There is no greater rags-to-riches-back-to-rags story than the LeBron
James saga in Cleveland. Everyone knows about how he spent his first
seven years with the team before leaving in the most unceremonious way
possible, and then going on to win his first title last year with Miami.
This is a black mark that no team would be able to recover from
quickly. With that said, I was very impressed with the way Cleveland
handled themselves last offseason, one season removed from The Decision.
They drafted PG Kyrie Irving and PF Tristan Thompson with the first and
fourth overall picks respectively. Irving is on his way to becoming a
superstar, and Thompson brings Tyson Chandler- like toughness. They
traded J.J. Hickson to Sacramento for Omri Casspi. Ramon Sessions was
entering his second year in Cleveland after coming over from Minnesota,
and he had already proved to be highly productive. Coupled with team's
solid nucleus of Antawn Jamison, Anderson Varejao, and one time talent
Daniel Gibson, things were looking up.
All of this is why I'm so disappointed in the way this team handled
the offseason this year. Firstly, I completely thought they botched the
draft. They passed up on Thomas Robinson, Harrison Barnes, Andre
Drummond, and Austin Rivers to draft Dion Waiters with the 4th overall
pick. I was baffled by that, considering Waiters wasn't even a superstar
at Cuse. I also did not
understand them picking Tyler Zeller at #17, when Terrance Jones, Jared
Sullinger, Fab Melo, and Perry Jones III were still available. I did
like the free agency pickup of C.J. Miles. He is a good scorer (9.1 ppg
last year), and has the versatility to play shooting guard or small
forward. Jeremy Pargo seems to have a decent upside. And lets keep it
real, getting rid of Antawn Jamison was addition by subtraction. Last year, he took
1044 shots, and made 421 of them. That is a joke.
The fact that
this team passed on some really good big men in the draft shows that
they have a great deal of faith in their frontcourt. Anderson Varejao
set career highs last season with 10.8 points and 11.5 rebounds per game,
and he had a stellar 23 rebound performance in this year's opener. The
guy plays with a passion that makes everyone around him better. Tristan
Thompson will take a further step into becoming a starting power
forward. He averaged 8.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, and one block per game
last year while only averaging 23.7 minutes. Very solid numbers for a
rookie.
On paper, this team does not appear to be particularly skilled
outside of Irving. It appeared that their hands were forced to trade
Ramon Sessions midseason last year, but it was silly that they recieved
Luke Walton and Jason Kapono in return. This team can be competitive,
however, if they play with a level of intensity on a nightly basis. I
believe they will play very well against the lesser teams in the league,
much like they did in the opener against Washington. Byron Scott is the
right man to coach this team, considering he had success with some
pretty untalented Hornets teams. Kyrie Irving is a stud, and is clearly
the face of this franchise. But this team will only go as far as Varejao
takes them. He is the only one who can set a physical tone on a regular
basis. Rebuilding takes time, especially in the NBA where all of the
good player want to team up with each other because they are BFF's.
Cleveland is moving in the right direction. Despite the fact that they
could have done more this offseason, there is still reason for some
optimism in Cleveland.
