It Is Time To Give Cleveland Cavaliers Real Respect

Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA News
NBA Analysis Network

The city of Cleveland has always been extremely passionate about their sports teams, but success has always been something that is hard to come by. The Cleveland Browns have historically been one of the most underachieving franchises in the NFL over the last few decades, the Cleveland Indians, now Guardians, in the MLB have had their fair share of struggles over the years and without LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been irrelevant in the NBA. 

The Cavaliers drafted LeBron first overall in 2003 and in 11 total seasons with Cleveland, James took this franchise to the playoffs 9 different times, including delivering a championship to the city of Cleveland in 2016. This was during James’ second-stint with the Cavaliers, as he had left the team following the 2009-2010 season to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. 

During this four-year period, before LeBron James returned home for another four seasons, the Cavaliers went 97-215 (31.1%) and things seemed very bleak for them moving forward. Then, following their championship season in 2016 and their losses to the Warriors in back-to-back NBA Finals in 2017 and 2018, LeBron left again and went to the Los Angeles Lakers. 

Cleveland went 19-63 during the 2018-19 season, then 19-46 during the 2019-20 season and most recently, 22-50 last season. Since he was drafted first overall, the Cavaliers really have not found much success as an organization without LeBron James, but things are finally starting to change for this franchise. 

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Over the years, this organization has been able to draft some of the best prospects entering the league and most recently, they were able to select Evan Mobley third overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, a player that would have gone first overall in almost any other draft class. 

Entering the year with Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, Jarrett Allen, Lauri Markkanen and Evan Mobley, all recently drafted in the first-round, many expected this Cavaliers team to take another “learning year” together, but that has not been the case. 

The Cleveland Cavaliers currently find themselves 20-13 on the season and they are finding success on the court in many different ways. One of the youngest teams in the entire league, the Cavs have depth, they play defense and most importantly, they play as one-unit instead of as a bunch of collective high-level talents like other teams in the league. 

Being so young and having high expectations entering the league, any one of the Cavaliers’ players could easily be selfish and try to do too much to make themselves look better early on in their respective career, but every single player on this roster has bought into each other and most importantly, they have bought into head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.

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Taking over the head coaching duties following the firing of John Beilein during the 2019-20 season, Bickerstaff has really brought this young collective together in Cleveland and has helped create one of the best young systems in the entire league. 

As a result of his success on and off-the-court with this team, the Cavaliers recently rewarded their head coach with a multi-year contract extension that will keep him with the organization through the 2026-27 season. 

“J.B. Bickerstaff is, with all certainty, the right head coach to lead this franchise into what we believe is a very promising future,” Cavaliers’ general manager Koby Altman said in a prepared statement. “The decision to extend J.B. is not based solely on the early success of this season, but rather a body of work since his arrival to Cleveland. His leadership style, coaching experience and commitment to player development has instilled a growing confidence that resonates across our entire organization. We continue to see innovative and strategic examples of his impact on this roster, coupled by his unique ability to build upon a culture that leads to sustainable success.”

“Player development” and “promising future” are the two key things that stick out in Altman’s statement regarding his head coach, and this organization as a matter of fact. 

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Say what you want about this team being near the bottom of the standings without LeBron, but that is simply not the case anymore. Sure, they may have been able to draft lottery-projected talents through the years, but it is not easy to get a bunch of young players to sacrifice their own production for that of the team. 

The Cavaliers have done a great job of acquiring the talent they need and the talent that would fit into their system, that way they can build a promising looking future. 

The first-half of this season has just fueled this point even more and the Cavaliers deserve a lot of credit for what they have done. The job is certainly not done for this group, but it is time we start talking about them like a real threat in the Eastern Conference. 

Collin Sexton, the Cavaliers’ best pure scorer, went down with a torn meniscus in his left knee on November 7 and many began to speculate that this team would struggle to find production on offense without him. 

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Well, Cleveland has gone 13-9 without Sexton and they are rolling as of late!

Guys who would not normally see a lot of playing time for this team have stepped up tremendously this season and while veteran guard Ricky Rubio has been instrumental to this team’s success, a lot of the credit needs to go to third-year guard Darius Garland. 

When the Cavaliers drafted Darius Garland 5th overall in 2019, there were a lot of concerns about his durability and health because of the fact that he suffered a meniscus injury in his left knee just five games into his collegiate playing career at Vanderbilt. 

From the moment he entered the league with the Cavaliers, Darius Garland was looking to prove all of his doubters wrong and while he was inconsistent his rookie season, Garland stepped up big-time last season and has continued to turn himself into one of the best players in the league under the age of 22-years-old this season. 

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Through 31 games this season, the young guard is averaging 19.5 points, 7.3 assists, 1.4 steals and is shooting 47.9% from the floor, 38.4% from three-point range. Being the leader of this young team with Sexton out, Darius Garland is making a real case to be a first-time All-Star this season, especially given how well the Cavaliers have played as a team. 

After beating the short-handed Toronto Raptors on Sunday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers have now won 11 of their last 14 games and have skyrocketed all the way up to the 5-seed in the Eastern Conference standings, ahead of teams like the 76ers, Wizards and Celtics, all of which made the playoffs last season. 

Not only have their last 11 wins been by double-digits, but 4 of these wins for the Cavaliers have been by at least 20 points and they have found so much success with their rotations constantly changing. 

The Cavaliers have had to deal with several players entering the NBA’s Health and Safety Protocols due to COVID-19, forcing guys like Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, Isaac Okoro, Cedi Osman and some others to all miss multiple games. 

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Not losing Darius Garland was key for this team over the last few weeks, but overall, this team has continued having their “next man up” mindset and they are red hot right now as a result. This team has real playoff aspirations this season and it really is not hard to imagine that they could make the playoffs for the first-time since 1998 without LeBron James. 

They are scrappy, play extremely hard on both ends of the floor and it really is like being in a 48-minute fight when playing the Cleveland Cavaliers. We saw the New York Knicks find a lot of success on the floor last season by being a hard-nosed defensive team and we could once again see defense lead a team to a great record in the East. 

Maybe they do not have what it takes to win a championship due to their inexperience and other teams like the Nets, Bucks and Heat looking like clear championship threats in the Eastern Conference, but this young Cavaliers team has heart and most importantly, they give it their all on the floor. 

You cannot ask for much more than this from a youthful team missing one of their best players, which is why J.B. Bickerstaff, this roster and the entire Cleveland Cavaliers organization deserves some real respect.

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The future is extremely bright for this franchise and this is only the beginning of what should be some great seasons to come in a city that does nothing but support their teams, even through all the hard times!

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