CLEVELAND: On the night Iman Shumpert made his season debut in December, he immediately began speaking differently.
Shumpert missed the first six weeks recovering from wrist surgery and returned in Orlando talking about being more aggressive, not trying so hard to fit in and expanding his tool box in an effort to do more.
The only problem was that the Cavaliers didn’t need more from him, they simply needed him to defend like an animal and consistently make 3-pointers. In other words, become the prototypical 3-and-D player the league now craves.
“It’s just a mentality, developing a more aggressive mentality,” he said in December. “I think a lot of times last year it was more detrimental to the team for me to be trying to blend in and trying not to do too much when I have the ability to put pressure on people.”
Shumpert’s aggressive mindset has complicated his role and led to more problems this season.
He has struggled at times defensively and he is limping through the worst shooting season of his career, leading to trade rumors at the deadline that the team later privately denied.
He grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds and broke out of an offensive funk with 12 points in Saturday’s win over the Boston Celtics, a rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy season. It also ended his streak of 13 consecutive missed shots that spanned four games.
He ended Saturday making four of his last five shots, including two 3-pointers, after entering the night shooting a miserable 30 percent from deep.
“It’s a frustrating thing, but talking to guys that are ‘shooters,’ they say they even have rough patches when they’re not shooting the ball well,” Shumpert said. “I just have to keep putting in the work and keep shooting the ball. These guys are going to give me shots.”
The Cavs have stressed to Shumpert the importance of not trying to do too much. He gets in trouble when he puts the ball on the floor and tries to drive because it often results in turnovers. Shumpert denied it, but there are those in the organization who wonder if he is trying to do too much and expand his game in an effort to justify the four-year, $40 million contract he signed last summer.
Shumpert made a spot start Friday when the Cavs rested Kevin Love and went small. He remains an important part of the rotation despite his shooting woes and coach Tyronn Lue often uses him on some of the league’s more explosive point guards.
When Shumpert is right defensively, he joins LeBron James in giving the Cavs two above-average defenders — when James is locked in and engaged on defense.
“His biggest thing for us is defending the best player every single night,” Lue said of Shumpert. “His shot is going to come and go. Some games, he’s going to get six or seven shots, some games he gets two shots. I’m not really worried about his shots and his scoring. He just has to step up and shoot them with confidence.
“But for the most part, for Shump and for us, his value is every single night guarding the best player, which he’s done a great job of.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.