Cavs Biggest Problems: Defense, Three Point Shooting

By the end of this week, the Cleveland Cavaliers will have played half of their NBA schedule, and no one thought they would be struggling this much.

They are currently sitting below the .500 mark at 19-20, far from the juggernaut many experts predicted before the season started with LeBron James returned to the team, and GM David Griffin traded for Kevin Love.

Yes, there are a lot of new players that started the season with the wine and gold, and the recent trades made by Griffin have added three more new players (one of whom, Iman Shumpert hasn’t played yet), and that makes continuity and knowing your teammates very difficult.

The biggest problems seem to be on the defensive end, where right now it appears there isn’t a consistent effort on a nightly basis.

Part of the problem is the lack of quickness on the players defending the perimeter. That problem means they play off of the opponent to stop penetration, and then cannot recover to contest the jump shot. This has led in part to allowing a 51.6% defensive field goal percentage thus far, second worst in the league behind only Minnesota.

It seems like teams hit an inordinate amount of three-point shots against the Cavs, but the wine and gold ranks 19th defensively against the long distance shot. That’s not great, but they are getting hurt inside the arc.

In terms of defensive efficiency, the Cavs rank as the sixth worst defense in the NBA. That needs to improve and quickly.

Yes, we understand that Love and Kyrie Irving aren’t good defensively, but you can cover that up by team concepts. Right now, the team scheme needs to be revamped because it’s not getting it done.

Cleveland allows the sixth most dunk attempts in the league, but don’t allow a lot of layup attempts. However, opponents convert a good percentage of those layup attempts, which Timofey Mozgov should help with.

Where the Cavs get killed is on jump shots of between 16 feet and the three-point line, as opponents are making 46.3% of their shots, two percent more than the next worst team Toronto. Besides the Raptors, no one else is giving up more than 42.6% of these shots.

That’s because the perimeter defenders are having a problem closing out on shooters.

Oddly, this ties into the other problem, the lack of three-point shooting. Cleveland ranks 18th in the NBA offensively, which is disappointing for a team with Irving, Love, Mike Miller, and James Jones on it. The thought before the season was with all the ability the Cavs have going to the basket, these guys would have plenty of good looks from beyond the arc.

Irving shot close to 40% in his first two years in the league, but shot just 36% last year and is sitting around that mark again this season.

Love came into the season hitting 36% of his shots from distance, but he’s dropped to 34% this season.

Miller has been over 40% each of the last three seasons, but he’s dropped to 35.3% in 2014-15.

Jones is a career 40% shooter that is making 36.8% of those shots this season.

The latter two are big problems because they don’t provide the perimeter defense the Cavs need, and they aren’t making as many shots as they have in the past. And quite frankly, if Miller and Jones aren’t hitting shots, there is no reason to put them on the floor.

David Blatt would be better served playing Joe Harris, who is a little better defensively, at this point in time.

At this point, the Cavs still seem to be using the roster turnover as an excuse, which it shouldn’t be half way through the season. They really need to just start playing hard, especially defensively.

One other thing. This team needs to get out and run, but if the other team keeps scoring, it’s difficult to get transition buckets.

The defense has to get fixed right now.

Griffin Makes the First Move To Improve Cavs Roster

The recent struggles by the Cleveland Cavaliers are partially the result of the injuries, but also an indication that the current roster wasn’t working.

We just wrote a couple of days ago that it was incumbent on GM David Griffin to do something to improve the bench.

That’s the reason Griffin chose to make a significant change, dealing Dion Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of a three team deal that netted guard Iman Shumpert and swingman J.R. Smith.

Griffin parted with veteran Lou Amundsen and rookie Alex Kirk as part of the deal.

Really, it appeared more and more that Waiters wasn’t accepting his role with the current group of Cavaliers. In Sunday’s loss to Dallas, he kept trying to drive to the basket when a lane wasn’t there and took a series of questionable shots that didn’t appear to be part of the offense.

