Cleveland Cavaliers Season Preview

Cleveland Cavaliers

2014 Record: 53-29

2015 O/U: 58

Who are their stars?

The King of the current NBA Lebron James has proved he can take any group deep into the playoffs. Without his two best players James had a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals against one of the better teams of our generation. He couldn’t finish the deal, but it feels as though the Eastern Conference is almost over. If James is healthy, the addition of his other two stars may not matter until the NBA Finals. Of course, when you are talking about Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving we are looking at two players who now have a bit of an injury history. Love with a shoulder issue seems ok, but Iriving will miss time with lingering lower leg issues. He has tendinitis and it seems to flare up a lot, and when looking down the roster you see that he will be a guy that needs to put in minutes if James can get over the hump in the NBA Finals against a tested Western team. We will get to how Love fits in, but at this time he seems to be the minor concern compared to Irving.

Who are the glue guys?

The question about how love fits in comes because of all of the size that the Cavaliers now possess. He is by fat the most talented, but who he fits with between Tristan Thompson, Timofey Mozgov, and Anderson Varaejao should be interesting. I would expect all three to rotate at center, with Thompson also getting minutes as a depth power forward, but all three should get minutes next to Love. With the presence Lebron is as a scorer in the post, and Loves’ ability to be a stretch four it creates spacing, and a crunch time lineup of Irving-Shumpert-James-Love-Thompson would be what I am striving toward. Iman Shumpert, as mentioned is next to Irving due to his own injury for the time being. Getting him back in the mix will be essential for his defensive abilities next to Irving. He is also a need to maintain JR Smith. Smith is a scorer who can put up 20 before you even realize, but he is erratic, and he doesn’t defend well. He helps in spacing, but next to Irving a better defender in Shumpert is a necessity

Who are the rotational players?

Mo Williams was signed on to be the resident point guard while Irving gets healthy for the playoffs. This could go down as a more underrated move due to his veteran presence and ability to maintain through a regular season. It keeps a guy like Matt Deladova in the same role as last year, and it makes the point guard issue not glaring. Aside from that crunch time five, Smith and the two big men there really will not be much from the rotations, especially in the playoffs. Do to their salary cap they don’t really have any moves to make, and the eight or nine of them will have to stay healthy in the playoffs to avoid a repeat of last year.

Over Under Where do they Rank? How far do they go?

This is a team that does not care about what seed they are. As mentioned, health is the key here, and in the Eastern Conference, if one star is playing they will easily make the playoffs. They don’t need to prove anything to anyone and I would go under here. As for the Eastern Conference, in my opinion if James is a full go he really just needs a majority of the other guys to be relatively healthy and I would think they can win the East. This is a better conference than years past, but James is the best player in the conference, and Love and Irving are arguably right behind him. As for the NBA title, sure it is possible, but my feel is that they team who wins the Western Conference finals is just so much more battle tested. They know what they got through to get there, and have seen it all. The Cavs have faced the adversity of being up 3-1 in a tight close out game, but it isn’t the Western Conference. If Oklahoma City and the Clippers were healthy and mentally ready I would take both, but due to their questions I don’t see them getting out of the West. The Cavaliers will get out of the East, but I think they will not win the title this year.

Under, 58 wins, 1st in the Eastern Conference, 3rd in the NBA