LeBron James has led some pretty impressive NBA teams over the last decade –including his incredible run with the Miami Heat in which they went to four straight NBA Finals and won two of them. However, injuries decimated the Cleveland Cavaliers on their NBA Finals run a year ago and by the time they bowed out to the Golden State Warriors, LeBron’s supporting cast was a shadow of what it was when the playoffs began.
Those injuries cost the Cavaliers a better chance at an NBA title but it has also served as a focal point for management going forward as depth has been their biggest concern. Cleveland loaded up in free agency and as a result, this could very well be the deepest team LeBron has ever played on.
Cleveland Cavaliers, 2015-16
The main strategy for this year’s team has been keeping the core intact by re-signing Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert, with the hope that the healthy return of Love and Kyrie Irving combined with a season from Shumpert can make a big difference come playoff time. Tristan Thompson and Matthew Dellavedova are both expected to be back and there is still the possibility J.R. Smith returns to the fold. Beyond that, we’ve seen the Cavs round out the roster to fill some pieces that were missing last year.
Remember when Kyrie Irving when down, Matthew Dellavedova was thrust into the role of point guard and he struggled to run the offense. Well, the team picked up Mo Williams in free agency to do the trick. He’ll back up Irving and provide valuable minutes off the bench. Up front, the team will start the season with Timofey Mozgov on the roster – remember, they traded for him midseason last year – and they’ll welcome back Andreson Varejao too. That means that with those guys as well as Love and Thompson, the Cavs are two-deep at the two frontcourt positions. They also have Brendan Haywood on the roster but he’s just a trade asset. Rumors have him being moved for someone like Joe Johnson. At any rate, this Cavs team is fully stocked at almost every position. We’ve seen LeBron play on some deep teams but this squad definitely looks like it has the most talent, the most options and the most versatility.
Miami Heat, 2012-13
The 2012-13 Heat is the best team LeBron has played on to this point as the 66 wins they earned tied the 2008-09 Cavaliers for the most regular season wins LeBron has ever earned in a regular season. And more importantly, that year ended with Miami celebrating its second consecutive NBA title. It was clear at this point that the players on this team each understood their roles and with LeBron in his prime and surrounded by Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen, Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem, Mario Chalmers, Chris Andersen and Rashard Lewis, this was an insanely talented and deep team overall. However, it’s still a team that didn’t have much muscle in the front court and lacked some quality at the point guard position. James’ current team doesn’t have those weaknesses.
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Last year’s Cavaliers roster was potentially good enough to win an NBA championship but Love and Irving were both injured and Cleveland ran out of options against a loaded Golden State team in the NBA Finals. This year’s teams won’t have such problems. It will be interesting to see if the Cavs can bring back Smith and maybe acquire one more asset for Haywood’s contract. There are all sorts of trade rumors blowing but someone like Joe Johnson would add one more piece of credibility to the squad. The Cavs came so close to winning the title last season and that was with a thinned out roster. Now that they have adequately reloaded, it’s easy to see why they’re the NBA Championship favorite for next season.
