By: Dustin Chapman

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• Selected J.J. Hickson 19th overall.

• Traded a 2009 second round draft pick to Miami for the rights to Darnell Jackson (52nd overall).

• Acquired the rights to Sasha Kaun (56th overall) from Seattle in exchange for cash considerations.

Hickson was a bit of a reach up at 19, and surprised many. He’s got some long-term upside, but he’ll likely take a few years to come into his own. Cleveland needs help now; Hickson may not be ready to give them what they need. Down the road, he could be a player, but the Cavaliers aren’t about potential. They want to win. Hickson is an interesting prospect, but was he the right fit?

Darnell Jackson may be able to crack the roster with his athleticism, strength, and tenacity. He could be sent to the D-League early on, but he may have a shot at sticking in the league.

Sasha Kaun, a teammate of Jackson at Kansas, may look like a solid value pick at 56 based on the name, but don’t expect the 2008 NCAA Champion to wear a Cavaliers jersey for quite some time. Kaun has reportedly signed a multi-year deal overseas, where he’ll get an opportunity to refine his skills and earn extra money for himself early in his professional career.

Grade: C

ESPN.com reports:

Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson had arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle Tuesday and is expected to be ready for training camp.

The second-year guard, a restricted free agent, had the operation in Houston, his hometown. The team said he is expected to start rehab next week.

Gibson sprained his ankle Feb. 20 at Indiana and sat out 18 games. He missed the final two games of the playoff series against Boston with a separated shoulder.

One of the Cavs’ best outside shooters, he averaged 10.4 points in 58 games. He was named MVP of the All-Star Rookie/Sophomore game in New Orleans when he made a record 11 3-pointers.

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Posted By: Dustin Chapman

According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Cavaliers forward Anderson Varejao will pass up the opportunity to play for the Brazilian National Team this summer.

Anderson Varejao’s season with the Cleveland Cavaliers dramatically was altered by one false step. Now it is affecting his summer plans, too.

A Cavaliers’ official confirmed Thursday that Varejao has informed Cleveland he has decided not to play this summer for the Brazilian National Team. Varejao will devote the offseason to rehabbing his left ankle instead.

Varejao suffered a sprain and partial ligament tear in the ankle and was out for a month after stepping on Los Angeles Lakers’ guard Sasha Vujacic’s foot during a game in January.

He was never the same after the injury. His agility and jumping ability showed lingering effects, and he averaged 6.7 points and 8.3 rebounds for the season.

Varejao did not play for the national team last summer because he was in contract talks with the Cavs and caring for his parents, both of whom were recovering from surgery. Brazil has yet to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Posted By: Dustin Chapman

Cavaliers guard Daniel “Boobie” Gibson suffered a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s Game 5 matchup in Boston, and was later diagnosed with a shoulder separation. The timetable for the second-year sharpshooter’s return is one to two weeks, which would keep him out for the remainder of this Semi-Finals series against the Celtics.

In Gibson’s absence, Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown will likely be forced to turn to Damon Jones to handle backup duties behind Delonte West. Jones has been known as one of the league’s deadliest long-range bombers when he is hot, but is just as notorious for being an overconfident defensive liability.

LeBron James has not lost focus, nor his confidence, however. Following Wednesday night’s 96-89 loss, which put Cleveland down 3-2 in the series, James had this to say:

“We know it’s a win-or-go-home situation. We’ve got to approach it that way,” LeBron James said after Wednesday night’s loss. “We’re a very good team at home. But a LeBron James team is never desperate.”

We’ll see if “King James” can live up to his word at “The Q” in Friday night’s Game 6. If he fails to do so, and Boston somehow finds a way to rack up their first postseason road victory, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ season will come to a close.

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Posted By: Dustin Chapman

The Cavaliers couldn’t stop one man. One man in the closing minute was to much for Cleveland to handle. It had actually been the whole team that the Cavaliers were having problems guarding. None the less, Deron Williams was the tip of Utah dagger that was being slowly plunged into the heart of the Cavaliers ever since the end of the first quarter.

