New injuries are emerging for Jarrett Allen and Sam Merrill

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson gave an update on the statuses of Jarrett Allen and Sam Merrill after Tuesday’s practice at the Cleveland Clinic Courts. Both have missed a significant amount of action since mid-November, which hasn’t helped the team, which sits in eighth place in the Eastern Conference at 14-11.

Atkinson shared it with Allen was a full participantwhich is a good sign, considering it’s early in the week and Cleveland doesn’t play its next game until Friday against the Washington Wizards on the road.

“It looked good,” Atkinson said of Allen, who is out with two finger injuries on each hand. The Cavs big man last played against the Atlanta Hawks after missing the previous three games before the Nov. 28 contest.

After trying it out in his minutes, Cleveland’s coaching staff immediately noticed how much both fingers were bothering him. Two days later, the organization announced that Allen would miss at least a week. It’s been nine days since that announcement, so this timing makes sense.

Meryl, on the other hand, hasn’t practiced at all as he continues to deal with a sprained right arm.

“He’s frustrated. We’re frustrated,” Atkinson said. “It’s just a slow healing process. That’s where we are. It’s not worse, the swelling is going down. But the fact is he still can’t kick and catch. It’s just hard going forward. We’re just focusing on sprinting and conditioning. He’s doing everything else, but he’s frustrated that this isn’t more frustrating than anybody.”

In the same Nov. 30 update on Allen and Larry Nance Jr., who is out for the rest of the month with a strained right calf, the Cavs listed Merrill’s injury as day-to-day. It’s easy to see why Merrill, Atkinson and the wine and gold were annoyed with how the sprain healed because no one thought it would last this long.

Atkinson admitted that Cleveland misses Merrill and his “connectors.”

“And the seriousness that goes with it. That’s a big thing for your offense,” Atkinson said. “We traded that, but Kwan (Tomin) is different, right? He’s a cutter and a cutter; he fits into that. But right now, we kind of don’t have that piece. We don’t have another player that fits him. CP (Craig Porter Jr.) is a roller and another cutter. It leads to a little bit of an adjustment of what we do and a little adjustment of what we do. we do.

“I don’t think it’s like, ‘Oh, let’s create another Sam.’ It’s like, how can we use Nae’Kwan better? How can we use Jaylon (Tyson) better? Because they’re just different types of players.”

Although he used this time to get out of his busy schedule, Tuesday brought awkward film session for the Cavswhich focused on defense, competition level and focus. Cleveland’s offensive principles will be discussed during Wednesday’s practice.