The Saga Of Larry Hughes

Happy Valentine's Day to all you players out there. Larry Hughes is now being reported as being out for the remainder of the season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. This centers around his broken right middle finger, which didn't quite set right after his first surgery was done at the beginning of January. This pains me to see the Cavs waist one year of salary on an injury riddled player. They signed this guy to a 5 year $60 million dollar contract and he hasn't quite earned his pay so far. As much as I like the aggressive approach by Cavs' GM Danny Ferry and owner Dan Gilbert, I was a little weary of this move from the get-go.

Larry has had a laundry list of injuries over his 8 year career including wrist, hand and leg injuries. On the court, he is a great all-around player who covers both sides of the court on offense and defense. However, the Cavs should have been a bit more careful in throwing money at this guy. I predicted he'd miss 25 games this year and now it looks like I underestimated the extent of time missed. This team is strong without him, but much better with him out there. Regardless, the money we threw at him hurts the overall long-term plans of the franchise if they want to add to this team that is going to be laden with contracts to LeBron James, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and others over the next couple of years.

I certainly hope this team can work around this, but I fear that this isn't the last injury disappointment we've seen with Larry Hughes. Let's hope he can make it back for the playoffs this year and he can stay healthy during the remainder of his robust contract, but I highly doubt it will work out that well.

ESPN link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2330650