Daily NBA Fix: Kyrie Irving’s Return Cements Cleveland Cavaliers’ Spot At The Top

The Eastern Conference’s best team is adding an All-Star level point guard in the form of Kyrie Irving, who is expected to make his season debut on Thursday.

Yesterday evening, reports began to surface that Cleveland’s point guard Kyrie Irving is set to make his season debut against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

If you are one of the conference’s other contenders, this can’t have made your day any better.

Irving averaged 21.7 points and 5.2 assists a game last season and gives the Cavaliers another offensive wrinkle. His defense is far from perfect, but that’s not what Cleveland is going to expect from him anyway.

There are still real concerns about Irving staying healthy going forward, but that’s why the Cavaliers have been cautious in getting him back on the floor. He still has to pass one more physical before he gets the nod on Thursday.

Kyrie Irving Games Played and Missed By Season | PointAfter

While it would be easy to look at some of the Cavaliers’ stats from last year and try to project his impact, I don’t think that is very helpful.

As good as last year’s team was, it seemed like Cleveland was always in a state of flux or turmoil. It was David Blatt vs. LeBron James at times, it was LeBron vs a two-week vacation at others or it was LeBron vs Kevin Love. Whether those stories were as big as they were sometimes made out to be, it seemed like the Cavaliers had plenty to sort out as they tried to come together and form a basketball version of Ultron.

More from NBA

• Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
• Constructing the NBA’s perfect all-under-25 starting five
• Grading every NBA team’s highest draft pick in the last five years

On top of that, they added Timofey Mozgov halfway through the season and again had to try to get team chemistry settled while constantly changing the ingredients.

It finally looked like all that was under control until Kelly Olynyk injured Kevin Love’s shoulder in a tussle for the ball. For a few moments in the playoffs, it looked like the Cavaliers were going to take down the Eastern Conference with ease, maybe sweep a few rounds. But that possibility was now gone. It looked like Kyrie and LeBron might have been enough to beat the Golden State Warriors, but we’ll never know as Irving’s knee soon failed him.

On Thursday, we’ll get to see if those moments where the Cavaliers — and particularly their star players — can find that magic we saw glimpses of. Most of the turmoil in Cleveland is gone at this point. The only point of stress has been LeBron’s pushing for perfection in execution, which I wouldn’t qualify as a real problem.

It just seems unfair to the rest of the East that the first place Cavaliers are adding an All-Star back into the mix, but this year has looked markedly better for the rest of the conference. I don’t think it is as much of a sure thing as it was last year that Cleveland will emerge from the East, but the odds just got better with Kyrie back in the mix.

LeBron’s Disrespectful Defense

Jonas Jerebko probably expected a hand in his face, but LeBron decided to take his chances with the man’s 26.7 three-point percentage and go for the breakaway. Well, it actually worked as Jerebko missed his shot and Mozgov corraled the rebound.

The Cavaliers won 89-77, but that wasn’t the best thing LeBron did last night.

LeBron Makes a Kid’s Day, Week, Month and Possibly Year

Special Olympian Aaron Miller was being honored for winning MVP at a recent event in Boston, and LeBron decided to take a quick moment to congratulate the young man.

In situations like this, it just takes a small gesture from LeBron to make a big splash in someone’s life. You can tell Miller was a little surprised to see one of the NBA’s best players coming over to congratulate him. LeBron also gave Miller his shoes after the game.

Just a nice moment for all involved, and good luck to Miller going forward.

Sacramento Kings Might Be Pulling It Together

After a 1-7 start, the Kings sit at 10-15 after taking care of business against the Houston Rockets last night.

For all of the craziness the beginning of the season brought, things seems to have smoothed out. In the 17 games, Sacarmento has played slightly better than .500 basketball and there haven’t been calls for anyone’s head (except rightly, for Rajon Rondo‘s).

Next: NBA Power Rankings: Week 8

There are trade rumors still in the air, but they seem to be less driven by animus between DeMarcus Cousins and anyone else. Things could easily head south again, but there is a chance the Kings might not be a complete trainwreck anymore.