ESPN’s Brian Windhorst touched on the origin of Cleveland Cavaliers forward Max Strus’ ankle injury, which is projected to keep him sidelined for quite a bit, as he won’t be re-evaluated for another six weeks.
“The Cavs had a setback,” Windhorst said of Strus’ injury. “Max Strus is going to be out for six weeks. Strus was coming back from a hip injury that had kept him out of some preseason games. He was doing an individual workout, and from what I understand, a coach was just doing some shooting drills with him and he came down [on his foot].”
Windhorst continued.
“Remember how two years ago [Kevin] Durant missed multiple weeks because he just landed on his foot weird on his warm-up?” he asked. “This is not quite the same, because the coach was just doing a shooting drill, and from what I understand, Max just came down on the coach’s foot. Terrible — and it’s a bad sprain, you know? I don’t know whether it’s a — I mean, it’s obviously at least a Grade 2. If you’re missin’ — if you’re out for six weeks, it’s a Grade 2 at least.”
Ethan Sands of Cleveland.com mentioned Caris LeVert, Dean Wade and Isaac Okoro as three players who could see additional playing time while Strus is down for the count.
Strus went down with an ankle injury at an inopportune time for the Cavaliers, as their season opener is only two days away. Cleveland will take on the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 23. The team’s home opener is scheduled for two days later, as the Cavaliers are scheduled to face off against the Detroit Pistons at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Oct. 25.
The 28-year-old was an important contributor for the Cavaliers a season ago. In his first season in Cleveland, he proved that he brings a lot more to the table outside of his ability to space the floor. Across 70 games played (all starts) with the Cavaliers during the 2023-24 regular season, he averaged career-highs in points (12.2), rebounds (4.8) and assists (4.0) per game.
Strus seemed to especially turn heads with his passing chops in his first season in Cleveland, as he never averaged more than 2.1 dimes per game prior to the 2023-24 campaign.
Before Strus joined the Cavaliers, he spent the first four seasons of his NBA career with the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat. He accumulated plenty of playoff experience during his time in Miami, which could prove to come in handy for the Cavaliers moving forward. The Heat reached the Eastern Conference Finals twice and NBA Finals once — in 2023 — during his three seasons with the storied franchise.
With any luck, Strus will be ready to take the floor for the Cavaliers in six weeks time, which will be sometime in the month of December. Plus, Cavaliers fans should have their fingers crossed that LeVert, Wade and Okoro will be able to pick up the slack while he’s recuperating from his injury.