The first quarter started out nicely enough for LeBron and company in a hostle Utah enviroment. Varejao was starting in place of Ilgauskas, who was attending to some family problems back home. The rookie Gibson would also start in place of Eric Snow.

Varejao came out flat. Unable to stay with Okur no matter how hard he tried. Okur would set a pick-and-roll for a Utah guard. Varejao fell for it every time. Taking the Turkish bait that Okur maliciously placed before him. Varejao smothered the guard coming off of Okur’s pick. The problem with this was that he never went back to guarding Okur. He would stay with the guard, now double-teaming him, since the other Cleveland defender is still guarding the Jazz guard. This left Okur wide open every time. It was to easy for the man from Turkey, he would proceed to nail that open jumper the whole night. Varejao would keep losing sight of Okur the whole game. Okur would go backdoor, baseline, come off screens, move without the ball, and basically anything else he felt like doing. He would get away from Varejao, getting open and being a scoring threat. This was the biggest reason Okur had 22 points at the end of the game. Sasha was another Cavalier having problem with the screens and off ball movement of the Utah Jazz. Sasha couldn’t seem to get around Utah’s big men while he was chasing Gordan Giricek all over the court. This allowed Giricek to get open and shoot the ball.

In the first quarter alone, the Utah’s off ball movement on offense was a sight to see. They were able to rub off screens, slip back door, and find open spaces that the Cavaliers weren’t keeping track of. They were able to have at least one man open the whole first quarter, and this would only be a prelude to what was to come the rest of the game. The brightside for the Cavaliers was that the Utah Jazz couldn’t hit their shots. Cleveland shot a whole ten percent better than Utah from the field. This, would change however.

The whole first quarter didn’t go this bad for the Cavaliers, I did say it started out nicely didn’t I? LeBron was on fire in the first. Him and Hughes were playing nice solid on ball defense. Plugging up passing lanes and slapping away at anything that came near them. The Cavaliers controlled the boards with 15 team rebounds while the Jazz were able to nab 7. LeBron ended the quarter with 10 points and the Cavaliers ended with 29 to the Jazz’s 19.

The second quarter appeared to be another good one for the Cavs. The subs came into the game and Eric Snow turned on his physical defense like he usually does. He was able to stop a three-on-one fast break all by himself (hence the term, on-one). Hughes was again brilliant on both ends of the court. At one point in the second, he pump faked and got Deron Williams to bite. Hughes then jumped under Williams and shot the ball, swooshing a shot from 18 feet out and getting the foul. He then completed the and-1 play.

Then, about half way through the second, the game took a turn for the worse. Deron Williams began his “Deron’ization” of the Cavaliers. His weapon of choice? His cross-over. Slicing and dicing, he forced Coach Brown to take Gibson off him and to move Hughes over in his place. Hughes did a nice job, but he wasn’t able to guard him every Utah possession. There was three times in a row that Varejao, some how, was forced to take on Deron at the top of the key. He failed miserably each time. Giricek was again killing the Cavaliers on his off ball movement. But this time, teammate Matt Harpring (known for his sharp shooting) decided to get in the action as well. Utah did a better job of making their shots, but it still wasn’t enough to seal the lead. Each time they caught up to the Cavaliers, LeBron would begin a drive to push the lead back to double digits. At one point the Jazz were with in two. The score was 43-41. LeBron had the ball with only a few ticks left on the shot clock. He launched it up. He nailed it. This sparked a 9-0 run for Cleveland. The end of the quarter however, with .04 left on the game clock, Deron Williams hit a fade-away jumper. This was the turning point for the Jazz, and the crowd knew it.

Varejao started the second half off better than his did the first. He was able to contain Okur and he was a beast on the offensive and defensive boards. He would rack up 17 rebounds before it was all said and done, but he wasn’t able to get the most important rebound at the end of the game.

Gooden hit the Cavaliers first bucket, in fact, he had the Cavaliers first eight points in the second half. He ended the game with a double-double.

