This is the summer where it's imperative for GM Chris Grant to grab one thing and it's not a big guy. It's absolutely 100% critical that the Cleveland Cavaliers come away from the 2012 NBA Draft with a dominant wing player to put the franchise into the stages of becoming one of the best young groups in the league.

The shooting guards we've employed this season, Anthony Parker and Daniel Gibson, have PER's of 9.1 and 9.5 to date. They're horrific and we have as giant of a hole there as any team has at a spot in the league.

With budding star Kyrie Irving handling the point and the still underrated Anderson Varejao in the middle it is comical to think the team should pick anything but a wing.

Find out the rest of my theory after the jump.

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With 15 games in the book already for the Cleveland Cavaliers it's time to take a look at some of the most eye opening numbers on their stat sheet:

(Editor note: stats through 14 games)

*4-4 - This refers to Anthony Parker at the free throw line all season. He's our starting shooting guard and is playing 23.3 minutes a night but he's only shot FOUR free throws. Wow.

*22.8% - It's obvious the Cavaliers have struggled with turnovers this year and Alonzo Gee's turnover percentage has been staggeringly high early this year.

*50% - Young Kyrie Irving has shot the ball extremely well this year and his field goal % backs that up. Few point guards who shoot many outside shots keep a percentage so high. Hopefully he can keep it at least above 47%.

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The Cavaliers have played 13 games and currently have the 7th best record in the Eastern Conference at 6-7. They've played significantly more road games (9) than home games (4). Head coach, Byron Scott still hasn't locked down the rotation of players that he intends to use and has been working out different possibilities and combinations to see what is effective. Regardless, 13 games is just about 20% of this 66 game season. That means we're basically one fifth done with the 2011-12 NBA season. That said, let's give out some early season grades for the members of this surprising team. Keep in mind that my grades are dependent on the expectations that we have of each player. If one player gets a higher grade than another, that doesn't not simply mean that they have played better. It means that they have filled their given role better.

#1 Daniel Gibson: B+

I'll be honest, I didn't know what to expect from Boobie Gibson at the start of the season. In retrospect, that seems pretty foolish. He's supplied exactly what he's been known to supply for his whole career. He's shooting an impressive 45.3% from behind the arc and has been the best perimeter defender on the team so far. He recently did a great job slowing down Golden State's Monta Ellis and will be getting more minutes if Anthony Parker is forced to miss more games with his back injury. Overall, I've been very pleased with the contributions from Boobie Gibson and he receives a solid grade as a result.

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Wow, the early returns from this season of Cavaliers basketball have been above and beyond expectations through 12 games. While it seemed the team was going to have another poor year (most pundits predicted about 13-18 wins) the team has been flying high of late and surprised us all quite a bit.

It's truly a credit to Byron Scott for urging these guys on to get some tough road victories that in a 26 game losing streak type of season they weren't going to come close to getting.

Contrary to what everyone thinks, the team hasn't really played some atrocious schedule to boost their 6-6 record. With the 19th ranked schedule right now that suggests the team is pretty close to the middle of the pack in terms of schedule strength.

Let's give some credit where it's due after the jump.

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With the ugliness at the bottom of the current Eastern Conference it's time to admit something nobody (including me) wants to hear yet. The 2011-2012 Cleveland Cavaliers are playoff contenders if this roster stays together for the entire season. Pull the plug on this idea should Antawn Jamison or Anderson Varejao get traded or a major player goes down, but for the time being they're absolutely in the mix.

I want the Cavs to lose a lot of games this year. It's simply obvious that it's best for the future of the franchise. It's not like I want them to lose with this team currently getting the burn. I want them to play Tristan Thompson 30 minutes a night over Jamison and unfortunately at this point that means we'd lose more. So indirectly, I want us to lose because it would happen. I'm also rooting for Varejao to get traded and in an odd way that means I want us to lose because that move too (assuming it brought back primarily a draft pick) would cause more losing.

It's the eye for the future and the Kyrie Irving days ahead that brings forth this mindset. But in the present day there is no doubt this team is a contender for the 8th playoff spot but not a single place higher.

Let's check out how this is possible after the jump.

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New Cavaliers small forward Omri Casspi has been a mild disaster to begin his time as a Dan Gilbert employee. The season sure is young still but his play has been passionless thus far and Byron Scott likely is concerned.

It looks like Casspi is really struggling to get comfortable on the team and just can't get much to go positively.

His numbers so far have been truly terrible so I'm beginning to get concerned now. His shooting percentage, rebounding rate and turnover numbers have all taken significant spikes for the worst. It's actually baffling to see how bad those things have been compared to the first two years of his career.

It seems like Scott has lost some faith in him as Alonzo Gee has had some nice moments of late and often is the first sub into the game.

Gee has essentially taken the majority of the minutes at the position from Casspi and has played some of the best hoops of his brief NBA career. He has been efficient in his scoring and has been a solid passer from the games I have watched.

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The beginning of Kyrie Irving's career has fascinated me. It's obvious the Cavaliers didn't have any future stars on the roster last season so throughout the whole season I was just hoping General Manager Chris Grant could find a way to acquire one for the upcoming season.

Sure enough, Donald Sterling's Los Angeles Clippers gifted us the top pick in the Draft in what was supposed to be the "worst draft in years." That label being attached to this draft is foolish so early in the days of these players actually getting a chance to prove that they can play.

Honestly though, it was easy to buy into that hype somewhat and things were even murkier because it was a bit difficult to evaluate what we could expect from Irving in his rookie year. From watching him thus far I definitely still believe he is exactly the level of player we hoped for when being awarded the top selection. I mean I don't expect him to ever win NBA MVP or anything but you know what, I am really happy with the fate that led him to Cleveland.

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In the preseason and early regular season games, coach Byron Scott has primarily chosen to use a rotation of ten players with two players rotating in for each other at all five spots.

When looking at the roster it really would be hard to gain a consensus among fans if we had to poll everyone and rank the players in order of who we thought was best 1-15. The gap between the talent of each player is so small that it seems like it might be a tough job for Scott to determine where the rotation really should end.

Here's how he's sent out the players thus far:

C - Anderson Varejao, Ryan Hollins/Samardo Samuels

PF - Antwan Jamison, Tristan Thompson

SF - Omri Casspi, Alonzo Gee

SG - Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson

PG - Kyrie Irving, Ramon Sessions

Notable DNP-CD's - Luke Harangody, Christian Eyenga

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