Cavaliers roster included LeBron James the last seven years, the last five of which were playoff seasons.
Guards Daniel Gibson, Mo Williams and Ramon Sessions at the Cavaliers media day on Monday.Cleveland, Ohio -- The Cleveland Cavaliers, about to begin their 41st NBA season, hosted their media day today and begin training camp practices on Tuesday.
The Plain Dealer and the Cavaliers pages on the newspaper's cleveland.com website continue to cover the team.
Plain Dealer/cleveland.com/cavs Cavaliers coverage includes Dan Labbe's video interviews with guard Mo Williams, guard-forward Christian Eyenga, forward-center Anderson Varejao, guard Daniel Gibsonand guard Anthony Parker. And, a video interview with general manager Chris Grant.
Also, Plain Dealer Cavaliers beat writer Brian Windhorst lists five key issues facing the Cavaliers as training camp begins. And, Bill Livingston's column on Cavaliers coach Byron Scott's playing days with then-Los Angeles Lakers coach Pat Riley.
Different Cavaliers
The Cavaliers led the NBA in wins each of the past two seasons, and have won eight playoff series in the last five years. They got to the NBA Finals once, losing to the San Antonio Spurs, four games to none, in the spring of 2007.
Several players, coach Mike Brown and general manager Danny Ferry are now "former" Cavaliers. Of course, the most significant departure was that of LeBron James, who signed as a free agent with the Miami Heat after playing his first seven seasons with the Cavs.
Rick Noland writes about the difference in the Cavaliers for the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram and Medina County Gazette:
(Mo) Williams is at his best when he’s playing free and easy and doesn’t feel guilty about taking a few bad shots or making a couple of mistakes. When he was deferring to James and trying to fit in, Williams often lost his aggressiveness and, though he’ll probably never admit it, his confidence.
Now he’s on a mediocre team again, so expect a return to his free-wheeling, numbersproducing days with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Combo guard Ramon Sessions will be fun to watch, whether he starts at shooting guard or backs up Williams and Anthony Parker — starting seems to make the most sense, because Parker isn’t in the Cavs’ long-term plans. He’ll take a lot of shots and, on some nights, put up a lot of points.
Third-year man J.J. Hickson should continue to bloom, but he’ll no longer have James around to set him up.
Anderson Varejao is going to continue to do what he’s always done, which is create havoc on defense, hustle all over the court and get some buckets on cuts to the basket.
Questions for coach
New Cavaliers coach Byron Scott is the subject of a lengthy interview on nba.com/cavaliers.
Among the questions was how the Cavs can adjust to losing centers Zydrunas Ilgauskas to Miami and Shaquille O'Neal to the Boston Celtics as free agents.
Scott's reply:
What we don’t have in size, we have in athleticism and length. Anderson (Varejao) is obviously a guy who’s made his living with his hustle and his passion for the game. And I think this offense is definitely going to suit him as well.
On the defensive end, what we don’t have in height, we can use our fundamentals to the best of our ability. And that means blocking people out and rebounding the ball. And that's the toughness part – it's something I’ve always aspired to have on my teams. Guys that are willing to stick their nose in there and try to do all the dirty work that you have to do to be successful.
I feel pretty good about where we are and the direction that we’re headed. And I’m just ready to get started.
Cavs ex-coaches
FoxSports.com features a photo gallery of what it believes are the all-time top 10 NBA coaches.
Chuck Daly and Lenny Wilkens are included in the group. Daly was with the Cavaliers for 41 games in his first NBA head coach job. Wilkens led the team for seven seasons.
Listed among the honorable mentions is George Karl, who began his NBA head coaching career with the Cavs for nearly two seasons.
The text to accompany the photo of Wilkens, who had a 1,332-1,155 coaching record:
It's easy to dismiss his NBA record for coaching wins (since surpassed by Don Nelson) as the result of mere longevity. After all, he only had one title to show for his 32 seasons with six teams, and he had 11 losing seasons — or 11 more than Phil Jackson. It's also hard to think of any coaching innovation or particular style that defined his coaching career. Still, it's unfair to devalue longevity in a pressure-cooker profession that has burned through (and burned out) many capable men. Indeed, it was Wilkens' calm and unflappable demeanor that made him such a successful coach for the long term. Just as he kept his cool on the court as a nine-time All-Star, he did the same on the sideline. That's why he's one of three men to make the Hall of Fame as a player and as a coach. (John Wooden and Bill Sharman are the others.)