Dean Wade continues to show his defensive versatility: ‘Dean does it all’
Wade’s defense has allowed the Cavs to not miss a beat even with Mobley out of the lineup.
Kevin Durant has been one of the most unguardable players in the league for the past 17 years. There’s very little you can actually do to bother a near 7-footer with his shot. Cleveland Cavaliers forward Dean Wade didn’t stop Durant on Monday, but he made it difficult enough to allow the Cavs to come away with a blowout victory over the Phoenix Suns.
“KD is KD,” said Donovan Mitchell afterward, “I think he shot 9 of 17. But, like, it was tough. You know, it wasn’t [easy].”
The play below is a good example of how Wade effectively defended Durant. The goal isn’t to try and contest Durant’s shots, it’s to force him out of them by moving him away from his spots.
On this play, Wade stays in front of Durant’s chest and uses his strength to prevent Durant from turning around and rising up for a jumper. Jarrett Allen’s rotation over to cut off the baseline helped. Durant is then forced to pass out of it which Jaylon Tyson intercepts.
Wade’s versatility on the defensive end has been impactful all season. He’s part of why Giannis Antetokounmpo called Cleveland a “harder” matchup than the Oklahoma City Thunder. This has shown through in the numbers as Cleveland is 2.2 points per 100 possessions better defensively with Wade on the court compared to when he’s off.
“We can just throw him on anyone,” said head coach Kenny Atkinson. “Anthony Edwards one night. Kevin Durant the next night. ... When you have a guy that can do that or multiple guys [it’s impactful]. I’ve been on a lot of teams where you’re like, ‘Oh man, we kind of need a subpar defender to guard KD.’ And that’s huge that we can solve those matchups.”
Atkinson brought up the job that Wade did on Edwards. The play below is another good example of the defensive versatility Wade provides.
Edwards was able to get a running start as his defender after Caris LeVert gets caught on an off-ball screen and then again on the dribble hand-off with Julius Randle. Wade, from a standstill, cuts off Edward’s path to the paint and instead forces him into a step-back midrange shot that he was able to put a good contest on.
These are the type of things that Wade has continually provided for this team.
The Cavs have been winning with depth. That was displayed again on Monday afternoon as Atkinson still chose to go with a 10-man rotation despite being down three rotation players. Each player in the rotation deserves credit for that.
Wade’s ability to guard the opponent’s best player and provide minutes as the backup center is a big part of what has allowed that depth to succeed. The fact that he can fill so many holes defensively while providing good spacing offensively allows the other role players to be as impactful as they’ve been. They will continue to need that production with Evan Mobley out of the lineup.
“Man, Dean does it all,” Mitchell said. “He’s quiet. He doesn’t talk about himself much. But, he can guard whoever.”