Written by J.D. Shultz

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There's been a lot of exciting (and yet possibly overambitious) trade talk recently . . . there's the Washington Wizards' Antawn Jamison, the New Orleans Hornets' David West, and the Indiana Pacers' Troy Murphy. That's all well and good, the trade stuff that is, there's definitely room to upgrade our roster, but remember . . . we're already going to have one new player on the floor around the trade deadline. And we already have him. That would be Leon Powe, of course. J.D. Shultz talks about the Cavaliers forgotten man in his latest piece for us.

There's been a lot of exciting (and yet possibly overambitious) trade talk recently . . . there's the Washington Wizards' Antawn Jamison, the New Orleans Hornets' David West, the Indiana Pacers' Troy Murphy, and perhaps most intriguingly the Knicks' Darko Milicic.

[Actually, I just made up that Darko rumor.  I haven't even bothered to plug his name into the Trade Machine.  He's not the missing piece . . . but wouldn't it be funny if he was?]

[Yes.  It would be.  Danny Ferry is turning the NBA upside down trying to find that final golden piece . . . like the kids that were ripping through candy bars in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" . . . and our golden ticket ends up being some guy we could have for the price of a flight to Cleveland.  In coach.]

That's all well and good, the trade stuff that is, there's definitely room to upgrade our roster, but remember . . . we're already going to have one new player on the floor around the trade deadline.  And we already have him.

That would be Leon Powe, of course.

Leon has had a lot of work on his knees . . . including an ACL replacement and a microfracture procedure.  But that's the only reason he was available over the summer. 

Leon had been a major contributor off the Boston Celtics' bench the last few years.  But he blew out his knee in the playoffs last season . . . and the Celtics let him go (they didn't even make him a qualifying offer), apparently because they didn't want to use a roster spot waiting for him to recover.

So, he probably wouldn't mind getting a little revenge on the Celtics . . . and according to "Cleveland Plain Dealer" beat writer Brian Windhorst, that could happen as early as next month.

In his latest Cleveland.com podcast, Brian gave the following update on Powe:

"Leon thinks he can play right now, but that's what players always say.  He's done some work in practice . . . but he's got a doctor's appointment next week, and I think at that time, if everything goes OK with the tests, they'll let him return to full-contact practice.

"But even with that, I don't think the Cavs have any intention of rolling him out until after the All-Star break [February 12th to the 14th].  They have two or three days of practice after the All-Star break . . . it's in the middle of a long homestand. 

"I know Leon would love to play against the Celtics in that game coming up in late February [on the 25th], and I think as long as he gets the opportunity . . . it's on the road in Boston . . . I think he'd love to be able to go back and play in that game.

"So, sometime right at the All-Star break or right after is the reality.

"But I can tell you that everybody with the team and Leon is very happy with his rehabilitation.  They don't just think he'll be able to come in and just run around, they think he'll be the player that he was.

"My experience from watching people with microfracture and ACL is that it takes a full year to recover . . . and a full year is May . . . but they're getting better with technology, and Leon has been through this before.

"We'll see, but it looks like you'll see Leon Powe in a Cavs uniform, probably in the next month."  [Full Cleveland.com Podcast Link]

That's pretty exciting.

Naturally, you never know what to expect when you're dealing with serious knee injuries . . . especially with someone who's undergone multiple procedures.  But if this works out, oh man!

Again, you don't want to have to rely on Leon's recovery . . . but with Powe's arrival, we'll have increased depth in case we're not able to make a move before the deadline.  A lot of fans are amped up for something to go down, and I'm one of them, but there's a chance nothing will be there.

Ferry will undoubtedly take advantage of any obvious (or obvious-with-creativity) scenarios, but there's a possibility that none of the players that we've been hearing about will actually be made available.  Or, not made available for a reasonable price.  We can't screw with our roster too much.

Odds are, we will do something . . . at least to some degree.  But we'll be OK no matter what happens.  We already have one of the deepest teams in the league. 

Case in point:  Jamario Moon is out . . . and we still can't find any minutes at all for Daniel Gibson.  He's our 11th man, and he's second in the NBA in 3-point shooting.

And in about a month, Leon Powe (our 12th man) will be crashing the rotation.

[So, if Darko is our golden ticket, let's hope he can make the Scream Team.]

By the way, the podcast, which is linked above, is a really interesting listen.  It's 30 minutes of Brian Windhorst's insights into the team's recent play, Delonte West, and the current trade rumors.

One of the things he talks about is the (slim) possibility of signing-and-trading Wally Szczerbiak, who we have "Bird rights" to, but who is essentially retired. 

Anything can happen, I guess, but Brian says that Wally just landed a job with CBS Sports to do some NCAA Tournament coverage . . . and he'd have to be cool with giving that up if he agreed to a sign-and-trade, since the league would most likely force him to (at least physically) join the team he was traded to.  If you have the time, check it out.