Iman Shumpert Undergoes Knee Surgery, Expected To Miss Two Months

1:59pm: Shumpert underwent surgery today to repair a small meniscus tear in his left knee, tweets Shams Charania of The Vertical. According to Charania, Shumpert is expected to be out for two months.

8:44am: Cavaliers swingman Iman Shumpert will be sidelined for the foreseeable future, as he’s set to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Friday, the team announced in a press release. The Cavs have not yet provided a recovery timetable for Shumpert, but league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN that the veteran could miss the next six to eight weeks.

Shumpert, 27, has been nagged by left knee issues so far this season, putting up numbers across the board that are among his career-worsts. That includes just 4.8 PPG, , a .386 FG%, and a .280 3PT% in 13 games (six starts).

The subject of trade rumors frequently throughout 2017, Shumpert is earning a $10.34MM salary this season, with a player option worth $11MM+ for 2018/19. Even when he was healthy, the former first-round pick wasn’t generating a ton of interest on the trade market, so his knee injury will further reduce the odds of Cleveland finding a suitable deal before February’s trade deadline. If Shumpert were to miss the next eight weeks, that would put him on track to return less than two weeks before this season’s deadline, which wouldn’t give him much time to rebuild his value.

With Shumpert on the shelf, J.R. Smith, Dwyane Wade, Kyle Korver, and Jae Crowder figure to continue carrying the load on the wing for the Cavs, with Cedi Osman perhaps seeing a few more opportunities too.

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