. Jeff Green has been a common recipient of Wade’s playmaking in the halfcourt, and that’s been a major reason LeBron can take a break every now and then.

Nonetheless, Wade has proven since being on the bench that he still can get buckets as a primary scorer as well, as he’s often a mismatch with his strength when posting up guards. He’s shooting nearly double what he was when he was playing as a starter, per nba.com, and playing more with Korver is some of the reason for that.

Based on total minutes per game, Wade and Korver have the highest plus-minus of any Cavs two-man lineup, per nba.com. The two seem to have developed a good chemistry, as Wade has been hitting Korver for open looks to counteract the cutting of LeBron, Kevin Love, and Green. Currently, Korver is shooting his usual high clip.

He is converting his typical handoffs and spot-ups to near perfection, and that’s given the Cavs much-needed energy in key spurts.

As a result of his marksmanship and hustle defense, Korver is leading Cleveland in plus-minus, according to nba.com. That’s incredible but it’s also a wake-up call, as Zack Geoghegan of Fear The Sword demonstrated.

The Cavs are getting huge production from these two, and that’s all good and dandy, but you can’t rely on a one-two punch of a 35-year-old and 36-year-old to win games until IT returns. The starters need to match their intensity and toughness on both ends to take the pressure off of the bench.