Sixers already high on Dean Wade: ‘He fits on any team on the planet’

It’s safe to say Dean Wade isn’t the biggest name to join the 76ers this offseason. He may not even be in the top four.

But the Sixers sure appreciate what he offers nonetheless.

Wade spent the first seven years of his NBA career with the Cavaliers. He mostly offered the ability to defend multiple positions. In that aspect, he was highly underrated.

Offensively, his main role is to keep the ball moving and act as a perimeter threat. When you play alongside the likes of Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, LeBron James, Joel Embiid and others, you don’t really need to shoot. That’s always been just fine with Wade.

“He fits on any basketball team on the planet,” James said of Wade, via The Sixer Sense. “Gotta have guys like that in order to win, but I mean, he could play for any basketball team on the planet, and he’ll fit right in.”

Last season, Wade was a member of the first Cavs team to reach the Eastern Conference finals since James was around in 2018. The Sixers have even loftier goals. So Wade signed on after former Cavs GM Mike Gansey became head of basketball operations in Philadelphia.

“He’s just super solid and he’s really smart,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse told reporters. “There’s things that you notice when you’re with him every day that you didn’t know that he was that good at, right? Because you only see him a couple times a year, something like that. And now you see him on a daily basis, but he’s been really, really good.”