Who could have imagined back in the ECF of 2011, when the young Derrick Rose, the league’s youngest MVP ever, was trying with his Chicago Bulls to take down the powerful Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, that just six years later we’d witness them paired together?
Those were the years of the Miami Heat dynasty, while D-Rose was meant to inherit the throne. He was “too big, too strong, too fast, too good”, as legendary Chicago Bulls commentator Stacey King liked to call him back in the day. Unfortunately, a devastating injury had derailed his trajectory, then another, and so on, that by the time he was 29, he looked like a worn-out veteran. Meanwhile, LeBron had returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and D-Wade, to everyone’s surprise, was no longer in Florida.
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Big names in Cleveland
New winds were blowing through the Eastern Conference, and in the attempt to take down the Golden State Warriors’ superteam, LeBron found himself with a very potent roster. In 2017, Kyrie Irving went to the Boston Celtics, but Kevin Love stayed, joined by Rose, Wade and Isaiah Thomas. There were also plenty of solid role players, and everything seemed like this could be a team capable of taking down the Warriors. But things quickly went south. Tyronn Lue, who coached the Cavs that season, reflected on why the whole experiment didn’t work on the Club Shay Shay podcast.
“Rose is one of my favorite players to ever play the game, and Wade as well. You know, I think Bron gave them leeway to do whatever they want, just trying to figure it out, playing with each other, the spacing, the shooting, you know, all those components played a factor and it just wasn’t a good fit basketball-wise. That’s just how it didn’t work, but if I had a bit more time, I would have been able to figure it out. But it just didn’t fit the style we wanted to play or needed to play,” Lue stressed.
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Three great guards didn’t complement each other
Rose ultimately played only 16 games before being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, while Wade was traded back to Miami after just 43 games. Thomas also struggled, and it was clear that the three great guards, despite solid stats, didn’t complement each other on the court.
Despite all the hype around their pairing with James and Love, the project quickly collapsed. By the trade deadline, even though the team had a solid 34–22 record, it was clear things weren’t going in the direction the Cavaliers’ front office had envisioned, so they decided to rebuild while there was still time. As for Flash and D-Rose, two players known more for slashing to the rim, crazy athletic drives, and craftiness than for reliable shooting, they were at a point in their careers where much of the explosiveness that made them top-tier NBA superstars was gone.
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Specifically regarding Wade, even though he had played for the Bulls before, it was very strange to see him in a non-Heat uniform. Chicago as his hometown made sense, but the Cleveland No. 9 jersey was tough for die-hard NBA fans to accept. Wade himself shared his regrets about joining the Cavs.
“If I had known that was gonna happen (the trade), I wouldn’t have signed there,” Wade told The Athletic in 2018. “It’s gonna be an item on my resume that’s hard to understand, but it happened. LeBron, first of all, he’s a guy who always plays his cards close to the vest, but I knew his ultimate goal was to be in Los Angeles,” Wade revealed.
“He recruited me and he talked to me about signing there (Cleveland), and I said, ‘Listen, I know you might not be there long, you’re gonna be a free agent, and there are some things that might happen, and we’ll have a conversation.’ I just thought I’d make it through the season first.”
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Cavs were in “win-now” mode
With Wade physically declining and likely having second thoughts about reuniting with LeBron, knowing somewhere deep down that LeBron would eventually leave for the Los Angeles Lakers, while Wade himself was thinking about returning to his beloved Heat, the experiment ultimately failed, despite the roster’s talent.
As Lue pointed out, this was a “win-now” team where players were solely focused on contending for a title. If he had had more time to get to know the group and figure out how to get the best out of each player, maybe today we’d be talking about a team with one more Larry O’Brien Trophy.
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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 29, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.