• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

Dean the Dream Wade

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Who is the best undrafted Cavs player ever?

  • Jose Calderon

    Votes: 4 4.1%
  • Earl Boykins

    Votes: 8 8.2%
  • Kevin Ollie

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Matthew Dellavedova

    Votes: 49 50.0%
  • Smush Parker

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Scott Williams

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Chris Anderson

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • David Wesley

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ben Wallace

    Votes: 29 29.6%
  • HOrnyforDean!

    Votes: 6 6.1%

  • Total voters
    98
According to cleaningtheglass.com, Wade is in the 88th percentile in points per shot attempt among NBA forwards. He doesn't shoot much but when he does he's very productive. He's also in the 88th percentile in turnover rate - he does a great job at protecting the ball. And he's in the 67th percentile in assists per usage rate, so he's a good passer, too.

He's in the 93rd percentile among forwards in effective field goal percentage at 60.1%. (Note: The web site sees a difference between "forwards" and "wings". Wade and Osman are forwards; Okoro, Stevens, and Windler are "wings". Nance and Allen are "bigs". (Nance should be a forward, IMO).

They have Wade in the 100th percentile (top 1% in the league) in the 4'-14' range. He's hitting 83% of those shots. IMO, he should get into the paint as much as possible and take more of those shots. He's trying to be a "3 and D" guy, but he's actually better at the short mid-range shots.

Duncan Robinson of the Heat, who the Cavs play tonight, is a player I can see as a model for Wade to shoot for. Robinson didn't get any playing time until last year when he was 25 (Wade is almost 24). Robinson is smaller (6'7", 215) but has a similar game. He's shooting 42.1% on 3's so far in his career.
 
Last edited:
More stats on Wade compared to other "forwards":

Block percentage: 62nd percentile
Offensive rebound percentage: 68th percentile
Defensive rebound percentage: 79th percentile
On/off: +3.6 points per 100 possessions, second on the Cavs to Nance (+5.7)
Offensive on/off: + 0.5 points per 100
Defensive on/off: -3.1 points per 100

Wade helps the Cavs' offense only a little (0.5 points per 100) when he's on the floor. His main contribution is on defense (opponents score 3.1 fewer pts per 100).

To sum it up, Wade is doing extremely well. Compared to other power forwards he ranks very high in effective field goal percentage and points per shot attempt. He's above average in assists per usage. He's an excellent defensive rebounder and above average on the offensive glass. He's above average at blocking shots. He is excellent at not committing turnovers.

The one area he ranks low is in usage rate where he is in the 21st percentile. Wade is still getting his feet wet in the NBA after not being drafted and used very sparingly last year. He's still in the process of converting from a G League guy to an NBA rotation player. It appears to me that he is deferring to the established players on offense and just taking the open shots that come his way, which could explain why his shooting numbers are so good.

But that is changing. Last game Wade took 14 shots, a season high. In March he averaged 6.5 shots per game in 23 minutes. In his last eight games he's taking over 8 shots per game.

Since Feb. 15 when Wade started getting double-digit minutes every game he is shooting 47% from the field and 40% on 3's. However, 65% of his shots have been 3-pointers. IMO, Wade could benefit from looking to take more shots in the 4' to 14' range, where he's making 83% and ranks in the top one percent.

Offensively Wade needs to continue to increase his usage rate, IMO, and be more aggessive in taking shots, especially if he can get into the paint. Defensively he's doing great.

The big question is whether his numbers are skewed since most of his minutes early in the season were in garbage time against other teams' reserves. But in the last six weeks he's been playing against mostly starters. That does not appear to be the case since as a starter he's shooting 56.8% from the field and 45.5% on 3's.

Dean needs to find a way to shoot better on the road as his shooting percentage is nearly 10 points higher at home (48.1% to 38.5%). He has also been struggling lately with his 3-point shooting. In 28 games before the All-Star break he shot 42.3% from deep, but in the 12 games since he's at 31.5%, barely ahead of Isaac Okoro.

In 14 Cavs' wins, Wade is shooting a blistering 58.7% and 54.5%. In 26 losses he's shooting 37.2% and 28.8%. He needs more game-to-game consistency. I think that if Wade just stays the course and keeps taking the 3's that come to him and gets more aggressive in getting shots in the paint, especially when he gets a smaller man on him (which is most of the time since he's 6'9"), he could develop into a very good all-around power forward.

Since Nance and Wade are 1st and 2nd on the team in +/-, I would like to see both of them on the floor at the same time, which means moving Nance to small forward and letting Love and Wade split the power forward minutes. Basically the Cavs would be taking minutes from Okoro (who is by far the worst in +/-) and giving them to Love while keeping Nance's and Wade's minutes the same.

When Allen sits down instead of bringing in Hartenstein I would like to see JBB try a front line of Wade at the 5, Love at the 4, and Nance at the 3, especially when playing teams like Miami who have a 6'9" center. The Cavs are 29th in defensive rebound percentage and this front line would improve that considerably. That lineup would also put five 3-point shooters on the floor and really spread the opponent's defense out for drives by Sexton and Garland with Love, Wade, and Nance on the perimeter for kick-outs.
 
Last edited:
He actually reminds me a bit of Craig Ehlo.