While the focus of many have been on the enigmatic Smith, the real key to the trade is Shumpert, a 24-year-old who can be the wing defender needed by the wine and gold.

Although he is currently sidelined with a shoulder separation, Shumpert is a capable shooter from behind the arc (34% lifetime), but he makes his bones on the defensive end. And that has been a huge problem for the Cavs over the last month.

Smith is a scorer, averaging 13.3 points per game in his career, and is known as a guy who when he gets it going can turn a game around. He has made 37% of his three-point shots during his time in the NBA.

Smith will take the role that coach David Blatt wanted Waiters to have, that of instant offense off the bench, and Griffin picked up a solid wing defender as well. And outside of James Jones, who is limited in other areas, mainly defense, Smith is needed because Mike Miller hasn’t provided the outside shooting the Cavs thought they were getting when they signed him.

And, by the way, picked up a first round pick from Oklahoma City, which can be an asset in a future move, probably in bringing a big man, which the Cavaliers also need.

Which brings us to Samuel Dalembert, who was released by the Knicks as part of this trade. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Dalembert, who is a solid, defensive oriented big man, eventually winds up in Cleveland for the veteran minimum.

He’s a “rim protector”, the new lexicon for a guy who can block shots and rebounds.

The deal will likely put Shumpert in the starting lineup at the two guard with Miller going back to a reserve role, along with Smith to provide shooting. If they sign Dalembert, it would give the coach four solid players off the bench along with Matthew Dellavedova.

And Shumpert and Dalembert should also improve the defense which has been the main weakness for the Cavs over the last month.

With the trade exemptions and the first round picks Cleveland possesses (Memphis and Oklahoma City), Griffin still has ammunition to go out and get yet another big man. Even when Anderson Varejao was healthy, the wine and gold was one big short, so there is still a need to add another.

Yes, the adjustment period will probably get longer now with new players coming aboard, but if the Cavs are clicking in March, they will be the team no one wants to face in the playoffs. And with the core still being LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, they can still make a long run in the East.

James’ Injury Doesn’t Mean Cupboard is Bare

No doubt it has been a crazy week for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

They’ve lost three of their last four, including a loss on Christmas Day at Miami, and then received a beatdown a few days later at home to the lowly Detroit Pistons.

Then, rumors started to fly that the management wasn’t happy with the job coach David Blatt is doing, and that LeBron James apparently talked to Dwyane Wade about an on-court reunion if things didn’t get better with the Cavs.

And yesterday, it was announced by the club that James will miss two weeks with lingering back and knee issues.

Phew!

With James out, there is the usual Cleveland doom and gloom in the air, with people feeling the dream season they envisioned for the wine and gold is slowly slipping away.

First of all, remember that even with LeBron on the sidelines, the Cavs still have two all-stars on the court in Kyrie Irving, who is having his best season as a pro, and Kevin Love. It’s not as though they are the Philadelphia 76ers.

This should allow and encourage Love to take more of an aggressive role offensively. So far, the former Timberwolf has seen to struggle to find his niche with Cleveland, so this will give him an opportunity to do just that.

Hopefully, it will also make Dion Waiters be more aggressive too, at least in the concept of the offense. Waiters has gone back and forth this season, either shooting too much or not enough. Now, the Cavs need his points and he should try to score more, but not do it in the one on one style he has used too much this season.

In fact, it would be a good opportunity for Blatt to move Waiters back in the starting lineup.

James’ absence could also improve how Blatt’s offensive system flows.

This isn’t to say that LBJ is circumventing the coach’s game plan, rather we think Blatt has moved away from his motion based attack to accommodate the four-time MVP’s ability to take pretty much anyone in the league off the dribble.

Now, without him, perhaps the offense will stay with the passing game more often. We have noticed in several contests that moving the ball gets Cleveland the lead or back into a game, and then the squad reverts to isolation basketball and they have trouble.

The stretch early in the fourth quarter against the Heat was a perfect indication. The Cavs tied the game, then missed nine consecutive field goals, most without running offense, and couldn’t recover.

