The Cleveland Cavaliers have entered the “Twilight Zone.”
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ newest addition, Sam Dekker, says that the Cavs are “excited to see what they can do without LeBron James”.
With that statement, he may have one foot in the Quicken Loans Arena, and another foot inside “The Twilight Zone”.
LeBron James has always been the ultimate creator. James is a 250-pound freak, who has the court vision of a point guard and the strength of a juiced up mid-90s baseball player.
These abilities have allowed James to turn even the most “Flint Michigan Tropics” of casts into an unstoppable powerhouse.
As a general rule, the best player of a generation leaving your team will only mean one thing. Decline.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have to look back just eight years to the last time they lost him. In the 2009-2010 season, the Cavs record was 61-21. In the 2010-2011, it was nearly the complete opposite of the previous season at 19-63.
The Cavaliers 2010-2011 season was filled with its beautiful display of whatever leftover garbage players LeBron had “gifted” the Cavs over his seven seasons in Cleveland.
The team was hilariously awful and fans had to just sit back and watch while the “Heatles” blazed their way to a near NBA championship win.
Cavs fans looked as depressed as a recently drafted Browns’ quarterback.
That’s why, as a fan, it’s very hard to believe Dekker’s recent comments about “being excited to see what we can do” are anything but delusional.
Also, considering Dekker’s career arc, I would say the only person excited to see him get more playing time, is him.
The Cavs have entered into a bizarre post-LeBron era in which they actually believe they can win more than 35 games. I remain skeptical.
Just like the Twilight Zone episode “The Man In The Bottle” the Cavs may get what they wished for. But like that episode showed us, every desired reality has a consequence.
Can the Cavs find a way to make the postseason? That remains to be seen, but what we do know is this team will miss LeBron far more than we think.