CLEVELAND TEAMS

If you haven’t been watching the Cavs and you just started last night, give them another chance. This team has excellent young talent in Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, but more importantly the entire team plays hard and plays well together.

Some writers around the country are starting to notice. Here’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss from Hoopspeak.com as he ranks the Cavs #1 in hist list of teams that could be the next Oklahoma Thunder:

1. Cleveland Cavaliers (Cumulonimbus)
There was much garments-rending over how LeBron left Cleveland in rancid shambles, but few noted the bizarre NBA paradox: Rancid shambles = where you want to be in this league. Rank failure is rewarded, and handsomely so. The upstart Cavs now sport the first and fourth picks from 2011. With Baron Davis amnestied, and Antawn Jamison expiring, Cleveland will have ample financial room going forward.

Despite widespread assertions to the contrary, I believe that Kyrie Irving has superstar potential. Tristan Thompson looks like he could become a valuable defensive force at the 4 spot, no small thing in this league. Promising draft, promising team.

Ointment flies: Owner Dan Gilbert seems quite impulse oriented, and he might jump at the chance to trade for the next Jamison. Coach Byron Scott has been meager with minutes for Irving and Thompson–which should buy Scott a swift conviction in the Court of League Pass.

Let’s see if the Cavs can play well on this tough road trip and generate some more attention.

It wasn’t the best opener for rookie Kyrie Irving, as he only managed 6 points on 2-12 shooting. Three of those points came from a meaningless 3-pointer at the end of the game. Irving has not shown much with his outside shot in the two exhibition games. It’s early of course but it would be nice to see some flashes there. That said, he had 7 assists and only one turnover in 26 minutes, so the other parts of his game looked solid.

Meanwhile, Ramon Sessions had a great night. He seems to have discovered a 3-point shot as he hit two tonight, and he was excellent in every phase of the game as the second teamers led by Sessions got the Cavs back into the game

The other rookie, Tristan Thompson, had a great night with 14 points in 17 minutes as he was active in all phases of the game. The kid is a gamer and he’s opening up some eyes.

Here are some more thoughts:

Omri Casspi wasn’t very impressive in his Cavs debut with only 2 points on 0-4 shooting.

The Cavs need scoring, but Antawn Jamison was forcing up too many bricks from the outside.

Alonzo Gee continues to look great. The kid has a ton of energy and he’s a scorer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he fights his way past Casspi into the starting lineup at some point, or becomes the main scoring option off the bench.

I like seeing some more aggressiveness out of Anthony Parker. He has a nice shot and might be able to take on more of the scoring load.

It still blows me away that some Cavs fans think Anderson Varejao is overrated. He hustles like nobody else!

It’s a year for learning, so hopefully we’ll see some nice progress from Irving and the rest of the team over the course of the season.