Cavs and Dean Wade agree on 3-year extension, keeping glue guy around

Heading into the upcoming season, Dean Wade is a player that I believe should have his share of opportunities with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the last two seasons, Wade, who was originally an undrafted, two-way signing by Cleveland following the 2019 NBA Draft, has had more chances.

Wade is not a guy who is going to be one of the traditional box score leaders typically for Cleveland, but has made his imprint on games for stretches on defense, and can knock catch-and-shoot looks offensively.

With those things in mind, while he was given a team-friendly non-guaranteed, multiyear deal following his rookie year, it was nice to see Cleveland and Wade agree to terms on an extension prior to this upcoming season. Per a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Cavaliers and Wade agreed to terms on a three-year, $18.5 million deal, and per a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, that’s fully guaranteed for $16.5 million. As Fedor’s report mentioned, Wade can earn up to $2 million in additional incentives.

This was a quality move by the Cavs, and locks up a solid rotational glue guy for coming years seemingly.

Wade, whose fourth-year team option was exercised back in June, was originally going to be in the last year of a $1.9 million contract, is now fully guaranteed. And as Fedor’s report expressed, Wade is now set to be with the Cavaliers through the 2025-26 season.

As we previously alluded to, Wade is not a player that’s going to be lighting up the traditional box score on a nightly basis for the Wine and Gold. He’s not a crucial offensive player in the way Darius Garland, now Donovan Mitchell, nor Evan Mobley will be.

In the past two seasons, Wade has had 6.0 points and 3.4 rebounds per outing, and last season, he had 5.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per outing, with his minutes-share having been an identical 19.2 in each of those.

That being said, Wade is a pretty reliable defensive player, helps out defensive rebounding efforts, and he can connect on catch-and-shoot looks off of ball-swings and/or from spot-ups. His three-point shooting hit rate last season was 35.9 percent, and in the year prior, was 36.6 percent, for further context. He has flashed some movement shooting at times, too, and on cuts and in transition, he’s been a great finisher with both hands when the chances have arisen.

Although he’s not a player that’s going to self-create much for the Cavaliers, he can make some plays countering hard closeouts, and after heady off-ball movement, he can aid the offense as a passer in some 4-on-3 situations following opponent rotations. For a guy who is generally going to have notable minutes variance, I don’t discount those things, either.

Also in that realm, as we hit on, Wade is a player that the Cavs and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff can trust to typically be in the right position on defense, and with that and his off-ball offense, Wade could be a player that we see a fair amount in games in years ahead.

To that point, he’s a player that, as Fedor’s report hinted at, is in the running to be Cleveland’s starting 3. I’d be a fan of that, personally, but I can’t say that I’d expect it at this point for the 6-foot-9 forward out of Kansas State.

Regardless, this was a solid move by the Cavaliers given how Wade has shown marketed growth in the past two seasons, and he’s a nice glue guy to have around seemingly for years to come that gives the team energy, and is a player his teammates seem to love. Wade, who turns 26 in November, looks to be a guy whose arrow is pointing up, much like this still young Wine and Gold group overall.