Cleveland Cavaliers: Five takeaways from their 2019-20 media day

Beilein continues to focus on growth over the long haul

Cavs general manager Koby Altman and the organization, and especially Beilein, have continually harped on prioritizing the “growth” of their team moving forward throughout the offseason, and Beilein would again mention that sort of mindset in relation to the day-to-day, game-to-game basis for Cleveland in the coming season.

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He seems to fully understand that the Cavaliers do not, and really should not, have postseason expectations in just the second year of their full-rebuild.

With the team likely playing so many young pieces, and with the growing pains that will come with a Garland-Sexton backcourt likely for long stretches of games, in particular, it’ll be important for the Cavs to not get overly frustrated with short term results, even if losses pile up in droves.

To re-emphasize, Sexton is 20, and the 19-year-old Garland, though he flashed at Vanderbilt and appears to be an elite shooter, as evidenced by him having 16.2 points per game on 63.9% effective field goal shooting (per Sports Reference), he only appeared in five games there due to a reported meniscus tear.

So the two of them will take time to gel, along with others on the team, such as the dynamic when Porter is on the floor with others such as Larry Nance Jr. or Ante Zizic, too, for example.

Beilein seems to fully understand that it will be a challenge this season with that sort of thing, and though he’s been a big winner in his career, he acknowledged that losses will come for the Cavs.

The key he believes is they have to remain focused on the process of getting gradually better and even drew parallels to how the team is likely similar to the newly-renovated Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, as was shown by FOX Sports Ohio.

Though it won’t mean the Cavaliers will likely be in legitimate contention for an Eastern Conference postseason birth, this is refreshing to hear as a fan of the Wine and Gold that Beilein and company are going to preach patience, and not have too much emphasis on end results from games.

This team’s primary focus is on the development seemingly of young pieces, and again, it’s nice to hear that Beilein is going to stress gradual growth.

That will likely pay dividends over a long season.