The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't surprise anyone when they signed Dwyane Wade to re-join LeBron James to see if the two of them could bring another NBA Championship to Cleveland. Now, thanks to Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue on Monday, Wade just learned that he will start the season as the team's fifth starter and the official starting shooting guard.

Wade replaces JR Smith in the lineup

After just a few weeks on the Cleveland Cavaliers roster, Dwyane Wade has replaced JR Smith in the starting lineup at the shooting guard position. Smith will still get a lot of playing time, both because of Wade's age and because of his experience with Cleveland.

Smith started 77 games in 2015-16 and 35 games last season for the Cavs.

In his career, Smith has averaged 12.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists a game while playing with four different teams. Meanwhile, Dwyane Wade averaged 23.3 points, 5.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds a game and has been an NBA Finals MVP in his time with the Miami Heat.

Last season, Wade averaged 18.3 points, 3.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds a game, his lowest totals since his rookie campaign. The Cleveland Cavaliers are hoping that adding Wade to a lineup that includes LeBron James will help him regain a bit of the lost step he suffered through last season.

Moving JR Smith to the bench comes shortly after Lue also moved Tristan Thompson to the bench in favor of Jae Crowder.

Thompson was benched in favor of moving Kevin Love to center and Jae Crowder replacing Love at power forward. Wade replaced Smith by outperforming him in the Cavaliers preseason.

The 2017-18 Cavs starters

Dwyane Wade will start at the shooting guard position with JR Smith coming off the bench as possibly the Cleveland Cavaliers sixth man.

Derrick Rose will start at point guard, at least until Isaiah Thomas makes his return from injury. At that point, Rose will still play a large role as Thomas recovers and tries to regain full-strength.

LeBron James continues to be the center-of-the-world for the Cleveland Cavaliers as the starting small forward. Despite constant rumors that they would trade him, Kevin Love has moved to center for the Cavs.

The starting lineup will finish off with Jae Crowder as the four-man.

This is the starting lineup that will take the court for Cleveland to battle the Boston Celtics in the opening game of the 2017-18 NBA season. Of course, the Celtics are now led by Kyrie Irving, who was a Cavaliers star as they played in three straight NBA Finals before demanding a trade.
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