Tonight is the night!
When LeBron James announced he was returning to the Cavaliers in early July, every fan of the wine and gold wondered what it would be like when he played his first regular season game back at Quicken Loans Arena.
Tomorrow, we will not have to wonder any more.
And hopefully, sometime next June we won’t have to imagine what it would be like if and when a professional sports team in Cleveland won a world championship any more. The then 51 year drought (assuming the Browns won’t win the Super Bowl this season) will be over.
We understand that there are many experts, mostly from the national media, who say it will take time for a team that has so many new parts to gel in time to win a title this year. However, it was just a few years ago that the Boston Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to go along with Paul Pierce in the off-season and then won the Larry O’Brien Trophy in their first year together.
Keep in mind, they are playing basketball, something they have done their entire lives, not doing nuclear physics.
Also, the playoffs don’t start until April, giving all of the players five and a half months to become acclimated to each other and their new coach, David Blatt. There is plenty of time to become a well oiled machine.
Besides having two of the league’s top ten players in James and Kevin Love, they have a two-time all-star in Kyrie Irving and also start a solid rebounder and improving offensive player in Anderson Varejao, this team is also very deep.
In fact, their second unit is a such that it looks like a pretty decent NBA team with Shawn Marion, Mike Miller, Tristan Thompson, Brendan Haywood and Matthew Dellavedova. And that doesn’t even mention Lou Amundson and James Jones, two veterans of the league as the possible 11th and 12th men.
And we haven’t mentioned the fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft in Dion Waiters.
This shouldn’t be a team that will have to depend on giving its best players big minutes on a night-to-night basis, meaning they should enter the playoffs as fresh as they can be after an 82 game schedule.
And with the salary cap increasing over the next few years, there is no question that GM David Griffin and James can continue to keep putting together a deep squad in wine and gold.
Will there be challenges? Of course, if Derrick Rose stays healthy, the Chicago Bulls will pose a threat in the Eastern Conference now that they added Pau Gasol. They play solid defense and are also a veteran laden team.
And whoever comes out of the West, assuming the Cavs can get to The Finals, will also be a tough team to beat.
James said in his essay announcing his return that winning a championship isn’t and won’t be easy. The organization doesn’t want to make promises because they understand the same thing, and they are correct in doing so.
The whole process starts tonight and the focus of the basketball world is on Northeast Ohio.
The start of what we have dreamed about for 50 years could be tonight.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 