Defense Is Cavs’ Biggest Issue

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in a funk.

Perhaps it’s an annual thing, because they seem to go through this each of the last two Januarys, or maybe they are simply bored as the season has just passed the halfway point.

Maybe it’s a hangover from the franchise’s first title last summer, and they will be able to turn the switch after the All Star game at the end of February.

Whatever, it’s not very pretty to watch.

Monday’s loss to Dallas was embarrassing. Yes, they are missing two starters due to injury in JR Smith and Kevin Love, but so were the Mavericks, who were without Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut.

Dallas is the third worst team in the Western Conference at 18-30 and have a below .500 record at home. And they played the night before and picked up a huge road win, perhaps their biggest of the year, at San Antonio.

Still, the Cavs couldn’t take advantage. They continue to struggle away from Quicken Loans Arena, dropping to 11-10 on the road for the season.

And while LeBron James continues to say the team needs a backup point guard, the biggest need for the wine and gold is to improve their defense.

Yes, if you play an up tempo game, you are going to give up points in the NBA, but the Cavs have allowed 100 or more points in 13 of the last 14 games. In the first 33 games this season, Cleveland held their opponents under 100 points 13 times.

That’s why in today’s “tryout camp” for veterans that the Cavs are having today, we would look for defense first.

Now, that being said, we don’t want players who don’t have any ability to put the ball in the basket, like say DeAndre Liggins. Those players become liabilities when you have the ball and allow teams to double on James and Kyrie Irving.

However, we would look to sign players who can defend, but also have the ability to score. We understand that sounds like an oxymoron, but Tyronn Lue has players who can shoot at his disposal, guys like Smith, Channing Frye, and Kyle Korver.

But outside of Smith, they are not strong on defense.

What is really needed though is an accountability from the current players on the defensive end. We have seen too many opposing players getting by their defender, which causes someone to help, and that leaves someone wide open on the perimeter.

If the help doesn’t arrive, then it’s a lay up. That is happening far too often, and it isn’t just elite players causing problems. Heck, Dallas had Yogi Farrell, currently on a 10 day contract, and Seth Curry, not Steph Curry, parading to the basket.

That just comes down to personal responsibility. Keep your man in front of you. We know they are capable of doing that, which plays into our boredom argument.

We understand there probably isn’t a real threat to the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but that doesn’t mean if these bad habits aren’t curtailed soon, other teams might feel like they have a shot.

Part of the Cavs’ mystique is many other teams are defeated before they take the floor. That’s something they don’t want to lose, and stepping it up on the defensive end is a step in that direction.

January = Drama Month For Cavaliers

It’s the first month of the new year and once again there is drama and anxiousness regarding the city’s professional basketball team.

When you think about it, this has become an annual rite of passage.

In 2015, the team endured LeBron James missing two weeks to basically refresh his body. The Cavs actually dropped below the .500 mark at one point (19-20), and then GM David Griffin traded Dion Waiters and some draft picks for JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, and Timofey Mozgov and the team took off.

Oh, and there was the team bonding bowling trip then coach David Blatt took his squad on.

That team went on to win the Eastern Conference and ultimately lose to Golden State in the NBA Finals.

2016 brought the blowout loss to the Warriors on Martin Luther King Day and the shocking firing of Blatt with the Cavs sitting at 30-11 for the season.

It was a bold move by Griffin, and it turned out to be the right move as well, as the wine and gold went on to win its first NBA title.

So why would you think 2017 would be any different? Apparently, the title doesn’t change everything.

The Cavaliers are going through their first rough patch of the season, losing three of six on a west coast trip and then losing to New Orleans and Sacramento.

The defense has been non-existent and the foul shooting deplorable.

And then LeBron James made comments about the roster and it has been reported that he and owner Dan Gilbert are at odds about the money being spent on improving the roster.

Yep, it’s January alright.

We understand James’ comment about the roster and we believe he is talking more to his teammates than he is to the front office. He is saying that the players can’t continuously look to himself, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love to get things done.

The rest of the team has the ability to make some things happen and they need to step it up.

James keeps talking about another point guard, or playmaker as Griffin says, and we feel another inside defensive presence is a more pressing need. Right now, Tristan Thompson is the only quality interior defender on the roster, and the team certainly could use another big man.

As for the discussion with the owner, we are sure James wants to make sure the luxury tax, of which the Cavs are paying a ton, isn’t a deterrent to defending the title.

