The Cleveland Cavaliers will have their share of personalities this season

The Cleveland Cavaliers will again have plenty of characters on their roster in 2018-19, which makes the team even more enjoyable to follow.

The NBA is full of stars, memes of its stars, and many teams have developed cult heroes. For the Cleveland Cavaliers fan base in recent seasons have developed that kind of cult worship for J.R. Smith (and one could say about other fan bases before that even when he was on other teams). Smith again will likely be one of Cleveland fans’ favorite Cavaliers, and going into Media Day (which is tomorrow), he’s just one of a number of personalities fans will greatly enjoy this season.

“Shirtless J.R.” has taken a life of its own here in Cleveland, and for good reason, as Smith’s shirt was off after the Cavs won the NBA title in 2016 for a very long length of time (in public) and was famously off during the championship parade. Tim Cato of SB Nation broke that down to the T.

Shortly thereafter, it even led to a shirtless Smith t-shirt being sold.

As Smith was among the many in Cleveland that celebrated the Cleveland Browns’ victory over the New York Jets on Thursday night (their first victory in 635 days), he again broke out the shirtless look.

J.R. is a truly a man of the people, and Cleveland fans have grown to love the guy for this type of stuff. Even if he does get traded mid-season (which could happen) this kind of stuff at the Browns game is something that fans never forget, and he’ll always be a cult hero in Cleveland.

In addition to Smith, fans have grown to love Cedi Osman and Collin Sexton in a short time. Osman was often played off as the kid in the candy store type last season, when he was a teammate of Cleveland’s best athlete ever, LeBron James. James grew a liking for celebrating with Osman after game-winners, and he’s truly as relatable as they come as a professional basketball player as Zac Lockwood of Fear The Sword touched on.

These kinds of Osman videos are also something fans will love as he gets more and more time as a key piece in Cleveland.

In addition to Smith and Osman, veteran Channing Frye is another Cleveland adopted son. Frye, who signed with the Cavaliers on a veteran-minimum contract this offseason after being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers mid-season just this past year, is one of those locker room guys that teammates I would think simply love being around. He has a podcast with ex-Cavalier Richard Jefferson and now Spectrum SportsNet Lakers studio host Allie Clifton (per Sam Amico of Amico Hoops) called Road Trippin’ that is outstanding.

Recently, Frye called out the rookie, Sexton, for being cheap for an NBA player, in flying Spirit Airlines.

This is the kind of stuff that Frye does for a team in transition. He’s going to be on the team as a spot-up perimeter shooter, and he’s a great locker room presence that will keep the team light. Sexton also brings his own personality to the table, and fans have gotten quite a kick out of it. Here was how Sexton responded to Frye’s Spirit Airlines hating (h/t Cavs Nation’s Virgil Villanueva).

Maybe Sexton’s spending habits will change with constant roasting by Frye, or maybe they won’t as the season progresses. Regardless, Sexton’s savage on-floor mentality has been widely-publicized around the Twitterverse and so on. If he does this in a real NBA regular season game, fans won’t be able to get enough.

Kevin Love is now the lone star on the Cavs, and he’s also shown a bit more of his personality as his years in Cleveland have progressed. It’s not been all highs for Love, but he’s come around over the years, and has taken major strides as a leader, as our own Quenton Albertie noted. In a recent interview with Trevor Noah, he displayed some of his humorous side. His relationship with good buddy Channing Frye will again be something fans will love this season post-game.

Yes, Cleveland won’t be the same without LeBron, but as Media Day approaches, fans will soon see that this team is still going to be both fun to watch and it will be fun to follow off the floor with a number of glowing personalities.

That makes the players more relatable and more fun to root for over a long season.