CLEVELAND – While the Cleveland Cavaliers lost on the court to the Washington Wizards, 101-82, they may have won off of it.
The Cavs exercised the player options of Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Tyler Zeller and Tristan Thompson.
Irving, the top overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft out of Duke, 2011 NBA Rookie Of The Year and first-time All-Star would have his fourth-year player option picked up along with Thomson, the fourth overall pick out of Texas.
Irving has averaged 20.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists in his three-year career and Thompson has averaged 10.2 points and 8.2 rebounds. Waiters, selected fourth overall out of Syracuse in 2012 averaged 14.7 points in his rookie year and Zeller taken 17th by Dallas out of North Carolina and acquired by Cleveland, averaged 7.9 points and 5.7 rebounds had their third-year options picked up.
This writer feels that this is both a wise decision for the young Cavaliers and very shrewd, as it allows them to form a nucleus of talent that will be around for a long time in Cleveland, as well as set up a sense of continuity going forward.
In addition to their off-season pickups of Earl Clark, Jarrett Jack and Andrew Bynum, locking up Irving, Waiters, Zeller and Thompson makes the Cavaliers a contender in the East for years to come.
Robert D. Cobb is the Founder/CEO/Senior Editor-In-Chief Of The Inscriber : Digital Magazine, for questions, comments and concerns email me at robert.cobb@http://198.1.111.123/~theinscr and follow the Inscriber : Digital Magazine on Twitter at @TheInscriber