What Fans Really Want From Owners.

What is the role a professional sports team owner? It seems in Cleveland we talk about the ownership of the Indians, Browns, and Cavaliers a lot, and our thought is what do fans want from the owners?

We believe most fans want the owners to stay out of the day to day operations of the team. Hire a good front office staff and get the heck out of the way.

That’s the strength of the Indians. The Dolan family have had two men in charge since they purchased the team–Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti.

Really, since Richard Jacobs bought the team in 1986, there has been stability at the top, starting with Hank Peters, on to John Hart, to Shapiro and Antonetti. That’s 34 years where the head of baseball operations has come from within.

Now, some will debate whether or not that is a good thing or not, but there seems to be a continuous plan on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

However, there is the matter of payroll for the players, the folks fans pay to see on a regular basis.

Really, this doesn’t come into focus unless the team is in contention mode.

No one really complains that the Browns have had plenty of salary cap space over the past ten years because they’ve been quite frankly, terrible.

We heard a local radio personality complain the Haslams are reluctant to spend money, pointing out the significant dollars under the cap, but we feel most people think it would be worse if they were up against the threshold and they continually finished 5-11 or 6-10.

The Cavaliers are trying to get out of the luxury tax in the NBA and no one is raising a stink about this. Why? The Cavs are rebuilding. It’s a non-issue.

Look at the situation the Pittsburgh Pirates are currently in. Their payroll will be around $50 million this season, but there is no uproar because the team is firmly in rebuilding mode. If this was the situation the Indians were in, the same would be true in northeast Ohio.

Fans want teams to spend when the time is right. Dan Gilbert and the Cavaliers went above and beyond when LeBron James was here in terms on exceeding the salary cap in an effort to win a title. That’s why the ticket buying public support him.

And we have no doubt Jimmy and Dee Haslam will spend if and when the Browns are a playoff team to try and get the team to its first Super Bowl. Unfortunately, it’s been 30 years since the Cleveland football team has been in that situation.

That’s the frustration fans have with the Indians. They are most definitely in contention, making three post-season appearances in the last four seasons. Yet, for whatever reason, they are reducing the amount of money to be spent on players.

And we do understand the lack of a salary cap in baseball, which you wouldn’t think plays into the Indians’ situation, but it does because big market teams can conceivably spend hugely.

Fans want owners to want to win, particularly in a market where there has been one professional sports title in the last 56 years.

All of the other things are nice, but championships are what really matters to the fans. It would be nice if all of the owners of professional sports teams understood this.

Cavs’ New Direction Is Hopefully Forward.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers take the floor Friday night, they will have a new coach in J. B. Bickerstaff.

This is will be the third time the soon to be 41 year old has taken over a team in the middle of a season. He took over for Kevin McHale in Houston during the 2015-16 season, guiding the Rockets to a 37-34 record.

He also assumed the reins in Memphis from David Fizdale in 2017-18 and coached through last season, going 48-97 with the Grizzlies.

Here, he takes over what appears to be a mess. And we say that including the front office, John Beilein’s relationship with the roster, and the players themselves.

Let’s start with the front office. Koby Altman was the first GM to receive a second contract under owner Dan Gilbert, but since LeBron James departed via free agency after the franchise’s fourth consecutive Eastern Conference title, the Cavs have a 33-103 record.

Yes, the wine and gold are rebuilding, but they haven’t stripped the roster bare either. Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, and Larry Nance Jr. all received a lot of minutes on that 2017-18 team, and they are still here.

So is Cedi Osman, who was considered a youngster with talent on that squad.

However, has Altman put his thumbprint on this organization? It seems here like he is collecting talent, which on the surface would appear to be a good thing, but basketball is a different sport. Collecting talent isn’t everything, collecting complementary talent makes for a winning team.

Getting Andre Drummond for pretty much nothing is a good move. But it seems to clash with the team’s leading scorer, Collin Sexton.

