The Cavs’ roster this season was stacked with depth even before Dwyane Wade elected to sign with the defending Eastern Conference champions for the veteran’s minimum on Wednesday. The 35-year-old shooting guard was let go by the Chicago Bulls after reportedly agreeing to forfeit $8 million of his $23 million player option that he opted into earlier this summer.
While there is no questioning the fact that Wade can still be a valuable contributor at this stage of his career, his presence in Cleveland creates even more of a logjam for head coach Ty Lue to manage. What exactly will Wade’s fit be in Cleveland? Let’s examine the Cavs depth chart and early practice lineup to try to piece together Lue’s plan.
Cavs depth chart
Guards: Derrick Rose, J.R. Smith, Wade, Isaiah Thomas (injured), Iman Shumpert, Jose Calderon, Kay Felder, John Holland
Wings/stretch bigs: LeBron James, Jae Crowder, Kyle Korver, Jeff Green, Richard Jefferson, Cedi Osman, Channing Fyre
Bigs: Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Ante Zizic, Edy Tavares, Kendrick Perkins
Cleveland’s second unit might have more talent than a few teams in the Eastern Conference this year. Altogether, the Cavs have 18 players signed to guaranteed contracts along with a couple former Celtics (Kendrick Perkins, John Holland) on training camp deals. Felder and Tavares are both candidates to be cut or traded, likely the latter since the Cavs will be paying the repeater tax this year and will want to avoid paying dead money.
Even with those cuts, there is still another cut to be made. Will a veteran like Calderon, Jefferson or Frye be dealt? Calderon is making only the veteran’s minimum, but he can’t be traded until midseason, so he would have to be released if the Cavs want to move on from him. With Thomas out for at least the next couple months, Calderon might be smart to have around for depth purposes though. Jefferson and Frye were useful role players in past seasons as well, but they are expensive deep bench pieces on a revamped roster.
Lue and general manager Koby Altman will weigh their options in the upcoming few weeks of the preseason, but one option that appears to be on the horizon is featuring Wade as a backup point guard. Reports out of Cleveland indicate that Wade has been playing with a second unit that includes Korver, Shumpert, Green and Thompson. That would leave an undersized projected starting five of Rose, Smith, James, Crowder and Love as a stretch center until Thomas returns.
"Me and Ty just talked about role," Wade told reporters in Cleveland on Friday. "We didn't talk about starting or nothing like that. We just talked about what my role can be and pretty much what I've always done. I'm not focusing on starting at the 2. I'm not focusing on anything. I'm just focused on coming in here, learning the offense, continuing to be one of the guys and figure that Ty, he will figure everything out. It's everybody's job that has on a Cleveland jersey to be ready and prepare for whatever he decides."
While it’s encouraging for the Cavs that Wade is open to coming off the pine, his presence will not help an underwhelming defensive unit overall. Shumpert can handle speedier point guards in the second unit but that will leave declining veterans like Korver and Wade exposed against scoring wings when they are on the floor together.
It’s going to be a balancing act for Lue to play too many of the old guys together, which may be part of the motivation to shifting an elite big like Thompson to the second unit. Keeping the athletic power forward on the back line to cover for Wade and Korver’s mistakes should help keep Cleveland’s bench defense afloat.
Ultimately, Wade’s presence should enable the Cavs to play it super safe with Thomas as he continues to recover from his hip injury. Lue has appealing options at every position now and there is still plenty of shooting to spread the floor around subpar 3-point shooters like Wade and Rose.
The tougher question for Lue might be figuring out how best to fit Thomas back into the fold when he is ready to turn to the floor since Smith, Wade, Rose, Korver and Shumpert are all worthy of rotation minutes. With that kind of excess depth and a hefty luxury tax bill, another move could be on the docket to better balance the roster.
Other notes
- The Thunder used the designated veteran’s exception to sign Russell Westbrook to a five-year, $205 million extension on Friday, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com. The fifth-year of the deal is a player option. Westbrook was long rumored to be heading to Los Angeles next summer, but the acquisitions of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony gave
- Former Celtics trade target JaMychal Green agreed to a two-year, $17 million deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, which was first reported by Shams Charania of the Vertical. The power forward was the last restricted free agent to sign with a team this offseason.
- The NBA board of governors passed lottery reform by a 28-1-1 margin this week. In case you missed it, I wrote about the changes and how they will impact the C’s stash of draft picks last month. The changed lottery odds will go into effect for the 2019 season.
- Hawks starting point guard Dennis Schroder was arrested on an assault charge in Atlanta this week after getting into a fight at a Hookah bar. The 24-year-old could be subject to a suspension during this season pending the outcome of the case.
- The NBA announced a salary cap projection of $101 million for the 2018-19 season and $108 million for the 2019-20 season. The 2018-19 projection is just a $2 million increase from this season.