2014 - 2015 Eastern Conference

[tn819]

We have three players on this team who would have been the second best player on the previous LBJ cavs teams. We are going to be a juggernaut.

So does half of the league. That bar is quite low.

 

[Photon]

So does half of the league. That bar is quite low.

The point was we didn't have them back then and we were very good.

 

[Simmy]

Can anyone confirm if the schedule for the upcoming season will in fact be released on either the 11th or 12th of August?

 

[Tornicade]

I dont think this season will be a walk in the park for the Cavs.

Washington,Charlotte, Toronto, Atlanta will all be better. so will Chicago and you never know what youll get with NY and Brooklyn,

Detroit is a huge question mark.Miami will still be viable .

Cavs look really good on paper

btut you still have a pg that hasnt shown they will defend, A power forward who is weak defendding the post and a small forward who often cant handle a zone.

 

[Kizzle]

I dont think this season will be a walk in the park for the Cavs.

Washington,Charlotte, Toronto, Atlanta will all be better. so will Chicago and you never know what youll get with NY and Brooklyn,

Detroit is a huge question mark.Miami will still be viable .

Cavs look really good on paper

btut you still have a pg that hasnt shown they will defend, A power forward who is weak defendding the post and a small forward who often cant handle a zone.

No way all those teams will be better. I'll give you Chicago. If I your talking game one of the season all those teams will be better then ok. But I'd say by all star break we will be near the one seed

 

[Cashius X]

No way all those teams will be better. I'll give you Chicago. If I your talking game one of the season all those teams will be better then ok. But I'd say by all star break we will be near the one seed

He was saying that all those teams will be better than they were last season. Not that they'll be better than us.

 

[AZCavs]

I dont think this season will be a walk in the park for the Cavs.

Washington,Charlotte, Toronto, Atlanta will all be better. so will Chicago and you never know what youll get with NY and Brooklyn,

Detroit is a huge question mark.Miami will still be viable .

Cavs look really good on paper

btut you still have a pg that hasnt shown they will defend, A power forward who is weak defendding the post and a small forward who often cant handle a zone.

Define "walk in the park".

I am willing to bet the Cavs struggle a little out of the gate. They are going to have a period where they will be getting used to each other as teammates, much like Miami's first year, but let's not kid ourselves here. I understand it's difficult to not look completely biased by saying the Cavs are going to smoke everyone in the east, but I am trying to find a team that can really beat the Cavs in a seven game series in the East.

Sorry, neither Chicago nor Miami scare me. For starters, LeBron owns the Bulls. He was smoking better Bulls teams in his first tenure with Cleveland with a worse supporting cast around him. Rose is coming off of two years worth of serious injuries and I know his showing in a defense-less scrimmage has everyone thinking he's somehow better than he was pre-injury, but even if he was, the supporting cast he has is very suspect. Gasol is aging. He's still an extremely serviceable forward and could even still be an All Star in the East, but what does that even mean? Mo Williams was an all star once too and he was never really that good. Gasol is their second scoring option. He'd be the 4th option in Cleveland, possibly 5th on the Cavs.

The Bulls are built on defense, but in the NBA -- while defense is important -- a structured, potent offense is required to win in today's NBA. Even the 2004 Pistons, a team known for its amazing team defense, had more than one high quality offensive weapon in their prime. The Bulls do not have that. Gasol is past his prime, Noah's offense is spotty. Who knows what Mirotic or McDermott will do in the NBA? Butler is still developing on the offensive end of the floor. Look up and down that roster. Not much to take the pressure off of Rose on the offensive end of the floor.

Washington is scary, but their star players do not match up the caliber of player LeBron or Love are. Charlotte doesn't have enough firepower on either end of the floor to beat the Cavs. Toronto is a scary team because they have a more complete squad than most fans realize. I honestly think they are clearly better than teams like Miami, New York and Brooklyn.

Atlanta?? No.

Detroit is a huge question mark, yes. Meaning, they are a question to even be competitive.

As for Miami. I still do not buy them at all. They are a team consisted of a declining face-up big man who struggles rebounding. A broken down shooting guard who can't shoot or create his own shot like he used to. A questionable three who has been an all star in his career but hasn't showed that level of play for several years and Chicago was still competitive without him. The rest of that team is a collective of spare parts. Danny Granger is done. McRoberts was overvalued in free agency based on his brief playoff showing. Shawne Williams? Shabazz Napier? Bird man? I truly and wholeheartedly believe the Heat crash and burn this season. Too much is stacked against them. LeBron made everyone's life easier in Miami and without him to take the pressure off the rest of them, they are going to be dead in the water by the 60 game mark. Unfortunately, the loss of Paul George knocks Indiana way down to the point where the last 2-3 seeds could conceivably teams that have absolutely no shot of winning a playoff series, so Miami could still sneak in t the back end of the playoffs. But make no mistake, they're going to suck.

If The Cavs aren't a 60 win team this season, or very close to it, I'll be shocked. I believe some of you are trying so hard to not look like homers (no pun intended) that you are trying to look for ways that the Cavs could lose to someone in the east this season. That's simply not going to happen. Not a single team in the East has nearly enough talent to beat a team with a trio of Kyrie, LeBron and Love.

 

[LoveStan]

Stars>Depth. Plus CLE has much more depth than MIA ever had. You guys have three stars including a superstar in Bron. Bulls have one star who hasn't played a game in two years. For that reason alone I'd favor the Cavs over Bulls. Now if the Bulls were able to sign Melo in FA and Rose stayed healthy they'd have two stars and it'd be a different story. Melo was their only hope to boost their lack of scoring and they missed out. If I was a Cavs fan i'd be more worried about a contender from the West but you guys still shouldn't overlook the Bulls just as a precaution. Nothing comes easy.