This is where Blatt can put his stamp on the team. He can go in the locker room tonight and tell this team it doesn’t matter if James is out, there is still plenty of talent on the current roster to continue to win while he is out.

As for James, many have suspected that he hasn’t been healthy since training camp, and this is a good opportunity for him to heal up and come back strong for the rest of the season. And when he does, the coach needs to do a better job managing his minutes.

He shouldn’t be playing more than 35 minutes per game.

It would be nice if the Cavs had the best record in the Eastern Conference right now, but it is more important if they are playing their best ball in March and early April, heading into the playoffs.

We think a lot of fans think the post-season starts in the couple of weeks. We haven’t even reached the halfway point of the season.

If this is the best the Cavs can do, then there is a problem. However, we feel they will get better as the season goes on.

Maybe James’ Best Leadership Would Be Backing Blatt

The way basketball fans in this area talk about the Cleveland Cavaliers, you would think their record is below .500 or something like that.

In reality, the Cavs are 18-11 with a little over one-third of the season being played, in firm grasp of a playoff spot (they are seven games ahead of the current ninth seed), and no doubt will get better as the season plays on.

Once again, if you look at the teams who have the best record in each conference currently, Toronto and Atlanta in the Eastern Conference, and Golden State and Portland in the West, you find teams that basically are the same as last season.

Certainly, none of those teams made the changes the wine and gold did over the off-season.

And for those fans who have been critical of coach David Blatt, his area of expertise coming into the season was offense, and the Cavs have the fourth most efficient offense in the NBA right now, behind just the Raptors, Mavericks, and Clippers.

Clearly, the offense isn’t the problem, despite reports from the national media (read: ESPN).

On the defensive end, that’s another story. They rank 21st in the league in efficiency on that end of the floor (just ahead of Dallas, by the way), although they are right in the middle of the pack in points allowed (14th).

Because the Cavs have LeBron James back and brought in Kevin Love as well, there is no doubt extra media attention on everything the team does.

That includes last night when Love didn’t play in the fourth quarter in the win over Orlando, because the five who were out there were playing well. Blatt did the same thing less than a week ago, when Dion Waiters sat out the entire second half because Mike Miller and Matthew Dellavedova were playing well.

The next game, Waiters received his normal minutes.

One thing that hurts Blatt is that James hasn’t made many supportive comments about the head coach, and really, has never made any comments backing any of his coaches over the years, outside of phrases like “he’s the coach”.

Over the years, superstar players have been linked to their coaches. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant with Phil Jackson, Tim Duncan with Gregg Popovich, Magic Johnson with Pat Riley, and even Bill Russell with Red Auerbach.

James never has had that relationship, that the coach has the best things in mind for both LeBron and the franchise in total.

It might be time for that now.

When the Cavs struggle this season, it’s because they seem to drift off into bad habits. In the Christmas Day loss to Miami, the wine and gold tied up the game and then spent the last ten minutes playing a lot of one-on-one style, and at one point missed nine shots in a row.

This is the opportunity for the team’s best player to say the Cavs need to do what Blatt wants them to do: share the ball and make an effort on the defensive end.

If LeBron says that publicly, and develops a partnership with Blatt, that will unify a team that still seems to fragment at times.

After all, Blatt is a pretty renowned coach around the globe. He’s not Mike Brown and Eric Spoelstra, guys who were around the league for a while but never had success before they had James on the roster.

He’s had success coaching the sport for a long time, maybe not at the highest professional level, but he’s got more of a track record that the others we’ve mentioned.

Developing that relationship would show the rest of the roster just who is in charge, and just may be the catalyst for a very successful season.

That might be the biggest statement LeBron James can make as the leader of this squad.

A Plan to Rest LeBron

During the Cleveland Cavaliers’ slow start, David Blatt received a lot of criticism from people who expected the wine and gold to be 82-0 for the regular season. After all, they added the best player on the planet, LeBron James and another all-star in Kevin Love to Kyrie Irving.

