The Cleveland Cavaliers have their first preseason game on Tuesday at 8 P.M. against the Boston Celtics, so let’s take a look at some things to watch in that one.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are past the days of LeBron James leading the way as the best player in the world; he’s now on the Los Angeles Lakers. You probably knew that by now, and even so, we still have to mention it, due to the fact that without him, Cleveland will look a whole lot different. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook put their over-under win total at 30.5 this year, which I don’t really agree with.
As we’ve noted here at KJG, this situation is much different than the last time James left. The Cavaliers have an All-Star forward in Kevin Love locked up long-term, they have solid players in Rodney Hood, George Hill and Cedi Osman, and an exciting 2018 first-round pick in Collin Sexton. Granted, they won’t be able to have as much spacing on the floor for their sharpshooters in Kyle Korver and J.R. Smith without James, but they should be better defensively with a younger and more importantly, more athletic rotation.
This season will enable head coach Tyronn Lue to have his first legitimate stint heading the “player development” approach, and having veterans like Hill, Love, Korver and Tristan Thompson should help Lue with that. Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com noted how Lue said “he and his staff know that teaching will be a big theme of the 2018-19 season,” and then touched on the head coach’s “it’s not about wins and losses; it’s about wins and lessons” bit.
The Cavaliers will need to play team basketball on both ends of the floor this year, and it won’t be a simple task, as they won’t have LeBron’s passing creation and his splash defensive plays.
That said, as move on to the preseason, the first thing to watch for is how the Cavs use Kevin Love differently.