The Cleveland Cavaliers learned Monday ahead of their game against the Charlotte Hornets that backup center Kevin Love was out for an indeterminate amount of time due to health and safety protocols. The hammer came again, as around midday on Wednesday Lauri Markkanen joined Love on the list of unavailable players.
Losing Love was an inconvenience, resulting in a reshuffled (and tighter) rotation, but he was averaging just 9.9 points and 20.7 minutes per game. The loss of Markkanen is more acute, given that he is the team’s starting small forward, averaging 30.8 minutes per game and 12.9 points.
What do you need to know about Markkanen entering the health and safety protocols? Let’s get you up to speed.
Cavs’ Markkanen enters protocols – Was he vaccinated?
While to my knowledge there has not been a specific announcement by Markkanen or the Cavs on the sharpshooter’s vaccination status, we do know that he was vaccinated. NBA teams report their vaccination percentages to the league, and the Cavs are 100% vaccinated:
Cleveland has 100 percent vaccination among its players. Kevin Love is also in Health and Safety Protocols. https://t.co/FNIaNesjd5
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 3, 2021
This almost certainly means that Markkanen has tested positive for COVID, rather than being a close contact of someone who did, as fully vaccinated players aren’t subject to contact tracing as we experienced so much last season. Even fully vaccinated adults can contract COVID, but the symptoms and severity are significantly reduced in most “breakthrough” cases.
Markkanen and Love join a handful of other players currently in the protocols. The pandemic has had a significantly reduced impact on the league through two weeks compared to a season ago, but it is still an issue.
Markkanen is the latest NBA player to enter the league's health and safety protocols, joining a growing list that includes his teammate Kevin Love, Milwaukee's Khris Middleton and Philadelphia's Tobias Harris.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) November 3, 2021
More NBA from me: https://t.co/A6ycVmnrjq https://t.co/qCgL1U8Hio
Hopefully, Markkanen will be symptom-free and won’t have any longstanding issues from the disease when he returns. Speaking of: