He’ll be out for roughly four weeks. It’s your team now, Jeremy Pargo.
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Colin McGowan is the editor in chief of Cavs: The Blog. He has written for Deadspin, The Classical, and ESPN.com. You can contact him at colinsilasmcgowan@gmail.com or on Twitter @cs_mcgowan.
Kevin Hetrick is a contributing editor at Cavs: the Blog. He is a civil engineer who grew up in Northeast Ohio as a fan of the Cavs, Indians, and Browns. He now lives in Indianapolis. His email is hetrick46@gmail.com, and he's on Twitter at @hetrick46.
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Better google ” pictures of tanks”
This….is becoming a problem. That’s three straight years of basketball with three straight injuries that will cause him to miss significant time.
Rich ur a dumbass as if he can help gettin a broken finger
I know each incident is unrelated, but when does a player become injury prone? Maybe he has weak bones…I am going somewhere to cry now.
Did I say he could, genius? I said he’s been injured now for three straight seasons, suggesting he might, you know, be injury prone.
Well Kevin, now it’s REALLY time to start doing draft profiles. Cavs are now the worst team in the NBA by a fair margin. I hope Dion Waiters is ready for the gauntlet.
I was at the game Saturday night and saw him break his finger. As someone who broke a number of fingers in basketball, it was clear as soon as he started shaking his left hand that he broke his finger. And yet incredibly, not only did the training staff take a look at his finger during a break, they let him back into the game. And then they took x-rays, found nothing, and then let him play again. And the next night. I hope that didn’t exacerbate the injury.
It’s prime time for Nion Dion to step up and…oh God help us all.
Well that explains why he couldn’t make baskets yesterday. UGH!!! Get ready to wear paper bags!! We could sure use a Jeremy Lin to save us! If ONLY!!!
Broken bones do not an injury-prone player make. It’s just luck. Bad, in this case
Isaac, not nec true – broken bones (which he’s had number of) could be due to poor nutrition, etc.
Lets hope this is just flukey. but darn…I’m sad….words…failing….
I’m with Kevin – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDDqDWYAzCQ
Well to all the people that wanted us to get a top draft pick this is a step in the right direction. But in terms of Kyrie I say let him take as much time as he needs. I wouldn’t think nutrition would be a problem for him (he wasn’t poor or anything growing up) as far as that being a contributing factor in his injuries. I would say this is becoming a problem, how serious it is I don’t know yet. My gut says that these are all silly little injuries that are unrelated bad luck. I think if he hadn’t slapped that wall then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. I haven’t looked up if its the same hand or not.
@Isaac:
“Broken bones do not an injury-prone player make.”
So, what does, exactly? Torn ligaments? Sprained ankles? Concussions? Diptheria?
Luke Harangody has been sealed off in a glass case with a hammer and a sign saying, “Break only in case of emergency.”
I was having a pleasant morning here in Germany, until I made my way over to my favorite little blog. Normally, a lovely experience, but today, er, well,,, anybody got a nail to drive in my eye?
I suppose at some level, it can help Dion’s development, assuming his impending struggles as the number one guy aren’t exacerbated by Byron’s occasional nonsense. (Dion’s recent poor play began precisely after Scott sat Dion for the 4th quarter a bit ago).
Expect Dion’s efficiency to go into the tank, but if he doesn’t build bad habits, we could be stronger for it.
The biggest bummer about all this is that 4 weeks of Cavs basketball is going to be boring as hell… Sigh….
SAVE US NERLENS NOEL!
Just think of the xmas day promotions. I’m more interested in his teammate.
You guys need to chill. Its not yet time to mail in the hopes and dreams we all have riding on this kid yet. He doesn’t have bad feet, bad ankles, or bad knees, bad shoulders, concussion proneness, etc…yet. All of these Injuries are fluky, we see the outlines of a trend, but so far they’re unrelated. I don’t think its time to jump ship and trade him.
However, if you want to blame someone for what you all perceive to be his injury-proneness, blame Chris Grant and Byron Scott.
Our bench is poorly assembled on purpose. We’re designed to lose any game that doesn’t include Herculean efforts from one or more of our players. Such a roster devoid of talent puts undue pressure on a kid that wants to get buckets and win in the worst way. To make matters worse, he plays for a fan base that has been starving for a championship since 1964, and had its heart ripped out countless times. He shoulders a larger offensive role than he should have to as a result, and because our second fiddle is still a rookie, defenses are going to key in on him. He has one of the best handles in the league and gets to the rim at will, but opposing defenses know its coming, they know he hasn’t mastered that Westbrook pull-up or that CP3 floater yet, they know he doesn’t have a deadly shooter waiting on the wing, and they know that Tristan Thompson is going to gather so ungodly slow that they’ll always have enough time to recover. He gets hit. A lot.
Its Chris Grants fault because our bench is so bad, but we’re working on it in a way that ensures we’re not stuck in no-mans-land for the next decade. Be patient, there is a light in the distance.
Its Byron Scotts fault because he lets the kid play for 37 minutes a night knowing that hes going to try his hardest to be the hero in crunch time, knowing he doesn’t have the help he needs yet, and knowing that he’s going to get hit, a lot.
In a way, I’m very happy that he keeps having these unrelated minor injuries that allows us to strategically keep him out for much longer than necessary. I don’t want him to develop bad feet, bad ankles, bad knees, bad shoulders, concussion proneness, etc. If he (and we) can survive this next year of irrelevance, we’ll get another solid draft pick and hopefully move some assets to go get him some help.
Silver Linings:
1.) More ping pong balls. I’m furious I just said that in November, but our management asked for it. Our bench is terrible.
2.) More Dion Waiters. I was starting to worry he was forcing shots because he knows he’s better than sitting on the wing watching Kyrie and Andy play a two man game. I want him to get comfortable with his game, learn what hes good at, and maybe develop his distribution skills a bit.
3.) My marriage, and sanity, will benefit. I won’t be watching as many games. I won’t be nagged about it as much.
I don’t know if Grant will do this, but it’s a good opportunity to try out some D-League guys. They probably won’t amount to much, but it’s worth a try. There’s no point in playing Andy too many minutes trying to win games, and we already kind of know what we’re going to get from Pargo and Sloan.
Who will start,Pargo or Sloan?
Well this totally sucks. It was fun to watch the team with Kyrie and Dion. Now that it’s just Dion it’s going to get pretty bad.
I blame the trade of JJ Hickson for all of this.
Irving isn’t injury prone. I mean yes, he’s had five minor/major injuries in this past 3 years, but they have all been random, ‘freak’ injuries that does little to suggest his bodily weakness or injury prone-ness. He’s had a foot ligament injury, a concussion, a shoulder joint injury, a right hand fracture, and a left index finger fracture. This is the most eclectic list of injuries you can find.
First off, his foot has been fine since he injured it in college in ’10. Second, a concussion is a ‘freak’ injury in most sports, except football. A concussion could happen to anybody who’s unlucky, and does nothing to prove someone is injury prone, unless that someone suffers from frequent concussions. And again that only happens in the NFL. His separated shoulder injury is another result of bad luck, and was one isolated incident regarding injuries to his shoulder joint.
And then there’s the two bone fractures in his hand, but they are different hands. His first fracture, his right hand, has been out of sheer stupidity and immaturity. Hopefully he has learned from his mistake and doesn’t smack walls after turnovers anymore. Lastly this left index finger injury is actually a very common/minor one and one many NBA players play through. Kobe’s been playing with a bad index finger for years now after he fractured it several seasons ago. That’s why he wears that finger tape all the time. He plays through it because LA needs him to play through it and can’t afford to lose him for 20 games. Things are different in Cleveland. They’re nowhere near competing for a playoff spot, even with Kyrie on the floor. So they can let Kyrie take as much time as he needs to recover, and wouldn’t hurt the team that much (although it would severely damage the eyes of Cleveland fans). If this was the playoffs, or if the Cavs were any good, I’m sure he would just tape that finger up and go. I’ve heard some people say “maybe Irving has weak bones,” but there’s only been two injuries to his bones, one of which wouldn’t have even happened if he didn’t bang his hand against a wall.
If Kyrie Irving has had five consecutive ankle injuries or five fractures in the last three years, I would be seriously worried. But he’s not Steph Curry. He’s not Andrew Bynum. So far, his injuries have been out of bad luck or (in one case) immaturity, and does little or nothing to suggest that Kyrie Irving has “weak bones” or will be injury prone throughout his career.
bravo Chris!
p.s. – You forgot about every other contact sport on the planet. Ask Syndey Crosby if concussions only happen in the NFL.
p.p.s. – People are still upset that we traded J.J. Hickson?
Thanks Richard, I guess I did forget about hockey, rugby, etc. But my point about concussion being a freak injury in basketball stands.
What Chris said, basically. It’s incredible how snarky people get… @Scott, “Torn ligaments? Sprained ankles? Concussions? Diptheria?”
Diptheria, no. Concussions, no. Torn ligaments and sprained ankle’s could lead to injury prone-ness, but not definitely, unless that particular ligament/ankle becomes problematic repeatedly.
Non of Kyrie’s injuries have repeated themselves, and most of them are freak. They haven’t affected his ability in the slightest.
Injury prone is Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, Steph Curry’s high ankle sprain, Yao Ming, Andrew Bynum. I mean, take Bynum. Kid goes bowling and inflames his good knee, or whatever. That isn’t ‘freak’ so much as it is an indication that his knees can’t handle his weight moving about on them. Brandon Roy has no cartilage left – he is always going to be prone to injury. But there is nothing to indicate whatsoever that Kyrie is any more likely to break another bone next month than any other NBA player – but please, if you can find any statistical evidence that shows this is anything other than a statistical oddity that was going to happen to one of the 300 NBA players, by all means post it.
I may be looking into things too much, but the types of injuries Kyrie seems to be receiving — strains, random breaks, etc — are the type I associate with someone just not being in great shape. Now, obviously, “great shape” is relative. But, when you look at his injury history as well as the fact that he seems to take a lot of “breaks” on the court — not just on defense, either. there are times on offense when you can clearly see that he’s taking a breather — perhaps there’s some correlation between him getting fatigued so often and him getting these freak injuries.
The finger injury doesn’t really worry me. I would like for him to stop hitting the floor ala Wade though.
When a player seems to show a consistent pattern of getting injured and missing significant time – that’s injury prone. No other word for it. This is 3 years in a row, how much more of a pattern does somebody need?
I guess this will really ‘push’ Dion to pick it up a bit. Not that he needs help finding a shot that he likes, but I think he’ll be forced to be more of an overall playmaker. I don’t see him letting Pargo/Sloan lead the team. He said before that he’s use to being ‘the man’ everywhere he’s been, and I think he’s (rightfully) playes second fiddle to Kyrie. So now is his chance to really assert himself.
I still has a sad.
Damon, have you ever played basketball regularly? You can jam your finger every time you play for a week, or you can not have an injury for a year. It is complete and utter random chance, and the thing about random chance is that it happens in clusters we assign to patterns that have absolutely no meaning. Fatigue plays a role in injuries, but hand/shoulder/whatever injuries are in some ways inevitable.
I’m a junior in high school on my basketball team. Started playing in 8th grade. No injuries in 8th or 9th grade. Last year I had two concussions (both from taking random fluke elbows to the head, so I’ve been told). Also sprained knee. Now this year I’m dealing with a bone bruise in my foot that didn’t seem to be a big deal but its lingering and if it gets worse I might have to shut it down for a week or two. So that’s 4 injuries now in 13 months for me. I wouldn’t consider myself injury prone though. I have been incredibly unlucky with injuries. Point is, unless you have some sort of history with the same injury (I do not and neither does Kyrie), I wouldn’t consider you to be injury prone. Kyrie has had 5 injuries that were all unrelated, and only one wasn’t really a freak injury, which was slapping his hand against the wall. He won’t do that again. He should be okay. Meanwhile the Cavs will get plenty of ping pong balls. Bless us Nick Gilbert with your lottery talents
Nate, I do, and I know that the more fatigued/out of shape I am, the more likely I am to get random strains and sprains. Again, my theory about Kyrie is all speculation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a connection.
A broken hand from hitting whatever it is he hit has nothing to do with how good shape he’s in. And all the stretching in the world won’t make the bones in your finger stronger.
Ok I’d rather have the draft pick than JJ. I got to believe by 2017 the kings will slide out of the bottom 10. 2015 or 2016 we could have the 11th pick in the draft