Cleveland's Cavalier approach

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.