What the Boston Celtics Should be Thinking About the Cavaliers
The cavaliers have completely flipped their roster, and that could mean a lot of things for the Boston Celtics
In two moves that very few saw coming, the Cleveland Cavaliers have completely transformed their team. Following their trade with the Lakers that sent away Isaiah Thomas and Channing Frye, while bringing in Larry Nance Jr. and Jordan Clarkson, they are involved in a three team trade that is sending away Iman Shumpert, Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose for Rodney Hood and George Hill.
So, the Cavaliers have successfully eradicated everything they could from that trade with the Boston Celtics, and have completely transformed this team. Who knows what they are going to look like, and who even knows who is going to be starting at this point.
The Cavaliers have clearly looked at this season as absolute rock bottom, and have done everything they can to transform this team as much as possible. After that second trade it is clear that the Cavaliers are doing this to win one more time with LeBron James, and hope that might keep him in Cleveland.
For Celtics fans, it is natural to worry about these moves. The Cavaliers were at a point where they could not look worse, and this was looking like the best opportunity to get past James in the East in almost a decade. By flipping everything, the Celtics have completely changed the way this team will be looked at, and how they are going to function.
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Given how bad they were, the Cavaliers really should be better, because the top players they traded away in Crowder and Thomas were miserably underperforming. Thew only question that matters for the Celtics, however, is whether or not this makes the Cavaliers good enough. They are younger and they are more athletic, but you still need to make these pieces work.
Knowing if their good enough will go beyond just their talent. When you look at their talent, obviously they have enough. They have assembled a great group of players to go a long with James and Kevin Love, and it is easy to see that these pieces could come together in a way that makes this Cavaliers team a true title contender.
The problem for the Cavaliers is they now have an entirely new team that has no experience together and has no idea what their identity is going to be, with less than half a season left to prepare for the playoffs.
When you take into account how miserable Tyronn Lue was at bringing together the pieces they assembled over the summer, I find it unlikely that he going to make it work perfectly this time. Maybe he and James will put their heads together, and James will figure out what needs to be done on the court to get the most out of this roster, but it will be one of the most difficult tasks of his career.
Even for James, however, bringing together a roster that is overturned to this extent is a near impossible task. There is no way this Cavaliers team is going to reach their potential come playoff time, and that is why the Celtics should not be too worried.
The Cavaliers may have a better assembled team now, and will not have as many personalities and egos clashing. That being said, putting together an NBA team is not something that can happen overnight, certainly not if you want to be reaching the Finals.
James is the ultimate equalizer, and maybe these pieces were traded for specifically because James had the confidence that he could get them to come together, and make up a team that can work together in a way that the previous one could not.
James, however, is the only real reason to be really optimistic. If James is not arguably the greatest basketball mind we have ever seen in a player, it is simply impossible to get a team that is ready to contend for a title with less than half a season together.
Even the Celtics, who have a full season together, and a coach that is better than anyone else at making random pieces work together, is going to be held back by the fact that they are such a fresh team.
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It will be the most difficult ask of James’ career attempting to get all these new pieces to work together, because it does not seem like they have any interest in bringing in a coach who could try it his way. There is certainly going to be more optimism around the Cavaliers, but we are a long ways away from saying this will seriously hurt Boston’s chances at coming out of the East.