The Cleveland Cavaliers clarified a lot of things with their trade for Donovan Mitchell. They ended the Collin Sexton negotiations, found the solution to their second-creator needs, and answered the question of who would start at shooting guard. The flip side if that the Cavs now have a decision to make at small forward.
Four of the starters are locked into place heading into next season. Darius Garland and Mitchell will be the starting backcourt, and Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley will start at the two big positions. That’s three All-Stars from last season and the Rookie of the Year runner-up, a combination of top-end talent that few teams in the league can boast.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have a question to answer at small forward. Dean Wade is the clear and obvious answer to start for the Cavs this season
Trading Lauri Markkanen to the Utah Jazz, however, now opens up the starting small forward position. That’s the one big weakness on this team, and moving both Ochai Agbaji and Markkanen in the Mitchell trade only exacerbated the issue. Who will the Cavs lean on at small forward?
A few weeks ago we compared Dean Wade and Markkanen, making the case for each to start; Markkanen as the incumbent, Wade as the better fit. Now we have to pivot and compare Wade to the players still here, namely Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro. Doing so makes it clear that Wade should start.
Why should Wade start at the 3? Let’s dig a little deeper.
Wade must start for Cavs after Mitchell trade: His strengths
Dean Wade is not a star, and he never will be. He lacks on-ball creation, he is not a talented ball-handler, and he is not much of a playmaker. Putting the ball in his hands for anything more than a catch-and-shoot or finishing situation doesn’t make sense for a team trying to win NBA games.
Yet what Wade does excel at is being a low-usage, off-ball role player. He is a willing shooter, putting up 5.7 3-point attempts per 36 minutes over his three-year career with the Cavs. He isn’t a sniper, hitting 36.5 percent of those, but that’s around league average and better than either Isaac Okoro or Caris LeVert have shot.
Wade’s other major contribution is as a defender. At 6’9″ he has much more size than the 6’5″ Okoro, making him much more capable of checking larger wings and forwards. He also helps the Cavs when they deploy their 3-2 zone look, as he has much more size to play down low alongside Jarrett Allen and allowing Evan Mobley to roam at the top. The defensive trio of Allen, Mobley and Wade would be able to execute a lot of switching and overall provide something of a wall that opponents would have trouble scaling.
The final major point in Wade’s favor is that lineups where he plays with the team’s other stars are wildly successful. The group with Wade, Okoro, Allen, Mobley and Darius Garland had a +19.3 net rating in 218 competitive minutes per Cleaning the Glass. That was by far the best mark of any lineup that saw at least 100 minutes. He fits seamlessly with this team’s best players, a fact that will only be more evident now that Donovan Mitchell is on the team.
Dean Wade must start for Cavs after Mitchell trade: Other options
Realistically, there are only three options for the Cavs to start at small forward. They aren’t going to shoe-horn Kevin Love into the Markkanen role from last year, and Lamar Stevens and Dylan Windler are too far down the pecking order. That leaves Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro and Caris LeVert.
LeVert has the most pedigree and may have been promised a starting job when the team traded for him last season, but his offensive game — decent on-ball creation, good playmaking, poor shooting and off-ball movement — scales terribly alongside two other on-ball creators in Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. The Cavs aren’t running the offense through LeVert. His defensive limitations seal the deal and will hopefully either resign him to a Sixth Man role off the bench or even put him in trade discussions to add a true small forward.
Isaac Okoro is a reasonable option, and he started his entire rookie season at the 3 alongside Garland and Collin Sexton. The results were terrible, though, which was partly because this team had a weak roster and partly because Okoro lacks the size to consistently check small forwards at just 6’5″ with a 6’8″ wingspan. If his shot develops this season he is a potential option, but he doesn’t do anything better than Wade and is smaller. He has more upside than Wade but in this role is a small step down.
The Cavs ultimately need a better option at small forward to become a true title contender, and that will be a goal over the next year or so. For now, out of the available options, Dean Wade is the best fit in a lineup of stars to help them perform at the highest levels. Starting Wade also puts in place a second unit of Ricky Rubio, LeVert, Okoro and Kevin Love that has plenty of two-way juice as well.
Start Dean Wade.