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.