CLEVELAND (AP)

When the Cavaliers selected point guard Kyrie Irving with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, veteran Baron Davis’ future in Cleveland became uncertain.

On Wednesday, his short stay ended.

Using the NBA’s new amnesty clause, the Cavs waived Davis, a move that knocks the $28 million he is owed over the next two seasons off the salary cap. The Cavs will have to pay Davis, but they’ll have more flexibility going forward as they try to improve a team that won just 19 games last year.

Davis was acquired last season in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers. Although Cleveland was probably not the destination Davis had in mind, he played hard, seemed to embrace a leadership role and put any past problems between he and Cavs coach Byron Scott behind. The pair had a falling out when Davis played for Scott in New Orleans.

”We would like to thank Baron for his contributions to the team during his time in Cleveland,” said general manager Chris Grant. ”He has been an absolute professional since the day he joined the Cavs and we now wish him the best in the future.”

Davis’ release had been expected since the opening of training camp past week. Scott gave a strong clue that Davis’ time was running out when the coach said he — and not Davis — was the perfect mentor for Irving.

”I’m going to miss Cleveland fans and the organization!” Davis wrote on his Twitter page. ”When I was down and out you believed in me and embraced me! I will always be a Cav!”

With Davis gone, Scott can immediately turn his offense over to Irving, the former Duke standout who wound up with Cleveland after Grant acquired Davis and an unprotected lottery pick from the Clippers for guard Mo Williams and forward Jamario Moon. That pick ended up being the one that got the Cavs the first selection.

Davis averaged 13.9 points and 6.1 assists in 15 games with the Cavs last season. He missed time because of injuries and a family death, but when he was in the lineup Cleveland went 6-9.

The 32-year-old hadn’t practiced since arriving at camp because of a bulging disc in his back. Davis left the team last weekend to get a second opinion on the injury. He’s now a free agent and should draw interest from other teams if he’s healthy.

The New York Knicks should definitely try to pursue point guard Baron Davis if he becomes available this week. It seems clear that Davis will not stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers for much longer, potentially making him a free agent that the Knicks could sign for the veteran’s minimum.

There are two options that could land Davis in New York for the upcoming season, with the first being that the Cavaliers would use the NBA amnesty clause on him. Cleveland owes Davis just under $14 million this season and would likely have to pay him the nearly $15 million player option for next year. The team could choose to use the amnesty clause to take him off the salary cap and then pursue other free agents. The other option is that Cleveland could simply waive him and save the amnesty clause.

Davis is not the healthiest of guards out there and has been going through some back problems. If he is healthy though, he could become the perfect distributor for the Knicks in the 2011-12 NBA season. He can still score a lot of points in spurts, but would best serve the Knicks as a veteran taking care of the ball and helping get Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire the best shots possible. He would also come very cheap, because the Cavaliers are on the hook for the majority of his salary no matter how it plays out.

Last season for Cleveland, Davis averaged 28.4 minutes per game, putting up 13.1 points and 6.7 assists in those games. With Davis and Mike Bibby splitting time at the position, it would also give the Knicks a lot of depth off the bench. That’s exactly what the team needs after parting with more assets in order to make the Tyson Chandler deal work out.

Even if the Knicks end up making a deal with Jamal Crawford to come in as the starting shooting guard, the team should try its best to bring in Davis as well. With the abridged season, the Knicks have to add depth to the roster, and it has to come from inexpensive contracts. Adding some savvy veterans to the mix of young players off the bench could really give the frontcourt trio of stars the best chance to make it deep into the Eastern Conference Playoffs this year.

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*Ryan Christopher DeVault is a fan of the New York Knicks that has followed the team since the days John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason instilled their defensive will on the rest of the league.

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In the span of a single season the Cleveland Cavaliers went from first to second worst while enduring a 26 game losing streak that could have been 37 games if not for an overtime victory at home over the New York Knicks in mid-December.

The not unexpected result of suddenly losing the best young veteran in the NBA to free agency did have its silver lining. General Manager Chris Grant managed to trade Mo Williams to the Clippers for Baron Davis and an unprotected first round draft pick and the Cavaliers entered the draft lottery with two good chances at selecting first overall.

