Cavs: TC exposure to Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr. should pay dividends for Dean Wade

In training camp, Cleveland Cavaliers two-way big Dean Wade should benefit from exposure to veterans Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr. the most, considering both of those bigs are likely key parts of the team’s core in the coming years.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are set to begin training camp later this month, and that’ll be the team’s first camp with new head coach John Beilein leading the coaching staff.

Realistically, though not all of the team’s players that are on the training camp roster will be getting regular season minutes and/or a roster spot, one of the players that I’d think will benefit among the most from training camp is two-way player Dean Wade, who could get rotational minutes down the road.

We’ve touched on Wade, who was a four-year starter at Kansas State and played for the Cavaliers’ Summer League teams in Salt Lake City and in Las Vegas, some.

Wade averaged 12.0 points per game on 58.5% true shooting, to go with 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 29.3 minutes per game in four seasons at Kansas State (per Sports Reference). He still does need some polish, though.

Nonetheless, as was previously highlighted, Wade, who has rotational stretch-four potential, given his inside-out scoring presence, in being able to take advantage of smaller defenders in the low and mid-post on switchouts and also can spot-up/pick-and-pop some (he shot 38.6% from three-point range in college), but again, is needing of some more polish in coming years, is the type of player Cleveland has to hit on in the near future.

With that being the case, though, Wade should benefit greatly from exposure to key Cleveland bigs Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr. in training camp/the preseason.

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Love is undoubtedly the Cleveland Cavaliers’ best player at this point, is a five-time All-Star, an NBA champion, and has a career average of 18.3 points per game on 56.9% true shooting (per Basketball Reference).

He also has career averages of 11.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest, too, and Love has cemented himself as Cleveland’s primary leader as well.

With the way that Love can space the floor, and with how versatile he is inside the arc as a low and mid-post scorer and good secondary playmaker, exposure to that can only help a developmental stretch-four in Wade in training camp add to his overall game.

Additionally, I would imagine that Wade and others (excluding 2019 FIBA World Cup players Cedi Osman and Matthew Dellavedova for the time being) are benefitting from being around Love in pre-training camp workouts in New York already, as is the case according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

Love’s professionalism, along with the likes of Nance and Brandon Knight‘s, for example, should set the tone for young players such as Wade in terms of their preparation in how they work on their overall games.

All three of those players reportedly having an exemplary work ethic (along with Collin Sexton), and when it comes to Wade, being around Love and Nance (both key Cleveland bigs) should pay considerable dividends.

Now I wouldn’t expect Wade to get a bunch of minutes with the Cavs, but if he can take some fine-tune pointers on shooting and improve his release and improve his post-up game from being around Love, and improve his rolling/passing and team defense from Nance, it’ll only help more in his progression primarily with the Charge in 2019-20. Nance led qualified Cavs in assists per game last season, for the record, with 3.2 per game (per NBA.com).

Adding to that, Love has shot 37.5% from three-point range in four-plus seasons with the Cavaliers and is a noted pick-and-pop threat, so anything Wade can take from Love in training camp/preseason on that, along with being a post-up mismatch, should not be taken for granted going into next season.

Love’s rebounding ability, along with Nance’s (8.2 per game in 2018-19, per NBA.com) should also help Wade in becoming better in cleaning the glass. Though reported foot injuries the last few years probably didn’t help, Wade was not overly active on the glass in college, as evidenced by a modest rebounding rate of only 11.2% at K-State (per Sports Reference).

With the way Nance and Love are so active rebounding on both ends of the floor, they should aid Wade in his positioning in securing boards going forward, so he can be competent there in the G-League this season, and in potential minutes with the Cavaliers, of course.

Exposure to Nance, who has worked his way into being a key part of Cleveland’s future and even established himself as a legitimate three-point threat (33.7% from deep last year, which is more than fine for a player that contributes in many other ways), along with being a key lob threat and defensive rotator/communicator, could be crucial in Wade’s development in coming years.

So again, training camp is not going to cause Wade to suddenly become a franchise player for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but a two-way player like him, who is likely mostly a Canton-led developmental project, should benefit considerably from seeing the standard set by two key parts of Cleveland’s future, in Nance and Love, in coming weeks leading up until the 2019-20 season.

I’m not slighting fellow Cleveland bigs John Henson, Tristan Thompson, and Ante Zizic here in regards to Wade, but Nance and Love’s versatility as stretch bigs and secondary playmakers (and very good rebounders anyway) would seem to be especially vital in the development of Wade, who could be a promising stretch-four for Cleveland in the near future if the organization is patient.

Moreover, player development can be greatly boosted by young players seeing how the key veteran players on a roster operate as true professionals, starting in training camp, and while Wade reportedly has had some exposure to Nance this summer, it likely isn’t hurting being around the team’s best player in Love, too, now.

Wade will likely get plenty of practices in with the Cavaliers throughout the 2019-20 season, anyhow, but again, exposure to two of the best at essentially the same position on the Cavs’ roster will be invaluable for the 22-year-old two-way big. Along with that, this sort of thing is also the case for rookies Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr. and Dylan Windler from the veterans in their respective positions, too.