Five Quotes From Cleveland Cavaliers Media Day
By Zak Kolesar
The Cleveland Cavaliers held their media day this past Friday, and fans were finally able to get their first look at LeBron James in Wine & Gold once again, hear from first-year head coach David Blatt and see the team’s Big Three together for the first time. With so many story lines heading into the 2014-15 season there were a lot of questions to be asked on media day. There were many quote-ables from the press conferences on Friday before the first day of training camp, so here are five intriguing and important quotes from the players and head coach from media day.
"1. I’ll probably handle the ball a little bit, but this is Kyrie [Irving]’s show — Cavaliers Small Forward LeBron James"
From LeBron’s first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers, fans saw what the King could do when handling the ball. It’s effective, and fans often saw LeBron switching from position to position, not just playing an unconventional point guard. Kyrie Irving can be a great off-the-ball player, so by this statement LeBron is just showing his confidence in Kyrie’s shooting abilities. Irving responded: “If I’m off the ball, I’m ready to shoot… Obviously he’s the greatest player playing the game right now, so if he’s on the ball, like I said, I’ll be ready to shoot. But if I’m on the ball, my job is to get everybody involved and make plays.” James also noted that Kyrie is a special breed of point guard, one that he hasn’t played with throughout his 11-year career: “I’ve never played with a point guard like Kyrie Irving, a guy that can kind of take over a game for himself. We need it.”
"2. I feel like Marvin Gaye up here, I just want to get started. — Cavaliers Coach David Blatt"
I am confident that Blatt will be one of the best quotes for the Cleveland Cavaliers this upcoming season. In the small sample of interviews that he has been involved in since joining the NBA ranks, Blatt has provided many gems, and this one about the Cavaliers’ off-season is just another great quote-able from Cleveland’s new head coach. Blatt’s intensity will bring life to the Cavaliers bench after going through another season’s worth of emotionless coaching from Mike Brown. After just three days of practice, new Clevelander Mike Miller is already referring to Blatt’s offense as genius. With so many toys and tools to utilize on this Cavs 2014-15 roster, David Blatt, a mastermind of managing players, is stepping into one of the most fortunate situations in sports coaching history.
"3. That was probably the best experience of my life so far, just basketball and personally. — Cavaliers Point Guard Kyrie Irving"
No player had a better off-season than Kyrie Irving. No one. After signing a five-year max extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the dominoes started to fall. Locked down until 2020, Irving became a very attractive teammate for prospective free agents. One of those free agents was LeBron James, and after the King returned home, friends started to follow. After watching the roster change before his eyes, Irving was then thrust into the FIBA World Cup spotlight. After earning a starting job, Irving went on to win MVP and a gold medal. What a great summer, and having the opportunity to play with All-Stars was great preparation for the situation that Irving is stepping into this season.
"4. The past week I’ve been here, guys have been really receptive to each other. — Cavaliers Power Forward Kevin Love"
This is great news to hear, especially after the season that the Cleveland Cavaliers just endured. With rumors of locker room altercations surfacing, problems with “big” free agent signing Andrew Bynum and failed expectations, the Cavs front office and team morale was a mess. Chris Grant was fired shortly after the signing of small forward Luol Deng, and ever since David Griffin has taken over for general manager, things have changed with the make of the franchise extremely quickly. And Kevin Love has already noticed. Moods have changed around the organization, and spirits are high. It’s a great time to be a newcomer on the Cavaliers.
"5. I’d love to play point guard. — Cavaliers Shooting Guard Dion Waiters"
The Cleveland Cavaliers may be searching for a backup point guard during the training camp session, but it is not set in stone that the team will sign one of the four possible prospects at backup guard that received an invite to training camp. Even if the Cavaliers don’t settle with A.J. Price, Chris Crawford or Stephen Holt to fill out the 12-man roster, Dion Waiters can be a very viable option at point guard even though he will be starting at the shooting guard position. (Few have pointed out that Matthew Dellavedova could possibly nab the starting two spot, with Dion coming off the bench.) Dion has handled the ball with the Cavs in the past, so in order to give Kyrie time off, Blatt could slide Dion over to floor general even if he does start at shooting guard, which is very likely. This is also good news because usually Waiters will give a stubborn comment when discussing the status of his role on the team.