There are so many reasons why the Cavs win over the Clippers last night has me leaping out of bed this morning. Dion Waiters was Dion "Freaking" Waiters for the first time in his Cavaliers' career. He had that swag we'd been hearing about all summer turned way up for his first performance in Hollywood as he hit one mammoth three pointer after another. When he leapt to meet Kyrie Irving mid-air, late in last night's game, I believe I may have seen the Cavaliers future flash before my eyes. And it was magnificent.


That future inclues an "exciting young backcourt" evolving into the "nastiest backcourt tandem" in the NBA. That's what I'm feeling like this morning at least. What I saw last night was everything I had hoped for coming into this year.

The 28 points he scored weren't really that important. Dion played like a guy that Meek Mill would be proud to shout-out in a song for the remainder of his Maybach Music Group contract. He hit those big shots while playing opposite guys like Chris Paul and Caron Butler. He wasn't scared of the moment, he looked like he belonged on stages like that, and he was spectacular.

Even more so, while watching Kyrie Irving play alongside him. I've said that Kyrie Irving is a top-5 point guard in the NBA right now. He is certainly that. But the way Irving approached last night's game, in that matchup with Paul, tells me that he's not satisfied being "amongst the NBA's best point guards". That kid is a killer and he could very well be the NBA's best all around point guard by season's end.

The dribble drive he made early to feed Tyler Zeller on that lob in the first half was maybe my favorite assist of Irving's career. That play set Zeller on his way to his best performance in the NBA to date and was only one of about six crazy highlights that Irving turned in on the night.

Upon further review...here are a few thoughts looking back on week one of the new Cavaliers campaign:

• Andy. Wow.  13,15, 4 and shooting 64%. We all had fun with the fact we were passing off Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker as “veteran leaders” last year. I couldn’t imagine a player embracing that role any better than a guy like Andy. Just relentless and a joy to watch.
• Kyrie is picking up exactly where he left off. He’s amazing and getting better. He took over when he needed to in both the Wizards win and the Milwaukee heartbreaker. His struggles against Chicago remind me of Lebron vs Detroit or the Celtics. Those type of teams and defenses just aren’t going to let one great player beat them. Overall this week he went for 23, 5 & 4 and shot it at 50%. He played 32 minutes a night on average, a number that is sure to go up if the Cavs want to compete. The fact this kid isn’t getting run on national TV is a damn shame. no comments

You can watch this again, it's okay. I know you want to. Truth is, Kyrie Irving may act as well as he plays basketball. That's what I thought this morning as I watched Uncle Drew's second installment for the fifth time. 



Somehwere, Robert De Niro just gave Leondardo DiCaprio a high five in response to that pocket pass. Good to see Wes still has it too. Cavaliers matchup with the Chicago Bulls tonight. More on all that happens there just following the game.

It might only be one game, but we can get excited, right?

Now, I'm not saying the Cavaliers will make a playoff push (we won't), I'm not saying Anderson Varejao will average 23 boards a game (he won't), or that Kyrie Irving will put up 29 a game (ehh, maybe). But I do know this team will be fun to watch if they play the type of basketball they did against Washington.

It was nice to see this team get out and run, especially now that they have some guys capable of doing it. There was some good defense played by the Cavs and it was really nice seeing a shooting guard play like, well, a shooting guard.

But it wasn't all good and that's where I'm going to start.

First off, the bench play. It's not that I thought they played bad, it was just that something didn't seem to click for them. I thought Boobie Gibson and Tyler Zeller had nice nights; especially Gibson. He shot well and looked healthy but we have seen this before. Zeller played a tough 15 minutes and showed a nice shorting touch. After that, it just seemed off. They seemed disjointed and you could tell the chemistry just wasn't there.

Luke Walton played 12 minutes too many. In the lineup they had out there, he was playing the four and I would much rather see Samardo Samuels out there for those minutes. But that's just me. This group was also on the court as Washington made their run where they took a short lived two-point lead. For no particular reason, I'll blame Walton for that. 

But, now onto the good.

Tristan Thompson exploded late in the fourth quarter to finish off a 12-point, 10-rebound and 5-assist opening night performance against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday. He scored the majority of those points during a stretch that put the Cavaliers up for good in the final period.

I caught up with the second-year big man who Byron Scott says worked harder than any other Cavaliers player this summer after the game.

We talked about that late run and what it could mean moving forward. I also asked Tristan if he spent time in Canada this summer working on his playmaking skills with Steve Nash.



Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters and Anderson Varjeao dominated the headlines following the opener. Each providing tremendous reasons why to be sure. But Tristan's stated goal coming into this season is to hang a double/double on the board every night. He quietly did that in game one. The Cavaliers would not have won the game if he hadn't. 

Oh, and he also dropped five dimes too if you need him.

