Cleveland Cavaliers: J.R. Smith Will Be Back In April

Cleveland Cavaliers starting shooting guard J.R. Smith is set to make a return in April.

According to Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer, J.R. Smith will be back in April. The Cleveland Cavaliers starting shooting guard has been out since breaking his thumb on December 20th. Before that, Smith missed four games while he dealt with an ailing knee and as a result has only played in 21 games this year.

In those games, Smith didn’t look like himself for much of the time with 15 games of single-digit scoring efforts. That he had 15 of those types of games so early in the season, 60.0 percent of the games he played in, came as a result of inefficiency and came as a surprise. After shooting 40.0 percent from three-point range in 2015-2016, Smith has only shot 36.2 percent from the field this season. Last year, Smith had 27 games total scoring between 0-9 points out of 77. That’s 35.1 percent of the games that Smith played in during the 2015-2016 season.

The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t necessarily need Smith to score in bunches but if he’s playing up to his potential he’ll score in bunches regardless.

Defensively, Smith looked different as well. The energy was there but the lateral agility Smith needed to prevent ballhandlers from penetrating the lane and the short-area burst that Smith had when he needed to recover were lacking, possibly because of the knee injury he cited as a cause for his lackluster play to start the season. Last year, Smith held opposing shooting guards and small forwards to PER’s of 13.7 and 12.3 respectively. This year, opposing shooting guards and small forwards have had PER’s of 14.8 and 18.2 respectively.

Smith was an energetic defender who came away with a surprising number of strips while his athleticism lended itself to him containing penetration from the perimeter on a more consistent basis. In fact, his only real weakness as a defender was as a post defender.

Missing the last 22 games may have given Smith the time he needs to rest his knee and so what the Cavs may see is Smith being better as a defender from April into the playoffs than he’s been all season. With Smith in the starting lineup, the Cavs will have a player who is a bigger three-point threat than Iman Shumpert but who can possibly as good of a defender when he returns.

Shumpert will return to the bench when Smith returns and, once again, be part of a second unit that includes Kyle Korver, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye. By that time, the Cavs also figure to have a backup point guard and they seem ready to add another big man as well as they just hosted a workout for four guards and are actively looking to trade Chris Andersen.

January hasn’t been kind to the Cavs, as they’ve went 8-8 to start 2017. There’s no need to worry though, the playoffs are what matter and when that times, the champs will be ready.

What do you think about J.R. Smith’s return? Let us know in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.

*All stats from www.basketball-reference.com and www.82games.com