Cleveland Cavaliers Media Day : Why The Wine And Gold Look Ready To Roll In 2012-13

 

A fully healed Kyrie Irving, slimmed down Dion Waiters and a revitalized Anderson Varejao were three of the main observations noticed at the Cleveland Cavaliers Media Day.

Irving, who is fully recovered from a broken bone in his hand sustained during a Team USA training camp in Las Vegas, is fully fit and has added five pounds of muscle to his frame.

The reigning NBA Rookie Of The Year looked and sounded ready to help lead the Cavaliers to a playoff spot.

As Irving goes, so does the Cavs, if Cleveland expects to contend in the East, they need Irving to avoid the injury bug and emerge into a floor leader in head coach Byron Scott’s up-tempo offense.  Irving, who would average 18.5 points, would miss 15 games with a concussion and a shoulder injury.

Waiters, the fourth overall draft pick in the 2012 NBA Draft out of Syracuse, showed up an estimated up eight to ten pounds lighter, and looked very slim and trim.

The subjection of much off-season concerns over looking slow and heavy during the Cavs Summer League by shooting 30 percent and averaging 12.3 points in three games, Waiters looks like a perfect complement and backcourt partner to Irving.

It would not surprise many if both Waiters and Irving are paired together in the pre-season to get an idea of how they will click together in helping facilitate Cleveland’s offense.

Varejao, often the subject of trade rumors, is being counted on to man the center position in Cleveland—or play power forward—also was a bastion of full health, as he looked fully healed from his wrist injury that would cause him to miss more than 40 games.

Depending on the development of rookie center Tyler Zeller, the 6-foot-11 Varejao is projected to start as center and gradually shift to power forward with Tristan Thompson being the backup at the four.

With training camp underway and media day giving fans their first look at the 2012-13 team, once cannot help but get the sense that the Wine and Gold look ready to roll.

Robert D. Cobb is the NBA Network Manager for Rant Media Network, Featured Writer of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Featured Columnist for the Cleveland Browns and Arsenal Gunners.

In addition to covering the NBA, I also cover MLB, NFL, NHL and Champions League soccer news, rumors and opinions, please follow me on Twitter at @RobertCobb_76