Standing in line recently, while wrapping up another successful holiday shopping effort, my mind began drifting towards the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Specifically, which of the 2013 unrestricted NBA free agents should the Cavaliers be targeting?

I also thought about the 46-131 overall record they've amassed since 2010 but quickly dismissed that. I decided to instead focus on how to improve moving forward.

Along with the draft, and exploring the trade market, free agency is a third opportunity to do specifically that.

It's worth noting that player options, team options and early terminations will eventually shape the totality of this summer's free agent class.

For now, though, there is a list of unrestricted free agents currently identified.

Here are two of those 2013 free agent lists from Hoopsworld and ESPN.com for your reference.

Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum will headline this year's class if you hadn't heard. While they won't want to come to Cleveland, there could be a few frontline-ish caliber players who might. 

Before getting too far, first here are the dollars I went virtually shopping with...

Tristan Thompson continues to bring energy every night.

He might not have improved as much offensively as some would've hoped for this summer, but he is trending upward statistically at the moment.

Thompson has now double-double'd eight times in 29 games this season after his Varejao-ish 14-point, 14-rebound effort in Milwaukee on Saturday. 

Last season he registered nine double-doubles in 60 games.

The 14 points matched season high's Tristan set in November against both Philadelphia and Brooklyn. The 14 rebounds were one away from the season high he collected in late-November against Atlanta.

Thompson is now averaging a double-double at 11.4 points and 10.4 rebounds over his last five games.

The stated goal for Tristan in the preseason was to average a double-double for the year. He's currently 1.3 points and 1.8 rebounds away from accomplishing that goal.


Luke Walton came off the bench to dominate everyone in Milwaukee

The Cleveland Cavaliers are now 2-2 overall this season in games where Luke Walton has scored.

So maybe he needs more touches, son.

After netting two points in the opener against Washington, three on December 12 against Indiana and three more in a matchup with Boston on the 19th, Walton exploded for a season-high seven against the Bucks on Saturday.

In the process, he helped his team finish with a 94-82 win that snapped a six-game losing streak.

Walton also set Cavaliers career-highs in rebounds and steals with six and three respectively.

The four assists he dished out, along with his seven points, were one away from matching his Cavs' career-highs of five and eight he set last season.

If Walton can string 26 more games like this together, maybe somebody will even want to trade for him before the deadline.

On July 23, 2004, the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Drew Gooden and Anderson Varjeao in a trade with the Orlando Magic for Tony Battie and two second round draft picks.

For the next three seasons, Gooden and Varejao were teammates in Cleveland. Not only did they share time at the power forward position specifically, they also practiced against each other on a daily basis.

In 2007, when the Cavs advanced to the NBA Finals, they each played in 80 regular season games. That year Varejao averaged 6.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists on 47.6 percent shooting for the season in 27.5 minutes per night.

Back then, Andy was considered to be a "hustle guy", exclusively. A term that was used to suggest he didn't have any skills. Varejao wasn’t considered a project, or a young big with high upside, or anything like that.

But according to Drew Gooden, who I spoke with over the weekend, Anderson Varjeao has always been as skilled as he is right now. He was just forced to "sacrifice" for the betterment of the team.

Heading into the Celtics game, Varejao is averaging 14.1 points, 14.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists on 47.8 percent shooting from the floor this season.

He’s shooting 42 percent on 2.8 attempts per game from 16-23 feet specifically. In 2007, Andy averaged only 0.7 attempts per game from that distance.

To be honest, I’m bringing this up today, in part, to distract myself from the fact that the Cavaliers are 5-21 overall, play zero defense and are the worst team in the NBA in terms of field goal percentage allowed.

The other reason, though, as well as my driver for asking Gooden, is in search of an answer for the age-old NBA question: 'How much can a player actually develop after entering the NBA?'

I've heard Varejao's name thrown around lately as an example of that. If you ask Drew Gooden, however, he didn't really develop all that much.

He's always been this good. He's only now been afforded the opportunity to show those of us who never were in practice.

C.J. Miles finished with 17 points in the Cleveland Cavaliers loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday. He's now averaging 10.0 points per game for the season. 

Over the last six games, Miles has scored 18.5 per night to get himself up to double-figures for the first time as a Cavalier.

This after averaging only 4.5 in his first six before falling completely out of Byron Scott's rotation.

Starting in the place of an injured Dion Waiters recently, Miles appears to have worked his way through those shoooting woes for good. I talked with C.J. about all that following the Bucks game.

Miles hit for 28 twice this week against the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers. In those two games he combined to make 11 of his 19 three's.

Truth is, Miles was really only slumping for 12 games. It's game 18 of the season and he's now averaging double-figures. That's about where everybody expected he'd be anyway.

