Cavs: Dean Wade’s deal is fully guaranteed for rest of season as of WED

We have not seen Dean Wade much lately for the Cleveland Cavaliers, as he’s had four DNP’s, and that included two of those leading into Tuesday’s game versus the Atlanta Hawks.

Wade is a depth piece for the Wine and Gold in regards to the 4 position, though, and perhaps we could see him in some stretches in the next few games continue to get some burn.

The Cavs still have not had Kevin Love in game action since Dec. 27 (right calf strain/reaggravation), but he could seemingly be back fairly soon. Albeit Cleveland is set to feasibly be without the likes of Larry Nance Jr. (fractured left hand) through most of March still.

In relation to Taurean Prince, who has played his share of minutes at the 4, too, he had even missed the past few games for Cleveland before Wednesday’s W over the Houston Rockets with left ankle soreness. And he had to leave during that game due to him injuring that sore left ankle in the first half.

With the Cavaliers being depleted at the 4, Wade got his first career start on Tuesday versus Atlanta in a Wine and Gold winner (RIP Fred McLeod), and that was followed up with a start again on Wednesday.

He hasn’t played much overall, however, and I still wouldn’t foresee Wade getting meaningful minutes all that consistently, by and large, the rest of this season. But he has shown some encouraging signs when he has received meaningful run, particularly defensively/as a rebounder, and somewhat as a catch-and-shoot player.

With Cleveland being so banged up regarding 4’s, though, the Cavs didn’t waive Wade by his Wednesday guarantee deadline of then-5 PM, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, who reported earlier Wednesday that would likely be the case. As a result, his deal will be fully-guaranteed for the rest of this season, with him set to make $1.5 million.

This is clearly a depth move for the Cavs with Wade.

Although again we haven’t seen Wade a ton in action for the Cavaliers this season to this point, he has started the past two games because of the stated injury bug, and on the season in a general sense, he’s done some good things.

In those past two starts, which were again his first two of his career thus far, Wade’s had five points, to go with two rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 21 minutes, but admittedly, was a Cavs-low minus-14 in that one. In his first start, though, I’m not going to chew out Dean for that, and still as a team defender, did provide some of a lift.

In that second start, he had 11 points, six boards and two assists, and hit both of his three-point attempts in 20 minutes, and while I’m not the biggest plus-minus user for individual games, was a plus-18.

In any case, in relation to Wade for the rest of this 2020-21 campaign, we’ll have to see if he can get some meaningful minutes back when Kevin Love is in the fold/Nance, in particular.

We have occasionally seen Wade at the 3 in big lineups, but I wouldn’t expect that to be the case at this point with Dylan Windler coming on, and Prince seemingly set to be well in the fold still/Cedi Osman, and of course, Isaac Okoro.

Anyway, with Wade this season, his defense, and occasionally on switchouts even, has been encouraging, and it’s been nice to him, as opposed to last season when he did get meaningful minutes here and there, have more confidence shooting outside.

Wade hit 39.9 percent of his three-point attempts last season with the Canton Charge, the Cavs G League affiliate, where he received most of his playing time.

So far with the Cavaliers this season, he’s hit 37.8 percent of his deep balls, albeit in a limited role in 9.3 minutes per outing in 25 appearances and on 1.5 attempts on average. The confidence has been there more, though.

Moreover, in relation to next season and the following year, Wade will again have his deal non-guaranteed, and in 2022-23, that’s a team option. If he were to have those end up being guaranteed down the road, he’d be set to make $1.8 million and $1.9 million; we’ll again have to see what plays out regarding that, however, and that’s a ways away at this point.

Wade has shown some positive signs this season, though, and the Cavs probably need the 4 man depth at this juncture, so I can understand the reasoning in fully guaranteeing Wade the rest of this campaign.