Larry Hughes was a work of art all game, he was set to add to his 19 points in the first half. He was slashing to the hoop and pouring on the threes. His defense was killer and the motivation the Cavaliers would need in the closing minutes of the game.

Deron Williams and his cross-over brought the game to with in one with a dish to Millsap. LeBron pushed the lead up a bit with a three point buzzer beater over two Jazz defenders to end the third.

The game is in the closing minutes, only two to go. Okur is left open by Varejao again, and again he hits a three. Hughes comes back, slashing to the hoop, to answer with an and-1 play. This wasn’t enough for the Cavaliers who were unable to locate the open man. The Jazz loved setting screens off the ball with in the foul line and its surrounding area. The Cavaliers seemed not to notice this tad bit of info the whole game.

The Cavaliers were now down by six and there was left than a minute left. Hughes turned on the the heat defensively and offensively as did LeBron. Off an out let pass, LeBron tore down the court, blazing past everyone, to score a lay-up and get the game closer. Hughes and LeBron both played hard nosed defense, the kind of defense that no matter what team you liked or who you hated, you couldn’t help but to watch with adoration. They were able to bring the game with in one point, 98-99. The Jazz had the ball with around 28 seconds left. Deron Williams, the all-star should be, brought the ball down the court. He tried his cross-over to jumper that had already been successful twice during this last minute of play. This time it didn’t work. He missed the shot. The ball bounced right with in Vajerao’s grasp, he tried to snatch it out of the air. He wasn’t able to, the rookie Millsap did it for him. The game was seemingly over now. But as fate would have it, Millsap made a big rookie mistake- he began to panic. He then just half threw, half dropped the ball and Sasha scooped it up. Sasha raced to Utah’s basket with 2 seconds left. He ran into a Utah defender who tried to draw a charge. Shasha through up the half court shot, but it fell short. As did the Cavaliers.

Two big things kept the Cavaliers from winning this game:

The first, was the fact that they couldn’t keep their defensive triangles. They kept losing their men off screens or whatever else. The Jazz had to many wide open jumpers.

The second, was Deron Williams. Who’s passing ability, jumper, and cross-over was enough to destroy any hopes the Cavaliers had of winning the game. The “Deron’ization” ended with a career high 33 points, 12 assists, 2 steals, 6 rebounds, and only 2 turnovers.

The Cavaliers, who looked strong coming out of the first quarter, had been Deron’ized. They knew they should have won. You could see it in their faces at the end of the game. The way they were pleading with the refs for them to call a foul on the shot Sasha took at the end. The way LeBron stood at half court, dumbfounded. The way Larry Hughes just hung his head and walked off the court.

The Cavaliers didn’t shake any hands that game. They didn’t congratulate anyone. They just walked to the locker room, looking at the confetti that had now worked its way to the floor, laying there, reminding the Cavs of what had happend, mocking them. The Cavs had lost by one point, they had lost a lead they were, for the most part, in control of the whole game- and they knew it.

-Drake

Tuesday, January 9th, the Cavaliers faced off against the Kings in Arco Arena. This game was to kick off a seven game road trip which is to have the Cavaliers playing in seven cities in the Western Conference. Coming off a four game winning streak, the Cavaliers were looking to not only keep the streak alive in Sacramento, but also get their “West side tour” off to a great start.

LeBron and company started the game awfully. They looked sloppy and they were doing a lot of dribbling and shooting without setting up plays or getting some ball movement. The began pounding the ball inside like they so often do at the start of games. Giving Big “Z” some touches early. Drew Gooden even got in on the low post game, knocking down some buckets on Shareef. The Cavaliers however, were a little worried with the Kings getting fast-break points, so they didn’t crash the boards very hard offensively and they got back on defense more quickly. They let “Z” and AV try and nab some offensive rebounds, while the guards and LeBron got ready to slow down the Kings at half court. This play worked, the Kings had zero fast-break points in the first half, however, the half court defense of the Cavaliers was terrible.