Stepien Rules Writer Nick Mancini checks in with his fifth of five questions as Cavaliers opening day is upon us...

5. What will Kyrie Irving do as an encore?

I knew Kyrie Irving was going to be good last season, but not that good.


Now, the question is, can he build on that success and become even better. It wasn’t an accident that Irving was in Las Vegas with the U.S. Select Team this summer. It also wasn't an accident when he was called the best player on that court. The best player on a court he shared with the 2012 Olympic team.

The reigning Rookie of the Year will be the center of the Cavaliers universe this season, and I expect him to deliver huge results. He averaged 18 points and 5 assists per game last year and that was with a supporting cast devoid of talent.

With some actual players, not a lot but definitely an upgrade, he should be able to improve on those numbers. An All-Star selection is not out of the question. C.J. Miles, Tyler Zeller and Dion Waiters will provide Irving with a level of help he didn't have a season ago. With that first year under his belt, he could quickly become universally accepted as a top-five point guard in the NBA this season.

If there were anything he might need to improve on it would be his durability. But even with that, his injuries seem more fluke than chronic. So, what exactly can we expect from Irving specifically?

As Moneyball has shown, sabermetrics and advanced statistics have become a big part in evaluating athletes, teams and matchups in all sports. So something new for this season is going to be a closer look at how those statistics are calculated, what exactly they mean, and just how our dear Cavs stack up against them.

I will be your guide throughout this process. In the real world, I am an engineer by training, and know a little bit about numbers and what to do with them. I’ve been both a Cavs and basketball fan for some time, and hope to use my skills and this column for the greater good. So let’s do some math.

Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is one of the more commonly quoted sabermetrics. It is the brainchild of John Hollinger, and tries to sum up an NBA player’s overall usefulness in a single number – the higher the better. It’s easy to look at players like Kyrie Irving (PER 21.5 last year) and Donald Sloan (PER 9.0) and tell which is the better player, but what about Tristan Thompson (13.4) and Alonzo Gee (13.2)? Do their similar PERs indicate equality?

What does the similar PER mean for players who play different positions and vastly different styles? Before delving into those questions, let’s take a look at how PER is determined. The short story is that calculating a player’s PER happens in two steps. Step one is calculating an individual PER, which in broad terms consists of the following:

James Harden won't be signing with Cleveland afterall, but Stepien Rules Car Magnets are now available. 

Courtesy of the great people over at www.magnetsonthecheap.com, this can now be featured in a prominent location on your vehicle:

Mentioned this last week on our Stepien Rules Facebook Page too, but keep an eye out for a chance to win a free Stepien Rules Car Magnet just in time for the regular season. We will be giving away five magnets (!!!) next week.

Enjoy your Sunday people.

How about a hearty welcome to the world of professional sports fandom for our friends in Oklahoma City. Junior’s sure going to look weird in “The Beard” costume on Wednesday night now. While most of us were watching college football, Sam Presti and Daryl Morey were busy putting the finishing touches on a game changing trade that sent James Harden to Houston.

This must feel awful for OKC fans right now BUT, once the decision was made that they weren’t going to pay him, you could argue their haul for James Harden was comparable to ORL’s for Dwight Howard. They brought in a solid bench scoring option on an expiring deal in Kevin Martin. They added a talented young wing player Jeremy Lamb who was at his best when playing second fiddle at UCONN and looked uncomfortable when asked to be “the man.” They’ll also be in a rare position in the NBA: A title contender with chances to add in the draft as they also squeezed out two first round picks with one being lottery guaranteed.

Stepien Rules Writer Nick Mancini checks in with his fourth of five questions as Cavs training camp continues...

4. How will our top rookies perform in the spotlight?

It is no secret that a few fans were not pleased with the selection of Syracuse guard Dion Waiters with the fourth pick. This was magnified when he arrived in Las Vegas for the Summer League overweight and searching for his shot. Again, fans weren’t happy.

My advice for the Wine and Gold faithful at this point: don’t worry, be happy.

Waiters and fellow first-round pick Tyler Zeller will be just fine. But it could take time. As the “Czar” Mike Fratello recently said, between Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, we have been a little spoiled when it comes to top picks in recent memory.

I think we have two solid guys, both with some great potential.

Lets start with Waiters...

I’m going to be honest; I have very high expectations for him. Were the Dwyane Wade comparisons a little over-the-top? Probably. But the fact is, he is going to start at the two and with shots to be had in this lineup, expect him to score. I think between 15-18 points a game could be a solid prediction, but I could be completely wrong. I think he is going to be a great compliment to Irving and it is even better these guys are comfortable with each other. There will be times where each will want the ball in their hands, but great players are the ones who know how to adapt their games. This pairing could produce one of the top backcourts in the next few years.