Shouldn’t the current roster be playing inside out, with Drummond and Kevin Love getting the ball around the paint and the guards playing off them when they are double teamed? That doesn’t seem like Sexton’s strong point.

We would guess Bickerstaff has a better relationship with the players than Beilein, because they didn’t seem to like the former college coach, and the assistant would typically be the guy the players complain to about the head guy.

But now Bickerstaff is the boss, and he is setting up the rotations and controlling the playing time. Because of his previous experience, maybe he will grab the players’ attention, and get them to buy in to the way he wants the game played.

The players aren’t immune from criticism either. It’s one thing to complain about a coach trying to teach when you are winning, but when you are losing 3/4ths of the time you take the floor, perhaps you should listen.

We have said this before, but two former players who do Cavs’ telecasts, Austin Carr and Brad Daugherty, use this word all the time…accountability. It is lack among this roster and we fear nothing will improve with the Cavaliers until there is some.

And that goes for the young guys and the veterans. Perhaps this was lost when the coaching staff didn’t hold the newbies to an NBA standard from day one. We don’t know that, but it has to be enforced by both the coaches and the veterans starting now.

The defenders say Cleveland is only a year and a half into the post-LeBron era, so the struggles are understandable.

Our problem is we don’t see a lot of progress in performance particularly in the basics of the game. You can play the right way and lose or play the wrong way and lose. We prefer the former.

The next era starts Friday. Hopefully, the internal strife is behind this organization and they can start to pull in the same direction.

Beilein Hire Gets A Solid A

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a new head coach, and it was a shocker. Hiring a 66-year-old John Beilein from the University of Michigan was not expected at all.

And the narrative about this hire having Dan Gilbert’s imprints all over it overlooks the fact that Beilein is an excellent coach.

Beilein has a .650 winning percentage at U of M, and has coached in two Final Fours. And he has a Cavs’ connection in Mike Gansey, one of his former players at West Virginia, who is now Cleveland’s assistant GM.

The wine and gold were looking for someone who could develop talent, and the new coach certainly fills that bill. For the most part, Beilein wasn’t getting the “one and done” highly recruited players, and yet was cranking out top 20 teams on a yearly basis.

As for Beilein’s age, it has been rumored that one of the young, up and coming assistant coaches the Cavaliers have been interviewing will be named as the new coach’s chief assistant, sort of a grooming period for whoever gets the gig.

We understand this is Beilein’s first coaching job in the NBA, but learning from a guy with that kind of experience can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Plus, the veteran college head man isn’t coming into the league like a Rick Pitino or John Calipari, coming in looking to take the league by storm. He’s not a boisterous, overwhelming personality.

He’s just a very good basketball coach.

In watching his teams play over the years, the one thing we feel confident about, is the Cavs will be much better on the defensive end of the floor. The Cavs haven’t really been good on that end since the championship season of 2016, so that is something to look forward to.

He also prefers a motion offense, but he will have to adjust to the NBA game in that regard. It’s fine to run that type of attack, but he will have to put some pick-and-roll principles in because that’s a staple in the professional ranks.

Mostly though, Beilein has worked well with young players and let’s face it, the Cleveland Cavaliers are a young team. Outside of Kevin Love (30) and Larry Nance Jr. (26), the building blocks of the franchise are 24 and younger. Guys like Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, and Ante Zizic.

And they will add two more youngsters in the first round of next month’s NBA draft. The Cavs need someone who can communicate and teach these guys, and at his core, Beilein is a professor in the class of hoops.

Any criticism of this hire comes from those who see Gilbert as someone who thinks he knows the game more than the trained professionals. While we understand this, if Gilbert was the driving force behind bringing in a college coach, he brought in a very good one.

Remember, Beilein was also in consideration for the Pistons head coaching job a year ago.

Also, it isn’t like the owner and the front office interviewed Beilein first, fell in love and didn’t talk to anyone else. They talked to several young assistant coaches around the league who dealt in player development.

