Dean Wade Archives - Cavs Intel

November 18, 2024

Cavs’ depth will continue to be tested as injuries start to mount

Josh Cable / Blog Cavaliers, Cavs, cavs intel, Cleveland Cavaliers, Darius Garland, Dean Wade, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, more, Ty Jerome / 0 Comments

The NBA season is a grind. In some respects, it’s a war of attrition.

For championship contenders, getting to the NBA Finals is as much about staying healthy as it is about anything else. (Just ask the Cavs, Knicks and 76ers, among others.)

After an injury-riddled 2023 season, the Cavaliers have been relatively healthy so far this year. Although Max Strus has yet to play a regular-season game, the Cavs have had the luxury of the “Core Four” being healthy and available most nights.

Kenny Atkinson has leaned into the team’s depth to keep his star players as rested as possible. Donovan Mitchell is averaging 31.1 minutes per game – a career low. Likewise, Darius Garland’s usage is at a career low. Evan Mobley’s minutes are down, and Jarrett Allen’s average minutes (30.2) are the lowest they’ve been since he played in Brooklyn.

The Cavs’ depth was on full display Sunday night against Charlotte. With a showdown in Boston looming on the horizon, Atkinson gave Mitchell the night off. Sam Merrill was out due to left-ankle inflammation.

Sliding into the starting lineup, Ty Jerome was brilliant, as he has been all season.

Jerome matched a career high with 24 points and dished out eight assists. Georges Niang had 13 points off the bench, while Craig Porter Jr. chipped in seven points. J.T. Thor even got into the action, scoring once on a strong drive to the basket late in the game.

Isaac Okoro started the game but hurt his ankle in the first half. Okoro didn’t return.

Dean Wade had three points and four rebounds before leaving the game with an ankle injury as well.

Still, the Cavs were able to notch their 15th consecutive victory to start the season, on the backs of strong performances from Garland (25 points and 12 assists), Allen (21 points and 15 rebounds) and Mobley (23 points and 11 rebounds), complemented by the bench bunch.

“We had five rotation guys out tonight if you think about it, with Dean and Isaac going out with the ankle injuries, so it speaks to the depth that we have and the skill level we have,” Atkinson said after the Cavs’ 128-114 win. “Kind of one through 15, which is a deep, deep team. Everybody can pretty much shoot it too.”

That depth – and the Cavs’ perfect record – will be tested this week.

Wade already has been ruled out for Tuesday’s game in Boston, which is the first night of a back-to-back. Merrill continues to be day-to-day, while Okoro is iffy for the showdown in Beantown.

To make matters worse, Caris LeVert is questionable with left-knee inflammation.

Atkinson knew this day would come.

“I think we did the best we could with minutes and distributing minutes – Donovan being part of the plan – and we’ll keep doing it,” Atkinson told reporters. “Going forward, you can’t fight the schedule. You just can’t. You’re gonna end up being shorthanded too much.”

He added: “This is a tough league. This is a really tough league, physically. I don’t know if the fans can even grasp how hard it is. … We know it’s a heavy load on us and we’re doing the best we can to manage it.”

March 6, 2024

Dean Wade finally has his moment, and I couldn’t be happier for him

Josh Cable / Blog Cavs, cavs intel, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dean Wade, featured, sidebar / 0 Comments

The Boston Celtics were taking it to the Cavaliers Tuesday night – just as they’d done to so many other hapless teams this season – on the Cavs’ home floor, in a nationally televised game nonetheless.

Down 87-71 to start the fourth quarter – and without three of their starters – the Cavs were in dire straits against the NBA’s best team. Early in the fourth, the Celtics extended their seemingly insurmountable lead to 93-71.

Down by double digits to start the fourth, Georges Niang had some advice for his teammate Dean Wade: “Empty the clip.”

Wade, whose last bucket came in the first quarter, took Niang’s advice to heart. And then some.

Wade splashed five 3-pointers in the final frame, igniting an improbable rally that snapped the Celtics’ NBA-best 11-game winning streak. Wade finished with 23 points – including a putback dunk that sealed the game – and his 20 fourth-quarter points outscored all of the Celtics combined (17) in the deciding quarter.

The soft-spoken Wade, who has battled injuries through much of his young NBA career, had his moment Tuesday night, delivering one of the Cavs’ biggest wins of the regular season so far. Isaac Okoro and Niang hit big 3-pointers in the final stretch as well.

After the Cavs’ 105-104 win, it was a refreshing sight to see Wade on the podium, where he was pepped with questions from the media.

“It felt good, the fourth quarter,” Wade said matter-of-factly. “The rim looked really big.”

During his postgame comments, Wade offered a glimpse into the mindset of the Cavs as they battled back from a 22-point deficit. Interestingly, Wade said he didn’t look at the scoreboard for much of the fourth quarter.

“When that momentum shift happened in the fourth quarter, you’re kind of aware of the score but you’re really just kind of in the flow of the game,” Wade told reporters. “You’re not really worried about anything except making the right play, and when I looked up there, I think we were either down 2 or down 4. I was like, Oh yeah, momentum is on our side, we’re playing well right now; defensively, we’re getting stops – I think we’re in a good spot.”

Wade credited Niang for his “empty-the-clip” pep talk in the fourth. Wade’s teammates and coaches had similar words of encouragement for him at halftime.

“They’re like, shoot it a hundred times. I don’t care if you miss every single time,” Wade said. “Them having that confidence in me really motivated me and gave me confidence. We came out in the fourth and they found me every single time I was open. The ball was in my hands every time I was open – [with] perfect timing. I gotta give [credit] to my teammates for having that confidence in me.”

The first three quarters of the Celtics game looked like a continuation of the previous game against the shorthanded Knicks, a 107-98 loss. But as each shot fell for Wade, the fifth-year forward said he could feel the momentum shifting.

“This group, we just never stop fighting,” Wade told reporters. “We have full belief in ourselves and each other, and tonight really showed that no matter what happens, we’re gonna play hard and play together.”

Wade said he probably hasn’t had a quarter like that since high school, “or maybe before high school.”

It’s hard not to root for a guy like Wade – a Wichita, Kansas, native who stayed in his home state to play college hoops. He’s had some hard luck with injuries early in his career, but when he’s healthy, he plays hard, hustles on defense and crashes the glass.

It was nice to see his entire game on display. In addition to six 3-pointers, he got two big baskets by being aggressive in the paint. He also hauled in eight rebounds.

“[It’s] just all those little things,” Wade said. “I was trying to get out there and run the floor as hard as I could, going for all the offensive rebounds. And on defense everyone relies on each other, and I didn’t want to be the person to let them down. That’s my whole mindset.”

Down the stretch, Wade was in the zone.

“Man, it’s a great feeling,” Wade said after the game. “It’s kind of like your mind’s quiet – just quiet – and the rim looks huge, that’s all I can tell you. As soon as the ball touched my hand, I think I hit a 3 and [the Celtics] called timeout, but that whole time running down the floor I was like, If DG flips this back to me, no matter where I’m at on this court, it’s going up. And I had just hit a couple before that … and the rim looked like a swimming pool – so that helps.”