(SB Nation Cleveland, Chris White) Anderson Varejao has been penciled in to start at center for the Cleveland Cavaliers pretty much since day one. The veteran center is one of the better players on roster lacking front court depth. The Cavs are a team that has been dominated by a rookie though, young star Kyrie Irving. They might need to start yet another rookie, Tristan Thompson, in Varejao's absence with a veritable black hole at the center position.

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There are a few roster issues I've noticed that many people aren't quite aware of on the site of late so today we're going to clear that up. I'm also going to archive you back to any of the stories that Conrad or I wrote about this stuff so you can read about it in more detail if you want.

Manny Harris has no ties at all to the Cavaliers anymore. He was cut on December 22nd and cannot simply be "called up" at any time. To rejoin the team somebody would have to be waived. Check out Conrad's post on the day Manny got the ax.

That issue is related to the next thing we need to clear up. Anthony Parker and Luke Harangody are not going to get cut. All contracts that were non-guaranteed like Harangody's are now fully guaranteed for the season as I wrote very recently. Alonzo Gee is also here to stay but I didn't mention him because it's obvious he's not getting waived. That deadline was important. You'll notice how Mychel Thompson got cut right before it. Since all those wing players aren't going anywhere it is tougher for Harris to get a shot back in Cleveland.

The Cavaliers aren't simply going to get rid of Parker or Harangody since they are guaranteed money. Here's what I wrote when Parker signed.

Also, Anderson Varejao is not getting traded.

Sidelined with a sore back for the past seven games, Cavaliers starting shooting guard Anthony Parker remains doubtful for Wednesday's game at Quicken Loans Arena against the Indiana Pacers.

The 6'6 Parker, who shoots 0.9 free throws per 36 minutes, is averaging just 6.0 points per game this year and just over 2 rebounds and assists.

Should Parker not get to full fitness by Wednesday, it is likely that Daniel Gibson again will start in his place.

With injuries mounting on the Cavaliers it is nice to see the team in a prolonged home stand.

As Conrad noted earlier, Anderson Varejao will not play Wednesday and this is unfortunate because I would have liked to see him thoroughly outplay ALL-STAR Pacers center Roy Hibbert as I suspect he would have. Oh well.

Anyways, Varejao will be missed. Parker won't.

Bleehhhhhhhhhh. That's my reaction to this news. We thought it was just a sprained wrist when the initial x-rays came up negative. Later, the MRI revealed that he had a fracture in his right wrist and that he will be out for some time.

Just as the Cavs were starting to get healthy with Daniel Gibson coming back from a neck infection and Kyrie Irving presumably coming back on Wednesday from a concussion, Andy goes down. When Varejao got hurt last season, the Cavs then plummeted to the cellar and lost 26 games in a row. I doubt that will happen this time around, but it will definitely be a rough stretch.

It doesn't appear that the Cavs will make any sort of trade for depth up front, but their interior defense will inevitably take a hit. Having Semih Erden, Ryan Hollins, and Samardo Samuels playing significant minutes is never a good thing.

For those of you that wanted the Cavs to tank and get a better draft pick, you might get your wish. The loss of Anderson Varejao will lead to many more losses and I could see Cleveland falling to get the 5th or 6th pick in the draft now. Obviously we'll see how his absence affects the team once they play a few more games without him, but I'm not confident.

There is currently no timetable for his return and we'll learn more once he gets evaluated again by team doctors. I'll keep you updated, no worries.

The title of this post is pretty much exactly what I plan on exploring: how did we get Kyrie Irving? If you're like me, you see that Kyrie is blossoming into one of the best point guards in the NBA and certainly has superstar potential. Even if he is merely a perennial all-star, that's pretty damn good. So how, exactly, did he end up playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, you ask? Let's take a stroll through some weird history of the franchise.

Let's start at the top and work our way down. If you didn't know already, Kyrie was selected with the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. That pick was not the Cavs own pick (the Cavs had the 4th pick), but rather the pick that was acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers. So let's look at that trade.

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Worst game of the season? Worst game of the season. It wasn't exactly a surprise unless you were ignoring the obvious signs. The Sixers came out with way more energy and jumped out to a big lead in the first half. The Cavs kind of hung around and didn't let the game get too out of hand, but were never able to cut into the lead. It ended with a 99-84 loss to Philadelphia and dropped the Cavaliers to 10-16 on the season.

Cavs Leaders: Points: Jamison, 20; Rebounds: Jamison. Thompson; 8, Assists: Sessions, 8

Quick Thoughts:

The idea that this game was going to be horrible was pretty clear to me. It was Cleveland's fourth game in five nights, the Sixers are a really good team, and the Cavs were without their two best players. Initially, it seemed the Anderson Varejao merely had a sprained wrist, but an MRI revealed that he had a fracture in his wrist. Ugh. Once this was announced, it seemed like much of the excitement and energy around the Cavaliers dissipated. Without their star rookie and emotional leader, the Cavs had nothing to offer and sleepwalked through this blowout.

