Dean Wade’s first stretch in Philadelphia has looked a lot like a one-way street.
The 76ers brought in the former Cleveland Cavaliers forward on a four-year, $39 million deal after he spent the first seven seasons of his career in Cleveland, and the appeal was obvious. President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey wanted a gritty, versatile defender who could hold up on the perimeter and chip in on offense.
Wade has delivered on the first part. The second part has been the issue.
Through nine games, including four starts, Wade’s offensive production has been far below what the Sixers need from a player logging 24.7 minutes a night. He’s averaging 3.2 points per game, his lowest scoring mark since his rookie season in 2019-2020, when he played just 5.9 minutes per game.
Philadelphia didn’t sign Wade to be a featured scorer. The roster already has plenty of those.
But a player getting that many minutes usually has to do more than this on the offensive end, if only to keep defenses from completely drifting away from him. Instead, Wade has gone scoreless in back-to-back games and in four of his nine appearances.
That kind of output has already started to bring back bad memories for some fans.
Dean wade is the closest thing we'll ever get to PJ Tucker pic.twitter.com/zFfhF7lkf4
The numbers behind the slump are hard to miss. Wade is taking just 2.8 shots per game and 1.8 attempts from 3-point range, both career lows since his rookie year.
When he has pulled the trigger, the results haven’t been much better. He’s shooting a career-low 31 percent from deep, 40 percent from the field, and his true shooting percentage sits at 51 percent, also a career low.
That’s the part that stands out most. With the talent around him, Wade should be seeing cleaner looks. Instead, the open chances haven’t translated into much scoring or efficiency.
None of that changes the fact that he’s doing the job the Sixers expected on defense. Wade has been solid there, using his size and versatility to switch across perimeter matchups. Philadelphia has even tried him at small-ball center because of the roster’s lack of options.
Still, the Sixers need more activity on offense from their fifth-highest-paid player. If Wade keeps fading into the background, defenses will start treating him like a non-factor and loading up elsewhere, which only makes life tougher for everyone else on the floor.
Nine games is a small sample, and Wade deserves time to settle into his new role. But Philadelphia needs him to start looking like a scoring threat soon, or this becomes a bigger problem than it already is.
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For Embiid, the issue is not just volume but rhythm, with his role shifting enough to affect the flow that usually makes him so hard to guard. The Sixers now have to sort out how to create cleaner offensive conditions for him, and that falls on the coaching staff as much as on the players trying to make the fit work. [Read more 🡒]
76ers Shrugged Off A Pregame Troll And Kept Rolling In The East
Before the ball was even tipped, Benny the Bull was already working the crowd, playfully poking at LeBron James during the 76ers starting lineup introductions by offering wine cups. It was the kind of pregame bit that can set a tone in an arena, but Philadelphia had little interest in getting pulled into the sideshow. The Sixers handled the moment the same way theyve handled most things early this season, with poise and enough firepower to keep control once the game actually started.
Philadelphia still had to earn it, though, in a 127-121 win over Chicago that featured five players in double figures and another steady night from James, who finished with 22 points, five rebounds and five assists. The victory pushed the Sixers to 9-2 and kept them atop the Eastern Conference standings, a reminder that the punchline in Chicago ended up being the same as it has been for much of this stretch: Philadelphia keeps rolling, no matter whats happening around the edges. [Read more 🡒]