The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be without J.R. Smith for a while.
Smith injured his right thumb on the second to last play of the first half of the Cavs’ overtime win in Milwaukee on Tuesday. He didn’t play in the second half and the Cavs said that initial x-rays taken in Milwaukee were inconclusive.
But as ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst first reported Wednesday, Smith will need surgery and will miss an extended amount of time. The Cavs backed up that report with a release today saying that surgery is required for Smith’s injury and a timeline for his return “will be established following the surgery.”
STATUS UPDATE: @TheRealJRSmith's imaging and examination revealed a fractured right thumb. [DETAILS]: https://t.co/gn0jRQVRlr pic.twitter.com/j8zaSKUSfW
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) December 21, 2016
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The Cavs have played five games without Smith already this season. He missed three games in November with an ankle injury and two more earlier this month with a knee bruise.
DeAndre Liggins started those two December games and earned himself a permanent spot in the Cavs’ short, nine-man rotation, bumping out Mike Dunleavy Jr. Liggins (six total threes in 250 minutes) isn’t the floor spacer and Dunleavy has struggled from 3-point range (32 percent) this season, so the Cavs’ potent 3-point attack will be diminished without Smith.
The Cavs have played the fewest games in the league and their schedule will start to get more grueling in 2017. On a team with no real positions, the absence of one guy will affect the load of everyone. Coach Tyronn Lue has yet to test his team’s depth (playing just nine guys regularly) and now he has no choice.
Further complicating things is that the Cavs already have two roster spots taken up by guys — Chris Andersen and Mo Williams — who can’t play. They have a $9.6 million trade exception that expires in February, but using it or waiving a player (Andersen or Williams) to add somebody they can use means going deeper into the luxury tax. Cleveland already has the league’s highest payroll by a wide margin.
