Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 bold predictions for 2018-19 NBA season

2. Two Cavs — but not Kevin Love — make the All-Star game

What if Love lost his superstar claws after years of playing third fiddle? Maybe he’s destined to be a secondary option with scoring averages in the teens. If that’s the case, shot attempts go elsewhere.

Cleveland is loaded with players about to enter their theoretical primes. Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr. and David Nwaba are 25. Jordan Clarkson is 26 and Tristan Thompson, the former top-five pick, is 27. The roster is peppered with players in their early 20s, like youngsters Ante Zizic and Cedi Osman.

Outside of Nwaba, all of them spent time with LeBron James while he was with Cleveland. Maybe they didn’t perfectly jell with The King, but hopefully noted his tenacity and work ethic.

After departing Russell Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder, Victor Oladipo became a star as the center of attention in Indiana. Maybe the same thing happens to one of the listed players with the stardom of James leaving Cleveland.

Hood is the most likely candidate to break out. He has the best physical intangibles as a lengthy, 6’7” wing with the ability to shoot and defend. For Nance, a mid-range jump shot would help him take a major step forward.

With James gone, one of these two blooms into an All-Star. Meanwhile, health questions surround Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving, two of the East’s top point guards. Let’s say they are hurt most of the year’s first half, or at least enough to cast their status as All-Stars into doubt.

With the offense in his hands, Collin Sexton paces the Cavs as a 20-point per game scorer. He joins one of the aforementioned teammates in the All-Star game with the East lacking major star power at point guard. Love, now acting as the team’s secondary scorer, watches in Charlotte while sporting his signature Banana Republic jacket.