Kyrie Irving 'a couple of weeks away'

Irving sits. (Getty Images)

Kyrie Irving was supposed to start practicing soon, but instead, the Cavaliers point guard who broke his hand three weeks ago is going to be out for a while, according to the Ohio News-Herald:

Irving is probably a couple weeks away from returning to the practice floor in contact drills. He's been practicing lately, but when they have contact, he sits out.

"I know he's anxious," Scott said. "We're not going to take any chances. We'll leave it up to the doctors. He has to get at least one practice in. The chance of him coming back early, I don't know."

Doctors estimated he'd miss four weeks. He's been out since Nov. 17.

via Cavaliers notes: Daniel Gibson promoted to starting lineup - news-herald.com.

The Cavaliers are pretty awful with or without Irving, so there's no real rush to get him back. But with the team going down the tubes and their best player out for an extended period of time, trade talk will only increase around center Anderson Varejao. Varejao has a mid-size contract and has put up phenomenal numbers this season.

It's a shame we didn't get to see more of what he and Irving look like early, but if the Cavaliers decide not to trade Varejao, we might get to see something promising for the middle and latter part of the year. The only question is if it'll be too late for the Cavs by then.