The Cavaliers will be missing one of their top all-around defenders and a king of the intangibles for a bit, as Dean Wade suffered a right knee bone bruise, an MRI revealed. He’ll be re-evaluated in two weeks.
Wade has already missed two games with the injury. Prior to Monday’s win over the Pistons, coach Kenny Atkinson offered a fairly grim update ahead of the official announcement from the team on Tuesday.
Atkinson called Wade’s status “probably (worse) than day-to-day.”
Wade’s injury occurred during last week’s loss to the 76ers, when he collided knees with Tyrese Maxey. Given the nature of the injury, it was already safe to assume that we wouldn’t see Wade back on the floor for at least a week. Turns out, it will be longer than that.
Along with Wade, the Cavs (37-9) have been without Caris LeVert (wrist) and Isaac Okoro (shoulder). So yeah, that’s three of their top wing defenders.
As for LeVert, Atkinson was a little more optimistic.
“That’s more day-to-day,” the coach said of LeVert’s wrist issue.
It’s clear that the Cavaliers are being cautious, and with good reason. After all, LeVert has shown his usual flashes of brilliance this season, and they’ll want to make sure he’s at full strength before he returns.
The team’s cautious approach seems to be a direct result of what they experienced with Okoro. The third-year wing rushed back from his injury and struggled mightily with his shot in the five games since his return, which was a far cry from his fairly reliable shooting early on in the season.
“[LeVert is] still not feeling right,” Atkinson said. “The wrist is, it’s a little bit like [Okoro] with the shoulder. I think these are sensitive things when it comes to shooting the ball. And if a guy is just not feeling it, we err on the side of caution.”
The Suns-Jazz first-round pick swap shows that the league is putting stock in the long-term success of the Cavs. #LetEmKnow
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The Cavaliers have a packed schedule ahead of them, including a back-to-back later this week with the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. Wednesday marks the beginning of another stretch that will see them play five games in seven days.
The All-Star break is just around the corner, starting after their game against the Toronto Raptors on February 12. It will be interesting to see which of these injured players will be able to make a return before the time off, and how that affects the Cavs’ rotation moving forward.
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Dean Wade-rubbing knees with Maxey??
I think Maxey just scored 43 points tonight!
Maybe while Dean’s out,,,, Maybe he’ll learn to consistantly sink his 3 ball again.