Hello, hello, hello, this is King James Gospel, and the NBA regular season is finally here, Cleveland Cavaliers fans. This is the first installation of KJG roundtables for the 2018-19 season, so grab a cup of joe and give this a read.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to have their share of ebs and flows this season. We all know that here at King James Gospel, and it’ll make an interesting season from a fan’s perspective. I, for one, was spoiled these last four seasons. Cleveland made the NBA Finals in all four year’s of the LeBron James “Return” tour, and now the Cavs are built around Kevin Love and younger pieces.
Cleveland’s intention under owner Dan Gilbert, general manager Koby Altman and head coach Tyronn Lue is to compete for an Eastern Conference postseason birth, and that’s had mixed emotions it seems from the fan base. The Cavs have shifted their philosophy to an up-tempo, grab the rebound and go type of attack, and it will take some time to fully get used to that in the coming months.
Cleveland is a team that is still going to play a number of veterans in their regular rotation, and those players are going to be relied on to be vocal leaders and lead by example even more this season. Love is the number one option on this team, and he’s going to get the blame and/or credit the majority of the time.
Cleveland lost their opener at the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night 116-104, but it’s a really, really long season, so that’ll happen.
Shifting the focus toward our KJG team, this first 2018-19 roundtable features contributors Brandon Maraldo, Jackson Flickinger, Andrew Freedman, new contributor Marcus Grey and co-expert Eli Mooneyham. The questions were asked by co-expert Dan Gilinsky.