With the injury to Larry Nance Jr. Wednesday the Cleveland Cavaliers have another injury to deal with and are forced to make more lineup adjustments.
Current starting power forward Larry Nance Jr. suffered a sprained MCL and is out for the next two to four weeks. This is just another injury that the Cleveland Cavaliers have to manage this season. The team is already without regular starting power forward Kevin Love and his return timetable is murky at best. Add in the fact that Rodney Hood and David Nwaba are also out it puts the Cavaliers in a rough situation. Hood is still dealing with his achilles injury and Nwaba is still recovering from an ankle injury.
It seems that just as Cleveland gets a player back at least one more suffers an injury. When these injures occur it shuffles the rotations and players who should not play all that much see extended playing time. Channing Frye will always be a fan favorite, but at this point in time he should not be playing more than 10 minutes per game. Frye has eclipsed 10 minutes of playing time in six of the past eight games. Part of this is due to lack of bodies, the other factor is that four of the six contests with more than 10 minutes played were blowouts.
Ante Zizic is another player under normal circumstances would not be playing this much. If Cleveland had all of their big men at their disposal minutes would be hard to come by for Zizic. There is a reason for this. Zizic is the slowest and least athletic big man on the team. When playing in the modern NBA this is an awful combo. Sure he can stand under the rim and rebound, but that is about it. All it takes is a somewhat athletic big man or one that can shoot outside the paint and Zizic is neutralized.
What can the Cavaliers do in the interim?
Unfortunately not much. The team can continue to sign players to 10-day contracts, such as the deal that brought Cameron Payne to Cleveland. Their other option is to ride out the storm on a lost season. The team is all but guaranteed to have one of the top picks in the upcoming NBA Draft. To increase their chances the team will continue to play lesser players a significant number of minutes. Additionally the team can keep injured players out longer to ensure their long-term health and to guarantee the team continues to lose.
This season has not gone as expected, might as well make sure the best players are right for next season. It is about building a team for the future and not trying to win games to cost the team a chance to select one of the best players in the upcoming draft.