James has to believe that the Warriors, Spurs, and any other contenders will add to their roster by the trade deadline, and to be sure, he wants assurances Griffin will not be hamstrung by tax concerns.

But the current roster has to play better too. It seems like a little complacency has set in and right now, the wine and gold have been playing sloppy–too many turnovers and laziness on the defensive end.

They are getting every team’s best shot as the defending champions, and they aren’t responding.

That’s not something Griffin and/or Gilbert can fix. It must come from within the locker room.

We would start by putting Kyle Korver in the starting lineup and putting everyone else back into the roles they were in before Smith went down with his injury.

We would also start giving some minutes to Kay Felder and Jordan McRae, thus cutting back on playing time for James, Irving, and Love.

We may see that as soon as tonight.

Right now isn’t the time to panic. It’s just a normal January for the Cavaliers.

In Public, Cavs Take The High Road

Tomorrow evening, the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Golden State Warriors in a renewal of the rivalry that has developed since the two teams met for the NBA title in 2014-15.

Steve Kerr’s Warriors won that one in six games, and immediately after Draymond Green commented before their victory parade that the Cavs “sucked”.

Before the Warriors played their regular season game in 2015-16 at Quicken Loans Arena, Stephen Curry said he hoped the visitor’s locker room still smelled like champagne.

Did we mention that when Golden State won the championship, they defeated a Cleveland team without Kevin Love for the entire series, and without Kyrie Irving for all but the first game.

We believe that anyone would rank those two in the top 30 NBA players currently in the league.

Then in last year’s Finals after taking a 3-1 series lead, Klay Thompson of the Warriors commented that LeBron James may have gotten his feelings hurt in Game 4, won by Golden State.

Klay’s squad never won another game in the series.

Thompson commented this week that the Cavs’ actions after coming back to win the title last summer were childish.

Reportedly, at a Halloween Party thrown by James, there were cookies with tombstones with Warriors’ players names on them, and you had to walk over a doll in the likeness of Curry to get through the entrance.

On the other hand, publicly, you never hear a Cavalier player say anything bad about the team they played in each of the last two Finals.

James went out of his way after Friday night’s win over Sacramento to say Golden State has been the best team in the league over the last two years, and the Cavs were just trying to get better.

Some joy from the Cavaliers gets out every once in a while, like Thompson mocking Green’s comments the year prior during the Cleveland victory parade, but for the most part, the Cavs give the Warriors the respect they deserve as a great team.

You just don’t hear that out of the Golden State players, and even Steve Kerr mocked the Quicken Loans Arena scoreboard last week. (NOTE: We think “The Diff” is stupid too.)

On the other hand, James talks up the other players in the league a lot. Perhaps he is using it to soften his opponents, but we genuinely believe he is a fan of the game, and respects the talents of other great players.

When asked earlier in the year about averaging a triple-double, James said he doubted he could do it now, but quickly added that Russell Westbrook could.

Granted we get more coverage of the Cavs than the Warriors, but when was the last time you heard Curry or another Golden State player comment about how good another player in the NBA was?

We also believe other people involved in the NBA are getting tired of the hype surrounding Golden State. Recently, Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers reminded the press that the Warriors have only won one title.

Some of this stems from ESPN’s continuing coverage of anything blue and gold, despite “defending champs” missing from the Golden State story. Some of that is due to the high profile free agent signing of Kevin Durant this summer.

And of course, the four letter network loves to climb on a bandwagon.

If the Cavs win tomorrow, we are sure the players will talk about a great win against a great team to finish off a long trip.

If the Warriors win, we are anxious to see if there will be any humility after losing the title last season. Or will they trash talk some more giving James and his teammates more motivation if the two teams meet for a third time in June.

Either way, the newest rivalry in professional basketball writes another chapter tomorrow. It’s not just another game.

Is LeBron Getting Enough Rest?

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be conducting an experiment with LeBron James this season.

With James turning 32 years old at the end of December, one of the favorite things for fans and media alike to debate is rest for The King.

LeBron is currently third in the NBA in average minutes per game, behind only Toronto’s Kyle Lowry and Minnesota’s Zach LeVine, playing slightly over 37 minutes per night, an increase of about a minute and a half more than a year ago.

On the other hand, James doesn’t rank in the top 20 in the league in minutes played for the season, as a result of sitting out three games already this season, and we are sure there are more to follow.

The experiment is this…what is better for the athlete, reducing minutes on a nightly basis, or having the player just not play on certain nights. That way, he doesn’t warm up, doesn’t get mentally prepared to play. It’s just a complete day off.

