Cleveland Cavaliers: Poor preseason, unresolved issues hint at long year

Missing LeBron

There aren’t a lot of analogues for losing a player of LeBron’s caliber because teams just don’t lose guys like him. However if you look at both times he’s left a team, it’s really cratered their showing the ensuing year. Guys who got wide-open looks are suddenly scrounging.

It may sound like an exaggeration but when LeBron left Cleveland and Miami, the next year their overall field goal percentage lost 4.5-5.1 percentage points and their three-point percentage took a 2.9-3.9 percentage hit. Dwyane Wade lost seven and a half points off his shooting percentage. Chris Bosh lost five and a half. Mo Williams lost 5.7 and Antawn Jamison lost 5.8 points.

It’s hard to fully comprehend how much LeBron bends the defense until he’s gone, and then it’s probably written off as a bad year or team. No wonder James has every hope that Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram are suddenly going to look like superstars. He’s going to add maybe half-a-dozen points to their field goal percentage.

Indeed, if the Cavaliers were to split the difference of the last two departures and lost 4.7 points off last year’s field goal percentage, they’d drop from tied with the Wolves for fourth-best (47.6 percent) to the worst-shooting team in the league at 42.9 percent, more than half-a-point behind the Bulls (43.5) and the Nets (44.1).

In 2010 they fell from the third-best shooting team to the second-worst. (During the preseason the Cleveland Cavaliers shot 44.2 percent, 20th-best in the league, per NBA.com)

Prepare for the worst Cavaliers fans, and just maybe you’ll be surprised. But don’t count on it.