After an anti-climactic trade deadline for the most part, the Cleveland Cavaliers came out of the week with a subpar record of 1-3. This isn’t including Monday’s lopsided loss, although a shorthanded one, at the Utah Jazz, as an aside.
Cleveland suffered a miserable loss on Saturday to the Sacramento Kings where Harrison Barnes put away the Cavs after hitting a LeBron James-type of three where he received a full-court pass and beat the buzzer. This shot came right after a Collin Sexton layup that was goaltended, which seemed to have won Cleveland the game with 1.6 seconds left.
This heartbreaking loss was one of three bad losses for the Cavs this past week. A loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday without LeBron and Anthony Davis is not one to be proud of. The Cavs blundered in the second half of another game against the Kings, where they lost 119-105 at home on Monday, too.
That said, one particular Cavalier made his presence felt by providing quite the spark in his burn, and was the Player of the Week for Cleveland for this past week of March 22-28.
That Cavs player was Dean Wade, who has been playing very well recently.
It is always easy to go ahead and pick Collin Sexton or Darius Garland, when that’s advisable based on appearances, as the Player of the Week for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but Dean Wade has impressed as of late. Wade’s minutes have increased and he’s shown that he can be a steady rotational piece for Cleveland.
You could also give the nod to Larry Nance Jr. and Garland who both had solid weeks. Nance Jr. has shown why the Cavs front office considers him such a key piece, and even with plenty of reported trade interest, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, seemingly had no interest themselves in trading him.
And Garland has shown that he and Collin Sexton can work well together as a backcourt duo, meanwhile.
In regards to Wade, he scored in double figures in three of the four Cavs games on the week. He shot a combined 14-of-32 from the field overall. He had six steals in said four games and also rebounded well in his 26 minutes per game.
Wade also tossed in 11 assists with only one turnover. And he shot the ball fairly respectably from three going, 5-of-15.
Wade has quickly become one of a few fan favorites on the Cavaliers this season. He’s earned the respect of the coaching staff, players, and fans in Cleveland and continues to improve as a rotational piece. He keeps proving his case for regular rotational minutes, too, as a result.
With the continued absence of Kevin Love, Wade has stepped in and made an impact serving as a reserve for Nance Jr., and has meshed with him at times. And the way Wade has played seems to have earned him a shot at sticking around the league for a while.
I expect to see more improvement by Wade in the coming weeks and likely until Kevin Love makes a full recovery and re-enters the Cleveland Cavaliers’ rotation.