Are The Cleveland Cavaliers Now East Favorites?

After quite a horrendous start to the year by the teams in the Eastern Conference, it seems that at the very least the top six teams have emerged as legitimate threats to advance to the NBA Finals.

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The Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards and Milwaukee Bucks have all shown flashes of great play this season and proven why they should all be taken seriously to compete in the East, but there may not be a team more dangerous than the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Before the season, the Cavaliers were picked as the team by many analysts to come out of the East, but things got off to a rough start, as it took some time for the new players, including LeBron James, to mesh together and really build some chemistry on the court.

James wasn’t the only new addition to Cleveland’s roster during the offseason, as the team made a move to bring Kevin Love into the fold in order to give James a versatile frontcourt weapon like he had with the Miami Heat in Chris Bosh.

It took some time for Love to adjust because even though he did become a decent three-point shooter with the Minnesota Timberwolves, he played out of the post a lot more than he was for the Cavaliers at the start of the season.

Bosh said to reporters that Love was going to have to adjust to his new role, but since January Love has come around and put up some nice stat lines to complement what James has been doing ever since he came back from injury as well.

And let’s not forget about Kyrie Irving, who has been absolutely sensational in his own right, scoring and being a real offensive threat for this Cleveland team.

Irving has always had the tools to be one of the best scoring point guards in the league.

His ball-handling ability along with his knack for finishing at the rim and knocking in shots from behind the three-point line with consistency and poise make for a tantalizing combination of offensive skills, and Irving has taken advantage of all of his talents recently to put together some great point totals.

Not only have the big three been playing at a high level, but Cleveland’s acquisitions near the trade deadline have paid off in big ways as well.

Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith have all played better than originally anticipated for the Cavaliers, as the team needed what all three of these players bring to the table in order to contend not only for a spot in the championship, but for the title itself.

The Western Conference is absolutely loaded with quality teams from top to bottom, meaning that even if the Cavaliers make it out of the East, their toughest opponent may not have even been beaten yet.

Luckily for the Cavs, they now have one of the deeper teams in the league because of the trades they made. In Mozgov, the team gets a quality big man with enough size to permanently play the center position and make an impact protection the rim on defense.

Anderson Varejao and Tristan Thompson are not bad players, but they lack the height and length to truly be high-level shot blockers down low. Mozgov has all of the ability on defense along with a nice touch on the offensive end from both down in the post all the way out to about 15 feet.

Shumpert brings this team needed defense on the wing, as he is capable of locking down virtually any perimeter player in the NBA. Both he and James have been able to form one of the best perimeter defense combinations in the league, meaning that opposing backcourts are no longer having a field day with the Cavaliers.

Smith, on the other hand, was brought in for his skills as a knockdown shooter. When Smith isn’t trying to create too many shots and force bad looks at the basket, he can really be an effective catch-and-shoot player that has range all the way out beyond the three-point line. Smith has really helped spread the floor for a team that wants to shoot the ball well from outside the arc.

He’s really made a difference for what this team wants to do, and sometimes that’s all a team can ask for out of a role player. Smith wasn’t brought to Cleveland to be a star scorer, but to fill a role. That’s where Smith is at his best, and it’s good the Cavs realized that before trying to give him a bigger role in the offense like the New York Knicks tried to do.

With their depth and newfound balance on offense, the Cavaliers have become difficult to stop, even for the teams in the West. Cleveland has quietly become one of the best teams on both ends of the floor, not just offense.

Any team that has the best player on the planet in James has a chance to succeed, and now that the rest of the team has decided to work as hard as he does on a daily basis, there’s no question they have firmly placed themselves in the title conversation.

A lot of the East’s other teams have struggled as of late.

The Raptors haven’t looked right since the first month of the season, the Wizards have been losing a number of games since Bradley Beal has had to miss a significant amount of time, and the Bulls now have had to deal with the absence of Derrick Rose, who already hadn’t played a meaningful game of basketball in two years before this season started. The Bucks don’t exactly have the same kind of talent that a real contender would have at this stage of the game, meaning that they aren’t likely to advance far either.

The team that could really Cleveland a run for its money is Atlanta. The Hawks play like a team on both ends of the floor, sharing the ball and specializing in help defense and switching coverage when the situation calls for it. The Hawks are deep and really talented, meaning that they have the ability to give any team real problems come playoff time.

However, Atlanta does not have that combination of real stars that can be counted upon when the game is on the line, which is why Cleveland may have the ultimate edge come playoff time.

Are there more quality teams in the East than people may have realized before the season started? Absolutely. Even though the conference may not have eight very qualified teams for the postseason like the West has right now and will have for the foreseeable future, but the East is so tough and physical compared to the West.

It’s going to be real interesting to see who comes out on top as the best NBA team this year, but the Cavs have all the reasons to actually be optimistic for their future.

With key pieces under contract for next season and big-time extensions being talked about right now for James and Love, this team isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. James will have his moment in the sun soon enough. Until then, keep practicing and training your team hard, as it may pay off in the end when you least expect it.

Next: Cavaliers Primed For Playoffs

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