The Cleveland Cavaliers have had a long and arduous journey since LeBron James left for the second time back in 2018. There have been players who have come and gone, the city has seen many different eras of teambuilding, and a youth movement that catapulted the Cavaliers into a new orbit of contention.
It feels like every year the pressure dials up a little more, to the point where the joy of watching a good basketball team can get lost on the fanbase.
Expectations are what many fans and pundits use
to validate whether a season is a success or not. However, when your enjoyment of a team is clouded by narratives set by a subsect of others, it can really take the love and joy out of being a fan.
With Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen on your favorite team, you are guaranteed to be having fun way more often than not. Usually, the fun teams are those that surpass preseason expectations when the actual season tips off. I propose the following questions to hopefully help reset the mind of fans:
Why not have fun when your very talented roster is constantly playing quality games and figuring new things out without key personnel?
Why not enjoy that we get to watch Donovan Mitchell play at an All-NBA level?
Why not embrace watching Evan Mobley’s continued growth from a Defensive Player of the Year winner into a hopefully dominant two-way player?
The answer is that one gets caught in the quagmire of “well, this expert on this podcast/show/article stated that my team should do this and that, or everything was a waste of time”.
I am going to say something controversial: I enjoyed last season even though the team criminally fell short of expectations.
The number of Cavs’ items hanging up in my house from last season did not decrease or get incinerated because of the second-round flop of an exit to the Indiana Pacers. Life went on, and so did my love of this team.
As the Cavaliers get ready to embark on this new year, I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone of the fun to be had this season. The Cavaliers are currently slated by many sportsbooks and experts to be the best team in the Eastern Conference. While that statement seems a little tone-deaf to everything I just said above, what I mean by this is that this team is going to be fun. Not very often, especially in a LeBron-less city, did Cavalier fans experience this good and fun a team. That’s something to just bask in on its own.
The Cavaliers have a high-octane offense, great defensive pillars, awesome role players, and overall just a great group of guys both professionally and as people. Not many teams can check all of these boxes. On top of that, the team truly cares.
How many articles did we all read about the devastation and anger this team felt after the postseason? Who wasn’t ready to run through a brick wall on their behalf? It should lead to a Cavaliers team that is as fired up to be out on the floor as the fans are to view it. That kind of synergy doesn’t happen often in the NBA. Cherish it and just live in the moment.
Cavalier fans, it’s been a long journey to get here. Do not let the championship or bust mentality be something that plagues your brain for this regular season. For now, it’s about having fun and seeing what this Cavaliers team is made of. Let basketball be fun; it’s something you willingly make a part of your day, so why try to suck the fun out of it?
