J.J. Hickson was on the cover of the first Cavs Zine. Nothing can ever happen to change that.

We had high hopes for J.J. as a Cavalier once too, but sometimes the NBA gods have other plans.

He ended up in Sacramento for a time last season and things were looking pretty bad. Good news for Hickson is that he's now settled into a new home as a productive member of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Prior to Blazers at Cavs last night I caught up with TheHickson.



J.J. finished with 11 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block in his team's 118-117 win over the Cavaliers. He's averaging 11.4 points and 10.3 rebounds on the 16-game season so far. His best performance was a 19-point, 18-rebound outing at Atlanta in November. He also scored 19 again at Brooklyn.

The biggest value he provides the Blazers, though, is his ability to compliment All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge. LA would prefer to play the power forward position. Prior to J.J.'s arrival in Rip City, Aldridge was forced into center duties out of necessity.

His team could've lost to the Cavs last night if Nicolas Batum hadn't gone Larry Bird from the right corner in double OT. Even if that still happened, Alonzo Gee could've made it only a three that tied had he made both of his free throws just prior to the hero-bomb from Batum.

I was looking for a pick-and-roll between Dion Waiters and Anderson Varejao last night on the Cavaliers final possession. Byron Scott put the ball in Waiters' hands and it looked as if the Varejao screen was indeed an option. I'm not sure if Waiters waved it off, or Varejao made that read, but no ball-screen came. Dion instead took a long jumper that would've missed badly if not for Alonzo Gee.

Here's that play from the Atlanta perspective last night:

"Aww man, what a bad break for the Hawks".

- Hawks Announcer

Cavaliers tip-off against against J.J. Hickson and the Portland Trail Blazers at 7:30 tonight looking for a two-game winning streak.

Anderson Varejao should be an All-Star. We've been over this.

He's a 14 and 14 guy who's playing out of his mind every night even though it's completely obvious his team will lose before each game ever begins.

Maybe that effort will be rewarded with a trip to Houston for ASW. Maybe it won't. Regardless, I do think Varejao does deserve the NBA's Most Improved Player award in the very least. 

He's averaged seven points and seven rebounds for his career. This season he's doubled that. Anyone who's seen him play can tell that he's improved all phases of his game offensively.

He's nowhere near flopping at will and being fined for it on defense either. 

But if he did win the NBA's Most Improved Player, he'd be the oldest player to ever do so in the last ten years. 

Playing in his ninth NBA season this year, Varejao would actually be the oldest by a lot. He might even be the oldest of all time but I only checked back as far as the last 10 years. 

If anyone wants to dig deeper than that go ahead and holler. 

The following research I did already was for one of my articles at Bleacher Report this week:

Dating back to when Gilbert Arenas won the award during the 2002-03 season, no player since has ever been named NBA's Most Improved having played longer than four seasons in the league.

 

Arenas and Monta Ellis were in their second seasons when they won. Kevin Love, Aaron Brooks, Boris Diaw and Zach Randolph were all in their third. Ryan Anderson was in his fourth season when he won last year, as were Danny Granger and Bobby Simmons. 

 

Anderson Varejao was in his fourth season five years ago. But he is just doing too much to be denied this year.

Anderson Varejao is an All-Star.

While sharing a court with Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol on Monday night, he was also the best big man on the floor.

The Cavaliers fumbling away a fourth quarter lead doesn't dismiss that simple fact. In some ways, I suppose, it even highlights what Varejao is doing on a nightly basis this season even more.

Without Kyrie Irving, especially, this Cavaliers lineup would not be favored against any team in the NBA. Ever. Despite that, Anderson steps onto the court every single night thinking that his team is going to win.

Then he goes out and plays like it's the Eastern Conference Finals.

If you're not watching the game you wouldn't understand. The 14 points and 14 rebounds he was averaging entering the week only tell half the story.

Randolph and Gasol were collecting 20 rebounds per game between them heading into Monday's contest with the Cavaliers. By the time Varejao was done battling that All-Star duo, he had out-rebounded the Grizzlies starting front-court by eight.

The Memphis big men finished with eight and six rebounds respectively, as compared to Varejao's 22. 

But beyond the rebounds, the double-digit points and his trademarked hustle, Varejao has also demonstrated an evolution to his own offensive game that you do not typically see in today's NBA.

There was a time once in Varejao's career when we held our collective breath as he attempted to do anything other than catch and shoot six feet away from the basket.

Now he's dribbling like a point-forward, shooting like a stretch four and dropping dimes like he's Pistol Pete Maravich.

Later, towards the end of the third quarter, he dove for the basketball and saved it from going out of bounds only to land on his right shoulder. He shook off however much it hurts to land a seven foot body directly on your shoulder and got up to bury a jumper from so far away it almost looked like a three-pointer.

Andy finished his night with 15 points, 22 rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block. That line was good for the most points, rebounds and assists on the Cavaliers side of the box score for the game.

It wasn't enough for the win, however, because the Cavaliers are not a good team. But don't let this and future losses allow you to miss the totality of what Anderson Varejao is doing in a Cavaliers uniform.

He's a special player, playing a special brand of basketball right now.

He deserves a trip down to Houston for the All-Star Game this season. But more than that, he deserves your attention. And then a round of applause.

The beating that Ryan and them put on him felt like way more than one win. I was actually surprised to realize he had won six of seven times already.

The team splits, however, could possibly be spun into something encouraging. 

