Dwyane Wade is playing an interesting role in his inaugural season with the Cleveland Cavalier. LeBron James’ backup.
Looking at nominal positions in a league where the versatility of its players almost makes such designations archaic hinders our ability to see how a team truly works. For example, if you don’t follow the NBA or are one of it’s newer fans, looking at Kevin Durant as a small forward or Draymond Green as a power forward does little to help you understand that both players are capable of shifting down a position – to power forward and center, respectively – and wreaking havoc on both ends of the floor with their length, quickness and intense defense. It’s why, when looking at Dwyane Wade’s place on the depth chart it would seem like he’s just the Cleveland Cavaliers’ backup point guard until Isaiah Thomas returns and Derrick Rose (or Iman Shumpert) becomes the backup lead guard. In reality, in this semi-positionless Association, Wade is small forward LeBron James’ backup.
Its interesting to consider when Wade has played shooting guard for 13 seasons and is playing point guard for the first time since his rookie season. Its also interesting because Wade and James were the most dynamic duo in the NBA from 2010-2014, when they were teammates on the Miami Heat.
Now, the two players who threw lobs to each other from either end of South Beach take turns taking over and leading the team. It works because Wade, in acting as a nominal point guard but possessing the scoring mentality of a shooting guard and the post game of a forward, can mimic what James brings to the starting lineup: a primary ball-handler, playmaker and scorer.
Wade is averaging 8.9 points and 3.8 assists in 22.1 minutes per game this season. Those numbers translate to 14.4 points and 6.2 assists per 36 minutes.
Janes is averaging 28.3 points and 8.7 assists in 38.1 minutes per game this season. Those numbers translate to 26.7 points and 7.1 assists per 36 minutes.
Looking at those numbers, Wade is nearly as much of a facilitator as James is – although James is like Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre as a passer sometimes, fearless and reckless. Wade has been far less efficient than James (39.5 percent shooting from the floor and 21.4 percent shooting from three-point range compared to 57.9 percent shooting from the field and 39.3 percent shooting from three-point range). As a result, he’s averaging fewer points than Kyle Korver (10.9 points per game) and Jeff Green (10.7 points per game) despite being more capable of creating a shot for himself than Korver or possessing a softer shooting touch than Green.
Like James though, Wade puts pressure on defenses as a passer, in the midrange and in the post. It doesn’t look like a full on mimicry of James dominance, as Wade doesn’t possess the strength, speed, hops, shooting touch or shooting range of his best friend.
Still, run down the play types and their effectiveness is similar:
In isolation, James scores 1.04 points per possession (PPP) on 47.8 percent shooting from the field.
Wade scores 1.00 PPP on 42.9 percent shooting from the field.
As a pick-and-roll ball-handler, James scores 1.11 PPP while shooting 55.1 percent from the field.
Wade scores 0.86 PPP while shooting 46.2 percent from the field. Here, Wade’s numbers are definitely impacted by his inefficiency from deep but he’s still capable of making heady plays for himself or others in the pick-and-roll and does.
On post-ups, James scores 0.94 PPP while shooting 50.0 percent from the field.
Wade scores 0.64 PPP because he’s shooting 33.3 percent from the field.
It’s interesting to note, though, that James posts up on 12.3 percent of his possessions and Wade is very similar, posting up on 13.5 percent of his possessions. Of course, Wade needs to improve his efficiency in the post and probably get more advantageous matchups for him to score but the purposes of this article, just note the similarities.
Ultimately, while James and Wade can still form a terrific pair on the court, Wade’s job will be to minimize James’ playing time. For once, James can finally rest because he has a dependable second unit. Such was the case against the Charlotte Hornets last night. Although James was in foul trouble in the third quarter, Wade and the second unit were able to go on a 9-2 run with their Alpha Dog on the bench.
Unfortunately, the Cavs have gotten off to such bad starts that often James has had to stay on the court to slow the bleeding. However, now that the starting unit is looking more comfortable together on the defensive end and offensively the big problem is too many shots being missed by open shooters, James will certainly have opportunity to rest in the future. Especially after the return of Isaiah Thomas.
So, as evidenced by their three-game win streak, everything us starting to click in The Land.
Once they do, watch out NBA. I don’t know how much any team wants to deal with a rested LeBron in the postseason.
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*All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com and stats.nba.com