Sorry, Cleveland Cavaliers. You can’t have everything and everyone. Not yet, anyway.
J.R. Smith hasn’t played since Dec. 20 after having surgery on a broken right thumb. The current timetable puts him back in the Cavaliers’ rotation by the end of March. Those hoping for a quicker recovery are going to be disappointed after an on-air interview Smith gave with TNT, per Cleveland.com’s Joe Naga:
Smith also told Scott that his injured hand is probably a couple of weeks away from being ready to go.
“I try not to ask the doctors too many questions because I don’t want to hear any answers that I don’t want to hear.”
The Cavaliers are going to be fine without him. They traded for Kyle Korver, found a midseason gem in Derrick Williams and deepened the playmaking pool behind LeBron James by signing Deron Williams. They’re also the favorites to land Andrew Bogut. They don’t necessarily need Smith to secure the Eastern Conference’s top playoff seed.
Venturing into the postseason poses a different story. Smith’s spot-up shooting will be uber-valuable whenever the Cavaliers decide to run four-out or even five-out lineups, and his defensive efforts skyrocketed during last year’s playoff jaunt.
The hope, then, should be for him to return in time to work off the rust that comes with missing three months or more of action. And while it doesn’t sound like he’ll be returning in early March, he should still have 10 games or so to find his spring legs and shooting stroke.
In the meantime, the Cavaliers can bask in all their midseason coups, because the rest of the world isn’t going to feel bad for them.