If you take the hire on merit, and figure in the hiring of a younger coach as the lead assistant, we don’t see how anyone could think this is a bad hire.

Of course, as with any hire, the proof will come when the Cavs start playing games that count again in October.

Tribe Fans Get Doused By Dolan’s Cold Shower

Man, it is tough to be a fan of the Cleveland Indians right now. The team has lost its last six post-season games, and after three straight division titles, the aura around the team is negative.

With Opening Day coming up on Thursday, and the home opener arriving in just six days, the thoughts of northeastern Ohio should be that of anticipation of another post-season berth, and a chance to end a 70 year World Series drought.

Instead, the focus is on the team’s finances. In the past few weeks, Paul Dolan has done several interviews with local media, and in each one, has pointed out the team is losing money on a yearly basis, and the organization made a conscious decision to cut the payroll for players after the 2018 season.

Keep in mind, last year’s roster had arguably the best starting pitching in the game and two MVP candidates (and top ten players in the sport) in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.

This flies in the face of the famous statement from the Dolan family that they will spend when it is appropriate. Isn’t it appropriate now?

We have said this before, but Paul Dolan isn’t good at doing the whole media thing, so it would behoove the front office not to have him make the rounds.

Whether it is true or not, and quite frankly, we find it doubtful that an owner of a major professional sports team is losing money in this day and age, fans don’t care. The owners don’t announce when they make a profit, so they shouldn’t announce when they are losing money.

If that is the case, then sell the team to someone else, and let them worry about it.

What is very odd to us is the support around the city the ownership gets from some fans. Those people do understand they are taking the side of a multi-millionaire claiming to be losing money.

Dolan told fans in a piece in The Athletic that Tribe fans should enjoy Lindor while you can, a clear indication the franchise was not going to try to keep him on a long term deal when he becomes a free agent following the 2021 season.

Can you imagine the outrage if Jimmy Haslam said Baker Mayfield would likely only be a Brown until his rookie contract was up? Or Dan Gilbert said he was going to let LeBron James walk away without a serious contract offer?

Yes, James left twice, but not because the Cavs owner wanted him to go.

The other thing about the comments is the timing. Why make these comments right before the season is about to begin? We don’t think Dolan is trying to destroy interest in his team, but the outrage we’ve seen over the past two days cannot be construed as positive.

We have always thought the reasons for people to own a sports team are to win, to make money, or to have fun. Dolan admitted it was fun after the ’16 season, in which the Indians made it to Game 7 of the World Series.

But if you are losing money and aren’t actively trying to win, what kind of fun is it?

We also doubt that the attitude in the clubhouse will be the same as it was toward fictional owner Rachel Phelps in the movie Major League. It has already been reported that players found Dolan’s comments to be disingenuous.

Fans of the Tribe want a winner. They’ve enjoyed the past 25 years of good baseball since Progressive Field (nee Jacobs Field) opened. But there is one thing missing, and that hasn’t happened since 1948.

They would like the owner to want what they want. Oh, and for the franchise to keep Lindor.

LeBron’s Version Is A Bit Of Hindsight.

With LeBron James coming back to Cleveland as a member of the Lakers tomorrow night, the events of the summer of 2017 is being rehashed, particularly the trade of Kyrie Irving to Boston.

As we said and thought at the time, despite the narrative LeBron and his camp what to put out there now, this is what we think.

First, we don’t believe James and Irving could have co-existed in 2017-18, because Irving was tired of playing with James, and having two all star players not getting along is a recipe for disaster.

Look at what happened in Chicago with Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose. Remember the whole Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant issues with the Lakers. You can’t force two guys to get along when one party doesn’t want it to work.

Second, the Irving trade rumors came before the ’17 Draft, and when David Griffin was still GM. Was Griffin working because owner Dan Gilbert wanted Irving out? Or did Irving ask the organization for a deal?