The irony here is I turned to my dad after those 4 games before ASB where Wade started and said... who does he remind you of, skillset, profile all of that, and my dad without thinking twice and before I could answer my rhetorical question said Danny Ferry :chuckle:

By the time Ferry hit his peak in those Fratello years, he was playing JUST like Wade is now.
 
Wade has been awesome for the Cavs. He looks like a legit rotation player in the longterm and seems to be thriving in the mess that is the Cavs offensive system. I commented this on another thread, but I bet we would see some more stuff from him if we had a real offensive system built on motion.
 
Windler has all the tools but something is off with him and I can't quite find out what that is.
His problem is confidence and overall talent. And those are two things that can’t be coached. Windler is “okay” but again I don’t ever see him anything more than a 12-15th player on any roster.
 
Altman isn't perfect, but you gotta give him credit. Wade is a legit rotational player, & he is signed for two more years after this for less than two million per year.
 
Altman isn't perfect, but you gotta give him credit. Wade is a legit rotational player, & he is signed for two more years after this for less than two million per year.
I also think he has been quite decent in trades, contracts and acquiring talents. I still question the logic behind drafting Sexton, Garland and Okoro back to back and am not convinced of their fit together. But evaluating them alone without considering their fit together, they were decent picks.

What is a big negative in his resume is the coaching situation since 2018 season.

About Wade, IMO, he has a chance to be a Love type of role player, with much less offensive and rebounding potential but with better defense and mobility. There will be some bad games from him as he is new to NBA when you think about it, but he has definitely earned to be given more chances for the next year.

He also has more potential than Nance to fit next to Sexton and Garland as he is quite a selfless player with good BBIQ. Nance also has them, but what Dean has and Nance lacks is the potential to be a shooting threat.
 
Wade needs to pull out of his shooting slump. Before the All-Star break he was shooting 42.3% on 3's while averaging 11.4 minutes per game. In the 13 games since the break his minutes have more than doubled to 23.6 but his shooting percentage has dropped to 30.0%. I'm wondering if he's putting more pressure on himself now that he's playing meaningful minutes, or whether playing against the opponents' best players means he's being defended better.

My observation is he's missing wide open, uncontested 3's. Last night was a great example. I'm thinking that getting a chance to start is making him put pressure on himself to perform and keep his starting job. He might be tightening up, realizing that with Love out and then Nance going down he's getting a chance to prove he can run with the big dogs. But whatever is going on he needs to get back to hitting 40% of his 3's because there's nothing wrong with the rest of his game.
 
Wade needs to pull out of his shooting slump. Before the All-Star break he was shooting 42.3% on 3's while averaging 11.4 minutes per game. In the 13 games since the break his minutes have more than doubled to 23.6 but his shooting percentage has dropped to 30.0%. I'm wondering if he's putting more pressure on himself now that he's playing meaningful minutes, or whether playing against the opponents' best players means he's being defended better.

My observation is he's missing wide open, uncontested 3's. Last night was a great example. I'm thinking that getting a chance to start is making him put pressure on himself to perform and keep his starting job. He might be tightening up, realizing that with Love out and then Nance going down he's getting a chance to prove he can run with the big dogs. But whatever is going on he needs to get back to hitting 40% of his 3's because there's nothing wrong with the rest of his game.

Shooting is so up and down all over the league. I wonder if it isn't the pace of the schedule.
 
Wade needs to pull out of his shooting slump. Before the All-Star break he was shooting 42.3% on 3's while averaging 11.4 minutes per game. In the 13 games since the break his minutes have more than doubled to 23.6 but his shooting percentage has dropped to 30.0%. I'm wondering if he's putting more pressure on himself now that he's playing meaningful minutes, or whether playing against the opponents' best players means he's being defended better.

My observation is he's missing wide open, uncontested 3's. Last night was a great example. I'm thinking that getting a chance to start is making him put pressure on himself to perform and keep his starting job. He might be tightening up, realizing that with Love out and then Nance going down he's getting a chance to prove he can run with the big dogs. But whatever is going on he needs to get back to hitting 40% of his 3's because there's nothing wrong with the rest of his game.

...oooooorrr, maybe he's just not the greatest shooter ever?
 
It’s one thing to perform well playing 15-20 mpg against mostly backups and quite another to play 28-36 mpg against starters. Due to a shortage of talent we’re playing Okoro far too many minutes for a 20 year old rookie and now we’ve moved Wade from DNP -CD to 20 mpg to starting.

I think we all need to be patient with our players because this has been a very rough year for them. They compete even when they are outclassed and don’t let losses affect the next game’s effort.
 
It’s one thing to perform well playing 15-20 mpg against mostly backups and quite another to play 28-36 mpg against starters. Due to a shortage of talent we’re playing Okoro far too many minutes for a 20 year old rookie and now we’ve moved Wade from DNP -CD to 20 mpg to starting.

I think we all need to be patient with our players because this has been a very rough year for them. They compete even when they are outclassed and don’t let losses affect the next game’s effort.

Patience schmatience! I was told I'd get MVP Love *with* defense, and I want it now!
 

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-13: "Backup Bash Brothers"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:11: "Clipping Bucks."
Top