The Kings looked to post up early on LeBron James with the solid body of Ron Artest. Artest had two easy buckets on LeBron early. A little later he did the same thing to Hughes, little did he know that this was the last play he would truly have his way with the Cavaliers on offense. Sacramento was pulling Miller out on offense to his favorite spots (the elbows) and forcing “Z” to play defense where he isn’t comfortable (any where not close to the basket). This worked. The Kings ran players off of Miller with give-and-go type play. Martin and Bibby were doing most of the rubbing off Miller. Martin and Bibby (mainly Bibby who was hot in the first half) would then come off Miller and take an easy shot or wait for Miller to step away from “Z” (who was trying to hedge out and stop Bibby) and pass Miller the ball who then would easily hit the shot (Miller was also on fire in the first half). The Cavaliers couldn’t stop this play and the Kings couldn’t miss a shot. The Kings were beating the Cavaliers by 17 points.

Around eight minutes to go in the third quarter, something clicked and the Cavaliers picked up the pressure on defense. The Cavs began getting to the open man, boxing out, and getting in Sacramento’s face. The Kings started struggling, and the Cavalier defense began to thrive. As we all know, when the Cavaliers do good on defense, they begin to do good on offense as well. The Cavaliers went on a 10-0 run to close the 17 point gap they had found themselves in. The real turning point was when AV got a pass from LeBron, got fouled, and made the bucket. He then made the freethrow for a three point game. After that, the Kings had lost all momentum and the game.

The Crowd was getting angry and the Kings were getting flustered. Mike Bibby got an on the floor foul and he threw up a shot from beyone the arc, just because. It went in and the crowd cheered, they all knew it didn’t count, but at least they finally saw something go threw the hoop in their favor. The Kings went seven minutes and thiry seconds without a field goal, although they did get some points off freethrows.

In the fourth, LeBron got real hot and made three shots behind the arc in a row, one from pretty far down town. The once 17 point lead for the Kings had diminished and in its place was a 10 point deficient. The game ended with the score being 108-98. Chalk another win for the Cavaliers. LeBron had 34 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists with 24 points in the second half. Drew Gooden had another double-double that included 21 points and 11 rebounds. Big “Z” put up 17 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. The top scorers for the Kings included Brad Miller with 24, Mike Bibby with 26, and Kevin Martin with 23 points.

The Cavaliers got their first road win in this “West side tour,” they increased their winning streak to five games, and they increased their lead in the Central Divison by one game against the Pistons who also won that night. The Cavalier defense is what sparked and won the game for the Cavaliers tonight. Defense like what was played in the second half is what wins championships and defense like that, if the Cavs keep it up, will have them playing in the Eastern Conference Finals, headed to the NBA Finals. The Cavs need to keep that defensive pressure and intensity throughout the season and more importantly in the playoffs. The Kings couldn’t handle that second half ‘D, can the rest of the NBA?

Next up: The Suns. This is a big time game for the Cavaliers and a chance to prove they aren’t the same as the rest of the East, they mean business.

- Drake

     Clank! Clank! That was the only sound Damon Jones was able to hear whenever he shot in his first season as a Cavalier. When his shots would go up, they would very rarely go in.

     September 8th, 2005, Cavaliers sign Damon Jones. Just the year before, Jones had averaged 11.6 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 4.3 APG. He had played all 82 games with the Heat and started 66 of them. He was a top the NBA in many three point catagories, including: first in the league in three-point field goals made per 48 minutes, third in three-point field goals made, and fifth in three-point field goal percentage, he also ranked fourth in the NBA in assists-to-turnovers ratio. The Cavaliers were excited to sign such a three-point shooting threat. They had been needing this for awhile and would continue to look for one even after the Jones signing. Danny Ferry had said, “Damon has proven himself to be an impact player.”  Coach Brown had said, “Damon will be a great addition to our core group. His character, his ability to shoot the basketball from the perimeter and his playmaking skills will be a solid addition to our team.” The fans were excited as well, it looked like Damon Jones might start as a shooting guard or point guard for the Cavaliers.