We believe Griffin knew the only way to improve the roster, and make it deeper, was to move a very valuable commodity in Irving. Getting a solid point guard in return and adding another young, athletic player would help the Cavs win another title.

That was supposedly the move with Phoenix, with Cleveland getting Eric Bledsoe and the 4th pick in the 2017 draft.

Were talks really going on with the Suns? We don’t know for sure, but the rumors were out there.

It was reported that James did not want the deal to happen, although, behind the scenes, he was perfectly happy with the move, because he thought (and we agree) that Irving plays for himself first, which is against James’ style.

However, when he was asked if he would commit to the Cavs long term if Irving was not moved, James declined.

Now, thinking about this at the time (not now with hindsight being 20/20), why would you hold on to Irving without a commitment from James to keep the “Big Three” together for a few more years?

If he wanted to, James could’ve killed the deal if we would have been willing to sign a contract extension.

Without that, the Cavs were looking at a rebuild after the 2017-18 season anyway, because a Irving-Kevin Love led team isn’t going to win an NBA title.

Look, he get that James didn’t (doesn’t) trust Dan Gilbert, and he has every reason not to, but Gilbert had to do what was best for the future of the Cavaliers. And if Brooklyn would have played to expectations a year ago, maybe Luca Doncic, Jaren Jackson, or another top rookie is in Cleveland today.

Kyrie Irving is a popular player in today’s NBA. He’s flashy, he can handle, and he is a tremendous finisher at the rim. In short, he’s a highlight reel player.

However, he’s a poor defender and not exactly a great or willing passer.

It’s not in James’ best interest image wise to say he was in favor of the Cavaliers moving on from Kyrie to improve ball movement and defense, which would have helped in beating Golden State.

Having James and Irving at odds going into last season would not have helped the wine and gold. Getting prepared for life after LeBron is just being prudent.

Now, the plan didn’t work because the Brooklyn draft pick wound up being the 8th pick and not a top five choice.

That’s the biggest problem with the trade.

Cavs Real Problem? Lack Of Communication Internally.

It was a week ago that the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to fire head coach Tyronn Lue, and the reaction nationally wasn’t favorable, particularly in regards to owner Dan Gilbert.

Gilbert is viewed by the media as the NBA’s version of Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, a man who makes moves like he knows the sport, but if really just a bit more than a fan. And a fan who acts impetuously, someone who is looking for a change after a couple of losses.

The movement away from Lue wasn’t a problem for us, but the lack of a plan from the top of the organization down to GM Koby Altman is.

Firing a coach six games into a season shows a lack of communication throughout the organization.

It is pretty apparent that the Cavs wanted to get younger after LeBron James announced he was signing with the Lakers.

Didn’t Lue and Altman (and we guess, Gilbert) sit down at that point and talk about the direction for the future? Maybe they did, and then Lue decided that winning games immediately was the way to go, so that’s when the wheels were put into motion to make a change on the bench.

If Lue wasn’t going to make a commitment to playing guys like David Nwaba, Ante Zizic, and Sam Dekker, then couldn’t a joint decision have been made at that time for Lue to walk away?

Put out a statement thanking the coach for guiding a championship team, taking the franchise to two other Finals, and saying there is a change in direction for the squad.

That’s how it should have been handled.

Then, you have the whole Larry Drew as the new head coach, or interim head coach, or “new voice”, or whatever the heck he is right now.

When Altman and Gilbert decided Lue was out, didn’t they reach out to Drew to see if he wanted the full time gig, and negotiate a contract at that time?

It seems like there was no communication at all. It seems like they fired Lue, and called Drew and said, by the way, you are the new head coach.

And Drew said not so fast.

Look, we get why Drew wants security. He is 60 years old and was basically screwed out of his last two jobs because a new management team came in.

And we get why the Cavaliers wouldn’t want to be tied in with Drew through the 2019-20 season. They want the opportunity to go out and find their version of Brad Stevens in the off-season.

