Every in-house player that could start at small forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers
By Chad Porto
Dean Wade
Dean Wade is to many fans, the poor man’s Lauri Markkanen. In a lot of ways, Wade is someone that the fandom would like to see fill in for Markkanen’s spot. He’s tall like Markkanen and has a history of hitting big three’s like Markkanen but that’s really where the comparisons stop. Markkanen is a complete offensive monster, something we saw in Cleveland and Chicago before he broke out in Utah. The Cavs’ Wade is nowhere as dynamic a scorer as Markkanen.
He’s also not as good of a rebounder, either. In 20 minutes of action, Wade only grabbed three rebounds per game. You may think “Well, that’s just 20 minutes”. Ok, well, in college he played 30+ minutes per game and only averaged 5.4 rebounds per game.
He is, arguably, a better defender than Markkanen, so there’s that. He’s also not someone that is too off from guys like Isaac Okoro and Lamar Stevens as far as defense goes and may even be the fourth-best defender on the team behind Okoro, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley (in no particular order).
If Wade could develop an offensive low-post game where he became a more reliable scorer, and really refined his three-point shot, then Wade would be the perfect fit for the Cavs, but as of right now, he lacks the dynamic scoring abilities you want from a starter.