     The season kicked off and Damon Jones didn’t. Damon played all 82 games, but only started 7 of them. Everything dropped for Jones, his points, rebounds, assists, and the thing that hurt the most, his shooting percentage. He averaged more minutes than his career average, but all his stats (Points per game, assists per game, shooting percentages, ect.) were all lower than his career averages, and in fact, he shot worse from the free throw line that year than he has in his whole career. Damon Jones, the self-proclaimed “best shooter in the world” was not even a good shooter that year and he had issues with coming off the bench when he was.

     Let’s flash foward to the next season, this season. Damon Jones still isn’t starting, but he knows his place on the bench and he is happy with it. One thing Damon is doing this year is shooting, in fact, he is shooting very well. Damon Jones is shooting 86% from the charity stripe, 42% from beyond the arc, and 45% from the field. Damon Jones is also averaging around 10 points a game and has sparked the Cavaliers off the bench with shooting that LeBron and company can count on. With the new faith in Damon’s shooting comes a new signature move from Damon Jones. After each three point shot, Damon reaches down with his off hand and pretends to twist the handle to a faucet, signifying Jones now “pouring on the threes.”

      Damon Jones has been having some great games as of late, scoring 12 points in a win against the 76ers (shooting 3/5 from beyond the arc). He had another 12 point game against the Raptors this week. He scored 21 points against the Grizzlies the night before.

     Damon Jones has been keeping the faucet running throughout this season. Instead of uncertainty in the eyes of Cavalier fans when Damon shoots, as it was last year, there is now a feeling that the basket is in once it leaves his fingertips. Instead of hearing a “clank,” we now hear a “swoosh.”

-Drake

     After Ilgauskas finishes this season out, he will be 6th on the Cavaliers’ All-Time games played list. After this season is over (assuming Big Z is healthy enough) he will have played over 548 games with the Cavaliers. Now that Zydrunas has entered his 9th year in the league and his second year playing for coach Mike Brown, you would think Zydrunas would have the offense down. Well, coach Brown decided to switch it up this year, doing something Zydrunas isn’t use to- speed.

      Coach Brown has decided to push the ball every chance the Cavaliers get. Using his combo guards effectively, he keeps the offense spread out and moving. Zydrunas is use to playing down low and this new offense is having him move all around inside the three point line. With being a big man and an older man, this has affected his stamina and game play, which we can see in his minutes per game. Only once in his career has he averaged less than he is now. He has been playing sloppy and soft. Not going up strong on offensive put backs, settling for more fade away jumpers (on smaller defenders) than usual, not being a low post threat down low, and other factors that have led him to his lowest points per game in the history of his career. Zydrunas says that this has to do a lot with the new offense. Something is finally starting to click, however.

     Coming off an embarrassing two point game against the Pacers, in a game that the Cavaliers should have won, Zydrunas and the new Cavalier offense clicks. Saturday, November 25th, the Cavaliers play the 76ers. Zydrunas was asked before the game about the new offense, he said, “It’s a new offense and things aren’t the same as in the past. I am not happy with my performance right now.”

    Zydrunas came out of the gate strong. In the second quarter alone, Zydrunas had two diving plays for the ball where he tipped the ball to a teammate to spring the Cavaliers on a fast break and points. He blocked a 76er and then sent the Cavaliers on another fast break which lead to the great alley-oop pass to LeBron James. Zydrunas was playing physical and took the ball hard to the hoop, dunking with two hands on a few occasions. He was boxing the opposing team out and grabbing rebound after rebound. Zydrunas Ilgauskas ended the night with an outstanding 18 point, 5 block shots, 15 rebound game, and 12 of the rebounds were all offensive. “It feels great to be involved in the offense.” He said after the game. Zydrunas tied his offensive rebound career best and found his place in the new offense. Zydrunas looked fresh and moved very well throughout the whole game, he even played close to 36 minutes, far above his season average so far this year.

    Zydrunas Ilgauskas played a great game. Hopefully the offense and himself have “clicked” for good and not just tonight. With play like this from him, a healthy Hughes, and LeBron James being LeBron James, a NBA finals appearance is just around the corner.

-Drake

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