The Cleveland Cavaliers are set to begin the season shortly and for now, they’ll have to do so without the services of one Nae’Qwan Tomlin, as it has just been reported by Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, that Tomlin will now be sidelined heading into the season with a lower back stress reaction.

This a brutal blow to Tomlin’s chances of rendering himself an indispensable part of Head Coach Kenny Atkinson’s 10-man rotation, at least at the beginning of the 2026-27 campaign.

The Harlem native entered the offseason as a real candidate to earn minutes as Cleveland’s primary backup power forward, a role that was due to be up for grabs thanks to the departure of Dean Wade.

He showed some promise during Summer League play, contributing 18.5 Points, 6.0 Rebounds, 3.5 Assists, 2.0 Steals, and 2.5 Blocks, while completing roughly 62.5% of his field goals, including 42.9% (3/7) from beyond the arc.

Tomlin genuinely looked more comfortable operating off the ball as he cut, functioned as a roll man, and most importantly, as a viable catch-and-shoot outlet for ballhandlers and drivers.

It’s the latter portion that was always going to define Tomlin’s future with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He simply must be a more efficient shot maker at the NBA level in terms of the 3PT stroke.

Through the first 2 seasons of his professional career, Tomlin has managed to convert on just 23.2% (29/125) of his attempts from long distance. The bulk of those opportunities came off ball, as a catch-and-shooter (27/112).

Perhaps even more worrying than that is the fact that opposing defenses just haven’t seen fit to defend him at all when he’s outside the 3PT line, electing instead to double what they perceive to be more dangerous threats.

Most of his attempts from distance have been considered “wide-open” by NBA standards, with the third year forward completing just 25.0% (22/88) of those looks. If he cannot make the defense pay for leaving him open, he may never truly cement himself as a rotational regular for the wine and golders.

The team’s acquisition of Mario Hezonja combined with Hezonja’s own contributions during preseason have only further muddied the waters here as the reigning Spanish ACB Regular Season MVP was already beginning to emerge as the favorite to land the job at backup power forward.

This initial 3–4-week timeline places his potential return somewhere between November 10-17 as of penning this. That means he could miss anywhere between 12-16 games to open the season. And that’s just a preliminary timeline. He could miss even more time than that.

Suffice it to say that Nae’Qwan Tomlin will be beginning the 2026-27 campaign climbing an uphill battle for minutes as Hezonja and others may have already locked themselves into roles by the time he returns.