It was a more challenging pre-season than others. That is the truth, so cmstophe wasn't necessarily making anything up. This could potentially end up as challenging as the 2007-2008 season.
The only problem with that is the makeup of the team, the amount of depth at the beginning of it all, along with the maturity gained from LeBron, Mo, and especially Mike Brown is critical.
That season, we came off a Finals berth and didn't know how to handle it. The team itself was also in another country altogether. And we still had Grade A Morons and Self-Centered Fools invading the team (Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Donyell Marshall [sorry 'Yell, but you were hurt at the beginning too...], Damon Jones, Ira Newble). Also, an important fact was that Andy and Sasha (who was still considered valuable at the time) BOTH held out, putting a bigger distraction than just the necessities. What's even worse was that guys suffered some form of injury that stopped them for MONTHS. I got 5 reasons alone that caused that ruckus.
Compared to that season, we started with 7 rotational core guys instead of the 10+ we have right now (9 was last year). We suffered smaller injuries to our guys that are more day to day than monthly. The flu took its course and is nearly finished with us, so guys simply rested this past game. We'll see 'em in the next couple of games most likely. And the makeup of the roster looks SO damn good, and hungry for championships. And staying in Cleveland was probably a plus by itself instead of CHINA.
So let's put it this way: We've had a better pre-season last year, but that doesn't mean we're screwed either. We've taken steps to prevent the worst of the season from taking us out of 20 games maximum, and even then... there's depth players who can fill in immediately (ex.: J.J. filling in for Powe, Z for Shaq, Moon for LeBron, Parker for West, Green for Parker, Boobie for Mo, etc.).
What's probably going to be the case is that we're not going to have a set rotation for the first 5-10 games. If we win at least half of those, that's actually really good for getting into a groove early on (success breeds good habits too).
Don't worry TOO much, cmstophe. I know what you're talking about (in fact, I lived through the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons, so I know bad luck seasons when I see 'em, like 2007-2008). I think we're prepared for the worst. It's not like we were hit by a meteor, so we can survive. Plus, if the flu has finally taken its course, we can go back to normalcy. If Delonte gets it together in the next couple of games, we might see the 2008-2009 Delonte
!
So, is it all good? Let's get ready to ROCK!
Good post.