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.

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.