Cleveland Cavaliers basketball is right around the corner, as the team held it’s media day today at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. It was the first time hearing from most of the players publicly since the season ended and the vibes are almost always high at media day.
It was interesting to hear about what players did in the offseason and how guys came into the year looking to improve.
From Evan Mobley working on his body and his offensive game, to Jaylon Tyson working on his off ball defense to Nae’Qwan Tomlin working on his shooting, a lot of guys came into the summer with a plan, but now we have to see if those plans were lead to on court success.
However, the most interesting takeaway from Cavs’ media day is very obvious and bodes well for the team this coming season.
The Cavs got a lot closer as a team this summer
Almost every single guy that spoke to the media said this. It seemed like the entire roster made it a point of emphasis to get to know each other this summer.
People forget that this Cleveland team was kind of thrown together at the trade deadline last year. Trading for a guy like James Harden and then having to integrate him into the team without any practice time and during a playoff push is not easy. Yet, the Cavs were able to do so and reached the conference finals for the first time in nearly a decade.
Now that they have had a full offseason together, that helps out with continuity a lot. From multiple mini camps to coming back to Cleveland two weeks before camp opens to attending Donovan Mitchell’s wedding, the guys got close this summer.
If you look around the East, it is loaded, but there are a ton of new faces in new places. The advantage the Cavs have is that they are all familiar with each other, so they can hit the ground running. Obviously integrating guys like Peyton Watson and Mario Hezonja is important, but given their skillsets and how eager they are to play with this group, that shouldn’t be too big of an obstacle.
Team chemistry is not the easiest thing to find in the NBA nor is it easy to develop. For a Cleveland team that has prioritized that, that bodes well for the contending chances. We’ll see if it leads to on court results, but it is an encouraging start.
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