Welcome to The Land, @DwyaneWade!
DETAILS: https://t.co/QlQd1lx0M7#AllForOne pic.twitter.com/iBUzSRyze0
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) September 27, 2017
Reunited and it feels so good; Dwayne Wade and LeBron James are now teammates once more. After clearing NBA waivers at 5 p.m. ET, 12-time All-Star guard Dwyane Wade has signed a one-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers worth $2.3 Million, as league sources have disclosed to ESPN. This decision comes three days after Wade left $8 Million on the table to leave the Chicago Bulls.
Dwayne Wade is practicing with #Cavaliers tonight. Will not be in Cle Thursday; attending to personal business. To be introduced Friday
— Marla Ridenour (@MRidenourABJ) September 27, 2017
Wade, a three time NBA champion, will be reunited with LeBron James, with whom he as previously he won two championships with when they both played for the Miami Heat and he considers his ‘brother.’ James, like Wade, left the Miami Heat for the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2014.
“It’s like when you’re starting school, and you walk into class with your best friend and you know that it’s going to be fun,” said James said earlier today, with an enormous smile on his face. LeBron also stated, “He adds another championship DNA, another guy with high basketball IQ, another playmaker that can make plays and also make shots.”
Wade had many other options on the table, for instance, the team he has been playing with for 13 years, the Miami Heat. However, he joined LeBron and the Cavaliers instead.
“I look forward to playing with my brother LeBron. We’ve won two championships together and I hope we win a third,” said Wade. Wade also went on to state how there’s no better place to play at this point of his career.
At Wade’s age of 35, in basketball years, means he has only has a few more years to go in his career. Despite this, in the last season, Wade averaged 18.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists and shot 43.4% from the field in 29.9 minutes per game. These are shocking numbers demonstrating that Wade still has the potential to make a huge impact on the Cavaliers, especially alongside James.
This upcoming NBA season will be packed with teams trying to compete for an NBA championship. The current national champions are the Golden State Warriors (GSW) who went up against LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the latest NBA finals.
Many believed the Cavaliers lost due to them not having enough good players to match up with the GSW – but, now that all may change.
“We already had a lot of depth, Wade makes it even deeper,” said James. This demonstrates James’s confidence in that the Cavs have enough great players to match up with the GSW, with Wade’s possibly giving a better chance to defeat the GSW. This move has the potential to make the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA champions if they reach and win in the next finals.
According to ESPN’s Kevin Pelton, Wade might ultimately make the Cavs “less dangerous”, though FiveThirtyEight’s Chris Herring writes that Cleveland could make the 35-year-old young again.
This is history in the making: the reuniting of old teammates rekindling the relationship they once had on the basketball court. Dwayne Wade and LeBron James, both are historically great players and when they’re teamed up, it’s a bond that can’t be broken.
