Cleveland Cavaliers: Reasonable Expectations

There was a segment on SportsNation today that discusses the Cavs, and I’m fine with that. There’s nothing wrong with talking about a team, especially a highly anticipated team like Cleveland. However! The concentration of the segment was based on the question “Should Cavs fans be worried?” I saw the question on the television as soon as I walked back into my dorm, and it stopped me in my tracks. I was baffled that someone could pose such an absurd question, so naturally I thought of a handful of reasons as to why that question is so irrelevant.

REASON NUMBER 1: They’ve played 3 games people, 3 games. There are 82 games in a season, which means only 3% of the games have been played. Therefore, no one should even be thinking about raising that question for any team, not just the Cavs. Hold your judgment until at least a third of the way through the season.

REASON NUMBER 2: Cleveland is essentially a brand new team. The only remaining players from last year are Matthew Dellavedova, Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao. Varejao also happens to be the only player that remains from LeBron’s first stint with Cleveland, and the bond between them is noticeable. Other than the Varejao-LeBron and Varejao-Kyrie tandems, the team is very unfamiliar with each other.

REASON NUMBER 3: The Miami Heat started 9-8 in LeBron’s first year there before winning 12 in a row and 21 of their next 22 games. It’s the same scenario in Cleveland as it was in Miami, so we need to expect the same things that we saw in Miami. One star player was already with their respective teams (Kyrie and Wade). One big man left their struggling franchise as the star player (Love and Bosh). Then LeBron comes into play; the only difference between Cleveland and Miami is that, obviously, LeBron already played for the Cavs. In addition to the big 3’s, both teams added a handful of veteran players that are looking to win a championship or add another title to their resume. Mike Miller, Brendan Haywood, Shawn Marion, James Jones, Lou Amundson signed with the Cavs. Juwan Howard, Erick Dampier, Jamaal Magloire, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Mike Bibby signed with the Heat.

The point of all that rambling is this. Nobody can expect 3 star players, young talents, and grizzly veterans to come together at the same time and magically turn into the best team in the league. It will take time, the team will struggle from time to time, and tensions will rise.

REASON NUMBER 4: Knowing your role within an organization is an integral component of building a successful team. If there are players that don’t know their role, they’ll create one for themselves, and 99.9% of the time, it hurts the team more than it helps. For example, Juwan Howard hadn’t played significant minutes since 2007, but was getting guaranteed contracts for what he brings to the team. In the later stages of his career he acted as a mentor to the younger players. He knew his role was never to score or compete for minutes. In his 3 years with the Heat he scored 202 points, and they were all in garbage time. However, he played a huge role in helping them win 2 championships. Howard knew his role, and he made sure every player knew their role as well. It helped lead to four straight NBA Finals appearances and 2 titles.

My apologies for the extensive example, but knowing roles cannot go overlooked. This is another thing that will take time to set straight. Remember when Chris Bosh was frustrated with his role behind LeBron and Wade? There’s a strong probability that either K-Love or Kyrie voice their frustrations some time in the first month or two of the season.

EXPECTATIONS:

I touched on some of these above, but here are my expectations for Cleveland.

I definitely see them winning 50 games this year, but to reiterate myself it won’t be easy. I think they’ll hover around .500 for the first 15-30 games of the year, but then they’ll be able to build up some momentum and establish an identity.

I’m expecting first year coach David Blatt to stick with the same starting lineup, expect for a small change here and there. I think it would be worthwhile to try out Thompson as the second big with Love instead of Varejao. Not permanently, just to see what happens. I’d also like to see Dellavedova as the second guard to Kyrie instead of Dion. He’s one of the hardest workers in the locker room if not the hardest and he deserves his chance.

Again it doesn’t have to be a consistent thing. I think it’s important that Blatt keeps an open mind since he has so much new material to work with. With that being said, it’s important to have a set lineup with set minutes to establish a form of the team. Consistency can be all the difference on a game-to-game basis. It’s a lot easier for a new team to settle down if there is familiarity.

BIGGEST SURPRISE:

I see the biggest surprise from the Cavs coming from Matthew Dellavedova. The second year Australian guard has an insane work ethic and considerable talent. Coming off the bench last year he averaged nearly 5 points and 3 assists a game while only playing 18 minutes a game. Dellavedova, or “Delle (DELL-ee)” for short, should be getting considerable time off the bench for his defense and shooting. Delle has already seen great jumps in his game from the start of last season, and he will only continue to get better.

He did suffer a sprained MCL against Portland and will miss up to 6 weeks, but in the grand scheme of things he’ll be back and ready to contribute to their run at the playoffs.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER:

I’m not talking about the league MVP here. I’m strictly talking most valuable within the organization, and that player is Anderson Varejao. He has ties with the past, the present, and the future of the team (just signed a 3-year extension worth about 30 million dollars last week). He is going to be the glue that holds this team together, mark my words. He loves Cleveland more than anything, and he wants a ring as much as the next guy. Don’t look at his numbers and say that I’m wrong either, because his value doesn’t necessarily show up in the box score.

He’ll probably average around 10 points and 10 rebounds a game at best, with maybe 1 steal and 1 block per game, and a few assists. But none of pays respect to the player he represents. No matter what the score is he will always give it 110% until the final whistle, and every team needs a player like that.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Without an identity no team can succeed, so until Cleveland establishes their identity, they’ll be an average NBA team. I know there will be doubters but everyone just needs to reserve their judgment until the latter half of the season. The pieces will eventually fall into place, but perfection isn’t a reasonable expectation.

Even when they do get their ducks in a row, I don’t think it will be enough to win the title. There are too many other great teams this year, especially in the West.

So no. Cavs fans should not be worried.