There were only four other NBA teams he's averaged less points against for his career through seven games. So the good guys are like the fifth best team at defending the best player in the world or something. 

Awesome.

Until you realize those numbers were still 25.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 7.0 assists. After the 30 it's probably more now too, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

His new team had won three straight heading into last night's matchup with Jeremy Pargo and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They had also won four of their last five and were 9-3 overall. The same record the Cavs would have if you reversed each number.

He was the NBA's sixth leading scorer at the moment too, on a career-high pace in the rebounding category.

Oh and he's finally playing the four, operating closer to the basket offensively than he ever did in Cleveland. Three-point attempts are way down, shots from nine feet and in way up. Did I mention he's also averaging a career-high in rebounding?

Getting sidetracked again.

Cavs fans have been challenged to process an overwhelming amount of new information since Sunday.

Kyrie Irving is now out of the lineup. Tristan Thompson is wearing a mask. The first trip to Philadelphia for Dion Waiters is over. CJ Miles is back up off Byron's bench while Daniel Gibson is now injured and on it.  

And Jeremy Pargo happened, too.

After losing 86-79 in Philly on Sunday, the Cavaliers rallied on Wednesday night to an improbable 92-83 victory. In the process, they won the two-game series by a basket.

Heading into the Orlando Magic game on Friday, here's what we've just learned: 

Cavs are going to keep being really cautious with Kyrie Irving injuries

Not that we learned this for the first time specifically, but it is important to remind ourselves of this dynamic for some perspective. Kyrie Irving isn't "injury-prone" just because he's been out these last couple years with a series of "injuries". 

I think he could and would play with this latest set-back if the Cavaliers organization would let him. 

He played the second half of the Dallas game on Saturday with this same injury and then all of Sunday's game in Philadelphia.

If the Cavs were truly competing for a playoff spot, say it's next year or something, I think Irving maybe tapes an injury like he has now up Kobe-style and plays. Or maybe, more directly, when the Cavs said they would re-evaluate his status in two weeks (from Tuesday) they will do so and determine he won't actually be out for a full month.

The Cleveland Cavaliers sent a release out tonight indicating that Kyrie Irving could be out for up to four weeks while recovering from a "hairline/non-displaced fracture of his contused left index finger".

Dion Waiters will play his first real NBA game in his hometown of Philadelphia later on tonight. He'll come in averaging 14.7 points on 41 percent shooting through nine games to go along with 2.2 assists and 2.4 rebounds.

The last time he played in Philly was during the preseason. On October 17th, Waiters finished 2-9 from the floor for five points in 27 minutes.

I caught up with Dion following the Mavericks game on Saturday to talk for a minute about that return trip to the City of Brotherly Love:



As a heads up, I made myself write one hundred times on my dry erase board last night: "you are not a member of the Cavaliers in any way, Brendan". So hopefully that will keep me from using terms like "we" during an interview moving forward. I tried to quickly correct myself in talking with Dion, but it was too late. My bad on that.

Getting back to Dion's most recent performance, he was aggressive and did put a solid scoring number (16) on the board but his shooting percentage (25 percent; 4-16) was certainly not where it needed to be.

He put that pressure he mentioned on the referees to make calls at the rim, and should've gotten one when he tried to dunk on Chris Kaman's head late, but unfortunately the officials missed it.

He just needs to keep attacking like that moving forward no matter what happens. I have no problem with 16 field goal attempts, even with him missing 12.

Rookie Life: Dion Waiters has to wear this backpack

I took this picture of Dion's backpack last night and asked him if he was going to have to wear it when he went home to Philly.
 

Dion told me: "I'm not sure, Gibson said maybe I won't have to. I'm hoping I don't". 

Waiters is listed at four on the current Rookie Ladder rankings at NBA.com this morning. He is also one of only three rookies listed on a poll asking which "rookie has been most impressive so far" this season.  

After I voted this morning, Dion had 10,305 endorsements. Damian Lillard had 27,102 and Anthony Davis had only 4,171. I have no idea how that translates to the electoral college, however.

This is probably going to make me unpopular.  But I don't care. 

The Cavs have to trade Anderson Varejao.

Plain and simple. I'm not going to even touch upon what's a fair trade or what he could bring back in a trade; that's for Chris Grant to decide. But after watching Varejao torch the Brooklyn Nets for 35 points and 18 boards, I made up my mind.

Trade the Wild Thing.

Varejao as an All Star, I'd love it. Would I love a playoff run? Of course. Who wouldn’t? But getting into the playoffs as the 7th or 8th seed does this team nothing. The Cavs need another lottery pick, and honestly, they probably need more than that.

They have no bench, and aside from Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters, anyone on this team should be able to be had for the right price.

I just don't see how Varejao fits in long-term.

He's 30 and has been injured the last two seasons. In the 2010-11 season, Varejao was ruled out for the year by January 6.

Any financial planner worth his salt would caution you to diversify and advise that the worst thing you can do is try to time the market.  I happen to agree. 

I believe trying to construct an NBA team in OKC’s image under the new CBA is the NBA version of trying to time the market.  When you really think about it, it really is a crap shoot.  Be bad, hit on your pick.   

Be bad, hit on your pick.  Be bad, hit on your pick.  Win 50 games.  It’s not something you see very often and considering they’ve already run into issues, namely having to trade James Harden, I think we can see the flaws in the model. 

Not to mention the fact that while they’re a very good team with immense talent, they haven’t won anything yet.