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Report: Cavs looking for veteran backup PG; Robinson and Farmar not targets

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Cleveland Cavaliers starting point guard Kyrie Irving has appeared in 39 of the team's 42 games, is averaging 38.3 minutes and ranks top-five in the league in total minutes played.

He's also never missed fewer than 11 games in a season, and while injury-prone may not be a fair characterization, expecting him to play under this heavy a load the rest of the season without issue is unrealistic. Almost nobody plays under this heavy a minutes load, period.

It shouldn't be surprising, then, that the Cavaliers are searching for help to lessen the load on Irving and shore up their point guard depth in the event he's felled by an injury at some point. 

As Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports writes:

Knowing they are a Kyrie Irving injury from more trouble, the Cavs are working to acquire a veteran point guard.

The obvious names that come to mind are Nate Robinson and Jordan Farmar, as both were waived last week and are unrestricted free agents. But neither are considered Cleveland targets, according to Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group.

That may mean the Cavs will look to go the trade route, despite being somewhat thin on marketable assets and no longer armed with exceptions large enough to absorb a veteran salary. They may need to be willing to take on a contract with additional salary beyond this season, then, like that of Sacramento Kings reserve Ramon Sessions, who is thought to be available.

Should the Cavs opt for a less experienced interim solution on a 10-day contract, Aaron Craft, a favorite of Irving's, is a plus defender averaging 7.9 points, five rebounds and seven assists in the D-League and represents one of a handful of intriguing options at that level.

Right now, if Irving were to go down, Matthew Dellavedova would be the team's lone point guard, with Joe Harris perhaps available for spot duty and LeBron James always able to take on a heavy ball-handling load if need be.

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