May 24, 2013

Kyrie Irving to lead Charles Barkley’s team in Rising Stars Challenge, Tristan Thompson on team Shaq

February 16, 2012 by 5 Comments

Charles Barkley was impressed enough with Cavaliers’ rookie Kyrie Irving to select him over Jeremy Lin, Ricky Rubio and John Wall just to name a few. Barkley and Shaq are the honorary GMs for the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star weekend. Instead of the rookie vs sophomore format of the past, TNT’s big men mixed it up by drafting two teams of mixed rookies and second year players.

Shaq selected Blake Griffin first overall leaving the board wide open for Charles Barkley who took the 19 year old Irving and added this about the selection-

“It wasn’t very difficult [to pass on Jeremy Lin] to be honest because [Lin's] only been playing for a week and it’s been a fantastic week,” Barkley said. “But Kyrie Irving is terrific and he’s going to hand it to [Lin] and if Ricky Rubio wants some…he can come get some too.”

Fellow Cavaliers’ rookie Tristan Thompson was selected by Shaq and will play against his teammate.

Team Chuck

Kyrie Irving – Cleveland Cavaliers (Rookie)

DeMarcus Cousins – Sacramento Kings (Sophomore)

Paul George – Indiana Pacers (Sophomore)

Derrick Williams – Minnesota Timberwolves (Rookie)

MarShon Brooks – New Jersey Nets (Rookie)

John Wall – Washington Wizards (Sophomore)

Gordon Hayward – Utah Jazz (Sophomore)

Tiago Splitter – San Antonio Spurs (Sophomore)

Kawhi Leonard – San Antonio Spurs (Rookie)

Evan Turner – Philadelphia 76ers (Sophomore)

Team Shaq

Blake Griffin – Los Angeles Clippers (Sophomore)

Jeremy Lin – New York Knicks (Sophomore)

Ricky Rubio – Minnesota Timberwolves (Rookie)

Greg Monroe – Detroit Pistons (Sophomore)

Markieff Morris – Phoenix Suns (Rookie)

Kemba Walker – Charlotte Bobcats (Rookie)

Landry Fields – New York Knicks (Sophomore)

Norris Cole – Miami Heat (Rookie)

Brandon Knight – Detroit Pistons (Rookie)

Tristan Thompson – Cleveland Cavaliers (Rookie)

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Tired and Short-Handed Cavaliers Try to Bounce Back vs Chris Paul and the Clippers

February 8, 2012 by 15 Comments

Chris Paul has made a huge impact on the Clippers

***UPDATE: Daniel Gibson will play and will start tonight against the Clippers. So kindly disregard comments below about Gibson likely not playing.

***UPDATE #2: Kyrie Irving has concussion like symptoms and will not play tonight. Great. Just great.  

The Cleveland Cavaliers (9-14, 10th in the East) begin their longest home stand of the season Wednesday night as the new Los Angeles Clippers (15-7, 2nd in the West) visit The Q.

This is certainly a matchup that is not lacking for storylines. Chris Paul playing his old coach and mentor, Byron Scott. Kyrie Irving vs one of the players he seems to be compared to a lot in Chris Paul. Mo Williams making his return to Cleveland.

Beyond the storylines, though, I expect a rough night for the Cavaliers. The Clippers, though on the 3rd game of a road trip, are well rested having had the previous night off. The Cavaliers played shorthanded in Miami last night, ran up and down the court at a frantic pace for much of the game, and then had to fly back home. [Read more...]

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Elias: Kyrie Irving Enters Cavaliers’ Record Books

January 17, 2012 by 5 Comments

A lot has been said about Cavaliers’ rookie point guard Kyrie Irving over the last couple of weeks, but nearly none of it has been rooted in statistics.  Thankfully, we have Elias Sports Bureau for that.

From Elias:

Kyrie Irving made nine of 16 field-goal attempts on Monday while scoring 25 points; it’s the fifth consecutive game that Irving has scored 20 or more points and made at least half of his shots from the floor. That’s the longest streak of that kind by a rookie in Cavaliers history and over the last 10 seasons, the only other rookies to fashion such a streak were Blake Griffin (six games last season) and Michael Beasley (five games in 2008-09).

Let that marinate for a second. Irving, a point guard, has provided efficiency that rivals Blake Griffin, in his rookie campaign after playing only 11 contests at the collegiate level. Also, despite LeBron James calling Cleveland home in 2003-04, at no point did he provide five-straight 20-point contests with field goal percentages north of the half-made point.

