Cavs: Grades are in and team is hanging on, but barely

Dean Wade Grade: B

One of the key players who’s been thrust into the starter’s role has been Dean Wade. I’ve written about Wade before and shared my thoughts on his benefits to the team, especially from a defensive standpoint.

Wade has struggled on the offensive side of the ball and at times has passed on open looks or not tried being more aggressive to try and score. Instead, he’s passed the ball out. Many of Wade’s decisions have been good ones and helped his team in some manner, but one would still like to see more from the former Kansas State Wildcat when he’s had starting chances.

The former Mr. Kansas Basketball Player of the Year, who played at the very small St. John High School, where they won three state titles when Wade was there, had a stellar college career too. He averaged 16 points his junior season and 13 points his senior year as a Wildcat. He had 15 games where he scored 20-plus points in his junior and senior seasons at Kansas State. His career-high in college was 34 points in a game at Iowa State in 2017.

The point here is obviously he can score. The Cavs coaching staff, I guarantee you, from what I’m hearing, are trying to get him to take more shots and be more aggressive. In the recent game against the Golden State Warriors, we got a glimpse of that aggressive nature, as Wade put up 13 shots and had a decent 17 points to go along with nine rebounds and five assists. Let’s hope we see more from the young talent.

Ricky Rubio Grade: B

The Sexton Effect has also played games with Ricky Rubio, who certainly is a good starter for this young Cavs team, bringing with him 10 years of NBA experience, but Rubio wasn’t in the starter role projections when this season started. With that, Rubio has played well for the team, but you can tell at times that the youthful energy and athleticism isn’t always there these days for Rubio as much as he tries.

He helped the team out this last week with 26 and 28-point outputs, but Rubio launching 17, 19 or 20 shot attempts isn’t the best formula for his team to win. Rubio is a master assist producer and while those assists have been there, they haven’t been as much. He dished out five of them twice last week and only two in another game. When Rubio passes the ball more, better things happen for the Cavs.

And that time on the court might be catching up to him more. Over the last two games he had five turnovers in both games. Rubio plays with a certain aggressive grit but that energy he’s using launching long distance shots will not help the cause.