Part 3 in our Cavs season preview. You can find part 1 Here and part 2 Here
Quick Hitters:
This team has 3 former three point shooting champions: Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, James Jones. (4 if Ray Allen signs)
Kevin Love’s current playing weight is listed at 243lbs. When he came into the league he was listed at 270.
I’m not gonna sugarcoat this, he was tubby
Quicken Loans Arena will have a new sound system, jumbotron, and projection system this season. All three got installed in the two months between the Arena Bowl and season opener. Dan Gilbert got the King’s castle in order in a hurry.
I’m counting down the days until the Cavs redesign their uniforms. The current one’s were fine for the past four years because they SCREAM mediocrity. They are rolling out new blue ones for the opening so I’m hoping that is a sign of more change to come.
The Cavs are one of 13 current NBA teams to have never won an NBA championship.
Kyrie bought former Cavalier Daniel Gibson’s house in Westlake.
Kevin Love has endorsement deals with Starter (okay, old school I can respect it) and 361 degrees (???) apparently it’s some Chinese shoe company. C’mon Kev, you’re better than that. They better be paying you a boatload of Yen.
Dion led the team in shots in 5 of the Cavs 7 preseason games. He talked about wanting to be known as the Big 4 but Ball Hard better learn his role in a hurry once the games start to count.
Kyrie (3), Tristan (10), and Dion (15) were all top 15 players in ESPNs Class of 2010 Top 100.
Vegas, baby, Vegas
Cavs win total: Over/Under 58 ½
Are you serious Vegas? OVER. OVER. OVER. I might just work until the day before the season, put my lifetime earnings on the over and take a sabbatical.
NBA MVP: Kevin Love 20/1
He’s not the favorite in Vegas (8th) but if you’re looking for a dark horse this has to be your guy. Huge stats, great team is the recipe for MVP since day one. LeBron already has four and should have six, but voters like to change it up. Look for them to find another non-LeBron this year.
Season Predictions:
Record: 64-18 (#1 Seed in East)
I want to be a homer SO bad here and say fuck MJ’s Bulls we’re going 74-8 and we’ll be the greatest team of all time. But that won’t happen…. this year. As good as the talent is we need time to mesh and you never know with the injury histories of these guys. We’ll still win more than 60 games with relative ease. Let’s say Love has a high ankle sprain and misses 4 weeks. Ok, we have Kyrie and LeBron… LeBron’s back acts up and he’s out for 6 games. Ok, we still have Kyrie and Love. You get the idea.
Bold prediction 1.): The Cavs will lose a game to the Heat this year.
This sucks but I think it’s true. I think the Cavs will lose to Miami on Christmas. Whatevs. These games vs. the Heat will mean way more to Bosh and Wade than they will to LeBron. Miami will play their asses off and steal one from us in the first half of the season. The positives here are that Wade will miss the next 4-5 games after his arthritis flares up, Bosh will cry in the locker room because that’s what Bosh does, and if the game is in Miami only like 8,000 people will know the Heat won.
Bold prediction 2.): David Blatt is going to be fine.
Ok I don’t know how bold of a prediction this is considering my dog could wear a suit on the sideline and coach this team to 50 wins but bear with me. Blatt is the first coach in NBA history to jump straight from Europe to a head coaching job in the NBA. He’s also one of the most winning coaches in European basketball history and has won at every level he’s coached. I kept hearing summer interviews and Blatt kept saying, and I paraphrase, “The biggest adjustment might be the number of timeouts.” If this guy’s biggest issue is learning to use his timeouts the right way, let’s just plan the parade downtown right now.
Bold prediction 3.): The Cavs end Cleveland’s championship drought and win the NBA Finals.
Yes we’re the favorites on paper. But we’re really not. Cleveland has never not been the underdog. I don’t care if we’re the ’92 dream team, if you’ve lived here you know you’ve got that little voice in the back of your head whispering scenarios where we don’t win anything. Injuries. Turmoil. Delonte bangs Gloria before game 7. I know it’s ridiculous but OIC will haunt even the most optimist fans like myself. Now I’m going to immediately contradict myself…. Plan. The. Fucking. Parade. Call off work for all of June right now. The drought it over(weezy). Guys, this is the team. This is going to happen. Yell at me for jinxing it. Knock on wood. Do whatever makes you feel ok. We are winning the NBA championship this year. Game 5, in Cleveland, over…. the LA Clippers. I’ll be the guy crying tears of joy.
DJ Play me out!
Bottlegate 