Cavs Player Grades: Dean Wade provides steady play in 2021-22
By Dan Gilinsky
Examining Wade’s 2021-22 defensive play
On the other end, in the past two seasons, Wade has proven himself to be one of Cleveland’s better defensive options for stretches versus opposing wings, a number of forward archetypes and some guards.
There still are some matchups, such as against ultra-talented jumbo playmakers, such as the Cade Cunningham’s of the world, or in quickness-deficit mismatches versus say, Devin Booker, where Wade has trouble. There’s going to be those sort of mismatches for most players from time to time throughout the league, though.
In the majority of his time when he was given his share of notable minutes, conversely, I thought Wade was very competent in on-ball coverage versus opposing wings and forwards, whether he was in lineups at the 3 or 4.
Wade’s positional sense is typically sound, which enables him to often make the opposition shoot over the top in difficult pull-up plays, and while he can be handsy at times, the fouls he commits, more often than not in those situations, are to deter easy baskets. I don’t personally believe, with more experience, those are overly concerning, either, and I wouldn’t consider him to be reckless, by any means.
In addition, Wade is a player that usually is in the right places as a team defender. Whether that’s stunting to drivers, being available as a weak side defender to deter passes when post bigs have seals, or getting out to shooters off of those plays to help the helper, Wade is a player Cleveland can rely on in that realm.
Overall, despite minutes being inconsistent for Wade, in the majority of his playing time, no matter the minutes-share, he’s making the right plays as a team defender. He utilizes all of his 6-foot-9 length, too, which is meaningful.
It’s also telling that, while I acknowledge others help some, opponents did still have 5.5 less points per 100 possessions in Wade’s minutes this season, which placed in the 89th percentile, per Cleaning The Glass. Wade’s heady play and defensive positioning played into that.
Objectively, there are some odd fouls from Wade here and there, which is somewhat because of inexperience, or overextending, and against more physical forwards, he can have issues. But by and large, I thought his defense was good for Cleveland this season, and the intuition he has to usually have proper rebounding position shouldn’t be taken for granted.