The Cleveland Cavaliers were undone last season by injuries as they were missing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in the finals against the Golden State Warriors. This season is not getting off to a great start for the Cavaliers on the injury front either as they have announced that Iman Shumpert has a ruptured the Extensor Carpi Ulnaris sheath in his right wrist and will miss some regular season time, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports.
Shumpert is scheduled to have surgery on the wrist on Wednesday and the initial timetable being reported is 12-14 weeks which would get him back on the court in late December or sometime in January. Shumpert has dealt with several injuries since coming into the NBA including a torn ACL and this injury is the latest of the bunch. Shumpert reportedly sustained the injury by hitting his wrist on the rim while trying to catch a lob pass from a teammate, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
This injury news makes the signing of J.R. Smith that much bigger for the Cavaliers as he will now likely take over the starting role. Shumpert signed a four year $40 million deal this offseason after a solid 38 game stint with Cleveland last season where he averaged 7.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game while making 34 percent of his threes and providing stellar defense.
With Shumpert having to miss some time Smith will step into the starting lineup meaning that Joe Harris and Richard Jefferson will likely be in line for some minutes at shooting guard. With Irving and Love still recovering from last season's injuries and LeBron James wanting to play fewer minutes to conserve his body this issue keeps becoming more serious. The Cavaliers should be fine over the long haul but in the short-term they may be without Irving and Shumpert while Love is limited which would place a huge burden on LeBron.
The Cavaliers are one of the favorites to take home the NBA title but health is a huge concern. Shumpert's injury is just piling on to the issues they already had and now their depth will be tested early on. With LeBron on the floor they are always a virtual lock to make the playoffs but the fact that injury issues are starting to pop up already as training camp starts isn't a good sign for this team.
