The Cavs Aren't Terrible. How Come? On this day one year ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers held an astoundingly awful 8-32 record, and were right in the thick of what would become a 26-game losing streak. LeBron James had snuck out in the night (as much as one can "sneak out" on national television), Anderson Varejao had been ruled out for the season with an ankle injury, and Mo Williams - the Cavs" top remaining player - had been injured just days earlier. Things had never been more dire and dour for the Cavaliers, and considering the history of Cleveland's torment, that diagnosis is rather weighty. But now, Cleveland is somehow sitting pretty at 6-7 - tied with the New York Knicks for the seventh-best record in the Eastern Conference. Being on the playoff fringe isn't a great accomplishment in the grand scheme of the league, but the Cavs" competency is sudden and, on first glance, a bit baffling. Cleveland was able to add two top picks (Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson) in the off-season thanks to some lottery luck, but this is, more or less, the same team that lost 63 games a year ago. Are we really to believe that those rookie additions alone - coupled with Varejao's return from injury - were enough to right the most depressing team in basketball? As is usually the case with such questions, the answer is yes and no. Irving has been truly fantastic in his rookie campaign thus far, and his offensive excellence is a big reason the Cavs have gone from having the second-worst offense in the league last season to an above average offense this year. His presence alone has created a more constructive dynamic in Cleveland than Mo Williams or Baron Davis were ever able to provide. Irving is already doing great things for the flow and direction of the Cavs" offense, and the promise of his further development gives Cleveland a hope elusive on the local sports scene. Yet the most noticeable improvements in the Cavaliers" performance have emerged from a potential disaster. After deciding to trade away J.J. Hickson in the off-season, Cleveland placed the entirety of their rebounding burden on Varejao's shoulders. The 35-year-old Antawn Jamison was once a decent rebounder, but his board work has declined sharply as he inches further and further away from his prime. Samardo Samuels had been a passable rebounder in the 2010-2011 season, but only by comparison to rebound-averse bigs like Ryan Hollins and Semih Erden. Even the rookie Thompson - for all of his strength and savvy around the rim - had underwhelmed on the glass in college, despite the fact that he had been tethered to the rim at Texas and surrounded by lesser rebounders. The Cavs were poised to be a historically bad rebounding team, again carving their name into the N.B.A. record books in all the worst ways. Yet despite that projection - and having but a single solid individual rebounder - Cleveland currently ranks fifth and eighth in offensive and defensive rebounding rate respectively, making them the third best rebounding team overall in terms of rebounding rate differential. That's an incredible achievement, and the credit largely goes to two Cavs doing some unpredictably fantastic rebounding work on both ends of the court. Varejao hasn't been a solid rebounder this season, but an exemplary one; he currently ranks third overall in total rebounding percentage (the percentage of available rebounds that a player collects while on the court) - a remarkable improvement from a player who had previously never ranked higher than 19th in that particular metric. It seemed safe to say that we had seen it all from Varejao, if for no other reason than the fact that the Cavaliers had utilized him in every possible lineup configuration; Varejao had played at center next to an undersized power forward, he had played at power forward next to Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Shaquille O'Neal, he had been in small lineups and big lineups, and played next to poor rebounders and good rebounders. When all of that smoke cleared, Varejao had posted a nice - but sub-elite - 16.6 total rebounding percentage, anchored by his strong work on the defensive boards. He's blown that mark out of the water this season, in part because of a ridiculous jump in his offensive rebounding percentage (from 11.0 last season and 11.2 for his career to 16.6 this season). Varejao has gone from being a good, positive factor on the offensive glass to being the most prolific offensive rebounder in the league, and he's done so while also bolstering his already strong defensive rebounding numbers by a few percentage points. Varejao's unprecedented and unexpected numbers could regress toward a more reasonable standard at some point this season, but for now the Cavs" best big man is holding his own as a rebounding dynamo. Equally impressive has been the improvement of Thompson, who at times looked like a rebounding liability while playing at the University of Texas last year. Thompson has seemingly transformed into a competent rebounder overnight; after posting a meager 13.7 defensive rebounding percentage in college - where he was counted on to collect boards as a combo forward-center - Thompson has grabbed a defensive rebound on over one-fifth of his on-court possessions in the pros. His competitors are bigger (a particularly relevant point for a somewhat undersized power forward), stronger, and more athletic, and yet Thompson is pulling in more rebounds than it would have been even remotely fair to expect. That's the story of the Cavs thus far this season: there's fair projection, there's lofty expectation, and then, somewhere far above those marks, there's the 2011-2012 Cavaliers" actual performance. This team has been far better than anyone could possibly have predicted, and though one could claim that the Cavs are simply playing over their heads right now, their performance in terms of wins and losses is hardly out of character. For all of Cleveland's unexpected growth, all the Cavs have really done is grab wins over beatable teams and fold to their better opponents; they bested the Timberwolves, Bobcats (twice), Suns, Pistons, and Nets, and lost to the Lakers, Jazz, Blazers, Raptors (twice), and Pacers. The numbers across the board will ebb and flow, but those results - and an overall record hovering around .500 - are apparently well within the capabilities of this team.