Duke Blue Devils: Dunleavy to the Cavs
Former Duke Blue Devils player Mike Dunleavy became the unexpected beneficiary of Dwyane Wade moving to the Bulls. Dunleavy is headed to Cleveland.
Duke Blue Devils are still moving around the league this morning. There is a report that the Chicago Bulls have traded Mike Dunleavy to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
What has happened that the Bulls would willingly send a proven shooter to a conference rival? They somehow stumbled into signing Dwyane Wade away from the Miami Heat.
First let’s look at Dunleavy. He was courted by the Cavaliers last year before reupping with the Bulls. He has had some injury problems, but he can come in and give you a 6’9” shooter. He is flexible enough to take minutes during the times that LeBron James shifts down to the power forward. He also can play minutes at the shooting guard if the Cavs wanted to go gigantic for some reason.
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Dunleavy only saw action in thirty one games this year as he dealt with injuries. He played about twenty-three minutes per game. His minute load with the Cavs will not be an issue since they brought back Richard Jefferson as well. He can just come in and shoot.
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The story behind this trade is the defection of Wade from the Heat. Wade had made noises about being unhappy and underpaid for two years now and so finally he ditched Pat Reilly and took his ball elsewhere. It probably did not help that his old buddy James just won a title on a team that did not seem to care about the existence of the luxury tax where Reilly seemed to be counting pennies.
Miami has now seen the departure of Wade and Duke Blue Devils alum Luol Deng from their roster so they will have to seriously invest in another Duke player, Justise Winslow. Cleveland adds Dunleavy to a roster that already had Kyrie Irving. Finally the Bulls shipped Jose Calderon to the Lakers where he can add some stability to the point guard position to help Deng and Brandon Ingram.
All the way around, this was a Duke-centric story despite the catalyst being Wade.