5. Passing Threat
Just last week, head coach Tyronn Lue discussed his intention of changing the Cavs’ offense for the 2017-18 season. While recent seasons have been characterized by James and Irving dominating the ball with their brilliant isolation play, Lue has expressed his commitment to running an offense more focused on ball movement and structure.
“It’s not going to be a total makeover,” Lue said. “We’re going to do some things different. Some more movement stuff. We have great cutters, (Jae) Crowder moves without the ball and Jeff Green moves without the ball, so we’ve got guys who can move without the ball. You know, RJ (Richard Jefferson) is a good cutter. Having Kevin (Love) and LeBron (James) as passers at the elbows, and now you’ve got Jeff Green, who played in the Princeton offense at Georgetown, so we’ve got guys who can do multiple things now and different things. We’ve got to try to cater our offense to our players.”
Add Wade to the list of players that makes this kind of offense a great idea for the Cavs. Wade is a natural shooting guard, but he is also one of the premier passers at that position. While Wade had the lowest assist average of his career last year with the Bulls at just 3.8 assists per game, much of that can be attributed to the fact that Rajon Rondo and Jimmy Butler needed to control the ball to play their games. With a team filled with catch-and-shoot scorers and aggressive athletes who can attack the basket, Wade’s innate ability to find the open man will likely come into view once again.
Wade has a lot to prove and it will surely take some time for him to find his role in the Cavs’ offense, however, if he is able to bring his talents to court and ability to lead in the locker room, he could end up being the steal of the offseason.
