Iman Shumpert Out; Now What for the Cavs?
The Cleveland Cavaliers just released the Iman Shumpert will have surgery tomorrow and will be out for a long time, via email from Cavs:
"Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert recently suffered a ruptured Extensor Carpi Ulnaris sheath in his right wrist. The extent of the injury was confirmed by MRI at Cleveland Clinic Sports Health yesterday by Dr. Thomas Graham and Dr. Richard Parker. Shumpert will have surgery to repair his wrist Wednesday at Cleveland Clinic. His return to play is currently projected to be 12 to 14 weeks."
That timeline is long. A minimum of 4 months puts him somewhere near the end of January. Unlike leg injuries, which are bad for other reasons, Shumpert’s injury brings up a load of concerns whether he can contribute when he returns anyways.
Shump noted at Media Day that he worked on his dribbling and playmaking in the offseason to get ready for this year. Likely, due to it being his right wrist, he won’t be able to dribble or shoot for a couple of months with his right hand. Shumpert developing his outside shot is a big key to the Cavs opening up the floor this year and years to come.
So where do the Cavs go from here?
Thankfully the team seems to be in a much better place than at anytime last year. Early in the year, when Dion Waiters was struggling, Head Coach David Blatt was forced to go to Mike Miller and Shawn Marion at the shooting guard spot. Marion has since retired (feels like he retired about two months into last season) and Miller has been traded and waived since that time.
This year, Blatt will have some creative options. J.R. Smith is likely to step back in as the team’s starting shooting guard, his role after being acquired last year before being suspended at the end of the Boston Celtics series. Mo Williams can also provide some firepower at the 2 guard spot while Matthew Dellavedova can take on some of the big guard defensive responsibilities.
Richard Jefferson, this year’s Shawn Marion (the one we had hope for before the season started) could also take some of the minutes at the 2. Quinn Cook or Sir’Dominic Pointer could be asked to play a role on this team as well, given this injury.
Roster spots are limited. Unlike the NFL, the NBA has a hard 15 person roster, unless exemptions are given. The Cavs have three (3) point guards making the team in Irving, Williams and Dellavedova. Smith, Shumpert and Joe Harris are the team’s three (3) shooting guards. LeBron James, Jefferson and James Jones make up the Cavs three (3) small forwards while Timofey Mozgov, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varejao and Sasha Kaun are the team’s five (5) bigs.
That leaves one roster spot for Cook, Jared Cunningham, Austin Daye and likely D.J. Stephens to fight for. None are likely to have fully guaranteed deals to give the Cavs flexibility at or after the NBA Trade Deadline.
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The Cavs are still limited in what they can offer in a trade. They have their Traded Player Exceptions from Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller but little else to pair with them. With the season a little less than a month away, don’t expect teams to be willing to make player/salary dump deals now. If/when teams are ready to deal, Jamal Crawford‘s name is likely to resurface as could Joe Johnson‘s depending on how the Brooklyn Nets season is going.
Maybe the Ray Allen rumors will start to surface even though he took a full year off, would have to have a guaranteed deal and doesn’t really replace what Shumpert did for the Cavs.
For now the Cavs are fine. Bringing in Williams and bringing back J.R. gives them more depth than anything they had early in last season. For this season, Shumpert will struggle to contribute (injuries seem to be a big haunting factor for him) even when he is cleared to return.
Will GM David Griffin pull a rabbit out of his hat once again? Can the team survive without one of it’s core pieces around the Big 3? Will injuries continue to haunt them?
How bad do you think Iman Shumpert’s injury hurts the Cavs? What do they do next?