Does playoffs potential exist?

[TPhoenix]

Lebron James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers this year, leaving behind a championship team that brought him much success. Now with new team players by his side, do you think the Cavaliers pose a chance of winning the playoffs this season or are there other teams that will knock them out of the race?

 

[thepieeatingjay]

The potential is there. But it's not going to happen right away. Right now, this is a growing phase. The major players (Lebron, Irving, Love) has to be allowed time to understand each other.

Right now, they look pretty average. But the potential is clearly there.

 

[joshposh]

We'll see what happens as the season progresses and the players start to mesh more. It's going to take time. Champoinship squads don't happen overnight. Lots of hype follows Lebron James. We'll see if anyone else can contribute.

 

[Maxeem]

As a Cavs fan, I definitely hope so.

If I'm being realistic though, it depends. If they gel well and end up playing perfectly as a team in the regular season, there's a big chance of them making it to the Finals.
However, they may not even get close to executing perfectly together, and in that case, it'll be a tough run for them if they want to get far into the playoffs. With the raw talent they have, even without the teamwork, they could probably win at least 1 playoff series.

The potential is definitely there. We just need to wait to see if they can pull off a deep playoff run in their first season together.

 

[lindbergh]

They'll definitely reach the playoffs and make a deep run but I don't think that they'll win the Eastern Conference Finals. That title may either go to the Chicago Bulls or the Miami Heat. The Cavaliers big 3 each want to get more looks. I think Kevin Love has expressed his need to have more touches underneath the basket. Kyrie Irving is also taking a lot of shots. I don't know where this will lead them. But if the big 3 would know their roles, they would definitely be championship material.

 

[Maxeem]

They'll definitely reach the playoffs and make a deep run but I don't think that they'll win the Eastern Conference Finals. That title may either go to the Chicago Bulls or the Miami Heat. The Cavaliers big 3 each want to get more looks. I think Kevin Love has expressed his need to have more touches underneath the basket. Kyrie Irving is also taking a lot of shots. I don't know where this will lead them. But if the big 3 would know their roles, they would definitely be championship material.

I'm actually pretty surprised at your choice of the Miami Heat... honest question, but what do you think their strong and weak points are.
I haven't really been watching Heat games that much, and thus don't know how to rate them that much, but their record isn't that excellent.
I'm probably missing a lot of pros about the Heat (probably shouldn't judge just based on their record), so if someone would educate me on their roster and team, that would be great... don't have much time, limited to Cavs games and a couple of other games a day.

 

[thejamal]

As a Cavs fan, I definitely hope so.

If I'm being realistic though, it depends. If they gel well and end up playing perfectly as a team in the regular season, there's a big chance of them making it to the Finals.
However, they may not even get close to executing perfectly together, and in that case, it'll be a tough run for them if they want to get far into the playoffs. With the raw talent they have, even without the teamwork, they could probably win at least 1 playoff series.

The potential is definitely there. We just need to wait to see if they can pull off a deep playoff run in their first season together.

Absolutely. And you're seeing the struggles a bit early in this season with getting Kyrie-Bron-Love all on the same page, but you also see the tremendous potential that team has when they're firing on all cylinders. The Heat went through the same stuff in their first season with the big 3. At the end of the day, they have the best player in the NBA and that gives the Cavs as good a chance as anyone to make a deep finals run.

Right now though, I think the Bulls and the Raptors are the better teams. You see the experience of a roster playing together with those two teams and both teams are playing exceptionally good defense. Pau Gasol has also turned out to be the steal of the off-season and has given that team the offensive post option they've been severely lacking the last several years. Noah-Gasol-Gibson is an absolutely dirty bigs rotation too that's going to be tough to get through in the playoffs.

 

[seanohare]

The defense is going to struggle to get anything together all year. I have an eerie feeling it's going to take LeBron going off every 4th quarter for this team to keep up with the beasts of the west. The game the other night is a perfect example. Luckily enough this roster is already far superior to the pathetic 2007 finals roster.