Cavs: Dean Wade should get his chances early, thanks to shooting

Last season, Dean Wade received his share of opportunities as a rotational contributor for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and that ended up being worthwhile.

Injuries to the likes of Kevin Love, at least to some degree, and Larry Nance Jr. did have some to do with it, sure, but Wade did show nice qualities as an off-ball player for Cleveland. He knocked in a respectable 36.6 percent of his 3.4 three-point attempts in 19.2 minutes per game, and averaged 6.0 points.

This was a positive for the Cavs, with how Wade didn’t play much with Cleveland in his first season as a two-way contributor in 2019-20, and Wade appeared to be much more confident as a catch-and-shoot player as last season wore on.

The Kansas State product, who is set to be a non-guaranteed player for the Cavaliers the next two seasons, did help his case I would think for sticking around to and I could foresee through next season. I’d imagine that he should receive his opportunities early on next season, to some degree feasibly, too.

Thanks to shooting, Wade should get chances early for the Cavs in 2021-22.

Regardless of whether Kevin Love is bought out at some point and/or if Nance sticks around, as Nance could be a potential trade piece, based on comments in a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, Wade should get his chances. That’s even some early on I would think, based on what he provided last season.

I could foresee Wade filling in in some frontcourt spurts alongside Nance or Evan Mobley, or perhaps Isaiah Hartenstein, if he were to be re-signed. Here and there, with Wade’s floor spacing presence, we could seemingly see him in there as a jumbo 3 at times, too, of which played out last season.

Obviously, I get that others will still very well be in the fold, and Mobley will reportedly be playing mostly at the 4, at least early on and seemingly more so in general, and Love could get minutes as a backup 5, per Fedor’s report.

That said, with Cleveland’s three-point shooting woes last season overall, but with him looking to be a legitimate perimeter shooter for the Cavs in a rotational sense, Wade should get chances early to build on that from last season.

He looks to be a player that can mesh with a number of Cavs, and I personally think that him and Ricky Rubio in rotational stretches could have a great chemistry, with Wade’s off-ball viability as a shooter, and also with him being a polished cutting finisher.

Also, while the frequency wasn’t high necessarily at 11.5 percent, Wade did show some encouraging signs as a roller last season, and as a pick-and-pop threat, he could again provide some of a lift in spurts in 2021-22.

He had an effective field goal shooting clip of 57.9 percent as a roller last season, per Synergy Sports, with some of the pick-and-pop touch on display in that realm. And to that point, given the injury concerns seemingly always relevant with Love, Wade could again be a rotational stretch big target for Cleveland to go to at times throughout games once again.

Lastly, Wade did do a pretty solid job on the defensive end in his playing time for the Cavaliers last season, which could help his case for rotational minutes. Granted, I’m not saying Wade is in the Lamar Stevens caliber on defense.

Overall however, Wade did have his share of shooting moments for Cleveland last season, especially post-All-Star break, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he stuck around through next season/perhaps onward, given his shooting touch.

I do buy him as a factor off-ball/as a spacer for the Cavs from here, and even early next season, he should get meaningful opportunities. He’s earned them, in my opinion, and especially if Nance is potentially traded and/or has tough injury luck again.