CLEVELAND: Now that Kyrie Irving is back, the Cavaliers are inching toward their first healthy roster all season. Irving’s return, coupled with Iman Shumpert’s return from a groin injury, leaves Mo Williams as the only injured Cavs player — and Williams is hopeful his sprained thumb will have healed enough by Wednesday that he can return against the New York Knicks.
The Cavs went 33-3 last season when their Big Three was healthy following the trades for Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Timo Mozgov. Now that this roster is deeper, there is no reason to believe they won’t be elite again.
“Just the mere fact that we had Kyrie and Shump and Kev all on the court at the same time, we haven’t seen that in a long time,” coach David Blatt said. “That was a good feeling and I thought the guys played really well together. It’s going to take some time, but certainly what you saw tonight were very, very good signs that we can again become a very strong team.”
Now Blatt has to make all the pieces fit. He struggled settling on a rotation last season until the January trades, then quickly fell into a rhythm with his lineup that carried the Cavs to the Finals. He acknowledged early last season he coached by gut feeling more than rigid minutes, but seemed to evolve as the year went on.
Blatt said Sunday there is a minutes plan in place for when the roster is whole, and it won’t be as scattered as it was last season.
“I got a pretty good feel for what we’re looking at going ahead, rotation wise and role wise,” Blatt said. “Before we get to that, we want to make sure that everybody’s healthy and everybody’s sustaining that physical state so that we can begin to really sort of solidify what it is that we’re doing for the rest of the season.”
Williams healing
Any time Williams gets hit on his right thumb it’s a concern since he has torn a ligament in that thumb twice and twice has needed pins inserted to correct it. But Williams said he knew this one wasn’t severe as the others.
“I knew right away [three years ago] I tore it,” Williams said. “This one wasn’t as bad.”
Williams had surgery on the thumb following the 2007-08 season — before he was traded to Cleveland for his first stint here. He needed a pin put in at the time and re-injured the thumb three years ago. He again had a pin inserted and no longer has the dexterity that he does in the other thumb.
He banged the thumb in the win at the Boston Celtics last week, but believes a full week off will be enough to get him back on the court.
“It’s already feeling much better,” he said.
Delly treys
Matthew Dellavedova began the day fifth in the NBA in 3-point shooting at .443, one spot (and percentage points) behind Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry (.453).
Dellavedova shot 4-of-6 on Sunday from deep, which will only help his percentage. Even more impressive has been his percentage in catch-and-shoot situations.
Dellavedova is shooting 51 percent on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, second in the league behind only Kawhi Leonard (51.8 percent) among all qualified players. Curry is seventh at 49.2 percent.
Dellavedova realized last season how much space he had when sharing the floor with guys like LeBron James, Irving and Kevin Love, so he spent the summer working on getting his shots off quicker. The results are evident.
“Just continuing to get used to the 3-point line. I feel really comfortable with that,” he said. “I didn’t really change anything about the shot mechanics, just speed it up and getting used to the 3-point line more and more. That helps.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com.