Caris LeVert at Cavs media day / ESPNCleveland/Rob Lorenzo
Caris LeVert is healthy for the first time in years and the Cavs have expectations for him
You must have an active subscription to read this story.
Click Here to subscribe Now!
It’s known that the Cleveland Cavaliers made a big splash this offseason with the acquisition of All-Star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell. That trade has drastically altered the expectations for this team not only this year, but for the next few years to come as well.
Mitchell isn’t the only player acquired via a recent trade that could have a big impact on who the 2022-23 Cavaliers are. Caris LeVert may have quite the say in how far this team goes.
The Cavs made the trade for LeVert back in early February last season and it wasn’t everything that many hopes it would be. He battled injuries while playing in just 19 games where he averaged 13.6 points per game while shooting 43.5% from the field and just 31.3% from beyond the arc.
To say that LeVert was underwhelming would be a fair thought on the surface, but the Cavs expect a different guy on the floor this year.
“I think he’s comfortable, for one. It’s unfair in my mind to judge him on what we saw last year,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said on Wednesday. “The trade is always difficult, finding where you fit with a new team is difficult, and then you throw in the injuries and there was never really a consistent run for him. He’s a very good basketball player. We believe that wholeheartedly. He’s just gotta have an opportunity to go show it and we think he will this year.”
All those things are difficult to overcome. When LeVert suffered a foot injury during practice following the All-Star break, it took away any thoughts of a fresh start that he, or the team, could have had. Prior to the break, LeVert had played in four games with the Cavaliers, he then was forced to miss the next nine games with that foot injury.
Through the first three days of training camp, the one constant surrounding LeVert is that the team is quite optimistic with what he could be this season. The Cavs expect him to be a much different player than he was last season.
“Caris is on a tear right now,” Darius Garland said on Wednesday. “He’s scoring the ball really well right now, he’s playing both sides of the ball, he’s really defending really hard. He’s a leader out there on the floor right now. He’s communicating, everybody else is communicating with him. He’s got that attack mentality right now.”
While LeVert’s improvement this season isn’t going to shift him from a role player to a franchise player, he is a guy that can certainly help the Cavs in a big way whether it be as a starter or off the bench. LeVert’s plan for improvement started with a diet change this offseason and ended with him feeling better than he has in quite some time physically.
“It’s probably been like three years to be honest with you,” LeVert said when asked how long since he’s felt this good. “Obviously, I’ve been through some things physically, as everyone does.”
LeVert’s last handful of years have featured a dislocated foot, a back injury, last season’s foot injury, and a bout with renal cell carcinoma of his left kidney. LeVert was fortunate to be traded when he was, as the cancerous tumor in his kidney was found during a routine with the Pacers.
The improved health doesn’t only mean that he’s feeling better now, it also means that he was able to focus on different things this offseason and prepare for the basketball season in a different way.
“I just tried to question everything I was doing. From my diet to my workouts, and I'm healthy now too,” LeVert said of his offseason. “I had a couple different injuries last year that a lot of people didn't really know about, that we kind of kept in house. But I'm back healthy now, we got a full summer under my belt, so ready to go."
One of the things he questioned was the way he fueled his body, undergoing a dietary change.
“It was really sugar. Tried to cut down with sugar. Got a little bit of a sweet tooth. Tried to cut down on it a little bit. Kind of went towards a keto diet. It was tough, but I've kinda got a routine and am seeing the benefits of it for sure.”
LeVert also touched on being in better shape, which has been a theme from Bickerstaff throughout camp as well. On media day, LeVert was noted as one of the guys who excelled in the team’s conditioning test.
“If it goes off of what we’ve seen so far, I expect it to be a big difference,” Bickerstaff said. “He’s been really, really good on both ends of the ball. He’s creating for others, he’s finding his ways to score, he’s really defending well. So, if this is the version of what we’re gonna see when the season starts, I think we’ll all be pleased.”
