NBA Power Rankings: 7 teams enter season as legitimate title threats

Last season: 19-63; projected 2019-20: 22-60

The Cleveland Cavaliers enter the second year of a rebuild that was triggered abruptly in July 2018 when LeBron James left The Land for a second time to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.

There are some young pieces in place that could develop into a new core for the Cavs, led by forward Cedi Osman and point guards Collin Sexton and Darius Garland.

But there are depth questions and concerns that their two point guards (a) are too small to be adequate defenders in the NBA and (b) have not shown a tremendous feel for the whole “get everybody involved” thing.

Cleveland was 1-3 in the preseason (0-3 against NBA competition) and enters the season with center Ante Zizic (foot) and rookie wing Dylan Windler (stress reaction/left tibia) on the shelf, while veterans Matthew Dellavedova (thumb) and John Henson (groin) are day-to-day.

Last season: 17-65; projected 2019-20: 22-60

Basically, the New York Knicks have pressed a pause button on their rebuild, adding guard RJ Barrett in the draft while striking out on their free agent targets over the summer and adding a plethora of players on two-year deals with team options attached for 2020-21.

What they did add was a glut of frontcourt players who will effectively slow the development of their 2018 rookie class — forward Kevin Knox and center Mitchell Robinson — by taking away developmental minutes because, hey, the new guys have to eat, too.

And it appears all is not well in the locker room, either. SportsNewYork reported late last week that multiple players are already muttering about their minutes … and the regular season hasn’t even started yet. That can’t be a good sign.

The Knicks were 1-3 in the preseason and lost their last three (not that it really matters). Reggie Bullock will miss at least the first month of the season with a back injury and veteran Taj Gibson is dealing with a sore calf and is day-to-day.

Last season: 39-43; projected 2019-20: 23-59

The Charlotte Hornets are punting in 2019-20 while waiting to run out the clock on the bloated contracts of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist ($13 million), Marvin Williams ($15 million) and Bismack Biyombo ($17 million), all of which will come off the books next July 1.

Of course, that didn’t stop general manager Mitch Kupchak — the patron saint of the Mozgov family — from throwing $56.7 million at unproven starter Terry Rozier over the next three seasons to replace departed All-NBA point guard Kemba Walker.

Charlotte is in the unenviable position of not having a lot of promising youth (Miles Bridges and PJ Washington are intriguing, but Malik Monk needs to show something soon) and no maneuvering room to make a lot of changes because of the untenable contracts (we didn’t even mention Nicolas Batum‘s $27.13 million player option for next season).

The Hornets are coming off a 1-4 preseason and are already a bit banged up, with Williams, Rozier, Batum and Cody Martin all listed as day-to-day.