Iman Shumpert: Gone! Thank God!

Shumpert is exactly the kind of guy you like to stockpile for a championship team. He had a really bad finals, yes. And to be honest, he looked overwhelmed by the moment and hesitant at times. But he's young. This run was very valuable experience-wise for him.

He's a guy who plays great defense, can hit the open 3 with some regularity, and can handle the ball well. I still think JR is better suited for the starting position because of specific strengths and weaknesses, but being able to fill out the rest of the roster with guys with Shumpert-like skillsets is the formula for winning.

I'd take this guy 10-10 times strictly because of his hustle and defensive play. The problem is our lack of shooting, and JR SMITH, not Iman Shumpert. JR was my favorite player......was.

He was clearly playing with a bum shoulder all series long. Not gonna hold that against him. Dude was a warrior out there.

He nearly won his match up with Thompson with an injury. Not bad. He was a big reason they got to the finals. Obviously struggled on offense in the finals, but overall great contributions, love the guy.

Yeah, Shumpert played with grit. He was clearly hurt with both his shoulder and groin yet still played outstanding defense and wasn't always terrible with open shots. I mean he did shoot 3-6 for 3 in game 5...And I think considering we'll have our team as assembled next season we will be able to pace ourselves much more comfortably. And as we proved in the playoffs, I don't think there will be a race to get any sort of seed, etc.

Orange Julius said:

Mo Shumpert.

I like the guy but man did he pull a Mo Williams in the Finals. Missed FTs, missed layups, missed wide open 3s, dribbling off his foot. Hopefully he doesn't let the pressure of the Finals get to him next time.

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I think it's a lot harder to place such harsh labels on guys after this finals. Shump was being asked to do things he's not really capable of, which is the case for most everyone else as well.

In games 1-3, we were playing with an effort that was unsustainable with a 3 man rotation and inevitably, that started to surface for guys on offense. Shots were flat, then rushed and confidence just bottomed out.

Shump is young enough that he HAS to be retained. I'll reserve final judgement for him when he plays an entire playoff run filling only his role.

Shumpert won me over since becoming a Cavalier and I think he becomes a priority contract, but I've rarely cringed so much watching a guy in a fast break. He is a strange combination of great athleticism and defensive anticipation with terrible finishing at the rim. Somebody teach him to use the glass on layups already!

Randolphkeys said:

Shumpert won me over since becoming a Cavalier and I think he becomes a priority contract, but I've rarely cringed so much watching a guy in a fast break. He is a strange combination of great athleticism and defensive anticipation with terrible finishing at the rim. Somebody teach him to use the glass on layups already!

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Yea weird right, I mean he is insanely athletic and fast but he can't seem to hold on to the ball whether its on layups,dunks or dribbling he just cant physically hold the ball without loosing control of it, he has crazy potential though he has every physical tool to be a two way star in the league.

but he gotta work on his handles and finishing, after watching all those turnovers and missed open layups/dunks by shump it really made me miss kyrie even more, damn ky is just so special, too bad he's injured he could teach shump a thing or two this offseason,

I've had acute groin injuries from basketball: I highly doubt he's anywhere close to healthy particularly when you throw in the shoulder injury. I suspect that his offensive regression was due to a lot to these injuries.

It is funny how defensive skills which use the same athletic abilities such as reflexes and quickness don't translate to offense. He's got incredible lateral movement and super quick hands but his handle is average at best.

Overall despite the fact this will likely put the future of our franchise in the hands of three guys made of glass (Irving, Love, and now Shumpert), I think he's the #1 guy to retain. He's entering his prime, he's got room to grow and he's shown flashes of an solid offensive game before getting hurt yet again, team totally changed when he came in with Mozgov and he's the ideal defensive wing to play the next 5 years between Irving and Lebron.

Is there a good explanation for Shumpert's disappearance? He was likely affected by injuries some, but does that explain everything? The guy was below average every game in the Finals. He shot 25% for the Finals. The most he scored in a game was 10 (after averaging about 10 points a game in the previous 3 rounds of the playoffs). He had 10 steals the first 3 games and 1 steal over the last 3 games. He just disappeared for the whole Finals when they needed people to step up. I don't understand.

Things I liked, besides his obvious defense.

1. A healthy Shumpert brings an ability to beat his man off the dribble. J.R. doesn't have the slashing/explosiveness that Shumpert has shown.

2. He can shoot the mid-range and three adequately. He can also get very hot from range. But with Kevin Love at the four and Kyrie at the one, Shumpert's shooting abilities are less important.

3. He can handle the ball in limited situations. But again, with Kyrie at the one and LeBron at the three, Shumpert's ball-handling abilities are less important.

4. He has become very good friends with Kyrie. Kyrie is 23 and Iman is 24 [25 by the end of the month]. Both are young and can grow together. He has also become good friends with LeBron. A healthy and consistent Kyrie, Iman, and LeBron is an elite backcourt.

5. He has now played in 33 playoff games including ECF and the NBA finals, having started 29 of those 33. His assignments included Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson. The ones in bold were the ones he completely shutdown when he was assigned to them with a game-plan.

Things that pop up in my head when I think of Shumpert;

-Can't finish
-Can't finish
-Can't finish
-Starts good
-Can't finish

...so basically he's trash.

I-77 NORTH said:

Things that pop up in my head when I think of Shumpert;

-Can't finish
-Can't finish
-Can't finish
-Starts good
-Can't finish

...so basically he's trash.

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Just...stupid.

Shumpert is the type of guy that you want as a role player on a Finals team. Unfortunately with the injuries, our role players were forced into featured roles and the end of our bench was forced to be role players. It's a situation that literally no team in the NBA can or ever has overcome.

Back to Shump - when our team is healthy, he has a defined role and plays it very well. I'm a fan.

He does need to work on that finish though!

-Akronite- said:

Wow, a lot of people letting themselves pigeonhole guys based on their Finals performance. Shump played really well in the playoffs overall. He played great defense and hit a lot of 3s. He took over JR's starting job in the Chicago series and earned the right to keep it.

Then, after multiple injuries, he had a lousy Finals. I think he's the exact 3&D SG we need in the starting lineup. If he's next to a healthy Irving it will all work out.

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No way someone can have a "lousy finals" and expect everyone to be okay with that.

If you're not competent enough to at least play decent on a stage where you're life was supposed to be built on, than to me you're worthless and you don't deserve to be on a Championship team until you can actually prove otherwise.

People think I sound crazy when I say games 1 and 4 were lost because of Shumpert. He let the backcourt annihilate him and he didn't seem to wanna stop it at all. He had so many open shots and lay-ups and free throws that a typical D League player would hit and he would miss religiously.

I'm sorry. You must let Shumpert go. He's not capable of handling this type of pressure, and he needs to just go to a team where he can be the 2nd or maybe ever 3rd option on. He certainly doesn't deserve the starting 2 spot on this team.

I-77 NORTH said:

I'm sorry. You must let Shumpert go. He's not capable of handling this type of pressure, and he needs to just go to a team where he can be the 2nd or maybe ever 3rd option on. He certainly doesn't deserve the starting 2 spot on this team.

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I mean, when our starting lineup is healthy, he's option #4 or 5...