We understand that Tyronn Lue has said all along that a reduction in James’ minutes would occur in January and February when the schedule got a little contracted, but on this current trip, the least minutes in a game for #23 was the 35 he played in Brooklyn on the first game on the roadie.

Right now, James doesn’t show any signs of fatigue and the guy is obviously a physical freak. He doesn’t seem to get tired, even at the end of games.

While San Antonio is famous for starting the concept of giving players game days off, sitting Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili when the schedule got heavy, Gregg Popovich also cut the players minutes per game.

At age 32, Duncan played 32.7 minutes per night, while at the same ages, Parker played 28.7 and Ginobili also spent 28.7 minutes on the floor per game.

Obviously, the goal is to have James fresh through the middle of June as the wine and gold defend their championship. The concern is with The King getting older, can he take on the heavier minutes per night, and still be his dominant self throughout the playoffs.

We are sure there are constant conversations with Lue, James, and the training staff about how the player feels, and the organization has done studies on what is the proper way to keep a high caliber NBA athlete fresh after they have reached the age of 30.

We also know that LeBron James doesn’t care about chasing a regular season win record. He understands the ultimate prize is winning another title, and he knows the most important thing is to be healthy and strong in April, May, and June.

We should have learned by now that comparing LeBron James to other athletes doesn’t make sense. He is a freak of nature. As someone once said about guarding him, “if you are big enough, you aren’t quick enough, and if you are quick enough, you aren’t big enough”.

We also believe the Cavs will have the first overall seed in the East wrapped up sooner than they did this year, which should mean a lesser load for James toward the end of the year.

That should get James some fresher legs heading into the post-season.

If James appears tired in the playoffs, then the Cavaliers will have to adjust their plan going into next season. However, if he is dominant through the last game of the season, then it will be even more evidence that The King is incomparable.

2016: Memories Of A Winning Year in NE Ohio.

It is easy to be upbeat about sports in the city of Cleveland and throughout northeast Ohio these days, a contrast from, oh, let’s say the last half century.

That’s what a professional sports championship does for an area. Instead of talking and writing about what a team needs to do to win, we can celebrate and bask in the glow of having that feeling a fan can have when the squad they follow has already won.

That’s why June 19, 2016 will forever be a special date to a Cleveland sports fan. It’s the date 52 years of waiting for a winner ended.

And to think, just 4-1/2 months later, we almost got to experience that kind of joy again, when Rajai Davis tied Game 7 of the World Series with a home run. Unfortunately, a rain delay got in the way of the Indians attempt to copy the Cavaliers’ title, and they fell one inning short of winning the World Series.

That’s what 2016 was all about in a nutshell.

We doubt that 20 years from now, we will remember the Browns going 1-15 (maybe). But we will forever remember Kyrie Irving’s three pointer to give the wine and gold the lead they would never relinquish.

We will not forget the Golden State shot missing and LeBron James and Kevin Love looking at each other under the basket, realizing they were NBA Champions.

It still gives us a chill when we hear the words “NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers”.

For many years to come, James, Irving, Love and the rest of the Cavs will be heroes in this area. And when they are all retired and they come back in 2026 for the 10th anniversary of the title, they will still get a standing ovation.

And it was very cool when the newly crowned Cavs jumped on board the Tribe train throughout the playoffs and World Series, showing a bunch of younger sports fans that the Indians can be cool too. If LeBron and the Cavs thought so, then it was alright.

The Tribe started developing their own heroes too. People started recognizing the play of the city’s next superstar in Francisco Lindor and fell in love with Jose Ramirez. And don’t forget the impact Adam Miller had either.

Suddenly, folks started realizing that the only name they knew on the local baseball team wasn’t the manager. Although, Tito has one name status along the shores of Lake Erie.

After the Cavs victory, the area was in party mode all week. We finally had a victory parade downtown and many people who grew up here returned for that event, something they thought might never happen in their lifetime.

The Lake Erie Monsters won the AHL Calder Cup for the first time since 1964. Stipe Miocic won the UFC heavyweight championship and defended his title for the first time right here in Cleveland.

LeBron James was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year for 2016, and is also AP’s Male Athlete of the Year.

The Indians signed a big, big time free agent in slugger Edwin Encarnacion, arguably the best power hitter in baseball over the last five years.

And although the Browns’ season was forgettable, with just one victory to date (and hopefully no more), they may emerge with the chance to have the first overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Hopefully, we will never experience this kind of drought when in comes to winning again. 52 years is way too long.

