Predicting the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2014-15 Win Total
By Joseph Martinez
@JMartinezNBA
Getty Images
The anticipation for this upcoming season in Cleveland is unreal. The Cleveland Cavaliers have not been relevant since LeBron James left for the Miami Heat in 2010. Well, he’s back and the city has forgiven him as they are ready for him to bring a title to Cleveland.
This time LeBron has some help with up-and-coming point guard Kyrie Irving and veteran big man Kevin Love, who is finally out of Minnesota and on a contending team. This team will have a lot of depth coming into the season and that’s going to be a huge strength for the Cavs. This offseason, other than James and Love, Cleveland acquired Shawn Marion, Mike Miller and James Jones. Not to mention they have some young good pieces in Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson.
They also have a rookie head coach in David Blatt, a former Euroleague coach. Blatt seems like he’ll fit right in as the Cavs coach even with no prior NBA coaching experience.
The biggest question mark for this team will be chemistry. As it does for every team putting together a super team, it will take time for them to get used to playing with each other. I think you’ll notice that early on in the season where I expect the Cavs to struggle a bit.
Just because you put together a team of LeBron, Irving and Love doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to be a sound basketball team. It will take time. Remember in LeBron’s first year in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh where after 17 games the Heat were only 9-8. Things don’t just click right off the bat.
I think the Cavs will grow fond of playing with each other and Cleveland will build good team chemistry very very quickly. With the bevy of talent on this Cavaliers team, it’s only a matter of time before they create great team chemistry. It’s also not bad to have the greatest player in the world on your side.
Prediction: 55-27
Joseph Martinez is a Brooklyn Nets/NBA writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @BKN_Martinez08, find him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
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