Cleveland Cava****LeBrons

This counts as fat in the NBA.

Lebron James has made some very silly mistakes in his life.  Not silly in the realm of Tiger Woods' extramarital activities or Darryl Strawberry's everlasting love of cocaine, but still rather dumb of him.  Chief amongst these mistakes was what has become known as "The Decision," the hour long, nationally-aired Lebron ego show to announce that he was signing with the Heat.  Since then, Lebron has been on good behavior, has won two MVP awards and a championship, and continues to provide for the Boys and Girls Club, among other charitable organizations.

In Cleveland, this will never matter.  Lebron James could quite literally cure cancer, and there is a good chance that Cavaliers fans will insist that cancer isn't as bad as Lebron says.  Strangely, Lebron's defection was nowhere near as bad as hundreds of others of players who demand trades while still under contract, and certainly doesn't touch the shit show that was Dwight Howard's last two years.  Even so, the city of Cleveland may never move on, but thank G-d they've at least shut up a little bit.

The reason for their relative calm is, of course, new savior Kyrie Irving.  Ignoring his frequent injury problems for now, Irving is an exceptional talent, rating in the top half of NBA point guards despite playing for the Cavaliers last season.  All the promise he showed in his extremely short time at Duke came to fruition last year, with Irving averaging 18 PPG and 5 APG despite missing fifteen games.

And therein lies the rub.  Irving got hurt once again last year and, while it was nowhere near as serious as his season-ending injury at Duke, it is scary to see such a young player with continuous leg injuries.  It is very possible he recovers entirely and never has an injury again, but there have been far more players felled by injuries (Bill Walton, Maurice Stokes, Shaun Livingston) than there have that have overcome continuous issues.  Certainly, Irving deserves the benefit of the doubt, unless he happens to miss another twenty games this year with a leg injury, in which case... well, 20 and 5 isn't so great if its only for half a season every year.

Surrounding Irving is a steaming pile of poop.  Yes, these Cavaliers look very bad, but Irving's presence seems to help everyone ignore that.  Anderson Varejao is once again going to take every charge in the world while having the goofiest hair this side of David Luiz.  Even with his solid play, Varejao has never put up better than 8 and 8 in a full season, and has barely played half the year the last two seasons, so surprise!  The Cavs have even more injury worries.

After Varejao come the last two fourth overalls picks, which sounds much better than it is.  Tristan Thompson rose to fourth thanks to a weak draft and a stupid GM, and he proved that he is at least the equal of Zaza Pachulia (what high company!) with averages of 8 PPG and 6 RPG on pretty bad shooting for a big man (44% FG).  Joining Thompson in disappointment is Dion Waiters, the backup shooting guard for the Syracuse Orange who somehow became the first shooting guard drafted.  While the pick was met with some odd glances at the time, it looks even worse now that Waiters showed up fat to the summer league and has been routinely outplayed by just about everyone else present.

There isn't really much else to talk about on the Cavaliers roster this season, sadly.  Certainly, its a very young roster, with twelve of the seventeen players currently on the roster having played under three seasons in the NBA, but not a whole lot of promise is present.  Irving could improve if he stays healthy, and Tyler Zeller was pretty damn good at North Carolina, despite looking like the next coming of Josh McRoberts (albeit skinnier).  It seems like there is a possibility of a solid core group here, but there are just too many question marks to be positive about the future of the Cavs.  They should once again be in the high lottery and, if recent history is any indication, once again draft someone that makes no sense.