The Cleveland Cavaliers have played some of their best and ugliest basketball with Dean Wade on the court in the playoffs.
Offensively, the floor has looked far too cramped, as defenders can cheat away from Wade, making it difficult for Cleveland’s backcourt to find driving lanes. Defensively, Wade has been their best player. He’s made it difficult for Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes, and now Cade Cunningham to get to their spots on the floor. Limiting their offensive impact and the team’s as a whole.
On one hand, the Cavs can’t live without Wade. On the other hand, they can’t live with him.
Wade is limited offensively. He’s a good rebounder and a serviceable outside shooter, but those are the only skills he brings on that end.
Things can fall apart when the outside shot isn’t falling. Once he loses confidence, he becomes far too hesitant to take threes. This allows his defender to cheat off him entirely, disrupting the spacing on an already cramped court when he’s playing alongside two centers in Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. This is one of the factors that has led to the high volume of turnovers we’ve seen.
Below is a good example of that. Tobias Harris — his defender — is standing in the paint, even though Wade is on the wing. This gums up Donovan Mitchell’s driving lane and forces an Evan Mobley three. Shots like that are wins for the defense every day of the week.
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The issue isn’t necessarily that Wade isn’t a capable shooter. He’s a career 36.7% outside shooter, which is good, even if he’s run into a cold spell in the postseason. The problem is the lack of attempts.
Wade is taking just 5.3 shots per playoff game in 25 minutes of play. This translates to a 9.5 usage rate, which is the lowest for anyone in the playoffs at his position. If you aren’t a threat to beat the opponent with any facet of your offensive game, there’s no point in actually covering you.
The lack of shooting was an issue in the first-round series. This caused head coach Kenny Atkinson to start Max Strus — who’s more than willing to take the outside shot — in Wade’s place. This move helped the offense, as the Cavs have scored 6.2 more points per 100 possessions offensively in the playoffs with Strus on the floor. However, it was still a net negative because of the defensive ramifications.
Wade is the only Cavalier who has the size, strength, and speed to hang with premier wings in the league, which is important considering most contenders have elite wings. He does this extraordinarily well, which makes him the perfect player to guard Cunningham with.
Here’s a great example of what Wade brings as an individual defender. Here, he stays with Cunningham through a screen, remains connected on the drive, and uses his active hands to force a turnover.
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You don’t stop a player as skilled as Cunningham with one defender. It takes a team effort, but it’s easier to pull off when you’re strong at the point of attack.
Cleveland made it difficult for Cunningham to catch the ball in Game 1, and once he did, they were funneling him toward the bigs.
Wade executed that game plan well, as seen here. He makes Cunningham work for the ball, momentarily pokes it away, which disrupts the timing enough for Mobley to put a clean contest on the drive.
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Plays like this are why the Cavs are much better defensively with Wade on the floor. However, how much better they are points to a much wider issue.
The Cavs have needed Wade to be on the floor in the postseason to be passable. Through eight games, they’ve registered a dreadful 116.2 defensive rating when he’s on the bench (22nd percentile).
Playing Mobley and Allen together doesn’t help those numbers; it actually makes it worse. The Cavs have a 134.1 defensive rating (0th percentile) when Mobley and Allen are playing without Wade in 84 possessions. There’s no situation you can win when the defense is that bad.
The eye test backs this up. When there isn’t someone who can easily stay in front of their opponent’s best wings, the whole defense can get caught in rotation, leading to far too many openings to attack the basket and hit open threes.
In the end, the Cavs are left at the mercy of whether Wade is hitting or even willing to take his outside shots.
The Cavaliers built the most expensive roster in the league, but have done so while allocating surprisingly little capital on the wing. They’re overly reliant on an imperfect role player who has a somewhat limited offensive skillset. And have even more imperfect options to replace him if he doesn’t have his outside shot going.
This isn’t how it should be.
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