Cleveland Cavaliers to pursue a center at the trade deadline?

After winning the first overall draft pick, signing LeBron James, trading that top pick for Kevin Love and signing a slew of new role players, the Cleveland Cavaliers have had one of the best offseasons in NBA history. What they did not do, however, was find a rim protector.

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Currently, the Cavs are rolling the ball out with Anderson Varejao as the starting center and Tristan Thompson may possibly get some reps in the middle, too. That’s not good. Varejao is way past his prime and Thompson is simply not a center.

The weakness is obvious, and has been the topic of some trade and free agency rumors. However, as Chuck Myron of hoopsrumors.com writes, the Cavs may wait until the new year to address the position.

"Well, we know they’d like to have Mozgov, but it doesn’t look like Denver’s going to give him up. It sounds like GM David Griffin isn’t too worried about his rim protection, at least at this point, so I wouldn’t expect him to make a move before the start of the season. I think he’d like to get a look at how it all meshes and revisit the idea of tinkering after December 15th, when most players signed in the offseason can be traded."

For a team copying the Miami Heat’s model, this wouldn’t be unprecedented. The Heat, after all, signed Chris Andersen mid-way through 2012 to beef up its interior defense.

It is unclear at this point which centers may become available, but this will be a weakness for the Cavs, and one they will have to address.