I’ve grown to be a big fan of Cleveland Cavaliers rotational forward Dean Wade, similarly to KJG’s John Suchan, who is a staunch supporter of him, and echoed that sentiment in a recent interview.
Wade is not always a player that’s going to be a mainstay in lineups on a game-to-game basis for Cleveland, with plenty of other bigs in the fold. When he has been called upon, including last season to a large degree, though, Wade has generally done capably defensively against opposing wings and against a number of 4s, and his team defensive awareness has been on display.
Offensively, Wade is not going to generate his own offense that often, but he finds ways to help as a catch-and-shoot player with heady movement, and he finishes well on cuts. The same goes for his transition sense, and at times, Wade’s pump fakes allow him to get to mid-range looks or occasional drives after hard closeouts.
Now, as we again noted, Wade is not a player that’s always going to see meaningful action in games, with other bigs, and in relation to 3 man minutes, the likes of Cedi Osman and Lauri Markkanen, who has been playing that essentially offensively, involved.
That said, in upcoming games here, it’s evident that the minutes will be there for Wade, who will get more at the 3 or potentially 4 with the Cavaliers having Evan Mobley in COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Cleveland has had seven other players enter protocols of late, including Isaac Okoro and Jarrett Allen, along with Lamar Stevens and Dylan Windler; Denzel Valentine, who previously was in protocols shortly, has seemingly been cleared. The team’s predicament has led to hardship exception signings of Justin Anderson, Luke Kornet and Tre Scott, either way.
While we’ll have to see what plays out here involving the group as a whole as they try to remain competent with at times guys such as Kevin Pangos or one of those 10-day players in in spurts, it is nice to know that Wade has had his share of experience. Now, Wade, nor other starters in that one aside from Darius Garland, were great in Cleveland’s loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, but I’m not going to grill Wade or the group, given reported lack of practice time, and it being their first game in this situation.
The chemistry from his end should be there more in coming games, though, and his earlier starts from this season, primarily when Markkanen and Kevin Love were in COVID-19 protocols, can help when he’s in there, to some extent.
Wade’s earlier starts for the Cavs should help him in this stretch.
Wade, a former two-way contributor, is not going to be the offensive presence of Evan Mobley, but he’s a capable off-ball player, as evidenced by Dean hitting 36.6 percent of his three-point attempts in rotational minutes last season. And he’s hit 35.4 percent of his deep attempts thus far this season.
Granted, there’s inherently going to be some ebs and flows for Wade from three, given the nature of his minutes generally, and he’s a low-usage guy that’s averaged 5.3 points per outing. That’s with Osman, Markkanen and to some degree, Lamar Stevens, regarding the 3, and Kevin Love/Mobley involving the 4.
But in this upcoming slate of games with Cleveland so depleted, I’d expect Wade, who started 13 games this season earlier on in injury relief, to step in and either start or play a significant minutes-share, and to help preserve Love, who was questionable heading into Boston with ankle soreness. Love did do very well in that contest, anyhow, and had 18 points, 12 rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes. And I get Love could get around that many in some games coming up here.
On the Dean front, though, Wade has meshed well with various Cavs players, such as Darius Garland, Ricky Rubio, and Love when he’s received regular minutes, and in upcoming games, I’d imagine we’ll see Wade find ways to get some himself open for quality looks. That’s in the open floor following deflections or long rebounds leading to cutting chances, or perhaps some trailer threes, of which Wade has shown he can hit at times.
As we also alluded to earlier, while the Cavaliers missing so many players obviously doesn’t help defensively, the Cavs can at least know that Wade will be in the right spots as a rotator when needed, and he typically has sound contests on-ball. It’s not like the dude is going to be defending the Jayson Tatum’s of the world every night, either.
The 6-foot-9 Kansas State product will concede some baskets as all guys do, but guys won’t be blowing by him a ton, if you will, and in transition defense, Wade always gives outstanding effort, which shouldn’t be discounted.
Along with that, though Wade is not the defensive rebounder of Love, he’s pretty reliable when it comes to his positioning there, whether he’s in at the 3 or 4 in stretches. He had 6.4 rebounds per-36 minutes last season, for reference.
Hopefully the Cavs players in COVID-19 health and safety protocols can get healthy in due time, to get out there, and diddo for those players/team staff leaguewide in them. But overall, it’s nice for Cleveland to at least have a capable spot start option in Wade for the 3 or 4 in situations throughout a season.
From a chemistry standpoint, I’d imagine Wade’s earlier starts for the Cavaliers will only help, too, as we’ve essentially hit on, and one shouldn’t read much into Cleveland’s loss at Boston on Wednesday, given the initial circumstances. This group will rebound.