It’s been a difficult season for the Cleveland Cavaliers from an injury standpoint, as has been the case for so many NBA teams. The condensed scheduling hasn’t aided clubs from more strings of potential injury absences, but again, all teams have had to deal with it.
From a Cavs’ perspective, there’s been their share of injury woes, and Kevin Love, who has had his share of injury woes even before this season, has been active in just 25 games. That’s been mostly because of right calf injury complications.
Another player that’s had a particularly tough year with injuries, while there’s been a litony of them, has been Matthew Dellavedova.
Dellavedova didn’t make his debut until April 1 against the Philadelphia 76ers due to complications from a severe concussion he suffered in preseason first off, and what played into his extended absence was reportedly whiplash and a neck injury. And then when he was well on the road to reportedly getting back into game shape, Dellavedova had to end up having an emergency appendectomy.
Dellavedova has endured other concussions in his career, and with those being so tricky as it is, let alone the way Dellavedova plays, it’s an even more of a concern for him looking onward. The same applies with the whiplash and neck injuries.
From there, Delly sustained a neck strain on April 25 in a loss at the Washington Wizards, and while the hardship exception add of Anderson Varejao for an end-of-career stint likely added into it too, Dellavedova has not played since then.
With the injury issues for Delly, and him not proving to be a scoring threat the past two seasons, really, it’s difficult to foresee Cleveland bringing him back next season, nor should they.
Next season, the Cavs shouldn’t bring back Delly, for two reasons.
The first is more of what we somewhat touched on.