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This could be ugly. Kyrie Irving is out again with a concussion. We thought that Anderson Varejao simply sprained his wrist in last night's game, but an MRI revealed that he had actually fractured it. Needless to say, Andy is out tonight and will be out for at least a couple weeks to come.

Song Of The Day: Funny Little Feeling - Rock N' Roll Soldiers

Tonight's Overview:

Philadelphia 76ers (18-9) vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (10-15)

The Cavaliers are going to be without their two best players tonight and will be playing their fourth game in five nights. Just that alone would generally set the team up for a bad night but when you add the fact that they are playing one of the best young teams in the NBA, it could get reaalllly bad. The 76ers are very deep and very talented at basically every position. They play great defense and fantastic team offense.

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After jumping out to a 17-2 lead, the Cavaliers worked really hard to blow the lead and managed to end the first quarter down by 3 points. It was truly impressive. Throughout the game, Cleveland kept with the theme of blowing leads. In the end, the Cavs were unable to close out the game, went to overtime and fell by a score of 113-112. The Cavaliers move to 10-15 on the season.

Cavs Leaders: Points: Jamison, 34; Rebounds: Thompson, 13; Assists: Sessions, 16

Quick Thoughts:

The execution down the stretch made no sense to me. Down by 3 points with under 10 seconds to go, Byron Scott opts to go for the 2-pointer and then foul and extend the game. It almost worked, but Alonzo Gee was unable to hit both free throws. The Cavs then fouled but found themselves down 4 points instead of a possible 3 points. Therefore, when Gee hit the three at the buzzer, it simply made the Cavs lose by just 1 point. With no timeouts and down by 3, I would have gone for the tying bucket instead of the two-pointer. Overall, it doesn't really matter because if Gee hits both free throws, the game is tied and goes into double overtime.

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With Kyrie Irving ruled out for the weekend, point guard Ben Uzoh has been signed by the Cavaliers on a ten-day contract from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Uzoh starred in college at the Universtiy of Tulsa before playing with the New Jersey Nets last season. He then nearly made the Charlotte Bobcats out of training camp this fall.

For Rio Grande he was averaging 16.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. SBNation's D-League guru Scott Schroede of Ridiculous Upside had some very positive things to say about Udoh on January 24th.

Uzoh certainly seems to be less reluctant in shooting this season, but the biggest key thus far has been his ability to get out and go while playing in head coach Nick Nurse's high-paced offense. Nurse, an assistant with the Great Britain National Team, allows his team to get out in transition quite a bit in a unique offense that often substitutes complete line changes as it isn't uncommon to see five players waiting to sub in along the sideline.

Uzoh probably isn't a pure point quite yet, but he's the type of player that could be called-up to fill a fifth guard spot while handling point guard duties in limited stretches. He isn't going to offer much on the offensive end as far as supplying his own offense is concerned, but he seems to make the right decisions more often than not as he's averaging just two turnovers in 38 minutes per game while playing the one at the D-League level.

Defense should probably be Uzoh's calling card considering he's long enough and athletic enough to guard either backcourt position, but it doesn't seem his fundamentals are quite up to par and his lateral quickness -- or ability to react -- can be just a step slow sometimes.

The biggest strike against him, however, might be his track record over the past six months. Uzoh was cut by teams in Italy and Russia as he tried to catch on overseas during the NBA lockout before returning stateside to attend training camp with the Charlotte Bobcats (where he was effectively cut to make room for the president of basketball operation's son).

If Ramon Sessions gets traded, Uzoh could certainly stick with the Cavaliers roster for the remainder of the season so he is someone who I think is going to be around longer than 10 days as Irving's concussion will cause him to miss an indefinite amount of time.

A big thank you to jdelsandro for bringing this story to our attention.

Kyrie Irving's status is still unknown, but if I had to guess I would say that he will NOT play tonight against Milwaukee. That means Ramon Sessions would start and have another chance to show NBA teams around the league what he is capable of as a starting point guard. The Bucks starting point guard, Brandon Jennings, was also recently snubbed from the All Star Game and has reports surrounding him that he is already thinking about moving on from Milwaukee.

Song Of The Day: Give It To Me Baby - Rick James

Funky Friday!

Tonight's Overview:

Milwaukee Bucks (11-14) at Cleveland Cavaliers (10-14)

7:30 PM EST, Quicken Loans Arena

This is a matchup between two teams in pretty similar positions. Each is in that "should we tank or should we go for the 8th seed" dilemma. The Bucks have had terrible luck with the health of their best player, Andrew Bogut, and he is out once again with a broken ankle.

Brandon Jennings stats are very similar to those of Kyrie Irving's at 18.9 points and 5.3 assists per game. It's a shame that we likely won't get to see the two promising young PGs play against one another, but such is life. Ramon Sessions played a fantastic game in the place of Irving against the Clippers and I expect him to have another nice night.

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