Now that the Cavs have won four in a row, some of that criticism has subsided, but there is one area that the new to the NBA coach needs to make an adjustment. That would be controlling the minutes of James, who will turn 30 years old at the end of the month, and has a lot of miles on his legs, having spent 10 full seasons in the league, plus playoffs, and his stints with USA Basketball.

James is currently averaging 37.7 minutes per night, which is right in line with the last three years he spent in Miami. However, he has accumulated more than 40 minutes in a game seven times in the season’s first 16 games.

That’s not going to help him or the Cavs if they do indeed make a deep run in the NBA playoffs.

So, Blatt has to make a conscious effort to limit James’ minutes, especially during this time of the regular season, when, let’s face it, the games don’t have a heck of a lot of meeting.

We are sure Blatt intends to give James around 35 minutes per night going into each game, but our guess is his competitive nature gets in the game, and as the contest goes on he wants LeBron on the floor so the Cavs have a better chance for victory.

Part of it could also be adapting to a 48 minute game too. In a shorter contest, resting a player five minutes gets them to 35 minutes on the floor, in the NBA, a player has to sit out for 13 minutes to be at that kind of playing time.

As a compromise, we would suggest James sitting out the last three minutes of the first quarter and the first four minutes of the second quarter. Currently, he is playing the entire first stanza. This would give him seven minutes off in the first half, and if Love and Irving are on the floor at that point, the Cavs shouldn’t be in any danger of getting blown out.

In the second half, the coach can keep James off the floor the last two minutes of the third quarter and first two minutes of the fourth quarter. That get James to 37 minutes per night. And when the Cavaliers get a blow out win, he will get even more time off.

We also think having LBJ on the floor as much as he is provides a crutch to the players coming off the bench, meaning they think James will handle things, and they are reluctant to step up.

While James is resting, why can’t Dion Waiters pick up the scoring slack? We know Waiters can put the ball in the basket, and if he can produce when he’s in there, it means LeBron can watch from the sidelines.

And that will also make the Cavs a stronger team.

If you spend as much time in the Association as James, it takes its toll. That isn’t to say LBJ is no longer a dominant player, but he does need to start cutting back on his minutes if he is to be at top form when the playoffs start. David Blatt knows this, he just needs to stick to the plan.

Cavs’ Defense Needs to Start With Guards

The most recognized weakness experts thought the Cleveland Cavaliers would have going into the season was on the defensive end, and to this point in the campaign, that has been the case.

The wine and gold currently rank 24th in the NBA in points allowed at 104.3, 7th from the bottom, and are third last in the association in defensive field goal percentage, allowing opponents to make 48.4% of their shots.

In regard to the points, the Cavs are scoring 106.7 points per night, meaning they are outscoring their opponents by 2.4 points a game.

In defending three-point shooting, Cleveland is in the middle of the pack, allowing a 35.8 % rate, meaning the bigger problem is inside the three-point arc.

Now, this is no question that the defense is definitely affected by the number of new people on the roster. Playing well on that end of the floor requires knowing where your teammates are and having the trust that if you leave your man to help, someone else will cover for you.

That comes from playing together, and there isn’t a question here that the Cavaliers will be a better defensive team after the All Star Game than they are right now.

However, any improvement to be made on the defensive end has to come with a better effort from the backcourt, particularly Kyrie Irving.

First, let’s remember that a good portion of defense is “want to”. Working hard on that end of the floor is half the battle.

Let’s also remember that Irving has plenty of quickness. He is a superb penetrator on offense with the ability to seemingly get to the rim any time he wants to. So, there shouldn’t be any reason why the likes of Ty Lawson and Rajon Rondo blow past him time and time again during a game.

When this happens, we all know what comes next. Either Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varajao, or Kevin Love have to stop the man going to the basket, allowing a player like Rondo to dish to the vacated teammate. Rondo wound up with 16 assists against the Cavs last Friday night, and Lawson had 12 last night.

