Cavs News: Rubio suiting up, Mitchell the best, trade targets

After more than a year rehabilitating his torn ACL, a year that included the Cleveland Cavaliers trading him away and then re-signing him in the summer, point guard Ricky Rubio is scheduled to return tonight against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Last season Rubio joined the Cavs via trade in the offseason and was immediately a top contributor, often coming off the bench and then finishing games alongside Darius Garland in the backcourt. His on-ball playmaking freed up Garland to excel off-ball, and it was a major blow to the Cavs when he went down in late December.

Rubio will be on a minute limit to start out, which will lessen the difficulty in finding room for him in the rotation. Raul Neto is an obvious candidate to be excised from the rotation, but whether it is Caris LeVert, Cedi Osman or one of the star guards losing minutes is yet to be seen.

More Cavs news

NBA.com ran a media survey, polling one beat writer from each NBA market on a wide range of topics. One section focused on which player at each position was having the best season, and Donovan Mitchell was voted the best shooting guard in the league. John Suchan looks deeper at the accomplishment.

This time of year trade rumors continue to swirl around every team, but especially a team like the Cavaliers which has a clear need and is going out in search of it. Bleacher Report updated a list of trade targets for every team, all wings who bring a slightly different combination of skills to the table: Tim Hardaway Jr., Josh Richardson and Gary Harris. Then, over on King James Gospel, we got a list of players to target from Quinn Minnich.

NBA news

The best teams in the Eastern Conference continue to make their mark, with the Boston Celtics knocking off the New Orleans Pelicans and the Milwaukee Bucks beating the Atlanta Hawks on the road. Five of the top seven records in the league belong to Eastern Conference teams.

With that being said, the two teams that do continue to win are the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies, both 8-2 in their last 10 games. The Grizzlies extended their winning streak to eight games by snuffing out the San Antonio Spurs in Ja Morant’s return (he had 38), while Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets to their fourth-straight win by dropping 21 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists on the Phoenix Suns.

Coming up: The Cavaliers are in Portland tonight to take on the Trail Blazers.