Koby Altman, Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations, and head coach Kenny Atkinson held their preseason media availability at Cleveland Clinic Courts on Tuesday morning. They touched on numerous things that happened over the summer, which unfortunately included their starting small forward from last season, Max Strus, breaking his foot.
The team announced last month that Strus underwent successful surgery for a broken foot that would keep him out three to four months. Neither Altman
nor Atkinson had much of an update for a timetable for a return, nor did they shed much light on what led to it.
“Max, unfortunately, [hurt his foot in an] offseason workout,” Altman said. “Broke his foot, had to have surgery on it. I’m not going to go too much more into the weeds on that. He’s going to miss a few months. … He’ll still come down to Sarasota with us (for training camp).[We will] probably have a better update when we spend some time with him there.”
We’ll stay tuned to see if we get more of an update next week on Strus’s injury once the team is in the camp.
Altman didn’t downplay the injury, but felt that the team is in a good position to handle the loss.
“We missed him to start last year as well,” Altman said. “We have enough talent, we have enough depth on this roster to assume that loss. I think we’ll lose something from the leadership piece, but he’ll still be around. I know he’s probably more hurt than anybody that he can’t compete from day one with us.”
It seems that De’Andre Hunter is going to start in Strus’s place to open the season, but Atkinson wasn’t quite ready to commit to that. At least not yet. He did, however, state that Hunter has been arguably the “best player in the offseason” and that Jaylon Tyson is someone he expects to step up this season.
The Cavs certainly have options to fill the starting small forward spot with Strus missing the first part of the season. We should be getting a better idea of who will start and what the rotations will be after training camp.
The Cavaliers open up training camp at IMG Academy in Sarasota, Florida, on September 30.
