Four years after leaving the team that drafted him out of high school, LeBron James is returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers. This announcement was much more low-key than the “I’m taking my talents to Miami” television show proclamation 4 years ago. So the prodigal son has returned to his roots in Ohio.
James forgave the statement by Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert where he referred to James as a “coward” when he left in free agency to join the Miami Heat in 2010. He joined forces with Dwyane Wade, who had already won a championship in Miami in 2006, and Chris Bosh, who had been on the Toronto Raptors. Together the “Big 3” made the NBA Finals all 4 years, and won the championship in 2012 and 2013.
The Cavaliers were only 33-49 last year, but have a lot of changes since then. In addition to James, the Cavaliers had the #1 pick in the last draft, for the 3rd time in the last 4 years, and chose Andrew Wiggins from Kansas. They also have All-star Kyrie Irving, so the cupboard is not bare. But other than those 2, there isn’t much high-level NBA talent.
They also will start the season with a new general manager and head coach. Former general manager Chris Grant was fired on February 6th, and replaced for the time being with former vice president of basketball operations David Griffin. Mike Brown was fired as head coach on May 12th, his second stint with the team.
The new head coach of the Cavaliers is David Blatt. He has coached since 1993, but never in the NBA. All of his coaching experience is in Europe, where he was very successful. In his last 4 years coaching Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel he had a 225-55 record, and won a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics in London, coaching the Russian team.
It will be interesting to see how this works out for James. He will playing for a new team, with all new teammates, and a new head coach, who is new to the NBA. Since the news of James going back to Cleveland, some sports betting books in Las Vegas have installed the Cavaliers as favorites to win the NBA title this year. This is ridiculous, considering the San Antonio Spurs crushed James’ old team in 5 games in the finals, and they were a better team than James will have in Cleveland.
There are rumors that Cleveland is trying to attain Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves in a trade involving Andrew Wiggins. If that does occur, the Cavaliers will certainly be the favorites in the Eastern Conference, but the Western Conference has several good teams, that may still beat them even with Love. James isn’t predicting all the championships this time, like he did when he went to Miami 4 years ago.
I can’t help wondering if James would have left Miami to go to the Cleveland if the Heat had won their 3rd straight NBA Championship. Actually I can’t see him leaving if he had a chance to win a 4th straight title in Miami. Bosh has re-signed with the Heat, and Wade will probably stay also. The Heat will remain a contender in the weak East, which is up for grabs now, but the winner of that conference will get beat in the NBA Finals again next year, by the survivor in the West.
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