Cleveland Cavaliers: Could Tristan Thompson’s injury be a blessing in disguise?

Even before the Cleveland Cavaliers beatdown Detroit, it was obvious missing Tristan Thompson for a couple games might be exactly what Cleveland needed.

If it was up to Coach Lue, Tristan Thompson would’ve continued to start, but due to his ankle injury that will sideline him at least two weeks, the Cleveland Cavaliers were forced to shake things up a bit. That resulted in the inserting of Larry Nance Jr. into the starting lineup.

For one game, that looked like a success.

Larry Nance Jr. had the game of his career in his first start for the Cavaliers, recording 22 points and 15 rebounds. He was the Cavs best and most efficient player in the first half (yes, even more efficient than LeBron), scoring 18 points and pulling down 10 boards.

Those were both game-highs to that point in the game.

So, after one game, the Cleveland Cavaliers might have found their new center, but that could’ve been predicted. Well, Nance’s explosion not so much, but the Cavaliers success without Thompson was almost to be expected by fans.

The Cavaliers are 18-3 without Thompson this season.

During the early parts of the year before Cleveland retooled their team, the Cavs went on a 13-game win streak, their longest of the season, and they played every single one of those games without Tristan Thompson.

Thompson, during that stretch, was out due to soreness in his left calf. So, unlike the normal iron man mentality, Thompson will end up missing over 20 games this season. Reminder, this was the same player that went four straight seasons without missing a single game.

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For the first time since LeBron James rejoined the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team is actually worse with Thompson on the court. For that matter, they are significantly worse.

On average, they are minus 4.2 with him on the court, and -5.8 with him on the court versus when he’s sitting on the bench.

To add to that, it’s been Thompson’s worst season for his individual stats too. He’s averaging career-lows in points per game and rebounds per game along with averaging the worst defensive rating of his career.

Thompson’s bread-and-butter, his rebounding, has been concerning this season. His offensive rebounding percentage is just 12.1% which is the second-worst of his career and his worst since the return of James.

If Thompson is not a force down low, his impact on the game will generally be significantly less.

Thompson’s injury will force Nance to get minutes with the starting unit. Forming that chemistry and comradery with the starting unit might be a huge opportunity for him to make his mark on Lue and the staff before the postseason begins.

Does that mean that we could be at the end of the Tristan Thompson era in Cleveland? Or, at least at the end of the era in which Thompson gets 20-25 impactful minutes per game?

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At the end of the day, Thompson has been nothing more than a disappointment this season, and without him, the Cleveland Cavaliers might be able to start winning again.