Cleveland Cavaliers forward Dean Wade has one of the most valuable skill sets for an NBA role player. He’s an elite defensive forward who can hold his own guarding three through five, is a superb rebounder, and is a career 40% three-point shooter.
Those are the type of players who can earn $12 to $15 million a season. That’s why the Houston Rockets were reportedly willing to give Wade the full mid-level exception if the Cavs had been amenable to moving him. Whether that money was available or will be again next summer when his contract is up depends on how this year goes.
Despite the elite defensive skill, Wade isn’t someone you can automatically trust in high-leverage situations because of his unwillingness to shoot the three-ball.
The playoffs often come down to who can attack their opponent’s weak links best. Wade has been one on offense. He registered an extraordinarily low 10.4 usage percentage this past season and attempted just 14 threes and 18 field-goal attempts in 142 playoff minutes. That isn’t going to cut it.
Even if you’re a good shooter — like Wade is — there’s no reason to actually cover him. Defenses don’t guard players because they have good on-off splits or because their numbers look good on a spreadsheet. They guard players they know will burn them if they leave them open. That hasn’t been Wade. Because of that, playoff defenses have been able to effectively play four-on-five when he’s on the court.
This is part of the reason why Wade was playing less than 10 minutes a game at the start of the playoffs before injuries forced him fully back into the rotation.
The Cavs know this issue well. They’ve been dealing with it for multiple years now. They spent last season talking about it. Unfortunately when the games mattered, Wade still wasn’t confident enough to pull the trigger.
Wade has the skillset of someone who should make the ownership group think long and hard about re-signing next summer even though it would cost them an exorbitant amount of money in luxury cap payments. However, right now, he’s someone who could be jumped in the rotation by a minimum contract player in Larry Nance Jr. because Nance is going to be a willing participant in an offense. This isn’t a conversation that we should be having based on the current skill level of both.
The Cavs, and nearly every team in the league, need the type of player Wade has the skills to be. That said, it’s difficult to believe that Wade can put it all together on the offensive end. And that all comes back to his hesitancy to shoot despite having a good shot.
We’ve been fooled once, twice, or even three times. The onus is on Wade to show that he can actually be more.
This season could be Wade’s last real chance to cash in and show he can be a valuable rotation player worthy of a mid-level contract. All he needs to do is confidentially shoot the ball whenever he has the daylight to do so.
It’s truly now or never for Wade.