What is puzzling is that Rondo is not renown as a good shooter from outside and Lawson was 0 for 6 from behind the arc last night. This begs the question, why not give either player a step defensively and force them to beat you from outside first?

It still comes back to Irving making a commitment to be a solid player on the defensive end. Yes, it’s still early in the season and to be sure, LeBron James has to be in his ear about getting better in that area, but the two-time all-star has to get better on that end of the floor.

David Blatt cannot continue to have to put James or Shawn Marion on the opposition’s point guard when Irving can’t handle the job. They will get worn out sooner than later.

When Matthew Dellavedova gets back, you may see him take that responsibility at the end of games.

The point is this, Kyrie Irving has too much ability to be this poor of the defensive player and any improvement in this area for the Cavaliers rests on him being able to stop the parade on opposing guard going toward Cleveland’s basket.

As Cavs’ announcer Austin Carr likes to tell the story of what Jim Chones would say to him when he didn’t keep his man in front of him. Chones would tell him he was going to let him score, rather than pick up a foul.

This edition of the Cavaliers can score the basketball, but they won’t be an elite team, a championship team until they can stop the other team. Irving is the key to making that happen.

Will Bosh’s Feelings Affect Love?

We have always had the thought that everyone likes to win, but we’d rather have players that hate to lose.

We will find out this season if the Cleveland Cavaliers have enough of the latter.

All of the holdovers from last season’s team have to be thrilled to have players like LeBron James, Kevin Love, Mike Miller, and Shawn Marion join the roster, because the days of finishing under .500 are over. The sheer talent brought in this off-season pretty much guarantees that.

However, if all of those players loathe losing, then the Cavs have a chance to be something special.

We bring this up because of Chris Bosh’s comments today about playing with a guy like James, more specifically the adjustments that Kevin Love will have to make coming from being the best player on a also-ran to being the second or third best player on a great team.

We agree with Bosh that some guys can make that transition and other guys can’t.

Going back in NBA history, we can think of at least two times where a superstar player subjugated his game for the good of the team.

The first is when Wilt Chamberlain did it twice, first with the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers, and again with the Lakers in 1971-72.

In the first case, The Big Dipper’s scoring average dropped from 33.5 to 24.1 and his assist total jumped from 5.2 to 7.8 playing with the likes of Hal Greer, Chet Walker, and Luke Jackson.

With the Lakers in 71-72, Chamberlain’s scoring average dipped drastically again from 20.7 to 14.8, allowing Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, and Jim McMillian to do the heavy lifting in the scoring department.

Earl Monroe made a similar transition when he went from prolific scorer with the Baltimore Bullets (20.0 plus average) to fit in with a very good New York Knicks group.

In recent times, we saw the Boston Celtics put together Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen to go with Paul Pierce, and win a title in their first year together. All three had to change their games for the greater good.

If you think that is normal, think about how many titles Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant could have one if either decided taking a step back was worth it to collect more hardware.

The fact that the situation in Miami the past few seasons seems to irritate Bosh slightly is probably the reason it didn’t work in the long run. And if Bosh hated losing, he wouldn’t have cared how many touches he would be getting, as long as the Heat kept collecting Larry O’Brien Trophies.

Comparing Love to Bosh, remember that Love wanted to come here once James announced his return because he wanted to escape the losing. He didn’t come to Cleveland as part of a plan devised by friends while playing together on the US National team.

Plus, passing has always been a part of Love’s game, going back to his college days. We were struck watching him at UCLA the good court vision he had, and that was before he became an outside shooting threat.

Only time will tell of course, but it seems that Love has the disdain for losing that is needed to play with James. There is no question that players like Love, Miller, Marion, etc. came to Cleveland not only to play with LeBron, but to play with him knowing a title was very much possible.

The bigger question is can they all, including James, sacrifice individual stats to accomplish that goal.

Another huge question is how the holdover Cavs handle the culture change as well. With the youth in that group, that could be the bigger challenge.

Cavs Give Everyone Reason for Extreme Optimism

We realize that the average Cleveland sports fan has no real sense of success, so they don’t understand how to handle it.