C.J's struggles were magnified, however, because of the first impression he was hoping to make on Cavaliers fans. That first impression, on the court at least, was a pretty brutal one.

The instant classification process we go through on Twitter had a lot to do with that.

First impressions, true slumps and social media's role in all that, though, is a topic for another day. I may reach out to Will Hunting's shrink for an expert opinion before expanding that thought.

For now, let's just hope that Miles can stay slump-free for the rest of the season. He's a refreshing guy to talk to and you cannot help but appreciate his candor.

All of which seems to come off way cooler when he's playing okay.

I accepted a job writing for the Bleacher Report’s NBA Division in October.

I’ve been writing NBA-related articles for B/R since before this season began. Maybe you saw the tweets, read an article, or sat looking at a byline one day wondering where you saw that name before.

Regardless, I just thought I'd mention.

It’s been a blessing to be a part of Bleacher Report’s new direction, as synergies with Turner Sports continue to evolve. I’m excited about this opportunity and appreciate whoever's had time to check me out over there.

I bring this up today specifically, though, because I will be Live-Blogging from Quicken Loans Arena tonight for Bleacher Report.

Kobe’s in the house, Dwight too, and Kyrie is back to meet them both. I’ll tweet out my live-blog link later today, just wanted to provide some background in the meantime.

Kyrie Irving is Coming Back 

I was admittedly frustrated when Kyrie Irving was hurt earlier this season.

Not from a win / loss standpoint, necessarily, but more from the entertainment / boredom perspective.

Anderson Varejao has been playing like an All-Star. I enjoy watching the Cavaliers so much that I’ve spent hours of my life watching Smush Parker and Ricky Davis do the best they could out there. But when Irving is out, it is not as awesome to watch the Cavaliers.

Not awesome at all, to be honest.

Glad. To. Have. Him. Back. Beat the Lakers.

More Cavs Zines Available at Mullarkey's Irish Pub 

I met with the brainchild of the world-wide phenomenon that’s become known simply as Cavs Zine on Sunday night.

We met at an undisclosed location on Cleveland's Westside. A Christmas Tree was being trimmed when I arrived.

That's all I'm allowed to say.

That, and the fact that Mr. Jackson hooked me up with 50 more (!!) copies of Cavs Zine 3.

Those copies will become available for pickup at Mullarkey’s Irish Pub in Downtown Willoughby starting on Wednesday at 6pm.

It will be a first come first serve basis. The 100+ copies that Jack made available online were gone in one hour.

With no promotion.

Get your Cavs Zine 3 now while it's still available and then give it to someone for Christmas if you love them enough.

Kevin Jones dominated the D-League this season.

In five games he averaged 23.6 points and 12.6 rebounds on 53 percent shooting.

During the Cavaliers 91-73 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, he earned his way onto the NBA floor for the first time.

It's possible that Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters helped out by keeping a watchful eye on the baby he's been pushing around during the game.

My sources, however, cannot confirm that specifically.

What I can confirm is that chapter one of the Kevin Jones era gave Cavs fans something to pay specific attention to last night. It may have even prevented some from turning another game it seemed obvious they'd lose completely off.

For the eight minutes and thirty-three seconds that Jones played, at least.

In that time he registered a plus/minus of +3. Significant, of course, because of the fact that the four-and-sixteen Cavaliers lost by 18 points.

He took three shots, made one and finished with two points. Jones also grabbed four rebounds and added a steal.

Afterwards, the rookie from West Virginia posted the following to his twitter account:

First NBA game, not gonna front I was a little nervous but I'm glad it happened I am gonna continue to work to get better

Heading into last night's game, I was intrigued by the Kevin Love vs. Anderson Varejao matchup. Unfortunately, Andy had a rough night while Uncle Wes finished with 36 points and 13 rebounds.

Derrick Williams, who some hoped the Cavaliers would select over Irving in the 2011 draft, finished with a DNP-CD.

Photo: @KevJones5

Anderson Varejao is averaging 15.2 points and 15.4 rebounds per game heading into tonight's matchup with the Chicago Bulls.  He's also shooting 52.2 percent from the floor overall and 77.7 percent from the free throw line.

To that point, Dave Wooley (@dwooley81) emailed me the following statistic.

The players who have averaged at least 15 points and 15 rebounds while shooting over 50 percent from the field and over 75 percent from the free throw line in NBA history include:

- Moses Malone (1982-83)

- Bob McAdoo (1973-74)

- Jerry Lucas (1963-64, 1967-68 & 1968-69)

That's Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Anderson Varejao.

And all we're asking is that this guy make one trip to the All-Star game. I'm starting to wonder why this is still even a question.

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.