Last summer when LeBron James *that little kids voice from the internet* decided to bring his talents back home expectations on the lowly Cavs began to instantly skyrocket. It makes sense right? When you acquire the best player in the game you start to become a factor in the landscape of the NBA and your local fans that “hated” LeBron instantly start to love him again and start to expect a winner.
The Cavs had a rookie coach that was picked before LeBron decided to make that jump back to Northeast Ohio, so that dynamic was still to be seen. David Blatt was brought in to grown with a rising star, LeBron, I mean Kyrie Irving, but the rope that he would’ve had before LeBron decided to come home was instantly shortened. Blatt has done a good job being that LeBron runs the team, but this isn’t what this post is about we will visit that another day.
The Cavs went on to draft Andrew Wiggins with the first pick, but after a month traded him and Anthony Bennett to the Timberwolves for power forward Kevin Love. All seemed to be going great for the city of Cleveland and the Cavs then the season started and they didn’t seem to have a cohesion everybody expected. “Cavs” fans started to dog the team via social media and the media were starting to the doubt the talent of this team. Would it work this year? Could LeBron be patient with Irving, Waiters, Love and Thompson?
When defensive anchor Anderson Varaejo was lost for the season the Cavs got very small in the middle and everyone knew if they were going to make a run this year they needed to make a change. Before the trade deadline the Cavs made two huge moves that saved their season hindsight 20/20 trading for J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov (in separate trades). They got rid of talented guard Dion Waiters, but it seemed to work for the best.
Fast forward to the playoffs the Cavs were the 2 seed out East and lined up for an overmatched up and coming Boston Celtics team. They swept the Celtics, but during the sweep they had a major casualty, they lost Kevin Love for the rest of the playoffs within a torn shoulder. #CavsNation can all thank Kelly Olynyk for that.
With doubt seeping in, they handled the Chicago Bulls with ease, but in that series had a less than 100% Kyrie Irving who gutted out a few games.
The Cavs handled the Hawks easily, but they are very dinged up, it’s a known fact that Kyrie Irving won’t be close to 100% the rest of this playoff run and who is 100% healthy as a team at this point in the season?
This team has shown the grit of the hard working city it represents on a night in and night out basis. Will the Cavs win a championship this year? I’m not going to touch that right now, but the City of Cleveland can be proud of the Cavs.
