Cleveland Cavaliers

Indiana's George Hill makes four free throws in the final 48 seconds, and the Pacers' defense forces LeBron James into two key turnovers in the final minute.

Tee Jay Void from NiceKicks.com posted a compelling arguement for why Kyrie Irving should be the next NBA superstar to receive his own signature shoe earlier this week. An excerpt from that article is below. Kyrie Irving is the leader of the new era of talent in the NBA. He already has commercial success, and is trending toward long term athletic success as well. Cleveland also has the number one pick in the 2013 lottery, which will undoubtedly bring more eyes to that Cavaliers squad throughout the months leading up to the season. Those eyes will gaze in Irving’s direction more often than not. With a large social media following, and one of Nike Basketball’s big three closer to the end of his career than the beginning, who better to pass the torch to than Kyrie Irving? One thing is for certain, Kyrie Irving is an amazing young player with a relateable personality to match. With a major endorsement deal with PepsiMax already earning him greater visibility, he is a proven commodity for any brand. As one commenter simply stated in our article detailing the Nike Hyperdunk 2012 “Kyrie Irving” PE, “I’d cop anything he wore.” Lot of good points. Personally, if Kyrie Irving endorsed refrigerators I'd consider buying one. His own shoe is a no-brainer. At media day this past season, Kyrie was wearing his personalized Nike Hyperfuses with KYRIE on the tongue. I asked him then how much say he had in the design, which featured the wine and gold colorway, and he told me he "had all of the say". Kyrie, at the time, went on to add that he was honored to see his name on a Nike shoe. He'd be even more honored with his own shoe, I imagine, which is a very real possibility at this point. Thanks to Peter over at NiceKicks.com for the heads up the great read. -- Full Article: NEXT IN LINE: WHY KYRIE IRVING DESERVES A SIGNATURE SNEAKER

Can the Cavs afford to kiss off another season after Defiant Dan Gilbert's promise that getting this season's No.1 pick was the "last lottery for a long time?" Selecting Nerlens Noel at No. 1 would amount to just that.

Who is the best player in the 2013 NBA draft? Chris Fedor reveals his Top 25.

The NBA draft lottery has come and gone. Much to the surprise of many, the Cleveland Cavaliers find themselves at the top of the heap for the second time in three years. Now is the time for all the basketball pundits to spend hours, days and weeks over-analyzing every little thing about this year's pool of college talent in order to inundate us all with a nonstop barrage of Mock Drafts. To some, this is exciting. To me, this is a special kind of Hell.Personally, I couldn't care less about these Mock Drafts. I'm not a college basketball fan. Between maintaining some semblance of a life, my job, and watching the NBA, I just don't think I have time for any more basketball. To me, everyone on these draft boards is the same faceless unknown. I know I'm supposed to want to the Cavaliers to take Nerlens Noel, and I know it's because he's supposedly a difference maker on defense. Problem is, I've never seen him play that defense. Sure, I could watch some draft scouting reports on the Internet, but there are way more interesting things to watch on YouTube than draft scouting reports. Like videos of cats riding Roombas. And dudes accidentally getting hit in their stuff.That said, as I write about basketball on the Internet, I feel compelled to share a Mock Draft with you all. Except, because I know absolutely nothing about who any of these people are, I'll be totally up front with the fact that I'm pulling all of this out of my ass (let's face it, so is everyone else writing one of these, I just won't try to hide it). So with that out of the way, let's do this stupid thing:1) The Cleveland Cavaliers select Otto Porter. Why Otto Porter? Because I like the name Otto. I only know two people named Otto, and they're both awesome. One is the bus driver from The Simpsons. The other is Otto Orf from the early 90's Cleveland Crunch. Both of those dudes are pretty great, and one of them also happens to be on a Cleveland team that won a championship (though in a league that defaulted). Porters also happen to be my favorite type of beer, so this one seems like a no-brainer. 2) The Orlando Magic select Shabazz Muhammad. Shabazz sounds like something a wizard would say when conjuring up some kind of magical spell. It only makes sense. Speaking of wizards... 3) The Washington Wizards select Nerlens Noel. More like Merlin Noel, amirite? This needs to happen, just for the pun. 4) The Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets select Kelly Olynyk. I'm only selecting him because his name reminds me of the Larisa Oleynyk, who played Alex Mack in The Secret World of Alex Mack. Hopefully Kelly Olynyk can also turn into a puddle of goo, because that's basically what the poor, poor Bobcats/Hornets are at this point. 5) The Phoenix Suns select Alex Len. His name makes me think of the word "lense" which makes me think of sunglasses. That's about as much thought as I'm going to put into the Phoenix Suns. 6) The New Orleans Pelicans select Rudy Gobert. French name. Cajun Creole. It kind of makes sense. Not much, but who cares. Plus, his name makes me think of Gogurt, so he has to go pretty highly in this draft. His website is also pretty fantastic, so he needs to be represented here. 7) The Sacramento Kings select Ben McLemore. Why? Because I can't think of anyone else in this draft. I know there's a Greek dude with a crazy name, but I can't remember what it is, and even if I could, I'd have to look up the spelling and I really don't want to do that.So that's all I have. Feel free to respond with your own Mock Drafts, because I'm sure people will care about them just as much as they care about this one.

