ESPN had its panel of experts submit their favorites to win the Eastern Conference and its subsequent divisions. Not surprisingly, the Cavaliers were unanimous favorites to take the Central division. The Bulls and Pistons earned a near split of second place votes for the division. But that’s not what you’re interested in.
Of the 10 analysts polled, 4 of them selected the Cavaliers as the best team in the Eastern Conference. They were second on every other ballet save for David Thorpe, who selected the Magic and Celtic both ahead of the Cavs. Thorpe’s comments on the Cavs-
“I’m one of the few who likes the Parker addition as their best summer move. Even though he and Shaq have been added to an excellent team, the issues with West, plus the time it might take to digest all that “The Daddy’s” world entails, could lead to enough losses to cost them the top two spots.”
Delonte’s troubles could indeed end up costing this team wins, especially early on if Mo Williams isn’t 100%. And then there’s a question of how effective this training camp and preseason has been. The Cavs have been hit hard with the flu and injury bug, and quite frankly haven’t been very good on the defensive end of the floor, something that Mike Brown seems concerned about. So Thorpe may have a point about the Cavs struggling a bit our of the gate. Then again, Orlando is also juggling a pretty new line-up. Who knows if they will come out of the shoot firing all cylinders.
If you are wondering, the Cavs ended up ‘winning’ the poll so to speak. Cleveland posted a 1.7 average finish to Boston’s 2.1 and Orlando’s 2.2.
Author: Rick
Rick is a co-founder and editor of WFNY. His love of Cleveland sports is surpassed only by his faith and love of his family. Follow him on Twitter- @rickwfny.Rick has written 743 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
“Orlando is also juggling a pretty new line-up. Who knows if they will come out of the shoot firing all cylinders.”
Not to mention ten games without Rashard Lewis…
@1 – Excellent point Scott. Orlando could have a really rough start.
I’m just happy to be less than a week away from starting to find out what happens!
What I thought was interesting was this was a poll about the regular season (if I’m not mistaken).
We clearly built a team for the playoffs this year. I think everyone acknowledges our regular season wins should and will be down this season – but w/ Lebron & Shaq, the playoffs are a completely different animal.
Why would you assume our regular season wins will be down? (aside from the fact that 66 is an incredible season)
Replace Wally, Sasha, and Wallace with Parker, Moon, and Shaq. That doesn’t make us better in every way?
How many times last year did our starters open a huge lead, only to have the 2nd line blow it away? You think that happens this year?
@Swig: Because last season pretty much everything went the Cavs’ way. Nobody is saying the Cavs’ talent isn’t better this year, but last year’s team had an uncanny focus on winning the regular season, and I think it took a toll on the team. This year, the odds of everything working out for them again is slim, it will take some time for all the new players to fully gel, and the team probably will not be as focused on the regular season.
Beyond that, the Celtics got better, the Wizards got better, Toronto got better, etc, etc. I think this year’s team is better than last year’s team, but I would be shocked if they exceed 66 wins this year. That’s just tough to do.
To be fair Rock – everyone (including the Cavs) got better on paper. Nothing has happened yet to justify any expectations.
Maybe Atlanta gels in some unforseen way and is the #2 seed in the East?
Maybe Garnets knee falls completely off. Maybe Dwight Howard breaks his elbow on someone’s face this year (while swinging it like a crazy person). Maybe something bad happens to the Cavs. Who knows?
That’s why I love seeing the games get played. Go Cavs!!
Well, of course. That’s why it’s called a prediction. It’s just a guess. I would be shocked if the Cavs exceed 66 wins this year.
I know there were some games that required an extra effort to win. But, they had a 8.9pt differential. Their “expected” wins were in the 63-67 range. With a better 2nd line we give up fewer leads and the starters average less minutes which would imply (to me) that they’d be better. I’m not expecting 70 wins, but if they didn’t win 60 I think it would be a disappointing regular season. Last year we had a team that rarely lost to a bad team, no reason that doesn’t happen again.
Last year we had injuries, we had a ton of 4 games in 5 nights and road back to backs. Mo Williams, Hickson and Jackson were new, West Wally and Wallace had been with the team for less than half a season. That’s a decent amount to “deal” with.
The Cavs’ expected wins last year were 65 based on their differential.
I just said that I expect this Cavs team to be better. But that doesn’t mean they will win more games this year. I, too, would be extremely disappointed if they won less than 60. If you read my Cavs preview, I predicted 65 wins this year. I don’t have the time to look it up, but I wonder how many teams that won 66 games in one year went on to win more the next. I’d be willing to bet most teams won fewer the following season.
I would expect fewer ticky-tack fouls to be called on Shaq than got called on Z. If you didn’t get knocked out of your shoes, Shaq probably didn’t hit you. That’s got to be worth a game or two.
Oh, also, 14 teams played more back to backs than the Cavaliers did last year. It was 2 years ago when the Cavaliers had the bad luck with their schedule. The Cavs were 16-3 in the 2nd night of back to backs last year. That’s incredible. The chances of doing that again this year are slim. Nobody is saying the Cavs aren’t going to be a great team this year, it’s just that expecting more than 66 wins is expecting an awful lot.
I was a lot more confident during last preseason than this one. They’ll still be a lot of fun to watch.
65 would technically be less, haha. I kind of realized that while I was typing. When people say “not as good” I’m assuming they’re pegging the Cavs as less than dominant which is a big jump and probably incorrect assumption.
I forgot how epic last year was with almost 4x 60 win teams. The cavs could “fall off” to 63-64 wins and have the best record this year. Even dropping all the way to 60, most seasons, would leave them 2nd overall in the league, but still likely best in the East .
1st in the East. BOOK IT!!
I heard Windy is also expecting this team to come out of the gates a little slow. Too many back-to-backs and new players meshing, but more importantly, this team is concerned more about the postseason.
66 wins isn’t needed. Orlando proved home court doesn’t mean that much. Get through the regular season relatively healthy and getting better by the day. What matters is being prepared to win games in late April, May and June.
Of course, as I’ve said before, let’s enjoy the journey and not rush to get to postseason basketball.
This is such a welcome relief to talk about the Cavs after this many months of the Indians and Browns.