Taking a look at the Cavs Player of the Week for Jan. 11-17

Here, we’ll take a look at the Cleveland Cavaliers’ standout performer for the past week of Jan. 11-17.

The Cleveland Cavaliers went 1-2 this week with their first two games being losses to the Memphis Grizzlies and Utah Jazz and finished with a close win over the New York Knicks.

They had the fourth game for the week scheduled for Sunday but that game has been postponed, to go with then-Monday’s, due to COVID-19 issues within the Washington Wizards. The Wizards did not have the NBA-mandated eight available players, for what it’s worth, and we’ll have to see when the games are set to be played later on.

Looking back at the week prior, though, the Cavs rotation was thin yet again because of injuries and it has required a lot of players to step up and take larger roles than anticipated.

The Player of the Week is once again Andre Drummond, who got the nod for last week as well.

Drummond was outstanding in his two games active this past week for the Cavs.

Drummond only played in two games this week since he missed the game against the Jazz due to an Achilles contusion, but his performances were still worthy of the Player of the Week for the Cavs.

In his first game which was against the Jazz, he finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal.

In the Knicks game which was his second, he put up an incredible performance finishing with 33 points, 23 rebounds, three assists, to go with two blocks and two steals. It was also the first Cavaliers 30-point, 20-rebound game since Carlos Boozer back in 2004, per Cavs Notes.

This was the team’s only win of the week and he is to thank for it. He stepped up in a big way for the Wine and Gold. They were short-handed and had already lost to this Knicks team a few weeks ago.

This was coincidentally his next game after the trade that netted the Cavs Jarrett Allen from the Brooklyn Nets. This move made Drummond’s future even more uncertain and leaves Cleveland with some choices they have to make soon, and given recent rumors/reports, it seems likely that Drummond could very well be moved by the March trade deadline.

Both players are set for free agency with Allen set to be a restricted free agent and Drummond set to be unrestricted. The Cavs could use his expiring contract in a trade for teams looking to unload unwanted contracts and net the Cavs an asset in return, feasibly, albeit Drummond’s expiring $28.8 million salary on the books this season won’t be the simplest deal to move.

This seemed very possible at the start of the season and the acquisition of Allen makes it that much more likely, but Drummond is making it a tough decision regardless, even with the Cavs seemingly certainly set to give Allen a long-term deal in the offseason.

That’d appear to be a foregone conclusion, one would think, or for the Cavs to match a potential offer sheet, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

Either way, though, Drummond’s play has been impressive, to say the least. He has been able to help pick up this team and become a big contributor for them and is in large part a reason to thank for the defensive leaps as a group this season.

Cedi Osman also had a good week who also performed well versus the Knicks when he finished with 25 points, to go with five assists, but Drummond was dominant and has once again won the Cavs Player of the Week.