The injury history is there, and will he be more consistent with the Cavs next season?
As Scotto’s report hit on, LeVert has had an extensive injury history. He’s had foot issues, which previously a foot dislocation, had a cancerous mass removed on his kidney following his trade to Indy last season, which thankfully he then fully recovered from, and has unfortunately had other ailments. That included early on this season involving a stress fracture in his back.
Overall, LeVert had only appeared in 58 games this season, 47 last season, 45 the season prior (regardless of 2020-21 and 2019-20 being COVID-19-shortened regular seasons), and 40 in 2018-19. The most amount of games LeVert has played in a regular season, also with a full regular season in this sense, has been 71, back in 2017-18 with Brooklyn.
The point is, with a potential LeVert extension, the Cavaliers should be patient here, as Fedor especially expressed. LeVert had injury troubles in his short stint thus far post-trade deadline with Cleveland, and that’s been part of the book on him in his career through six seasons.
Now, LeVert is still a quality player, and I get that he’s a guy that can ease some of the playmaking and scoring load on Darius Garland. As he got more time with the Cavs, we saw more evidence of that, albeit with a rough outing in Cleveland’s first play-in loss to Brooklyn. He was better in their second play-in loss to the Atlanta Hawks, on a positive note.
However, the injury history is there, and LeVert has had some ups and downs, somewhat due to him being some of a self-starter, and at times settling too often it appears.
And if the Cavaliers were to extend LeVert along the lines of what Scotto’s reports stated, even if that’s for a short-term deal, with Darius Garland reportedly likely to receive a max extension, one would have to question the possibility of a Sexton extension.