Cleveland Cavaliers Poised for Breakout Year After NBA Finals Experience
Though they may have already shown their resilience in the face of defeat last season, the 2016-17 NBA season may yet show that the best is yet to come as the Cleveland Cavaliers are poised for their greatest year yet.
The Cleveland Cavaliers obliterated the Golden State Warriors on the way to their first NBA championship with a masterful comeback of historic proportions. History wasn’t on the Cavs’ side as they had to overcome impossible odds to become the first team ever to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals to win the Larry O’Brien trophy.
The NBA has never had a championship team with the unique Finals experience of the Cavs, world history may yet prove to be a valuable ally to the team. If world history has anything to say about the Cavs’ future, I’m inclined to believe that they are on their way to a stellar regular season, playoffs and NBA Finals.
Days after the wine and gold team from Cleveland took down the mighty Dubs from Oakland, my thoughts went back to one of best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell’s anecdotes from his book, David and Goliath.
In one of these memorable stories, Gladwell shared an interesting insight from another book, The Structure of Morale by Canadian psychiatrist J. T. MacCurdy. Based on MacCurdy’s World War 2 observations, MacCurdy classified bombing victims into three categories: the people killed, the near misses and the remote misses.
The “people killed” were obviously the most damaged by these attacks. The “near misses” group were left in shock as they were injured and nearly killed by a blast.
Led by the otherworldly talents of the inimitable LeBron James, Cleveland won Game 7 in front of a rabid crowd of Golden State fans on their home floor.
But the last group is the most intriguing of all—the “remote misses.” These are the people who survive a bomb which instead fell “down the street or the next block over.” Instead of being traumatized by the experience, this third group of people were emboldened with a feeling of invulnerability along with a sense of, believe it or not, happiness. By the second and third times they heard sirens, panic didn’t set in and these folks never looked to the sky wondering whether they will die from a bomb or not.
According to Gladwell, “the emotion associated with the attack, MacCurdy wrote, ‘is a feeling of excitement with a flavor of invulnerability.’”
And it is in this third group of people, the “remote misses,” where I see the Cavaliers during the upcoming season. Having not only survived, but thrived in the face of defeat at the hands of a superior enemy in the 2016 NBA Finals, David went on to boldly defy Goliath and win.
Led by the otherworldly talents of the inimitable LeBron James, Cleveland won Game 7 in front of a rabid crowd of Golden State fans on their home floor. Having remotely missed a “bomb” from the best regular season team ever, this experience has no doubt strengthened the fortitude of the Cavs’ Big Three of James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. With a team that is mostly intact, it’s not hard to imagine the team having absolute confidence that they can survive anything and come out victorious in the end.
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If history has anything to say about it, then expect the Cavaliers to dominate the league in the upcoming regular season. The team is definitely capable of breaking it’s 66-16 team record set in 2008-09 during James’ first rodeo with the team. When the playoffs roll around, no setback, whether a huge deficit in a quarter or a couple of losses, will be enough to keep them from advancing to the next round.
As for the Finals, even if the Cavs go the distance once more against the loaded Warriors with newly acquired Kevin Durant, there will be less worry and more determination from the team. The Cavs have the personnel and the know-how to contain the Warriors’ own Big Four of Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
As much as the series may appear to be lopsided once again in favor of the Dubs, the Cavs’ experience from last season coupled with a full training camp with coach Tyronn Lue at the helm will give the team the necessary tools to keep the Warriors at bay.
If things go according to Gladwell’s history lesson, then David may yet defeat Goliath for a second year in a row.
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