Iman Shumpert clears the air with Tyronn Lue, still could be traded

Iman Shumpert has had a tumultuous offseason after reports that he had requested a trade surfaced while he openly said that his teammates lost faith in him during the season last year.

Well, Shump sat down with head coach Tyronn Lue before the start of training camp in in September. The Cavaliers didn’t conduct exit interviews after the season, and Shumpert felt that he needed an unfiltered sitdown, which Lue granted. From ESPN:

"He gave me the chance to be honest," Shumpert said, "and he let me know that if at any time during the year I just want to come in the office and sit down with him and kick everybody out, he said if I just want to yell and be crazy, I can do that, so that definitely made me feel a lot better."

Shumpert also wanted to distance himself from the perception that he had personally demanded a trade out of Cleveland. Also from ESPN:

"As far as coming back, with all the rumors that came out and nobody on the organization side coming out to say, like, 'Iman didn't say that,' I let him know," Shumpert said. "I felt like I was in the dark about everything and I was like, I don't really know. All I can think about is where am I going to be next season? That was my concern. So I was just, like ... finally able to be honest with him and let him know everything that was going on, and it was a one-on-one conversation and nobody got into ... there was no he say, she say. It was directly from me, directly from him. So it was a good conversation."

That wasn’t the only thing Shumpert looked to clear the air on, though. He was unhappy with losing minutes in the Finals, and he reportedly felt like Lue’s short rotations hurt the team’s chances against Golden State. Also from ESPN:

"It's such an advantage for us, and I don't think anybody will be running out of energy in the middle of the game anymore," he said. "That was another concern we had, just gassing our main guys early on in the Finals, and this should be able to preserve bodies better with this team."

Shumpert has gotten minutes with the Cavaliers second unit at camp thus far, but Dave McMenamin reports that he still could be traded due to his expensive $10 million price tag for this season and Cleveland needing to shed a guaranteed contract.

For what it’s worth, if the Cavs decide to flip the Brooklyn first-round pick for a star, they’ll almost certainly need to use Shump’s salary to help make the money work. For that reason alone, his spot on the team is probably secure in the short term.

As to his role, he might get minutes at backup shooting guard while Isaiah Thomas recovers from his hip injury, but there’s almost no chance he finds his way onto the floor once the team is fully healthy.

Shump is probably in line for another tough year in The Land, unfortunately, and there’s no amount of meetings that can remedy that unless he severely adjusts his expectations.