2007 NBA Team Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers

No matter what any Cavalier fan tells you, no one thought they would be in the NBA Finals this soon. LeBron James had a Jordanesque 48-point playoff explosion against the Pistons to lead them to the big bad Spurs in the finals, where they at least showed up, but, umm, didn't really show much in terms of giving the Spurs any type of challenge.

So, what's the story, morning glory? It all comes down to LeBron's health (there is a history of players who did not do well due to being worn down from a summer of international competition) more than the miscellaneous parts that surround him, not to mention that, based on Cleveland not coming to a contract agreement with either Sasha Pavolvic or Anderson Varejaocurrently, they may have significantly fewer of those miscellaneous parts around him.

In the frontcourt, Drew Gooden will provide his usual "almost a double-double" every night (three straight years of 10+ points and 8+ rebounds per game in Cleveland while missing a total of five games in that span). Zydrunas Ilgauskas is a ticking time bomb in his foot, and stats are not on his side to have a repeat year like he did in 2006-07.

Common perception about the Cavs revolves around their youth, and for obvious reason. They are LeBron. However, the "youth" part is not all that you think--six of their players are on the bad side of 30 (four of them were in the rotation for significant parts of last season) and Larry Hughes is entering his tenth season in the league (and is one of the most fragile guards out there). Save for LeBron, their young players are one-dimensional (Varejao, Gooden) or mostly unknown commodities that need time to develop. While the team reached the greatest heights of their franchise last year, they're probably better off transitioning to the young guys and taking a step or two back. But--as we all anticipate--the Cavs will still be awesome with Lebron at the helm--but if the front office doesn't start doing things like the Bulls did with Jordan and get really high quality role players, they will be in trouble for the following years, because James is getting older and therefore won't be able to carry them FOREVER. (Of course, I said that about Jordan when he came back, and he promptly added three more rings to his resume)...

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2007 NBA Team Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers

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