As you all know, Kyrie Irving suffered a concussion in the last game against the Miami Heat when he hit his head on the knee of Dwyane Wade. He has since missed three games, in which Ramon Sessions has filled in quite admirably, I might add.
During that span, the Cavs also lost Anderson Varejao to a broken wrist, so it's been a pretty rough week for the wine-and-golders. The good news is that Kyrie is recovering nicely. He participated in practice on a limited basis on Monday and after undergoing a few more tests should be a full participant on Tuesday. This all leads up to him playing on Wednesday night when the Cavaliers host the Indiana Pacers. Concussions are tricky things, so this is obviously assuming that he doesn't have any setbacks and the symptoms don't return.
As it stands right now, feel free to pencil Kyrie Irving into the starting lineup for Wednesday night.
There's still no update on Andy as far as I know. The initial assumption is that he will be out for around 4 to 6 weeks. Of course, all of that changes if he ends up needing surgery. Hopefully we have a better idea of his timetable after the team meets today.
If you guys want instant updates, the Twitter accounts to follow are @PDCavsInsider and @BobCavsInsider
(SB Nation Cleveland, Chris White) Anderson Varejao has been penciled in to start at center for the Cleveland Cavaliers pretty much since day one. The veteran center is one of the better players on roster lacking front court depth. The Cavs are a team that has been dominated by a rookie though, young star Kyrie Irving. They might need to start yet another rookie, Tristan Thompson, in Varejao's absence with a veritable black hole at the center position.
Bleehhhhhhhhhh. That's my reaction to this news. We thought it was just a sprained wrist when the initial x-rays came up negative. Later, the MRI revealed that he had a fracture in his right wrist and that he will be out for some time.
Just as the Cavs were starting to get healthy with Daniel Gibson coming back from a neck infection and Kyrie Irving presumably coming back on Wednesday from a concussion, Andy goes down. When Varejao got hurt last season, the Cavs then plummeted to the cellar and lost 26 games in a row. I doubt that will happen this time around, but it will definitely be a rough stretch.
It doesn't appear that the Cavs will make any sort of trade for depth up front, but their interior defense will inevitably take a hit. Having Semih Erden, Ryan Hollins, and Samardo Samuels playing significant minutes is never a good thing.
For those of you that wanted the Cavs to tank and get a better draft pick, you might get your wish. The loss of Anderson Varejao will lead to many more losses and I could see Cleveland falling to get the 5th or 6th pick in the draft now. Obviously we'll see how his absence affects the team once they play a few more games without him, but I'm not confident.
There is currently no timetable for his return and we'll learn more once he gets evaluated again by team doctors. I'll keep you updated, no worries.
Cavliers rookie starlet Kyrie Irving was evaluated Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic by Dr. Rick Figler.
With the new head injury policy in place by the league, Irving will be guaranteed to be slowed into returning to play. Concussions are notoriously hard to pinpoint a return timetable on so we'll have to follow this one closely to see when he plays again.
A good part about the process is that a league hired neurologist must pass the player in a series of tests before he can participate again. The process will definitely take a couple days so expect Irving to miss a bit more action.
The incident where Irving injured himself was when he crashed into Heat forward Chris Bosh and then fell and nailed his head on Dwyane Wade's knee.
For the season Irving is 18 points for the 10-14 Cavaliers.
The NBA announced the reserves for the 2012 All Star Game on Thursday night. Cavaliers fans will be disappointed to find out that both Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao were left off of the team.
Varejao leads the NBA in offensive rebounding and is averaging 11 points and 11.8 rebounds per game.
Kyrie Irving is 8th in the East in PER at 21.66 and is averaging 18 points and 5.1 assists per game on 49/41/83 shooting.
Here's the full list of players that were selected as all star reserves:
The Eastern Conference reserves:
Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh
Atlanta Hawks guard Joe Johnson
Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert
Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce
New Jersey Nets guard Deron Williams
Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng
Philadelphia 76ers forward Andre Iguodala.
(h/t CBS Sports)
Other snubs around the Eastern conference include Brandon Jennings, Rajon Rondo, Greg Monroe, and Josh Smith.
There's no question that Cleveland Cavaliers rookie point guard Kyrie Irving would be named to the 2012 NBA Rising Stars roster. Fortunately for the Cavs, teammate Tristan Thompson will be attending as well as one of nine first-year players selected by NBA assistant coaches to participate in this All-Star event.
In the past, the game featured the NBA's top rookie and sophomores going head-to-head but this year the league is changing things up. The selected players will be in a pool and then "drafted" in playground fashion by "general managers" Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley.
TNT's Kenny Smith will serve as the honorary Commissioner and Ernie Johnson will host the live Rising Stars Challenge Draft on Thursday, Feb. 16, on NBA TV at 7 p.m. ET. The game itself will be televised live nationally on TNT at 9 p.m. ET.
For more on the stats that earned Irving and Thompson their first trip to an NBA All-Star event, see the press release on the Cavaliers web site. The full Rising Stars roster is available after the jump.
It should come as no surprise to Cleveland Cavaliers' fans that Kyrie Irving was named NBA Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for January. Irving earned the honor for the first month of the NBA season by leading all his rookie classmates with 18.1 points per game.
Irving, the first overall pick from the 2011 NBA Draft class, averaged 4.9 assists per game and had a stellar field goal percentage of .511. In addition to leading his fellow first-year players, Irving is the fourth-ranked point guard in the entire NBA with a PER of 22.68. That trails only Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, and Russel Westbrook.
Highlights of Irving's first month as a pro include:
Jan. 12 @ Phoenix: Registered 26 points, three rebounds, six assists and two steals in a 101-90 win over the Suns.
Jan. 16 @ Charlotte: Tallied 25 points, four rebounds and a season-high seven assists in a 102-94 victory over the Bobcats.
Jan. 27 vs. New Jersey: Scored a season-high 32 points, in addition to six rebounds, two assists and two steals in a 99-96 loss to the Nets.
Jan. 29 @ Boston: Posted 23 points, four rebounds and six assists in an 88-87 victory over the Celtics.
Ricky Rubio from the Minnesota Timberwolves won the Rookie of the Month award for the Western Conference.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will be without a viable shooting guard on Tuesday against the Boston Celtics.
Anthony Parker was injured during the 2nd quarter of Sunday's 88-87 win in Boston and was unable to return with back spasms. Daniel Gibson sat out Sunday's game with a stiff neck and stayed over night in Boston to have additional tests on his neck. Neither guard will be able to play in Tuesday's game which means that you (yes, you) may have a chance to be the starting shooting guard for the Cavaliers!
Seriously though, if I had to guess, I'd say that Mychel Thompson will be the starter. If not Thompson, it will be Alonzo Gee. Or Byron Scott could use my idea and just pick a random fan from the crowd.
Here's your daily reminder that Kyrie Irving is a total boss.
@PDCavsInsider:
Irving over his game-winner for Cavs vs. Celtics on Sunday. "It's time to move on.''
Yeah, spinning through the lane for the lefty layup game winner in Boston -- no big deal. Nothing to see here, carry on.
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