With a host of prospects on their roster and two top rookies, the Cavaliers enter this season with rebuilding their shattered franchise as their only priority. Every move the team makes now should be future oriented.

#1 Amnesty Baron Davis

Baron Davis has said all the right things heading into training camp. The Cavaliers believe him and are indicating that the most obvious amnesty candidate in the NBA will be on their roster this season.

The rationale for keeping the 32-year-old Davis is simple. The Cavaliers do not have many veterans and Davis can fill the mentor role for the team’s future star Kyrie Irving. Besides, paying Davis $28.6 million to play for someone else over the next two seasons is just too painful for management to contemplate.

There should be no question that Davis can still contribute significantly to a NBA team and he will likely remain on his best behavior in Cleveland. Davis knows his future in the NBA could depend on how he deals with this situation. This just isn’t enough of a reason to hang on to the veteran point guard.

The Cavaliers need to clear salary cap space for future moves and Davis’ contract makes him virtually untradeable. Head coach Bryon Scott is heading into a season where his team will lose a lot of games no matter what he does and Davis is just too tempting a player to have on one’s bench. Unfortunately, Davis is in the way.

The Cavaliers only took on Davis’ salary to net a second high draft pick and won bigger than they had any right to hope for by getting the first overall. The new collective bargaining agreement is providing them an opportunity to expand this win exponentially by freeing up Davis’ salary slot as well. The Cavaliers should amnesty Davis, but that doesn’t mean they will.

#2 Start Kyrie Irving

In a weak draft where several potential lottery picks returned to college, the Cavaliers got the top-rated rookie prospect, and just like last season’s top pick John Wall, Irving needs to start and play as many minutes as he can.

Irving was labeled as a potential NBA All-Star point guard heading into college, and even though injury shortened his college experience, he still retained that expectation. The 19-year-old Irving needs to play through his mistakes and develop his NBA game as quickly as possible. The Cavaliers future hopes are riding on his shoulders and will not be advanced by having Irving watch from the bench or deferring to someone else.

#3 Start Tristan Thompson

In a surprising move, the Cavaliers selected Tristan Thompson fourth overall instead of filling a potential future hole at center with Jonas Valanciunas or an obvious hole at small forward with Kawhi Leonard. Then they made room for Thompson by shipping power forward J.J. Hickson to Sacramento for small forward Omri Casspi and a future first round draft pick. Taking the two moves together, the Cavaliers look like they knew what they were doing.

The 20-year-old power forward’s game is still raw, but he impressed in college with his physical presence, and the Cavaliers have raved about his workouts.

There is no reason to hold Thompson back and nothing could be more important to the Cavaliers long term success than developing a strong chemistry between their two rookies by playing them together as much as possible.

#4 Go after a free agent shooting guard now

This year’s free agent class has a lot of shooting guards, unfortunately the ones the Cavaliers should be most interested in are all restricted free agents. This doesn’t mean the team should sit quietly on the sidelines and just watch. The biggest hole in Cleveland’s line-up is a quality shooting guard who will still be in his prime when the team’s rookies are ready to lead the Cavaliers back to the playoffs.

The best free agent shooting guard for the Cavaliers roster would be Arron Afflalo from Denver, but Afflalo has a long list of suitors and the Nuggets are expected to match almost any offer. Cleveland should still make the attempt.

If Cleveland approached Afflalo with a four-year $30 million offer, they would get his attention and at the very least drive the price up to the point where the Cavaliers could take a more modest run at Denvers’ Gary Forbes. The end game of bidding on Denvers’ restricted free agents could become Wilson Chandler. If Denver is stretched holding onto their free agents now, when Chandler returns from China in March, Cleveland may be one of a very few teams who will have the salary cap space to make a compelling offer.

