Cavs: He’s defended pretty well, but Dean Wade needs to hit more 3s

The Cleveland Cavaliers have not had Kevin Love active in games this month, and Lauri Markkanen has only played in one of them then, because of the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Fortunately, Love was cleared to be around the team last weekend, and was on the sideline supporting the team in Cleveland’s comeback win over the Boston Celtics on Saturday.

For both of them, it would appear that they could return at some point pretty soon, perhaps in Cleveland’s game against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday maybe for Markkanen.

That’s with these two reports from Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and the “Locked On Cavs” podcast in mind from Sunday/Monday, so hopefully the two can be available soon. Some rust is to be expected, though, and they’ll have to get their conditioning down.

In bench minutes, Love could help the Cavs on the offensive end, and as a spacing/pick-and-pop threat for them. Cleveland will need that in some stretches, and his rebounding/secondary playmaking, and that’s even more so with Evan Mobley reportedly set to be out for 2-4 weeks because of a right elbow sprain. That, with the others that have been out, is so rough for the Cavaliers, as Mobley was making his early case for the Rookie of the Year.

Circling back to the first two, though, In their absences, and in this case more so involving Markkanen, who had been Cleveland’s de facto starting 3, Cleveland has rolled with Dean Wade starting there mostly. That was sticking to their big philosophy with starters this season.

Now, when he’s in, Wade is not going to be a player that the Cavaliers expect to be creating his own offense much, nor are they expecting him to be nearly the shooting presence of Markkanen, nor Love for that matter.

Wade has had 3.5 points in 19.2 minutes per outing this season in 12 appearances, with seven being starts. He hasn’t been able to get it going from three-point range that often, either, as his deep shooting hit rate has been just 26.7 percent on 2.5 attempts per game, and he was scoreless in 35 minutes in Cleveland’s loss to the Boston Celtics on Monday.

That said, when he has been in, Wade has defended well, typically, against wings and some bigs, but it’s clear that in this upcoming stretch of games, Cleveland needs more from him from three.

The threes haven’t been falling, and the Cavs need Wade to be on more from deep.

Wade has not been on as a catch-and-shoot player for Cleveland, objectively, and that’s been a bit disappointing, as when he was given opportunities last season, injuries aside, he did show encouraging signs.

Wade hit 36.6 percent from three last season, and he looked to have things going, as compared to the prior season when he didn’t show confidence as a two-way player when he was playing with the Cavs, albeit sparingly, in meaningful minutes. This season, as we noted though, the triples from Wade just haven’t been going like he’s capable of.

Now, Wade has been playing more at the 3 spot, whereas he’s naturally a 4, so perhaps that’s had some to do with it; I don’t read quite as much into that, however. Wade is more fluid than Markkanen, for example, so I’m not sure that’s been the reasoning; Wade’s just been off to begin the season.

Nonetheless, it’s apparent with Wade, he’s going to be more so a low-usage guy, anyhow. So I can handle some streaky shooting, and when Markkanen’s back, the minutes could decrease for him.

Even taking that into account, I still think Wade’s finishing and feel as a cutter have aided Cleveland in stretches, and for a rotational low-usage guy, that’s meaningful.

Wade has been a quality finisher inside on occasional drives following closeouts, and from man movement reacting to Cleveland’s key guys, which is what I like to see from him. That’s again played out, albeit on low volume; he’s begun to show nice chemistry with guys such as Ricky Rubio and Evan Mobley, the latter of whom will be out for potentially a month.

From there, the defense from Wade has given the Cavaliers defense a lift, too, and while Markkanen can be more of a shot altering presence off-ball, Wade is clearly the more viable on-ball defender when needed to hold up against more perimeter-laiden guys.

I do give Markkanen his credit for his effort off-ball in passing lanes to begin the season, but it’s not as if Wade isn’t capable in that regard or in the right spots typically, and Wade has shown the capability to cut off drivers more consistently against wings and forwards.

To reiterate, though, especially with Mobley out, Collin Sexton still out for a while yet it seems, and Love and Markkanen having been out for a few weeks, the Cavs do need more from Wade from three.