Let’s hope this is the beginning of a new era in Cleveland sports. One where we win a bunch of times. We can all get used to that feeling.

Legacy Of LeBron Vs. Jordan

It is almost universally recognized that Michael Jordan is the greatest professional basketball player ever because of the six titles he won with the Chicago Bulls in eight years.

There are some who consider Bill Russell because of the Celtics’ dominance in the 60’s, and others who will name Oscar Robertson’s all-around game, Wilt Chamberlain’s unbelievable numbers, and those who will talk about Magic Johnson and Larry Bird as well.

Jordan’s rep comes from elevating those teams to championships without other great players on his team. Yes, Scottie Pippen was a perfect compliment to him, but if let’s say Larry Nance replaced Pippen on those teams, would they still have won? We would say yes.

This brings us to LeBron James. Can James pass Jordan as the greatest player ever?

Right now, James has been in seven Finals, one more than His Airness. The difference, of course, is that the Bulls never lost when they got that far, while James’ teams have suffered four defeats, two each with the Cavaliers and Heat.

One argument used against Jordan is he never defeated another great team in The Finals. The Bulls first title was against a Laker team on its last legs. They didn’t win the Western Conference again with this group, led by Magic Johnson and James Worthy.

Probably the closest foe to Chicago were the Utah teams they won their last two titles against. The Jazz were led by two all-time greats in Karl Malone and John Stockton and repeating elevates that squad.

James’ team lost twice to the Spurs dynasty team (’07 with the Cavs, ’14 with the Heat) led by Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. They also defeated that same group in 2013.

And, of course, LeBron led the Cavs over the team with the all-time best regular season record this past summer, beating the 73 win Golden State team.

So, let’s say James takes the Cavaliers back to the Finals the next three seasons. That will give him ten appearances in the championship series. The most by any player who never played for the Celtics or Lakers (Bill Russell played in 12, Magic and Jerry West played in 9), and second most all-time.

And let’s say he wins two of those seasons, giving him five titles. Could we then say he surpasses Jordan? We say yes.

The main reason is the victory over the Warriors in June, and we presume one of those other wins will also come against Golden State, the 73 win team that also added another at least top 25 player of all-time in Kevin Durant.

As for Russell, the playoffs weren’t as tough then. Basically, if the Celtics defeated Chamberlain’s team they were in the championship round. Like Russell, James is surrounded by better talent than Jordan was with the Bulls, but getting to the title round four more times would tilt the scales in James’ direction in our opinion.

So, that’s what James is chasing now. He’s universally recognized as a top ten player in NBA history, probably top five.

Can he get to #1? Getting to more Finals will insure that chance, as well as moving up the lists in scoring and assists. He may very well be the all-time leading scorer or be second by the time he hangs up his sneakers.

The fact he has help from Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love doesn’t hurt his chances one bit.

Cavs Allow Fans Some Relaxation

Usually for a Cleveland sports fan, there is worry, concern, and angst in following your team.

Maybe the lack of that worries you, because you are a product of following sports in northeast Ohio, but this NBA basketball has an odd sense of calm to it.

Right now, the Cavaliers are off to a great start, winning 13 of their first 15 games, and already are four games ahead in the loss column in the NBA Eastern Conference standing.

Barring any sort of health related problems, probably the next time any basketball fan will have any concern is when the playoffs get underway, and even then, perhaps not until the Eastern Conference finals.

That’s how good this Cavs team is, and winning that title last spring and experiencing that run together has freed them up to play seemingly even better to this point in the season.

A full training camp with Tyronn Lue has the wine and gold ticking like a Swiss watch. Kevin Love, the reigning Eastern Conference player of the week, is playing like he did with the Timberwolves, averaging more than 20 points per night and grabbing more than 10 rebounds.

The other thing that has to strike fans is the closeness of this group and the fun they seem to have together.

They attended the Indians’ post-season games together, they have an annual Halloween party, they stopped off to watch the Ohio State-Michigan game a few days ago.

Maybe all of that is done because LeBron James says it needs to happen, but the rest of the squad is following their leader, and that has to help when it comes down to crunch time in games. They trust each other and they trust their coach.

Yes, LeBron is playing more minutes than we all expected, but Lue has told us the plan is to give James more rest when the schedule gets heavy in January and February. His minutes will go down then, and there will probably be some days off as well.

There is no doubt or handwringing from the fans and sports talk hosts around town. The Cavs won, so we believe in what they tell us.

