LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer. You may have heard. He is now a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. His minutes on the Cavaliers will be used by some combination of Cedi Osman, Rodney Hood, and I guess David Nwaba. Here is video evidence that Tristan Thompson somehow managed to miss all of that:
It’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility that the Cavs will be respectable in the crappy East this season. Vegas set the over/under for Cavs wins this regular season at 30.5, which is bad, but there’s probably something to be said for having a coach with a title under his belt and players with plenty of playoff experience, and anyway outside the top three or four teams the Eastern Conference is a big pile of crap. Stranger things have happened.
But the likelier outcome has the Cavs sucking badly and finding themselves totally irrelevant by December, and the notion that they’re anything like the team to beat is obviously insane and wrong, as pointed out rudely by Boston’s Marcus Morris:
These first few days of the preseason, before any exhibitions have been played, let alone actual meaningful games, are always brimming with optimism. Confidence is good. But probably someone should alert Tristan to the fact that LeBron James hasn’t been seen around the Cavs locker room in a little while.