Wade Baldwin joined Maccabi Tel Aviv on a 2-year deal after playing for Baskonia last season. This will be the guard’s 4th team in as many years in the Euroleague, but is considered to be one of the most versatile floor generals in the game. Baldwin, posted 14.1 points per game in Vitoria to go along with 4.4 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals.

“Wade is one of the top guards in the EuroLeague and possesses extraordinary physical skills,” praised head coach Oded Katash. “He plays well on both ends of the court and brings tenacity and aggressiveness.”

David Blatt, the club’s chairman of the professional committee first brought Baldwin to the Euroleague when he was coaching Olympiacos, “We are all happy to have Wade joining Maccabi. My experience with Wade as a person has been nothing but positive. His professional accomplishments at the highest level of Europe have been exceptional. He cares about winning and he cares about his teams. As an organization it’s our job to support him and help him find his way into the hearts of our teammates and fans. And of course Wade’s job is to help us in every way to be the best we can be. It’s gonna be fun!!”

Wade Manson Baldwin IV was born in Belle Mead, New Jersey starred at Vanderbilt and following a great sophomore season, in which he had 14.1 points per game on 40.6% from deep, along with 5.2 assists and 4 rebounds, he registered for the NBA draft where he was selected 17th overall by Memphis.

Baldwin IV took part in 33 games for the Grizzlies, spent some time in the G-League and then bounced around the NBA where he featured for Portland, Cleveland, Houston, Indiana and Toronto’s G-League team. In the summer of 2019, Blatt lured the guard to Europe as he landed in Athens with Olympiacos.

In his debut EuroLeague season, Baldwin started 9 games for the Greeks and played just over 16 minutes per game. His breakthrough came the next season in Munich as Baldwin announced himself as one of the leading scorers in Europe with 15.3 points per game, combined with 4 assists, 3 boards and 1.1 steals, leading Bayern to the playoffs.

Last summer, Baldwin signed with Baskonia and delivered 14.1 points, 4.4 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 15.5 PIR. In the strong Spanish league, Baldwin IV had 12.3 points, 3.9 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 37.2% from 3-point range.

WHO IS WADE BALDWIN?

Florian Kurth from Basketnews

Uncontrollable? Ingenious? Blessed with great talent? Baldwin has it all.

Baldwin is blessed with this incredible talent. At 6”4, he has a large wingspan, immense leaping ability, a good long-range shot as well as a technique that gives his dribbles and feints a playful ease. In short, on good days his game is a feast for the eyes. Two seasons ago in Munich, he carried Bayern to victories against Barcelona, CSKA Moscow and Efes Istanbul who are considered to be the best European teams, he even dunked over the 6”11-meter giant Dinos Mitoglou and you can’t get more spectacular than that. With Baldwin, Bayern was better than ever.

But Baldwin also has the demon inside him of having to show everyone what he’s made of. He often overplays his game, forgets about his teammates and wants to decide things on his own – not always to the benefit of the collective. In Munich, he found the right mentor: Coach Andrea Trinchieri, no less ambitious and obsessed with basketball with whom he quickly found an approach to his highly talented player (Katash must also find this approach!). He knew how to take him and tickle top performances out of him.

Marc Del Rio from Diario Sport

About the season of Baldwin in Baskonia, I think there are two parts. The first half of the season we didn’t see the version of Baldwin showed last year in Bayern. There were problems at the guard position and he did not shoot well. In terms of the team, Baskonia didn’t qualify for the Copa, which was a very negative surprise.

But from March until the end of the season, we watched a version of Baldwin that was similar to the one at Bayern where he was a top and a clutch player while playing at the shooting guard position. Overall, I thought that his season at Baskonia would have been better, but the end of the season was great and this is a positive point.

I think he can be one of the most important players in Maccabi this coming season, but also I think that he will probably need to adapt to a new team and new country over the first few months.

Alex Reyes from Inside Basket Blog

I would say that Baldwin’s main strength is his physicality, in addition to his winning mentality. However, this season it was difficult for him to really get comfortable at Baskonia because of the first coach Dusko Ivanovic before the arrival of Neven Spahija.

Although he’s not much of a shooter, Wade can have good shooting streaks but really takes advantage of counterattacks or attacking the rim.

One of the points made most about Baldwin is his character. Without knowing him personally, he seems to be a very cold and anarchic person, so we will see how he adapts to Tel Aviv.