Outside of the game they lost in Indiana when James sat out, this team rolls on even if they are missing some of it’s cogs.

Channing Frye has tragically missed time due to deaths in his family. JR Smith missed some games with a sprained ankle. Last Sunday, both Frye and Iman Shumpert were out, the Cavs still won on the road.

Lue has also made everyone a part of the early success. Rookie Kay Felder has contributed. Jordan McRae has seen more time lately and played the entire fourth quarter of a game against Washington that was still in doubt.

Sunday, without Frye and Smith in a slump, Lue turned to veteran James Jones, who came in and knocked down two three pointers.

It is true that the Cavs have been home a lot thus far (10 of their 15 games have been at Quicken Loans Arena), so the schedule will get a little tougher coming up. However, that still doesn’t provide great concern.

And by the way, let the media keep chasing Golden State and the continuously preening Warriors. The Cavaliers will keep quietly going about their business, which is winning.

While their fans just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Cavs Soaring Quietly To Start Season

Amazingly enough, the defending World Champion Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be flying under the radar just a bit.

Yes, the banner raising and ring ceremony, which basically put a cap on the 2015-16 season received a lot of attention and emotion from the northeast Ohio faithful, but as for the games, it doesn’t seem like the wine and gold are under a lot of scrutiny.

That’s probably due to the faith that winning a title gives the fans. Our bet is if there is anything troubling basketball fans here, they are very confident that GM David Griffin, coach Tyronn Lue, and resident best player in the sport LeBron James will get it fixed.

To date, it appears the 2016-17 version of the Cavs is resembling what basketball fans thought they would be when James returned to the franchise and the wine and gold traded for Kevin Love to go with Kyrie Irving.

The North Coast edition of the “Big Three” is currently all averaging over 20.0 point per game: Irving at 24.5, James at 23.4, and Love at 21.0.

The Cavaliers are also showing everyone the benefit of having Lue in charge during training camp too. Lue talked about playing at a faster tempo when he took over in mid-season last year, and this year, he is putting that in place from day one.

Cleveland is the second highest scoring team in the NBA right now, and despite playing faster, they still rank right in the middle of the league in terms of allowing the opponents to score.

The wine and gold also continue to shoot a lot of three point shots (second in the league to Houston) and have the 5th best shooting percentage from distance.

This of course is due to the ability of both James and Irving being able to get to the hoop at will, which creates wide open opportunities for the like of JR Smith, Love, Channing Frye, and Mike Dunleavy, who to date has not converted as many as most have thought.

And Lue’s squad has defended the three point ball well this year, ranking 11th in defensive field goal percentage, despite opponents taking the third most shots.

Dunleavy has been one of the few disappointments to date, which there shouldn’t be many on a team that has started out the year 7-1. He’s making just slightly over 30% of his long range shots, down from his career mark of 38%.

It may be a slump, it may be his teammates getting used to where he wants the ball, but when a player is 36 years old, and something in his game has declined, you have to wonder. However, any decision shouldn’t be made after eight games.

Tristan Thompson isn’t on the floor for his offensive ability, but he is down to 5.1 points per game, his career average is 9.6.

You have to wonder if the lob pass he received regularly from Matthew Dellavedova is missed in his offensive arsenal.

The Cavs have had an easy schedule early on, with a lot of days off in between games. This has allowed James to play 36.6 minutes per night without stress. That average will drop as the season goes, so the bench will have to give Lue more production.

This means quality minutes from rookie Kay Felder and perhaps Jordan McRae, who we thought might be in the rotation after Dellavedova’s departure.

Both players will have to provide defense if they want to get on the floor.

The Indians’ march to the World Series and the Browns’ march to perhaps an 0-16 campaign have put the wine and gold a bit on the back burner. That’s probably the biggest result of winning the NBA title.

No one is worried if the Cavs can do it. We know they can.

Once Again, Ignore The Warriors Until Next June.

Last year, when all the hullabaloo from the national media was going on about the Golden State Warriors, we said we would escape the noise until if or when the Cavaliers had to play them in the NBA Finals.

Now that they have signed Kevin Durant as a free agent, we will comment about them now, and then ignore them again until if or when the wine and gold have to play them in a playoff situation, which, of course would be the rubber match between the two franchises for an NBA Championship.

Many national pundits are conceding the 2016-17 title to the Warriors while wondering if they can go 82-0.

Basketball doesn’t work that way. It will be interesting to see who’s game or shots are altered by Durant’s arrival, and how it affects the player who will get less looks.

