Monday, December 26, 2011

New Era for Cavs Starts Tonight


I am working on a follow-up to several pieces I have written over the past couple of months about leadership and Cleveland’s black community. I won’t have time to post it before the Cavs play their season opener tonight but I do want to lay my prognostication out there:

The Cavs will win between 26 and 28 games in this abbreviated season. Top pick Kyrie Irving should be Rookie of the Year.

The team will play an entertaining brand of ball, hustling and defending for a full 48 minutes a night. The rotation will feature ten players and the team’s youth and depth will make them an undesirable foe against the older, less-than-stellar opponents they encounter on back-to-back nights.

I expect the Heat will win it all this year but I would be delighted to see them fail. If they don’t, it’s likely because the Bulls stopped them in the Eastern Conference finals. If the Heat don’t break through this season, then the rash promise by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert to bring home a title before you know who gets his first will begin to seem like a worthwhile bet.


3 comments:

besigg said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
besigg said...

Do you really think they will win that many games?
I'm guessing 18-20 tops.

Richard said...

@ Lauren123 [who removed her comment(perhaps after watching last night's game?)] @ besigg:

I based my estimate upon the Cavs playing hard for Coach Scott, the team's youth and energy level being a boon in a tight-schedule — if sports pundits think "old" teams like the Celtics will suffer from the compact schedule, doesn't the opposite hold true for the younger teams? — and the development of Irving, Thompson and others as the season wears on.

We shall see.