The deal
Heat get: Guard Dwyane Wade
Cavaliers get: Protected 2024 second-round pick
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Miami Heat: B
Cue Skylar Grey: Wade's coming home. A year and a half after leaving the Heat for the Chicago Bulls, ending his 13-season run in Miami amid hurt feelings on both sides, Wade is headed back.
Setting aside the emotional component, this move makes more sense from a basketball standpoint than it would have when Wade was bought out by the Bulls just before training camp. Though the Heat are still deep on the perimeter, Dion Waiters' ankle surgery opens up some playing time for Wade. His presence could even be a difference-maker when Miami has injuries in the backcourt, which previously had forced them to give Derrick Jones Jr. eight starts on his two-way contract.
When I asked Wednesday on Twitter who the Cavaliers' second-best player was with Kevin Love injured, a good percentage of the snark-free responses mentioned Wade, who had found a role as part of Cleveland's bench. Playing reduced minutes, Wade has been more energetic on defense and is blocking more than 2 percent of opponents' 2-point attempts for the first time since 2011-12. His defensive rebound rate (14.7 percent of opponents' misses) is actually a career high.
Wade also has willingly accepted a smaller role on offense, playing off the ball alongside former Heat teammate LeBron James and showcasing the cutting ability that made him dangerous next to James in Miami. According to Synergy Sports tracking via NBA Advanced Stats, 9.6 percent of Wade's plays that finished with a shot attempt, trip to the free throw line or turnover with the Cavaliers came on cuts -- more than three times as many as 2016-17 in Chicago. He shot 71.7 percent on those attempts.
If Wade can accept that he's going back to play a role for the Heat rather than again be the man, this should be a successful homecoming. It also cost Miami basically nothing. The Heat cleared a roster spot by waiving center A.J. Hammons, who had not seen any action since being acquired in a trade last summer.
Cleveland Cavaliers: B
This trade accomplished a couple of things for the Cavaliers: keeping Wade (and by extension, James) happy instead of burying him in the rotation after adding multiple guards in trades Thursday, and saving money.
Cleveland is so far over the luxury-tax line as repeaters that dumping Wade's minimum salary saved more than $6 million in taxes. So while the Cavaliers will spend some of that filling his roster spot, it's a win-win move.