For good measure, Irving is also the first Cavaliers rookie to break the 25-point threshold within his first 10 games as a professional since Dujuan Wagner (2002).  James did not exceed 25 points until his 12th contest where he scorred 28 against the Washington Wizards.

[Related: Kyrie Irving is the Next...]

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While We’re Waiting…another magical night for the Indians, and more draft talk

May 1, 2011 by 3 Comments

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com

Roll Tribe: “For the second time in as many nights, the Tribe had that last at-bat magic.

Only this time, it didn’t come until the bottom of the 13th. Orlando Cabrera’s one-out, bases-loaded single off Brayan Villarreal gave the Indians the final edge in a dramatic 3-2 win over the Tigers.

Thus ended an astounding April in which the Indians (18-8) outperformed all expectation, realistic or otherwise. They set a club record for April wins (and keep in mind, said club has been around for 111 years), and they’ve won 12 straight at home.

 ”We expect to win every day,” Cabrera said. “We know that losses are going to come, but we expect to win every day.”

 Even with another rookie hurler on the hill.

 A crowd of 26,433, including the third-largest walk-up crowd in this ballpark’s history, was on hand to see Alex White’s first Major League start. And while this game will ultimately be remembered for how it ended, White’s early results were encouraging.

Just another night at the yard for the unstoppable Indians.” [Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com]

[Read more...]

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Cavs lose a game to the Clippers that made sense for them to win

March 20, 2011 by 5 Comments

Entering the month of March it would’ve been fair to assume that the Cavaliers as an organization probably only wanted to win two more games. 

The game against Juwan Howard and the Heat on March 29th being one, and the other being this latest loss to Blake Griffin and the Clippers 100-92 yesterday.

With an opportunity to make a direct impact on the ping pong ball possibilities they received in exchange for Mo Williams, Jamario Moon, and the rights to the gooseneck hand signal, the Cavaliers fell short in the final few minutes. 

Had that call on Blake the Almighty stayed a travel and not been flipped to a foul on Samardo Samuels with just over three minutes to go, maybe the Cavaliers would’ve rallied from down 5. 

But it wasn’t and they didn’t.

Blake Griffin led the Clippers in every category, with game highs in points (30) and assists (8) and a team high (8) rebounds.  He played like the beast that he is.  For his part, JJ Hickson just about kept pace on the offensive end scoring 28 of his own to go with a game high (9) rebounds, but it would not be enough.

If Samardo Samuels had kept his torrid pace of 14 early points going, and finished with what have projected out to about a game high 87, then maybe things would’ve been different.  But after starting red hot with those 14 he finished with 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 fouls. [Read more...]

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Pujols, LeBron, Carmelo and Free Agency

February 15, 2011 by 31 Comments

This is what Curt Flood fought for. You may not remember the centerfielder, but his refusal to accept a trade to the Phillies and subsequent lawsuit against baseball forged a trail in which the players stood together and got free agency started.

Has it now progressed to the point of insanity?

Albert Pujols is seeking a contract somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million dollars. He reportedly is asking the Cardinals (or whoever wants his services) to shell out $30 million dollars a year (fixed thanks), well into his late 30′s and early 40′s.

We’ve heard and had the big market versus small market debate for years. The truth is that there are only a small handful of teams that could pay that salary. Cleveland certainly isn’t one of them.

So should the Cardinals consider trading Pujols if they don’t think they are going to win it all this year? Or do they risk letting Pujols walk while getting nothing in return? [Read more...]

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Mo Williams to Return Tonight Against the Clippers

February 11, 2011 by 12 Comments

The Cavaliers will have another weapon at their disposal tonight as the oft-injured Mo Williams will make his return after missing the last several weeks with an injured hip flexor.

This afternoon, Williams – who will come off of the bench behind Ramon Sessions at first – stated that this is the best he has felt all season, suffering a brash of injuries from October until present day.  Recall, the veteran point guard injured his groin early in the preseason and then re-injured himself just a few weeks later.  Taking a cortisone shot in mid-January, Williams was forced to shut down for several weeks while time did the healing.  He was listed as “doubtful” as recent as this past Wednesday, but has since impressed the coaching staff enough to earn active playing time.

[Read more...]

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