2 goals for Cavs’ Dean Wade in the 2022-23 season

Goal No. 1 for Wade in 2022-23: Play in at least 60 games

The first goal, from my perspective, for Wade is to play in at least 60 games this coming campaign.

Last season, Wade appeared in 51 games, and the season prior, appeared in 63 games. In those 2021-22 and 2020-21 seasons, he averaged 19.2 minutes per game, for what it’s worth.

As far as additional context, Wade started in 28 of his 51 appearances last season, and 19 of his 63 appearances in his second year with the Cavaliers.

As it pertains to the role outlook for Wade, last season, he played more at the 3, with Cleveland looking to play with three bigs often, as opposed to the previous season, where he filled in at the 4 far more, which is more natural for him.

What we’re getting at here with this first goal for Wade, he’s one of those more rotational guys where there’s a number of others involved, too, with Lauri Markkanen and Evan Mobley/Kevin Love in there, and Lamar Stevens, Cedi Osman, if he’s around, are others. Caris LeVert, Isaac Okoro and even Ochai Agbaji are seemingly others somewhat involved in relation to the 3, too.

Regardless, based on Wade doing a solid job defensively against opposing forwards, and some wings, and typically being in the right spots as an off-ball defender/helper, I do believe he could function as a defensive sub pretty regularly in Year 4.

Plus, while Wade’s minutes off the bench were decreased on average last season, making it tougher to get into a shooting rhythm, him hitting 36.6 percent and then 35.9 percent of his three-point attempts were still decent, given some role variance.

I personally think this upcoming season, he could more of a rotational regular, and could feasibly cut some into Okoro’s minutes, and often be favored over Osman (if he’s around). And despite me being a fan of Stevens, he needs to show more catch-and-shoot viability to be favored over Wade, in times it comes to that.

So, overall, I’d think if the 6-foot-9 Wade plays in at least 60 games this coming season, with the number of others in the fold, that’d be notable. Injuries could definitely play into more opportunities, in fairness, but for Wade himself, him missing most of the closing stretch of last season due to injury was a bit misleading for last year’s appearances.