Cleveland Cavaliers Preview

Hello,

Let's get straight to it with the most depressing sports town, and its most depressing team (actually you can make an argument for the Browns....and the Indians....oh Cleveland).

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS:

Key Additions: Dion Waiters (rookie), Tyler Zeller (rookie), CJ Miles (FA), Jon Leuer (FA)

Key Losses: Antawn "chosen over Amare to play with Lebron" Jamison (FA), Anthony Parker (retired), Alonzo Gee (FA), other crappy players that I dont feel like looking up

Projected Starting Lineup:

PG: Kyrie Irving

SG: Dion Waiters

SF: Miles/ Omri Casspi (really tough call)

PF: Tristan Thompson

C: Anderson Varejao

Role Players: Daniel Gibson, Zeller, Leuer, Samardo Samuels, Donald Sloan

Comments: It still cracks me up sometimes to think that Byron Scott was basically tricked into taking this job. He is a good coach, but when hired he was under the impression that he would have Bron Bron to shoulder the load. Now he is stuck in a rebuilding project, again, like he was in New Orleans. He also is stuck with a psychopath owner (Dan Gilbert), a person I am surprised hasnt hired an assasin to take out Lebron. I guess he has too much pride to quit.

Luckily for Scott, he got Kyrie Irving. In what was seemingly one of the weakest drafts in history (mainly due to the impending lockout that scared top picks away), Irving turned out to be a legitimate top overall pick last year. He is absolutely fearless when going to the hoop, and has the clutch gene. In a game against my Nuggets last year, he basically scored a layup on every possession for the last 3 min including the eventual game winner. Maybe it was just bad Nuggets D, but Irving definitely proved he is a future All-Star. His assists will go up as he gets better teammates, and his turnovers will go down with experience. He also showed, unbeknowest to anyone, that he could shoot the ball proficiently. Sloan is the backup, but as we will see, this team has 0 depth, and the second unit will be torched. 

In this years draft, everyone expected the Cavaliers to try and move up to get Bradley Beal (see Wizards note). They needed a scorer on the wing. The Wizards coveted Beal too much at #2 to move up, so they got the next best scorer in their mind- Dion Waiters. I would have thought that player to be Harrison Barnes, who we will talk about whenever I get to the Warriors, so the pick was a bit surprising. Waiters refused to workout for any team prior to the draft, so everyone was making an assessment based off of his collegiate work. In addition, there was a rumor that a team guaranteed to draft him if he fell to them (supposedly the Suns, but maybe it was the Cavs all along). The whole thing seems fishy to me, and it will be interesting to see what Waiters gives the Cavs. At Syracuse, he was their best scorer, and he can finish in a multitude of ways. He isnt much of 3-point shooter, which you would tend to look for in a SG, but his defense and rebounding should be solid, as well as his playmaking ability. Daniel "Boobie" Gibson is probably the streakiest shooter in the NBA. He is really tiny, a complete liability on defense, another bad bench player for the Cavs. 

I love Casspi, mainly because he is the first Israeli to play in the NBA, but he hasnt really made the impact he would like. His offense has been too inconsistent, his defense non-existent, and his rebounding poor. I suspectthat this will be Casspi's last year to really solidify himself as an NBA player worthy of quality minutes. CJ Miles is an interesting player, because he basically never got the chance to prove himself as a player. While he could always shoot and play defense, that was all he was ever asked to do on the Utah Jazz, as he was caught between the Deron Williams era and the youth movement they are in now. I think there is a lot more to his game, and that he could handle scoring duties for a few games. He could be a sleeper for fantasy players if given the starting job. 

Tristan Thompson proved at the end of last year that he could be a double-double big man, and his athleticism was very apparent. If he takes the next step, building his strength and touch around the rim, he could jump quickly to being one of the better big men in the league. He was buried on the bench at the beginning of the year, but soon made his way into the rotation and starting lineup at about the same time Irving got injured. A full season of the two together could result in a lethal pick and roll combo. I'm kind of sick of writing about the Cavs bench players, they are all just terrible (See Samuels, Samardo and Leuer, Jon)

The highest paid, and longest tenured Cav is Anderson Vareajo from Brazil (pronounce the J). As one of the best floppers in the league, he has shown to be an excellent interior defender, passer, and rebounder. One of the ultimate hussle players in the year. While he is very likely to be traded from this team at some point this year as the Cavs continue their youth movement, he should provide valuable leadership and intangibles that every team needs. Oh, and did I mention flopping. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hs06oyMT_E. Tyler Zeller is really skinny for a center, but has a lot of good offensive moves. I think it will take a few years to build an NBA body, but he could provide solid role player minutes for the time being. 

I don't expect to see much improvement from the Cavs in terms of their record. Most likely between 20-30 wins. One can hope that they start to put the pieces together to learn how to win basketball games. They do have a quality foundation to build on with Irving and Thompson. Then again, we are talking about Cleveland.

Next up, our first Western Conference team...New Orleans Hornets and the Unibrow