This has become particularly evident in regards to the city’s basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Since the regular season ended, another non-playoff campaign just like everyone since the departure of LeBron James, nothing but good things have happened to Dan Gilbert’s franchise.

First, despite overwhelming odds, the Cavs got the first pick in the NBA Draft. Cleveland had the ninth worst record in the league, with just a little over 1% chance to get the pick, yet it came up for them.

Unbelievably, the next great thing that occurred was James returning to the franchise, still the best player in the sport, and this made the wine and gold an instant playoff team, and a contender for a title, even if nothing else was done.

Unlike James’ first tenure here, he started actively recruiting for the Cavs, and told all-star forward Kevin Love that they should team up and try to win titles in little ol’ Cleveland, Ohio.

So, GM David Griffin apparently has packaged this year’s first round pick, Andrew Wiggins and last year’s pick, Anthony Bennett sending them to Minnesota to bring Love to the Cavs.

The Cavaliers will now feature their own big three of James, Love, and two-time all-star Kyrie Irving, and are the favorite to win the Eastern Conference and advance to The Finals for the second time in history.

They’ve also added veterans Mike Miller, James Jones, and Shawn Marion, all with championship rings to add support for Cleveland’s all-star trio. And they may also add another well-accomplished veteran in Ray Allen soon.

Still, fans are complaining, worried that the team still needs a big man, someone who can block shots.

Let’s put it this way. If the Cavs suited us up with James, Love, and Irving, along with another member of the Cleveland blogging fraternity, they likely would make the playoffs.

This team is a definite title contender barring injury as currently constituted.

They have Irving and Matthew Dellavedova at point guard. At the wing spots, they can put James, Dion Waiters, Miller, and Marion on the floor. They will have Love at power forward and Anderson Varejao at center, or they can bring the latter off the bench, and use Tristan Thompson, who averaged almost a double double last season as a starter.

It is true that the last move to make would be someone who can block shots, and based on the moves made already, we have no doubt that Griffin will add one to those to the roster.

The Cavs still have several first round picks that can deal as well as some non-guaranteed contracts picked up in the deal that sent Carrick Felix to Utah.

That’s the beauty of the situation that has been created here, not only do the Cavs have James, Love, and Irving, but they aren’t hamstrung in the ability to make moves.

That’s why James structured his deal (two years with an opt out after the first year) the way he did. He saw what happened in Miami, where the Heat management didn’t want to go over the luxury tax threshold, and the Heat couldn’t add some younger pieces to keep the title train going.

If you aren’t optimistic about this basketball season, you would probably complain about the taxes if you won the lottery.

Some fans will still complain though, that’s the Cleveland way.

James is Back, Would You “Love” to Add More?

Now that LeBron James has returned to the Cavaliers, sports fans in Cleveland needed something else to worry about.

They were provided that yesterday when it was revealed that James signed only a two-year deal and can opt out after one. People in social media started the angst rolling shortly after the news broke.

Look, it would be a real shock if LBJ invoked the opt out after the 2014-15 campaign and went to another team after the heart warming essay he issued on SI.com revealing his love for Northeast Ohio.

Unless Dan Gilbert wrote another letter blasting him or new coach David Blatt benched him, what James and his management group did was simply a business move. With a new television contract coming and the salary cap increasing, James put a mechanism in place to ensure he will be the NBA’s highest paid player for the balance of his career.

He stated in his essay that he intended to finish his career as a Cavalier, and all fans of the wine and gold should take him at his word on this.

So relax and enjoy the fact that LeBron James will be wearing the wine and gold of the Cleveland Cavaliers once again.

Where does the organization go from here? First, the rebuilding process is over and the Cavs are now contenders for an NBA title. Although fans want and are projecting that this upcoming season, it really isn’t likely, but certainly David Blatt’s squad will be in the playoffs.

And remember that the Cavs did win 33 games last night despite a poor coaching staff. They probably are much closer to a .500 team than their record would indicate.

