Cavs likely to sign Sheldon Mac to 10-day deal, which would be another call-up

The Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly likely to sign Sheldon Mac to a 10-day deal; Mac would be yet another Canton Charge player getting a call-up by Cleveland in 2019-20.

It’s clear that the Cleveland Cavaliers have a bunch of players with injuries right now, and to quickly recap, we’ll touch on the players dealing with reported injuries.

Andre Drummond has been dealing with a left calf strain, while Tristan Thompson is working his back from a left knee contusion, and both are reportedly questionable against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. Along with that, Alfonzo McKinnie (plantar fasciitis in his left foot) is reportedly questionable on Saturday, along with two-way big Dean Wade (right ankle sprain) and Dante Exum (left ankle sprain) is still out.

Plus, Darius Garland (left groin strain) is out at least for the Nuggets game and likely out Sunday versus the San Antonio Spurs, and Kevin Porter Jr. is out indefinitely with him in the NBA concussion protocol.

Factoring in how the Cavs are so thin on bodies right now and even played Matthew Dellavedova, who has played just 13.2 minutes per game this season, 35 minutes on Wednesday against the Boston Celtics, it’s sensible that they’re planning to sign guard Sheldon Mac (previously known as Sheldon McClellan) to a 10-day deal.

Mac would be the seventh player called up by the Cleveland Cavaliers from their G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge this season, and would be the second this week, as wing Sir’Dominic Pointer was signed via 10-day deal on Wednesday. This likely Mac signing report came from Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies on Saturday.

Collin Sexton, who is fresh off having a career-high 41 points versus the Celtics, to go with six assists, has a massive workload at this point. Additionally, Kevin Love is being relied on even more as of late with Drummond/Thompson banged up, too.

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Anyway, Mac is predominantly a 2 guard that is 6-foot-6, and what he mainly does for Canton is attack the basket.

In potentially spot minutes, Mac could help lighten up Sexton’s workload a bit in the next few games.

The 27-year-old Mac has averaged 15.5 points per game on 66.1 percent true shooting in a bench bucket-getting role with the Charge in 2019-20, to go with 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals, as noted by Basketball Reference’s G-League statistics.

With him showing some ability to change speeds and make some pull-backs/stepbacks after defenders have played his drives hard, it’s played right into Mac shooting 56.1 percent from two-point range this season. Coupled with that, Mac is capable of spraying out to shooters on occasion after drives.

While I wouldn’t expect Mac to play much, if at all, in this 10-day deal with the Cavaliers, and I realistically could see Pointer instead receive some spot minutes to give Cedi Osman a breather, given Pointer’s defensive capability on the wing, Mac’s driving and finishing prowess could help on occasion.

As the aforementioned Davies highlighted, Mac did also play 30 games with the Washington Wizards in the 2016-17 season, in which he averaged 3.0 points in 9.6 minutes per outing, per Basketball Reference. Plus, Mac did appear a bit in postseason action with the Wiz then, too, and also appeared in a few games in with the Philadelphia 76ers in Summer League this past year.

Fortunately for Mac, he does now seem fully recovered from a torn Achilles he suffered in the preseason back in 2017, of which Davies referenced.

Again, however, these Canton Charge call-ups haven’t really resulted in meaningful minutes for the Canton players with the Wine and Gold, but perhaps with the Cleveland Cavaliers so banged up, Mac could receive some spot minutes from Cavs head coach J.B Bickerstaff.