The Cavaliers with be without 22-year old shooting guard Manny Harris for the next two weeks due to a foot ulcer.  Harris played in 54 games (15 starts) for the Cavaliers last year and he averaged 17.3 minutes, 5.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.  He only shot 37.4% from the floor as a rookie last year.  Harris was a undrafted rookie last year, so he has done a solid job of getting to his second NBA season.  The Cavs should be o.k, until Harris is ready to return to action.

UPDATE:  (12/22/2011) – The Cavaliers have waived Manny Harris.

The Cavaliers will be without 32-year old point guard Baron Davis indefinitely due to a herniated disc in his back.  Davis played in 15 games (9 starts) for the Cavs last year and he averaged 25.3 minutes, 13.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game.  He played in 58 games (44 starts) overall for the Clippers & Cavs last year and he averaged 28.4 minutes, 13.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game.  Lucky for the Cavs, they still have Kyrie Irving, Ramon Sessions and Daniel Gibson to handle the point until Davis is ready to return to action.

UPDATE:  The Cavaliers have waived Baron Davis via the amnesty clause.

The Cavaliers have dealt 23-year old power forward/center J.J. Hickson to the Sacramento Kings for 23-year old small forward Omri Casspi and a conditional future first round pick.  The pick is lottery protected in 2012.  It is also somewhat protected all the way until the 2017 season, so if the Kings don’t make the playoffs for a while, the Cavaliers will have to wait for the draft pick.  Hickson played in 80 games (66 starts) for the Cavaliers last year and he averaged 28.2 minutes, 13.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.  In his three years with the Cavs, Hickson played in 223 games (139 starts) in which he averaged 20.9 minutes, 9.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game.

Omri Casspi will be the starting small forward for the Cavaliers starting in 2011-12.  Casspi played in 71 games (27 starts) for the Kings last year and he averaged 24.0 minutes, 8.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game.  He has played in 148 games (58 starts) in his first two years in the NBA and he is averaging 24.5 minutes, 9.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.  Casspi has shot 37.1% from three point range in his career so he should help the team spread the court a little more.  I like the addition of Casspi, but I don’t think the Cavs got enough back for Hickson.  The Cavs better hope that rookie power forward Tristan Thompson is ready to rock in 2011-12.

26-year old center Ryan Hollins has picked up his player option to return to the Cavaliers in 2011-12.  He will make $2.5 million bucks next year.  Hollins played in 70 games (16 starts) for the Cavaliers last year and he averaged 16.9 minutes, 5.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game.  He has now played in 275 games (47 starts) in his NBA career and he is averaging 13.0 minutes, 4.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game.  The Cavaliers hope that Hollins plays like he did at the end of the 2010-11 season as he showed some toughness for once.

The Cavaliers took 21-year old, 6’9″, 260 pound power forward Milan Macvan out of Serbia with the 54th overall pick of the 2011 NBA Draft.  Macvan played in 52 games for four years in Europe last year and he averaged 19.6 minutes, 10.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.  He has now played in 216 games in four years overseas and he has averaged 11.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.  This would be a good pick if the Cavs thought he would come to the U.S., but it looks like he won’t.  This could be a wasted pick, which is something the Cavs really can’t afford at this point.

The Cavaliers took 20-year old, 6’8″, 225 pound power forward Tristan Thompson with the 4th overall pick of  the 2011 NBA Draft.  Thompson played in 36 games for Texas last year and he averaged 30.9 minutes, 13.1 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.9 steals and 2.4 blocked shots per game.  Thompson shot 54.6% from the floor last year but most of his shots were coming near or in the paint.  But, Thompson is a terrible free throw shooter as he only made 48.7% of his shots from the charity stripe.  The Cavs think they can coach him up as far as the free throw shooting is concerned.  It will be interesting to see how much P.T. Thompson gets initially for the Cavs as he is behind both J.J. Hickson and Antawn Jamison on the depth chart at power forward.  He appears to have a nice upside as he is a good defensive player and rebounder already, and he’s only 20 years old.

The Cleveland Cavaliers took 19-year old point guard Kyrie Irving with the #1 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft last night.  Irving is 6’2″, 180 pounds but he could get bigger as he is still young.  Irving played in 11 games last year for Duke and he averaged 27.5 minutes, 17.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game.  He shot 52.9% from the floor and 46.2% from 3-point range last year at Duke.  It will be interesting to see how much P.T. Irving gets next season with Baron Davis, Ramon Sessions and Daniel Gibson all still on the Cavs’ roster.  Irving has been mostly compared to Chris Paul of the Hornets and the Cavs would be ecstatic if he’s that good of a player down the road for them.

Center Ryan Hollins and SG Anthony Parker are free agents heading into this off-season.  Hollins has a player option for the 2011-12 season.  If he’s worried about P.T., he will exercise his option to stay with the Cavs.  If he’s only worried about money, he might leave.  I think the Cavaliers are o.k. with whatever Hollins decides to do as he played much better late in the year.  Anthony Parker has stated that he would like to stay with the Cavs.  I think the Cavs will consider bringing him back, but only as a backup.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will be without 34-year old power forward Antawn Jamison for the next 5-7 weeks as he will need surgery to repair a broken pinkie finger on his left hand.  Jamison has played in 56 games (38 starts) for the Cavaliers so far this year and he was averaging 32.9 minutes, 18.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.  Jamison was the Cavs’ leading scorer so they are going to really miss him.  22-year old Samardo Samuels and 23-year old Luke Harangody are going to get their big chances to show what they can or can’t do in the NBA.  Samuels will initially replace Jamison in the starting lineup.  He has played in 23 games (0 starts) for the Cavs so far this year and he is averaging 14.4 minutes, 5.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game.  Luke Harangody just came over in a deal at the trade deadline with the Celtics.  He has played in 28 games (0 starts) so far this year and he is averaging 8.6 minutes, 2.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game.  This is just another blow for the Cavs during this brutal season.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have released 27-year old power forward.  Powe played in 14 games (3 starts) for the Cavaliers this season and he averaged 13.4 minutes, 5.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.1 assists per game.  He played in 34 games (5 starts) in parts of two years with the Cavs and he averaged 12.4 minutes, 4.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.1 assists per game.  Some team will pick him up but he just hasn’t looked the same since he hurt his knee before he came to Cleveland.  The Cavs just don’t have any minutes left for Powe so they did him a favor by releasing him.