Since Stephen Curry is the two time MVP, our guess is that Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will have to change the way they currently play, and how will that play out.

And to fit Durant’s salary in, the Warriors will have to sacrifice the roster depth they’ve had over the past two seasons. This means more minutes for the starters.

We saw how the extra playoff minutes took a toll on Curry during The Finals, and will it take a toll on the remaining squad if all of them have to play two to three minutes per game over an 82 game season.

And don’t forget, an injury could derail the best laid plans of Golden State too.

What should the Cavs do to combat the Warriors move?

There isn’t much they can do, because of salary cap constraints, but with the limited resources they do have, we would look for another wing defender (preferably someone 6’7″ or 6’8″) who can have shooting range.

Kind of a smaller version of Channing Frye.

Remember that there are players on bad teams, non-playoff teams that when used in the right situation can be a perfect fit on a club with championship aspirations.

Before LeBron James came back to Cleveland, people were upset with Tristan Thompson, because at that point, he was the second best player on the team, and was limited offensively.

But when the Cavs became a title contender, Thompson’s skills of being able to defend smaller players out on the floor, and his ability to get offensive rebounds were invaluable to the wine and gold.

So, now that Thompson is the fourth or fifth best player on the roster, he is regarded as a very good player.

The same is true with Matthew Dellavedova, who parlayed his contributions the last two seasons into a $38 million contract with Milwaukee.

When he was a rookie, we wondered aloud why Mike Brown kept putting him into games. He was a solid defender, but at that point didn’t have a reliable jump shot and wasn’t a particularly good ball handler.

However, on the James-led Cavs, Delly’s defensive skills and gritty play earned him minutes. He improved his jump shot too, and became a solid threat from beyond the arc.

It will be interesting to see how he plays with a team that will probably be in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference next season.

So, there are guys in the league who could come here and be very productive in the Cavaliers’ situation.

We trust in GM David Griffin’s ability to find those guys.

As for the Warriors, they will be the story in the regular season, much like they were this year.

We know how it all turned out in the end.

Right Now? No Complaints

The month of June was certainly a wonderful month for the city of Cleveland.

The Cleveland Cavaliers broke the 52 year drought for the city without a major league sports championship. The whole area partied like never before, and citizens still have a collective smile on their face that may not be wiped off for a long time.

Or at least until the Browns start playing.

And the Indians have gone 21-6 during the month, and currently are riding a 12 game winning streak, one game away from tying the franchise record.

They have stamped themselves as one of the best teams in the American League.

So, right now, there is nothing to complain about with the Cleveland sports scene, and if you can come up with something, you are probably nit-picking.

Sure, some people continue to bring up the Cavaliers possibly trading Kevin Love, but that seems to be more about those people not understanding that Love has sacrificed his scoring for the good of the team.

Also, if you are going to move Love, don’t you have to get somebody better than him? We understand the usual mentality here is a bunch of average players is greater than one all-star player, but for the most part, the players who are better than Kevin Love in the NBA, aren’t being traded by their teams.

There isn’t even any angst about LeBron James leaving the Cavs after opting out of his contract this week. James has publicly stated he is returning to defend the championship, and his agent told people a year ago that he would be opting out of his contracts in 2015 and 2016 to maximize his earning capabilities.

We feel confident also, that the front office will do everything it can do to keep JR Smith on the roster, and Matthew Dellavedova too, unless another team breaks the bank for him.

Do we have concerns about the Indians’ bullpen? Yes, but we’ve discussed this before and with the starting pitchers giving Terry Francona at least seven innings on most nights recently, it’s become less of a factor.

Dead roster spots for the Tribe? Outside of Tito’s obsession with having eight relievers, many of whom sit around in the bullpen eating sunflower seeds, getting paid to watch games, you really can’t complain about someone being on the roster who shouldn’t be.

The club’s 25th man, Michael Martinez, has proved very useful and has actually mixed in some key hits and supplied good defense at several positions. He’s a lifetime .200 hitter, but is hitting .290 with the Indians in limited at bats.

The Browns are a month away from opening training camp and OTA’s are over, so there isn’t anything to worry about there for the time being. Hue Jackson seems to be giving young players, who Mike Pettine seemed to ignore, a new life.

There actually seems like the new front office has a plan in place to get better using young guys, instead of mixing in fading veterans in an attempt to win a few games to stay relevant into November.

It’s good to be a Cleveland sports fan right now. Today.

We are sure something will irritate us soon. That’s the nature of sports.