#5 Let Antawn Jamison’s contract expire

The 35-year-old Antawn Jamison is in the final year of his massive contract and the timing couldn’t be better for the Cavaliers. Unless Cleveland can find a trade partner willing to give up a first round draft pick, inexpensive prospects, and very limited future salary commitments, the team should let Jamison backup Thompson until his salary comes off the books at the end of the season.

If the Cavaliers are not active in free agency now, the team can free up over $30 million in salary cap space for the potentially exciting free agent summer of 2012 by getting both Davis and Jamison off the books.

Jamison has always been a good teammate and consummate professional, there are no reasons to be concerned about having him around on a rebuilding team for one year.

#6 Get a top lottery pick in 2012

No team should tank a season by not trying to win, and if Irving, Casspi, Thompson, Anderson Varejao, a shooting guard, and the Cavaliers prospects are good enough to win games, so be it. This is not what the team should expect however.

The upcoming draft class looks strong and a top 10 pick will significantly help the Cavaliers continue the rebuilding process. Squeezing out extra victories by playing older veterans like Davis, Jamison, or possibly the popular free agent Anthony Parker is not going to speed the return of the team to respectability.

The Cavaliers should be playing for another top lottery pick in 2012.

The moves the Cavaliers should make are not easy ones for an organization to accept or admit to before a season starts. It is painful to eat salary and then watch your team win even fewer games than your low preseason expectations say should happen.

The Cavaliers need to get their two best and most expensive players off the books this season and let the rookies play. This season is just a stepping stone to future success and the future will be closer if the front office can endure the pain of making this season worse than it has to be.

It is no secret that the Cleveland Cavaliers have a battle facing them with what is left of this season. We have some real talent, but it seems that the Cavs are somewhat like a puzzle that is missing the most critical pieces. With the first game less than a month away, it is time to start thinking about who will likely be the five starters to kick off the Cavs’ 2011-12 NBA season.

For the first game, we will likely see Baron Davis(notes) – given that amnesty does not take him away – starting as point guard. If amnesty “kicks in”, then it will likely be Ramon Sessions(notes) starting. A lot of people want to see Kyrie Irving(notes) starting on day one, but Byron Scott is not the type of coach to do this. He will put experience on the floor first. Joining either Davis or Sessions will be Anthony Parker(notes), Anderson Verejao, Antawn Jamison(notes) and Omri Casspi(notes).

Having Verejao back is definitely nice and will certainly be beneficial. His energy is extreme and he lends a lot to the team.

We have to hope that Davis remains with the team because while he is definitely talented, it is his leadership that the Cavs need more than anything.

Casspi will go with the flow and is not a take control player. This is another reason that we need a leadership player so badly.

Jamison is not the strongest defender, but he is talented offensively. He is also a veteran that can lend some leadership to the team along with Davis.

Anthony Parker is not young anymore, but he still has some good plays in him, as well as experience.

Will the Cavs do better than last season? Well, they really cannot do worse. They have talent, they just need to figure out where to put the talent on the floor. We have a steep, uphill battle for what remains of this season, but if the Cavs are anything, they are fighters. They will continue to fight and play and give the fans something to watch.

R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and still lives there. She was raised a Cavs’ fan and has remained loyal through all of the teams ups and downs. She remains confident that the Cavs will bring home a championship at some point in her life.

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The news surrounding the NBA has been more positive over the last few days, and that could mean the beginning of the 2011-12 season will happen before long. Social media still has speculation of several trades and the latest from Bleacher Report has the Cleveland Cavaliers acquiring a much-needed big man to fill the middle of the lane.

Al Jefferson averaged nearly 19 points and 10 rebounds per game for the Utah Jazz last year, but the team drafted another center this summer and that could spell the end for Jefferson in Utah. Cleveland has some terrific young players on its roster, but lacks a true center and adding Jefferson would give the team some leadership and a center that can help on both ends of the court.

The Cavaliers are still in rebuilding mode after the departure of LeBron James, but making a deal like this would make Cleveland a playoff contender in the Eastern Conference. Both teams need to make some roster moves to improve upon last season’s failures and if Utah can add some help to their back-court from a deal, this trade will make sense for both teams, and that is good news for Jazz and Cavalier fans.