The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t have the close to the season they would’ve been hoping for, partially because of injuries, but it was a successful 2021-22 campaign for the Wine and Gold, all things considered.
The Cavaliers had 44 wins, a 22-win improvement from the season prior, and despite the team not making the postseason, there were noticeable strides taken from the group as a whole. Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen had career seasons, and both represented the Cavaliers with Team LeBron in the Cleveland-centric All-Star festivities back in February.
As the season wore on, Lauri Markkanen did find his footing in three-big lineups prior to an ankle sprain before the All-Star break, and then in the closing stretch, he was a bright spot for the team. Some of that was due to Markkanen playing the 4, but next season, I’m optimistic Markkanen can have a better start, either way, based on encouraging stretches in his first year with the team.
In relation to other positives from the season overall, Kevin Love was terrific in a move to a bench supersub-type role, Cedi Osman had something of a bounce-back season when the opportunities were there and Lamar Stevens had his share of growth.
Another guy that helped the team, and I thought did a solid job for what was asked of him was Dean Wade, who this last go-round appeared more at the 3, where he had his share of starts for fill-in purposes, and did fairly well.
With that in mind, let’s examine how Wade graded out in 2021-22 for the Cavs.
First up, we’ll examine his work at the offensive end.
Examining Wade’s 2021-22 offensive play
Wade is not going to be a player that the Cavaliers are going to expect to regularly get 15-plus points, whether that’s in some starts as a fill-in player or as a rotational contributor. That’s not entirely on him, but he’s not regularly going to be a player that’s going to receive a bunch of on-ball opportunities in set offense.
In some mismatch-type situations, or as a counter to hard closeouts, Wade can create for himself, I don’t want to shortchange that, necessarily.
He has shown some capability to generate meaningful drives here and there, and if there’s some 4-on-3 situations after guys are blitzed, Wade can make sound passes to take advantage at times to get others open looks from quick decisions.
All of that being said, Wade’s not really much of an on-ball presence, regularly, and that’s okay, when you factor in his role when he’s in there for stretches.
For starters, in an identical minutes-share as his last season with 19.2, the first he was involved in Cleveland’s rotation a considerable amount, Wade had 5.3 points per game and he shot 35.9 percent from three. He’s not going to be a high-usage guy by any means when he’s in games, for what it’s worth, but while there’s ups and downs with Wade catch-and-shoot-wise, when he’s given his share of looks, he can help Cleveland as an off-ball presence.
Now, I’m not going to put Wade in the Markkanen-esque shooting category; that’s just not the case. However, Wade shot a decent clip from deep overall, more so because of his work as a fill-in starter, and he started in 28 of his 51 appearances this season, for reference.
When he was in for meaningful opportunities, Wade’s cutting, finishing and transition feel were positives to some extent, too, from there.
But, while I don’t discount his movement feel, nor him being a decent ball-mover in his minutes, Wade’s offense is going to have inconsistencies. And we saw that prior to him missing a good chunk of the closing stretch of Cleveland’s season because of a partial meniscus tear, which he’s since fully recovered from and is back to on-court work, fortunately.
In any case, with the limitations as a creator, I have to go with a B- for Wade on offense this season, relative to expectations.
Wade’s 2021-22 offensive play: B-
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.
Wade’s 2021-22 defensive grade: B+
Taking a closer look at Wade’s overall 2021-22 play
Okay, so in regards to my overall grade for Wade in what was realistically his second season as a regular contributor with Cleveland, as Year 1 was mostly in the G League as a two-way player, we again saw his defense make a difference.
For Wade, that’s going to generally be what’s the most consistent part of his game, and with him being generally a competent defender against wings and more perimeter-laden 4s, that can clearly help the Cavaliers for stretches.
And as we hit on, Wade’s feel for diagnosing plays defensively off-ball is part of the reason why when he was in, the Cavaliers were better on the defensive end. Of course, some of that had to do with him playing stretches with both Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, in a decent chunk of minutes when Wade was filling in for Markkanen, for instance, as a starter.
On the flip side of things, Wade is a player that’s going to have ups and downs, regardless of the minutes-share, on the offensive end. It’s probably partly with how he’s utilized, but Wade does have some offensive limitations, which can negate him even in stretches with a size advantage.
Overall, though, I thought Wade did a solid job, all things considered, this season for Cleveland. There’s other guys involved, and in theory, it’s not a guarantee he’s back next season, with his deal again non-guaranteed, but with his emergence this last season and him having a good sense of his team-oriented play, I’d expect him to be back and potentially stick around in the near future.
Wade’s overall 2021-22 grade: B
Wade, who will turn 26 in November, has turned out to be a quality undrafted player and former two-way signing, similarly to Lamar Stevens.