After Kevin Love suffered a fractured hand on Tuesday versus the Detroit Pistons, the Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly recalled Ante Zizic from their G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge in hopes of adding some much-needed length to their lineup. The Cavs are quickly moving on from their All-Star forward as they will most likely miss his services for the next six to eight weeks.
Zizic is by no means the same kind of player as Love, but he is a healthy body that head coach Tyronn Lue can utilize and he has the potential to provide quality minutes off the bench, especially if he can show that he took advantage of the additional workouts and games during his stint in the G-League.
So far this season, the 21-year-old Croatian international has appeared in 12 games for the Cavs in very limited playing time and produced 1.1 points and 1.3 rebounds in 3.4 minutes per outing.
He landed with the Wine and Gold as part of the trade that centered around Isaiah Thomas and Kyrie Irving during the offseason. Zizic is seen as a project but he definitely has a decent amount of upside ability to rebound the ball and play with a mean streak.
He is not expected to see the court often but if he can continue to transform himself to a stretch big man even if he only sees a few minutes each game, it will still help soften the blow the Cavs will take as their five-time All-Star recovers from a broken hand.