by Evan Debo
Sitting just three weeks out from the start of the 2013-2014 NBA season, the Cleveland Cavaliers opened up their pre-season play with the annual Wine & Gold scrimmage this past Saturday at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, OH.
Over the summer, Cavs General Manager, Chris Grant, overhauled the team’s roster as they looked to get out of the Eastern Conference wine cellar in starting point guard Kyrie Irving’s third year at the helm.
Head Coach, Byron Scott; 3-point Marksman, Daniel Gibson; and several why-are-you-allowed to-play-in-an-NBA-game-guys like Luke Walton, Omri Casspi, and Chris Quinn.
Cleveland began revamping their roster when they hired former head coach, Mike Brown, who has never missed the playoffs or been eliminated in the first round in his head coaching career.
For the second time in three years, the Wine & Gold lucked into the number one pick in the NBA’s version of the Hunger Games; a to-the-death battle of tanking and sitting players until one team emerges victorious and has more lottery balls than the rest of the league.
With that number one overall pick, they selected UNLV freshman forward, Anthony Bennett – a surprise to the basketball world and a guy seemingly without a position.
Bennett is an undersized power forward with outside range, but has an excellent frame at 6’8” 240 pounds, which allows him to attack the rim and bang against the boards with guys four an five inches taller than him.
Two of the more notable off-season additions this summer were former Golden State Warriors point guard Jarrett Jack and former All-Star center Andrew Bynum.
Jack, who averaged 12.9 PPG and 5.6 APG, will lead the Cavs’ second unit and back-up, Kyrie Irving, at the point this season. Jack was a part of the three-guard rotation at Golden State with Stephen Curry and Mychel Thompson that made a lot of noise in the Western Conference last season.
With Bynum on the other hand, he comes with baggage.
A 2012 NBA All-Star and two-time NBA Champion, Bynum was a part of the three-team trade between the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, and Philadelphia 76ers that sent Dwight Howard to LA.
Due to a strange combination of lack of motivation and two knee surgeries, Bynum never played an NBA game with the 76ers in 2012-13 before deciding to opt out of his contract and become a free agent this past summer.
A healthy Bynum in Cleveland could form a tremendous one-two punch with all-star point guard Kyrie Irving – especially since Bynum will be motivated to play this year.
Bynum’s contract with the Cavaliers is incentive-heavy at two years, $24 million with a team option for the second year. This means that if he never even sees the court due to injury (as some still believe his knees are made out of PLAY-DOH and ketchup), the Cavs can cut ties after one year and he will receive only $6 million of that $24 million contract.
If Bynum wants to earn the full position, he will have to stay healthy, something he seems committed to doing as he has reportedly lost 30 pounds since moving to Cleveland in late June.
While Irving and company will certainly benefit from an upgrade in talent at the center position, another guy happy to see Bynum in town is beloved Cavalier veteran, Anderson Varejao, who was cleared to resume practice this week after missing most of last season with a blood clot in his lung and an injured wrist.
Varejao averaged 14.1 PPG and 14.4 RPG in 25 appearances for Cleveland last season and has not played in more than 31 games since the 2009-2010 season.
The Cavs can afford to take their time returning Bynum and Varejao to the lineup until they are fully healthy, as they can limit each other’s minutes, essentially reducing the wear and tear they will take over the course of an 82-game season.
The rest of the Cavs’ new roster additions include former Los Angeles Laker stretch-four forward, Earl Clarke; Russian National Team sharpshooter, Sergey Karasev (first Rd pick, number 19 overall); and former Memphis first Rd pick, Elliot Williams.
The Cavaliers seem poised to make a run at the playoffs this season and the talent they have put around Irving seems to indicate as much.
Realistically, the Cavs will be looking at a six-eight seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race as Miami, Chicago, Brooklyn, New York, and Indiana will most assuredly have better records as all five made the playoffs in 2013 and upgraded their rosters over the off-season.
When it is all said and done, I think the Cavs will be a six seed in the East and will finish with a record around .500 at 41-41 – behind the Pacers and Bulls for third place in the Central Division.
While it is an entirely realistic goal for a squad who has not seen the playoffs in almost four years, they will want to perform much better than that record would indicate if they want to become an attractive free-agent destination next summer when Akron native, LeBron James, could return to Cleveland.
