Dean Wade’s case for Cavs playing time is evident

Wade is one of the Cavs’ best defenders

Wade is one of the Cavaliers’ most impactful defenders, and while it wasn’t nearly as detrimental as Jarrett Allen’s absence (fractured finger) for much of the closing part of the season, Wade’s partial meniscus tear didn’t help defensively, either. He was a player whose minutes were inconsistent, admittedly, but Wade missing Cleveland’s last 15 games and both play-in games was not something I glossed over, for that end, especially.

Fortunately, Wade is fine it seems, and per a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com in early May, Wade had since returned to on-court activities. Next season and over the course of the offseason, I would think Wade is back to full strength, based on Fedor’s report.

With that in mind, as we hinted at, despite Wade not being a household name, he is a quality defender for the Cavaliers, and he’s a player that did, by and large, a nice job in primary coverage of opposing 3s and 4s.

This now-past season, his second realistically in the Cavaliers rotation, Wade generally did pretty well when he was in defensively, a considerable chunk of the time on the perimeter, even. And he did get some work against opposing go-to scoring 2s here and there.

The majority of Wade’s minutes were at the 3 this last go-round, and he filled in in his share of starts, which were 28 in 2021-22 of his 51 appearances. As we noted, his ability to usually hold his own on-ball defensively and be in the right spots as a rotator made a difference.

It was notable that per Cleaning The Glass’ metrics, Cavaliers opponents had 5.5 less points per 100 possessions when Wade was on the floor, which placed in the 89th percentile. Now, him for stretches in lineups with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen didn’t hurt, but that stat was impressive to me. The same was how when Wade was on the floor this season, Cavaliers opponents’ offensive rebounding percentage decreased by 3.8, which placed in the 93rd percentile, again per Cleaning The Glass.

Point being, Wade is a more than capable defender, more often than not, and at least for stretches in relief of Lauri Markkanen, or for spurts for Evan Mobley, I do believe he’s viable. He was fine as a starter at times this season, too, and his 6-foot-9 size fits well.

So how about the other end?