To fans and media alike, the whole thing looks like it was not very well thought out. A well run organization would have thought these things out ahead of time and saved themselves the embarrassment.

A new coach could’ve came in during the summer, put together their plan, especially from a defensive standpoint, and started the season developing rookie Collin Sexton, and getting the most out of the younger players on the roster.

Instead, we have one of the worst teams in the NBA playing a style to which it is poorly suited.

All because it doesn’t look like the front office (including the owner) and the head coach didn’t communicate very well over the summer.

Lue Wasn’t A Good Fit With This Roster

We were going to write a piece today about how Tyronn Lue is coaching the team he wishes he had rather than the team he had. We were about halfway done with it when the news came down that Lue was fired this morning, six games into the season.

We are sure many people will hammer on Dan Gilbert, but really, it was Lue’s inability to adapt to the talent he had on the roster.

Yes, Lue was the head coach when the Cavaliers won their only championship in 2016, but in our opinion, his chief role on that team is he wasn’t David Blatt.

That’s not as harsh as it sounds. The players, led by LeBron James, didn’t respect Blatt, but because Lue played the game, they would listen to him.

And it paid off with a title, and Lue will forever be remembered fondly in Cleveland for that reason.

However, Lue couldn’t adjust to life without James.

His mantra was to “play fast”, but the Cavs’ best player is Kevin Love, who isn’t built for playing that way.

He seemed obligated to play veterans like Tristan Thompson, who also cannot play that style either.

Instead of trying to play like the Golden State Warriors, who play up tempo and have defenders who can play the switching style favored by Lue, and his defensive assistant, Mike Longabardi, why not try to play like Boston, a team who stresses individual defense (aka guarding your man).

We watched the Atlanta game, where the Hawks just set screens until they got Trae Young being guarded by Love. Heck, the Cavs did the same thing to the Warriors in the ’16 Finals, waiting until Steph Curry was on James.

It is early, but Lue didn’t seem to realize who his best players were.

Certainly Love and Cedi Osman appear to be the best players, but Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. have shown they are among top guys, and they rank 7th and 8th in minutes per game, behind Rodney Hood, George Hill, and Thompson.

The firing may have come quicker than normal because of the owner’s impetuousness, but it does make sense because it was becoming increasingly obvious the coach and the front office weren’t on the same page about the future of the team going forward.

We are sure management wanted to see Ante Zizic play more.

One of the things we questioned over the last year was the ignorance of size for an NBA team. Lue and his staff seemed to ignore the need for size in today’s game.

Even, the Warriors had five big guys on the roster. If a team played a big man, the Warriors had alternatives. Lue never seemed to warm to having Zizic on the roster, until all his big guys were hurt.

Defense never seemed to be a priority either. David Nwaba had a reputation for being a solid defensive player with the Bulls, but he couldn’t get off the bench here.

Was it unfair that Lue was fired six games into the season? Probably not, but he probably shouldn’t have been brought back at all. That was on the front office, hoping Lue could be different.

It will be interesting to see what else happens in terms of personnel. Will Kyle Korver and Thompson, two Cavs with some trade value, be moved sooner than later.

Lue should be thanked for being a part of the group who brought a title to Cleveland, but he wasn’t a fit for where the franchise is now.

Now is the time for a teacher to be brought in.

Blame For LBJ’s Departure Falls On Both Parties…And Bad Luck

The news came around 8PM last night. LeBron James was signing a four year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, leaving the Cavaliers for a second time via free agency.

There will be those that criticize James for his decision, same as they did eight years ago, and others will hammer Dan Gilbert and the organization for not being able to provide James with a team that can win titles.

The truth lies somewhere in between, however.

When James came back he wanted (at least what was claimed) to nurture the young Cavs. He wanted to work with Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, and Dion Waiters. He recruited Kevin Love to help out.

