The depth of the Cleveland Cavaliers will continue to be tested as Larry Nance Jr. will miss the next two weeks with a sprained MCL.
With Tristan Thompson finally back in the lineup it seemed as though the team was trending towards being healthy once again. However in the Jan. 8 game against the Indiana Pacers Nance went down in the second quarter with an apparent knee injury.
Today we learned the specifics of the injury from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
Cleveland's Larry Nance has a sprained MCL an MRI revealed today, league source tells ESPN. He could miss two weeks, source said.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 10, 2019
The Cavs later confirmed Nance’s injury and said he would miss 2-4 weeks.
It’s hard to imagine things going worse than they have for the Cavs on the injury front. There has been a lot of hand-ringing about the team tanking, but the injuries have forced the team’s hand in terms of the direction of this season.
With Kevin Love now possibly out until the All Star break and Nance sidelined for the team’s upcoming 5-game road trip, the front court rotation will be paper thin.
Channing Frye will likely see more time with the starters to at least provide spacing. However the most likely outcome will be for the team to just go small given how few front court options remain.
Hopefully David Nwaba will be able to play in the near future to at least provide the team with a small ball power forward option. But no matter what the team chooses to do, it seems like there will be more tough games ahead for the Wine and Gold.