Fedor‘s latest, pasted to get you through the pay wall. It’s far from encouraging:
DENVER — Cavs forward Dean Wade hasn’t played since March 8 — and there is no clarity on when he will be back.
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DENVER — Cavs forward Dean Wade hasn’t played since March 8 — and there is no clarity on when he will be back.
First, Wade left the team for about a week because of personal reasons. Then came an achy knee that flared up following a Houston-based practice on March 15 — right when Wade was prepared to rejoin the lineup.
That day at Rice University, Wade participated fully in practice, going through the team’s usual 5-on-5 session and then holding a post-practice 4-on-4 workout designed to get him and Tristan Thompson extra conditioning reps. The next morning, Wade felt soreness and popped up on the injury report, eventually getting ruled out for the matchup against the Rockets.
That lingering issue, initially characterized as “soreness,” is now being termed a “knee sprain” — the kind of injury that could keep him out for the remainder of the regular season, sources tell cleveland.com.
“We’re evaluating him on a day-by-day type of thing,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said prior to Sunday’s 130-101 loss to the Denver Nuggets. “There’s an issue with the knee and we’re trying to see if we can get it to resolve over time. They take a step here and try this. Then they try the next thing. Can we do this? Does this help? We’re just waiting to see how quickly he can improve. It’s just going to take time.”
How much time is the unanswerable question.
Sources say Wade finally started making progress recently after the latest form of treatment. There is hope that time and maintenance will allow him to return for the playoffs — although that’s not a given at this point.
Wade is not with the Cavs on this current five-game road trip that wraps up on April 7 in Los Angeles. After that, Cleveland will play three homes games before the postseason begins.
Despite a trying season on the injury front, playing long stretches without some of their most important players, the Cavs are 45-30, third place in the Eastern Conference. But they have lost five of their last seven games and frustration is building. Over the last 12 without Wade — an absence that initially coincided with All-Star Donovan Mitchell being sidelined as well — Cleveland is just 4-8.
“We’re trying to get healthy and stay healthy and get rotations and those types of things to be consistent,” Bickerstaff said. “Then our team will be consistent as well.”
Bouncing between starter and reserve, and becoming a fixture in Bickerstaff’s every-night rotation, the versatile Wade is averaging 5.4 points and 4.0 rebounds. Considered one of the team’s best defenders, ranking in the 96th percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus, Wade boasts some of the best impact metrics of anyone on the roster. With him on the court, the Cavs have a plus-8.3 net rating compared to just 0.2 without him. It’s the second-largest differential behind just Mitchell — a number that helps showcase Wade’s importance and his fit within Cleveland’s system.
At various points this season, Wade helped fill in admirably for starting forward Evan Mobley, who has missed 32 games overall due to injuries to his knee and ankle, and was headed for a significant role in the team’s playoff rotation. Given the timing of this injury and the limited number of games remaining, that spot has become a little less predictable.
“Who is 100 percent at this point? I can’t give you honest answers because I don’t know them. I can’t give a timetable,” Bickerstaff said. “Our medical staff is great. They are doing their job. We’re working through it now with what we have and the guys we have on the floor are the guys that will take those minutes. That will be our plan.”