But when the team struggled that first season, the Cavs got veteran players that James felt more comfortable with, guys like JR Smith and Iman Shumpert, and ultimately, the front office paid them a ton of money, so when, if Smith’s case, he declined as a player, his contract became untradeable.

The same with Thompson, who was represented by James’ agent, so the Cavaliers paid him more money than a defensive oriented big man with limited offensive skills probably should have received.

Because of that deal, and that Thompson has leveled off, the wine and gold are stuck with his contract unless they simply give him away.

We are sure the Cavs’ organization figured out, like everybody who understands the game of basketball, that Smith and Thompson are marginal players at best right now, and the best thing for the Cavaliers would be upgrading at their positions, but unfortunately that seems impossible.

And even after the championship in ’16, James wouldn’t commit to the Cavaliers long term because he couldn’t trust Gilbert, so the front office couldn’t engage a future plan.

That’s life with James on your team, and the Cavs’ front office did what they needed to do to put their squad in a position to get to The Finals.

And they won in 2016, a year after James willed Cleveland to a six game series without the second or third best players on the roster, Irving and Love, who were injured.

That’s where luck, or in the Cavs’ view, bad luck took over.

Due to a spike in the salary cap, the team Cleveland beat in ’16 was able to sign the second best player in the league, Kevin Durant, as a free agent. There is no question here that Durant has been the difference in each of the last two Finals, and without him on the Golden State roster, Cleveland may have just celebrated a “Three-peat”.

The Cavs’ management, Dan Gilbert, nor James can be blamed for that. Another situation like that may never happen again.

The front office can be blamed for the lack of return in the trade of Kyrie Irving, who needed to be dealt, and Gilbert can be blamed for not keeping former GM David Griffin, who put together the title team.

An experienced hand may have made the difference in the return for Irving, although to be fair, Griffin was the guy who agreed to the deals with Thompson, Shumpert, Smith, and giving up two first round picks for Timofey Mozgov.

We would say the front office recognized the need to get younger since the end of the 2017 season, and most of the moves made did just that, but the pressure to win and win now with LeBron James, was probably a factor in why the coaching staff didn’t really bring Cedi Osman, Ante Zizic, and later, Rodney Hood along.

So, it is unfair to lie the blame in one spot. The Cavs did what they needed to do to win as soon as possible. LeBron didn’t really commit to a long term stay.

That’s life with the best player in the sport.

Gilbert Should Be Careful What He Wishes For

When it comes to Cleveland sports, many times we point out reasons why we can’t have nice things. Apparently, the same is true of the people who own the teams here as well.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, owned by Dan Gilbert, currently have the best player in the sport of basketball playing on the team. However, from many reports, it appears the owner has fallen in love with the same thing football fans look forward to every year, the draft process.

LeBron James, the best currently playing basketball, and the leader of the team that won the only professional sports championship the city has in the last 54 years, can be a free agent after this season. And Gilbert seems to be making the decision very easy for him.

The Cavs do possess what is certain to be a lottery pick in this summer’s draft. Now, we would not give up that pick for a rental player, but we would deal it for a younger player who could wear the wine and gold for at least a few years.

We are sure James would understand that, but what is disturbing to the ownership and the star player aren’t getting along again. We know they will never be friends after what happened when James left for Miami following the 2010 season, but Gilbert should understand the ways of the NBA by now.

It has been reported that the owner “wants his team back”, which is theory should be the case, but not in professional basketball. Like it or not, the star players carry a tremendous amount of clout.

James should finish his illustrious career with the Cavs, and in our opinion, we believe he would like to do just that. Unfortunately, the situation seems to be pushing him away from the franchise.

With James, the Cavaliers should be a contender to get to the NBA Finals every year. The superstar, even at 33 years old, is still a force in the NBA. He’s also a global icon, meaning Gilbert’s team in relevant on a worldwide basis.

Trying a rebuild through the draft is a slow, tedious process, and quite frankly doesn’t have a great success rate.