The rumors abound that Cleveland is in the mix for free agent to be (after next season) Kevin Love. The power forward’s critics will point out that Love has never appeared in a playoff game.

However, that is merely the luck of the draw. If the Timberwolves were in the Eastern Conference, they would have made the post-season with their 40-42 record.

Love averaged 26.1 points and 12.5 rebounds per game last year, and is a 38% shooter from beyond the three-point line. He also will not turn 26 years old until September. He’s played for the US Olympic team which won the gold medal in 2012 t00, where he played with James.

If GM David Griffin can get him without dealing this year’s top draft pick, Andrew Wiggins, why wouldn’t you make that deal? And if Dion Waiters needs to be included, that shouldn’t be an impediment.

Trading draft picks? So what, the Cleveland roster is still very young and dealing some of the first round picks accumulated by the Cavs’ front office wouldn’t be a hardship to the franchise.

After all, they just moved two former first round picks in Sergey Karasev and Tyler Zeller to create cap space to sign James.

Love’s defense has been questioned, but good coaches can scheme around that and playing defense is mostly about effort and James will make sure his new teammates know that it is worth the work.

Also, wouldn’t it be incredible to see Love fire one of his three-quarter court outlet passes to James streaking down the court?

Even if Cavs do not make another huge move, they should be one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. One issue is the division which probably has the two other top teams in the conference in Indiana and Chicago.

The Cavs could finish with the second best record in the East and be the fourth seed.

The philosophy of the Cavalier front office changed when James agreed to sign here on Friday. They have a chance to win a title next season. Again, not to say they will, but if they can add an all-star player without giving up Wiggins, who could be a special player in two to three years?

Why not?

The Prodigal LeBron Comes Home

As Al Michaels said in 1980 at the Olympic hockey championship, this impossible dream comes true.

That’s how it feels in Cleveland today with the announcement by basketball’s best player, LeBron James, that he is returning to northeastern Ohio to resume his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While everyone (us included) spewed venom over James’ departure four years ago, we have to explain our feelings this way. We are Cavaliers fans, and we support people who play for the wine and gold.

So, those feelings are set aside today. If Dan Gilbert and James can sit down and set aside the situation that occurred after the latter took his talents to South Beach, then fans can put them aside as well.

Because in basketball, where only five players are on the court at one time, one player makes more of a difference in this sport than in baseball and football, so a talent like James makes the Cavaliers an instant contender for a championship.

Perhaps we are quick to forgive James because it’s been 50 years since a Cleveland professional sports team has won a championship, but remember this: In 2003, when the Cavs drafted James with the first pick in the draft, he had to play here.

This time, he wanted to come home and play for the Cavs.

And because of that, most fans will give LeBron the benefit of the doubt and will welcome him back with open arms. After all, we are a forgiving society.

Even around the country, James has improved and repaired his reputation. Most fans outside of Miami were disappointed with him leaving Cleveland, and his return is being viewed with favor by most of the US.

Even if the Cavs don’t make any more moves (which is doubtful) this off-season, the wine and gold already have a player better than anyone James played with in his first stint with the Cavaliers in Kyrie Irving, a two-time all-star.

That’s no disrespect to all of the players who made the playoffs a yearly event at Quicken Loans Arena prior to 2010. It’s simply the truth.

And since James has always been a gifted passer, he should be a good fit for new coach David Blatt’s offense which features ball movement.

Now, James comes back to the franchise as a championship player, one who can set the tone for a still very young roster. He can show them how difficult it is to win an NBA title.

And it is a much bigger story for him and his “brand” to come back to the area where he grew up, and now he can raise his family here and watch his children go the St.Vincent-St. Mary and play in the gym that bares his name.

Seriously, when was the last time a great player in his prime decided to play in Cleveland, Ohio?

Whatever contempt you had for James when he left should be tempered that the best basketball player in the world, and someone who is known throughout the planet has decided to work in our city.

Coupled with the Republican Convention coming to town in 2016, it’s been a helluva week for northeastern Ohio.