Some Cleveland Cavaliers fans may not realize that Dean Wade, an off and on again starter, has been with the team for four seasons. He started out by signing a two-way contract in 2019 when he signed as a rookie free agent. The following summer he signed a multi-year, rest-of-season contract with the team, and he then signed a three-year, $18.5 million deal last offseason, of which $16.5 million is set to be guaranteed.
Wade has had a couple of injuries over these last two seasons and that has affected his playing time and getting back to more consistent minutes on the floor. Those inconsistencies have led to many Cavs fans doubting Wade’s abilities to help this Cavs team. But, if you dig a little deeper into Wade’s seasons you’ll find that he has helped this Wine and Gold squad over the last several seasons and he should get back to playing in the regular rotation that Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff puts together this season.
Let’s discuss three important reasons why putting Wade in the rotation helps this Cavs team moving forward.
Reason No. 1: When he plays good minutes, the team wins
Last season, when Wade got to play more than 30 minutes in a game the team went 5-1. That’s a pretty good indication of how his presence helps his team. More often than not, we don’t pay attention to how the team actually is playing as a unit. That gets overlooked a lot with a player like Wade. He simply makes this Cavaliers team better when he’s on the floor.
I believe that is still why coach Bickerstaff has kept him in the rotation in the past. The head coach got away from playing him consistently last season. After Wade returned from his injury, the coach played him sporadically.
From the beginning of December 2022 through the end of January 2023, Wade missed 24 games recovering from injury. When the team brought him back, they seemed to give him a game or two to get back to form. Then Bickerstaff played Wade more than 20 minutes over the next eight of 10 games and the team went 8-2 during that stretch.
For some reason though, Bickerstaff decided to bench Wade for the most part the rest of the season. That included a four-game stretch immediately after the previous 10 games where Wade had less than nine minutes in every one of those games and the team suffered by going 1-3.
Things got even more strange from Bickerstaff as he played Wade decent minutes over the next four games and they responded with a 3-1 record. But then the Cavs head coach didn’t play Wade in the next three games at all. This type of bizarre activity by the coach is not a good way to build a winning and consistent program.
Wade doesn’t score a ton and because of that some believe he’s not helping the team to win games but if you pay attention to all the other things that are important in the game of basketball, then Wade should be on the court.
Reason No. 2: He rarely makes mistakes, and has a high basketball IQ
Wade doesn’t make many mistakes when he’s out on the court. He has a high basketball IQ and that helps make the rest of the players around him look even better when they are playing together.
Wade doesn’t seek a lot of attention when he’s out on the court. He prefers to play a fundamentally sound game and that seems to pay off more than not.
He usually makes the right pass or sets the right screen. He’ll often times help set up the stars of the team. He wants his team to win the game and he shows that by hustling after loose balls or giving that extra effort on defense.
Back in the 2020-21 season Wade played in 63 games with 19 starts and only turned the ball over 30 times. The following season he played in 51 games with 28 starts and only turned the ball over 16 times. And last season he only recorded 17 turnovers in 44 games.
For comparison’s sake, former Cavs forward Cedi Osman, who came off the bench and started some games, like Wade, was much more of a turnover machine. In the last three seasons, Wade played 3,083 total minutes while Osman played in 4,520 minutes. In those stretches, Wade only turned the ball over 63 times. Osman, on the other hand, turned the ball over 199 times.
Even factoring in the extra minutes of Osman, and Osman being more of an on-ball presence, if Wade had had the same minutes, he wouldn’t have come close to that high mark of Osman.
Reason No. 3: Great defender
Wade plays great defense anytime he’s on the floor. His defensive footwork and ability to recover if he ever gets burned are very good. You will often find Wade in the passing lanes or disrupting the tempo of the opponent with his constant defensive skills.
He is a good rebounder and has quality positioning as a team defender, too. He’s totaled 534 rebounds in his career so far and had 94 steals along with 53 blocks. None of these statistics are over the top but when you consider that he consistently adds to these totals when given solid minutes of play then you see a player that helps his Cavs team succeed.
The Cavaliers and their head coach Bickerstaff seem to recognize this attribute of Wade but haven’t given him steady minutes, especially during this past season, and that had a factor in the outcome of the season.
The use of Wade down the stretch during the season was so out of whack. That led to Bickerstaff playing Wade in the first playoff game of the series against the New York Knicks only seven minutes in Game 1. After that, Wade got in just one more time for three minutes in Game 3.
This is why Bickerstaff needs to play Wade more often because every time they’ve not used him consistently the team usually loses.
I’m not sure what Bickerstaff’s plans are for Wade for this next season but if he doesn’t play him or is inconsistent with his usage then he once again has mismanaged a player that had a direct effect on the team.
We’re not here to say Wade should be starting in games, though I believe that he could fill that No. 3 position in the starting unit nicely.
But, Wade not being in that regular rotation of players would certainly be detrimental to the Cavs.