Cavs: With Kevin Porter Jr. sidelined, Dante Exum should have a bigger role
By Dan Gilinsky
The Cleveland Cavaliers will unfortunately be without Kevin Porter Jr. for a while, but with that being the case, Dante Exum should have a bigger role.
Rookie Kevin Porter Jr. was really starting to hit his stride for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he unfortunately sprained his left knee on Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves. As a result, Porter will reportedly be sidelined for the next four-to-six weeks, according to The Athletic‘s Kelsey Russo.
That really hurts for Porter, the team and the fan base. Porter has had a respectable average of 8.5 points per game thus far in his first year in the Association, and in December, he averaged 11.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per contest, as shown by NBA.com.
KPJ also hit 37.3% of his three-point attempts in that stretch, again as noted by NBA.com.
Nonetheless, with Porter out for a while, Dante Exum, who was a piece acquired in the reported Jordan Clarkson trade involving the Utah Jazz, needs to have a bigger role for Cleveland. Exum, who our own Tyler Marling believes should start in place of Collin Sexton, is a player that could have his career take off on the Cavs.
Exum has really struggled with injuries throughout his career, as evidenced by a reported ACL injury that cost him his entire 2015-16 season, along with a reported shoulder injury and torn patellar tendon that shrunk his 2018-19 campaign with Utah.
That being said, Exum is a heady player that is going to make the right decisions and consistently feed rolling bigs such as Larry Nance Jr., Tristan Thompson and Ante Zizic when that’s the play to be made.
Though he was again, a player that had his share of injuries with the Jazz, Exum, especially with KPJ sidelined, should have more playmaking duties in his minutes on the floor. This is of course, assuming after Exum is hopefully soon recovered from illness, which has reportedly kept him out of Cleveland’s last two games, which were both against the Detroit Pistons and will keep him out of Saturday’s game at the Denver Nuggets.