 

[Ruken]

Define "walk in the park".

I am willing to bet the Cavs struggle a little out of the gate. They are going to have a period where they will be getting used to each other as teammates, much like Miami's first year, but let's not kid ourselves here. I understand it's difficult to not look completely biased by saying the Cavs are going to smoke everyone in the east, but I am trying to find a team that can really beat the Cavs in a seven game series in the East.

Sorry, neither Chicago nor Miami scare me. For starters, LeBron owns the Bulls. He was smoking better Bulls teams in his first tenure with Cleveland with a worse supporting cast around him. Rose is coming off of two years worth of serious injuries and I know his showing in a defense-less scrimmage has everyone thinking he's somehow better than he was pre-injury, but even if he was, the supporting cast he has is very suspect. Gasol is aging. He's still an extremely serviceable forward and could even still be an All Star in the East, but what does that even mean? Mo Williams was an all star once too and he was never really that good. Gasol is their second scoring option. He'd be the 4th option in Cleveland, possibly 5th on the Cavs.

The Bulls are built on defense, but in the NBA -- while defense is important -- a structured, potent offense is required to win in today's NBA. Even the 2004 Pistons, a team known for its amazing team defense, had more than one high quality offensive weapon in their prime. The Bulls do not have that. Gasol is past his prime, Noah's offense is spotty. Who knows what Mirotic or McDermott will do in the NBA? Butler is still developing on the offensive end of the floor. Look up and down that roster. Not much to take the pressure off of Rose on the offensive end of the floor.

Washington is scary, but their star players do not match up the caliber of player LeBron or Love are. Charlotte doesn't have enough firepower on either end of the floor to beat the Cavs. Toronto is a scary team because they have a more complete squad than most fans realize. I honestly think they are clearly better than teams like Miami, New York and Brooklyn.

Atlanta?? No.

Detroit is a huge question mark, yes. Meaning, they are a question to even be competitive.

As for Miami. I still do not buy them at all. They are a team consisted of a declining face-up big man who struggles rebounding. A broken down shooting guard who can't shoot or create his own shot like he used to. A questionable three who has been an all star in his career but hasn't showed that level of play for several years and Chicago was still competitive without him. The rest of that team is a collective of spare parts. Danny Granger is done. McRoberts was overvalued in free agency based on his brief playoff showing. Shawne Williams? Shabazz Napier? Bird man? I truly and wholeheartedly believe the Heat crash and burn this season. Too much is stacked against them. LeBron made everyone's life easier in Miami and without him to take the pressure off the rest of them, they are going to be dead in the water by the 60 game mark. Unfortunately, the loss of Paul George knocks Indiana way down to the point where the last 2-3 seeds could conceivably teams that have absolutely no shot of winning a playoff series, so Miami could still sneak in t the back end of the playoffs. But make no mistake, they're going to suck.

If The Cavs aren't a 60 win team this season, or very close to it, I'll be shocked. I believe some of you are trying so hard to not look like homers (no pun intended) that you are trying to look for ways that the Cavs could lose to someone in the east this season. That's simply not going to happen. Not a single team in the East has nearly enough talent to beat a team with a trio of Kyrie, LeBron and Love.

I agree with your analysis of Washington and Toronto but I think you are underselling Charlotte and Miami a bit. Charlotte's addition of stephenson gives them a very solid array of offensive options and Miami, while losing their best player has championship experience and many of those players have now played together for a considerable amount of time. I think The playoff seeding, given that most of the best teams reside in the central and southeast, seeding will come down to the wire and play a huge factor in the playoffs.

In the end, however, the east is full of solid but not great teams. If the cavs stay healthy, no one in the east can match our offensive firepower.

 

[Jack Brickman]

The only team in the East that will be a threat to the Cavs this year is the Bulls if Rose is healthy, and even then I have my doubts that their defense will be able to stop our offense, or that their offense will be good enough to outscore ours.

 

[Scholar]

The only team in the East that will be a threat to the Cavs this year is the Bulls if Rose is healthy, and even then I have my doubts that their defense will be able to stop our offense, or that their offense will be good enough to outscore ours.

I think it is going to be a race to see whether Rose or Gasol gets hurt first with the patented Thibs time management system.

 

[Cashius X]

I honestly don't think we'll struggle as much as Miami did early in 2010. As opposed to their big 3, I feel Kyrie, LeBron, and Love are more natural fitting parts. I guess we'll see though.

 

[Ruken]

I honestly don't think we'll struggle as much as Miami did early in 2010. As opposed to their big 3, I feel Kyrie, LeBron, and Love are more natural fitting parts. I guess we'll see though.

Alot will depend on the offensive system we run as well.

 

[Cashius X]

Alot will depend on the offensive system we run as well.

True. And Kyrie, LeBron, and Love all have experience playing off the ball. They can still be effective without having the ball in their hands. I think this team will gel and play cohesive basketball very early on.

 

[kookoo]

Even without LeBron or Love, I would have been looking forward to the upcoming season. Not having a Mike Brown 'offense' is one of the things I'm most looking forward to. Off ball screens, ball movement, inbound pass plays, fullcourt press plays and so on. I'll give Mike Brown that he's a solid defensive coach with the right talent, but he has a real knack for squandering offensive potential.