Had a great time as always talking Cavs, the Draft and NBA Playoffs with Ken Carman on The Ken Carman Show last night. In case you missed it, the audio was posted on CBS Cleveland's website following the show. Here is the link: Brendan Bowers Likes Otto Porter For The Cavs At No. 1 Thanks to Ken and the crew at 92.3 The Fan for having me on. We will be talking more later on about everything we discussed last night here at StepienRules.com. Enjoy the Friday...a holiday weekend is upon us people. PS - Similar to the reports we've heard about the Cavaliers front office being divided on who they should spend their No. 1 overall selection on, there is also a debate among the Stepien Rules front office. We may be hearing more about that soon as well, so stay tuned. An extremely interesting case is being presented as a comparable another player at one that nobody else has mentioned.

"Even after getting the 1st pick I still like Porter. Just don't trust Noel, zero offense and just keep having visions of him having Oden type luck. I can see it now, we draft Noel and sign Oden and about mid season those two and Andy are all in suits sitting on the bench done for the year (again)." - grobb

Tuesday's win was great back in Cleveland. But what was Tuesday like for the Cavs contingent – who sent their dirty dozen on a daring mission to return with the No. 1 pick? Wine and Gold United drawing winner Dr. Gerry Burma lets us know ...

With the first pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers have the ability to choose whoever they want. Most people think that they will take Nerlens Noel. But there's also the possibility that they consider Otto Porter with the top pick, according to the Washington Post. This report suggests that the Cavs are not completely sold on Nerlens Noel and will look into drafting Porter instead. Now, there's a difference between "considering" Porter and actually drafting him. I would expect the Cavs to consider several players, especially with the injury question marks surrounding Noel. Until they get a good look at Noel's knee and have the opportunity to talk face to face with him, they should keep investigating other options. "But there is a possibility that Porter, arguably the most NBA-ready player among the top prospects, might not be around when the Wizards pick third. A source with knowledge of the Cavaliers' thinking said Porter is under consideration to go No. 1." As you know, I think the Cavs should just take Nerlens Noel, so this report scares me a little bit. But at the same time, it really shouldn't come as much of a surprised. In any front office, there will be differing of opinions. I'm sure there are some people who think Porter is the way to go while others are convinced it's Noel. Heck, we may even hear rumors about taking Anthony Bennett or Ben McLemore first overall before we actually get to the draft. Another somewhat farfetched theory is that the Cavs would leak this as a smokescreen. What sense does it make to deploy a smokescreen when you're the #1 pick? Well if a team like the Wizards has their heart set of getting Porter, a report like this might worry them enough to pick up the phone and try to move up to draft the forward out of Georgetown. I'm not saying that's what this is, but in a draft where there isn't a super obvious #1 pick, anything is possible.

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