Anthony Davis is arguably the most talented player to enter the NBA in the past 10 years. His teams have made the playoffs just once in his first five seasons in the league.

How many years would Cavs fans have to wait before another playoff experience?

Gilbert is a smart man, making billions of dollars in the business world. However, he’s not smart enough to know what he doesn’t know, which is how to put together a winning basketball team.

Surely he has to know the value of the Cavaliers greatly diminished without James on the roster. It certainly did when LeBron left the first time.

The way the team is constructed right now, it doesn’t look good for this season, but that’s the beauty of having LeBron James. With the right roster adjustments, the Cavaliers can make a fourth consecutive trip to the championship round.

But if ownership has decided one title is enough, James won’t stick around. His legacy within the sport is based on winning titles. If that opportunity doesn’t exist in Cleveland, The King will go elsewhere.

Heck. former Indians’ president Mark Shapiro was vilified here for saying the best fans can hope for was to contend once every few years, and now Gilbert feels one championship is enough?

Gilbert and his partners will have their team back, but will anyone care?

No GM, No Big Moves, But Cavs Still Team To Beat In East

Ever since the Cleveland Cavaliers lost Game 5 of the NBA Finals, thus losing the series, it seems like a black cloud has followed the franchise, at least if you listen to the national media.

First, GM David Griffin and owner Dan Gilbert couldn’t reach an agreement on the former’s future with the team and parted ways.

Then, they tried and failed to get Paul George in a trade with Indiana before the draft, and despite the lack of a GM, this one is really on the Pacers, because their general manager killed the deal.

And according to who you listen to the Cavs have lost out on other free agents too, even though most of those players received contract offers much greater than the Cavaliers can pay because of the salary cap.

However, one thing has not changed with the franchise. They are still the best team in the Eastern Conference and the odds on favorite to return to The Finals for the fourth consecutive year.

That, my friends gives them a one in two chance to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy as NBA Champs.

The team with the best record in the regular season in the East, the Celtics added the prime free agent available this summer in Gordon Hayward, but they also lost Avery Bradley, an excellent defensive guard in a deal with Detroit to clear cap space.

The other challengers in the East, the Wizards, really haven’t added a significant piece, although they helped their bench, and Toronto’s point guard, Kyle Lowry got another year older, and they traded D’Marre Carroll and lost P.J. Tucker as a free agent.

Meanwhile, the Cavs still have the big three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, who together have lost just one playoff series in the last three seasons.

They also still have Tristan Thompson, JR Smith, and kept shooter extraordinaire, Kyle Korver.

The only players lost to this point by Cleveland are the free agents, Deron Williams and James Jones, and the latter is probably going to retire.

Now, we aren’t thrilled with the Jose Calderon signing, but getting Jeff Green is a solid move, and we will have to wait and see if Cedi Osman will be able to play in the NBA.

Whoever the new GM is, and it will probably be Koby Altman, still has some of the mid-level exemption to use to sign more players, and of course, there is the veteran minimum as well.

Some of the players we have talked about recently (Shabazz Muhammad, Jeff Withey, etc.) are still available and with cap space drying up around the league, who knows, perhaps a player like that will fall into the wine and gold’s hands.

As for James’ future, which everyone nationally has him leaving after the 2017-18 season, for every reason “experts” speculate why he will leave, we can think of one why he will remain in northeast Ohio.

FYI, that’s not a prediction, because we don’t think anyone, except for LeBron and his people, knows what he is thinking about right now.

What we do know is the Cavaliers will be a very good team at the start of the regular season and everyone should enjoy it because they will be the team to beat in the East.

As for the West? Houston and Oklahoma City are challenging Golden State, and you can never forget about San Antonio.

The national media’s worries? First, the off-season still has about two and a half months to go, so more moves could be coming.

But really, nothing has changed since the Cavs rolled through the East with just one loss in the conference playoffs.