Dwyane Wade will come off the bench for the Cavaliers and J.R. Smith will take his place as the starting 2-guard, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com writes. Vardon notes that Wade made the request for the change.
“I just decided, earlier than later, just to get to the unit where I’d be more comfortable in and can probably better with this team in that lineup,” Wade said. “Why wait? Three games in, why wait? Wanted to get in there with those guys.”
The future Hall-of-Famer is averaging a career-low 8.3 points per game over his first three contest with the club. Part of the reason is that the 35-year-old isn’t getting enough touches and coach Tyronn Lue envisions him getting more opportunity with the second unit.
“He saw that it would be better for him with him in the second unit because he can be featured and have the ball in his hands more than he was in the first unit. Class act for him to come to me and say, ‘You know what, I’m ready to make that change,'” Lue said.
Wade and Lue previously discussed a reserve role when the shooting guard signed with the team back in September, though they wanted to first evaluate the fit in the starting lineup. While Wade will likely be more involved in the offense as a member of the second unit, scoring is not his primary objective.
“I came here for one reason,” Wade said. “I didn’t come here to shoot 20 shots or average 20 points. I came here to be a part of winning and to bring what I can to this team and I want to do that. I feel that my best opportunity to do that is in that unit, so it just came down to that.”
Wade agreed to a buyout with the Bulls late in the summer, which was a decision fueled by Chicago’s desire to get younger and go forward with a rebuild. He was set to make approximately $23.8MM during the 2017/18 season, though he gave up roughly $8MM of that amount as part of the agreement with the Bulls. He’s currently on a one-year, minimum salary contract with the Cavs.
Should’ve happened from the start, him and d rose are so similar, this creates so much more spacing now
Makes the contract with the Bulls look even worse.
The truth of the matter is, he looks utterly lost on the court, and the years have finally caught up to him. He also looks disinterested.
He said it himself, about a year ago….he isn’t chasing rings. He was all about getting paid. Those were the words out
Of his own mouth. He got his money from the Bulls (mostly) and now the Cavs.
He’s just phoning it in, just like he did with the Bulls. After this season, he’ll go sign a one month contract with the Heat, do his little mini-farewell tour, and that’ll be it.
DWade was chasing money then because of all the money he left on the table in previous years.
He should be at PG right now, and he was put there initially, so things should improve.