Cavs Wrap-up Pt. 2

Finishing off the previous article by talking about what was good about last season, and what the offseason may hold. 

Fourth, it will still be awhile before I can look back and really appreciate this season. But if Cleveland teams continue to not win championships, this will one of the season I will look back at fondly and be glad I experienced. We won 66 games in the regular season, swept the first two rounds in the playoffs, and had the Coach of the Year and MVP. We saw the emergence of Mo Williams who, although it doesn’t appear he is that 2^nd superstar, should play a large role for this team for years to come. We got to watch the beginnings of J.J. Hickson and Darnell Jackson, both of whom I believe have a place on this team in the future. We got to see LeBron take his game to a new level, including the two playoff performances mentioned above, and he committed so much to the defensive end, that he almost took home the Defensive Player of the Year award too. Some might say that if I think they were so good, how could I be so pessimistic that they couldn’t come back in the series against Orlando. Simple, in the end, the Cavs are who we thought they were, or at least, who we should have thought they were if we were paying attention. Six of their losses came against the 3 other elite teams (Orlando, Boston, and the LA Lakers). Of the other 10 regular season losses, 7 were to playoff teams. So in essence, the Cavs showed up every night, played tough defense every game, and let LeBron do the dirty work in the 4^th quarter if necessary. However, they just didn’t have the talent yet to match up with the other elite teams in the league.  But… 

For the optimistic part, I think they have a very good nucleus and obviously a tremendous superstar. This offseason could go a long way to making them the team to beat. They have a number of trade assets, and a couple of different ways to sign some free agents (i.e. the midlevel exception). Dan Gilbert will do anything he has to do to pay for a winner because he knows his investment takes a big hit if LeBron walks after this season. If this Shaq deal goes down (with us only losing salary, and not key talent), I think that helps with the power down low problem quite a bit, and if not, there are other possibilities out there. After that, they need to work on some length on the perimeter, and I would like to see them sign two of the following guys: Jason Kidd, Trevor Ariza, Matt Barnes, Charlie Villaneuva and maybe, as weird as it sounds, Carlos Boozer or Rasheed Wallace. Acquisitions like those, added to what is already in place, I think makes them the favorite to go the distance next year.

So that’s it, I am done talking about the Cavs until either October at least, unless they make a big acquisition I feel a need to comment on. Thanks for sticking with me through that; it was very therapeutic.