LeBron is not walking through that door. You are putting your hand into my open palm, and I am resting my one free hand atop yours, and I would like to commiserate here and now, about our enemies. The chip brought salvation , a religious nomenclature Abdurraqib uses throughout his memoir on the Cavs. When LeBron departed for Los Angeles in , it felt like Cleveland had been cast back to the beginning of a parable.
This season, they own the best record in the NBA and are back in championship contention. As they return to the class of true contenders, it begs a more vital question: can they really win it all?
For Cavs fans, losing has been a central part of the experience. Founded in , the organization has been around for 54 years with the lone championship to their credit. It took 46 years to get there. So what now? For one, the pressure to finally win the first one is extinguished, thanks to LeBron fulfilling his prodigal son destiny. This makes it all the more impressive that they could potentially win 70 games while playing two traditional bigs in the frontcourt and an undersized backcourt, which is antithetical to where the NBA is trending.
Only Egypt has seen more plagues. This season, the Cavs have become a juggernaut in East, running out to the best record and top offensive rating In the age of advanced analytics, they lead in categories like assist-to-turnover ratio 2. The offense has been torrid from jump, led by the backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garand, the frontcourt of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, and the tutelage of first-year head coach Kenny Atkinson.
How did this particular Cavs team form? They drafted to compete sooner rather than later. Then they selected Mobley with the third pick in While this roster is stacked with four potential All-Stars, there is no obviously MVP candidate, much less a LeBron, in the starting lineup.
