After the biggest offseason in franchise history, the Cavaliers are finally set to show off the goods in a competitive game. It’s not an NBA opponent, it’s preseason and it doesn’t count – but the Cavs still want to get the win. Maccabi Tel Aviv once knocked off the Raptors in preseason and it made international news. This group has NO intention of letting that happen when David Blatt’s former club rolls in on Sunday.
That 2005 victory in Toronto, the first by Maccabi in 27 years, came at the hands of former Raptor and Cavaliers – Anthony Parker – who drilled a jumper in Morris Peterson’s face with 0.7 to play, giving the Israeli dynasty a 105-103 win. Longtime Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon was at the helm at the time. His counterpart that night, the Raptors Sam Mitchell, said afterward: “This is unacceptable.”
The closest LeBron James intends to get in terms of that experience is texting his old buddy Chris Bosh to ask him about it.
Coach Blatt often speaks of the pressures that come with coaching the Euroleague powerhouse. (Guy Goodes, who played for Maccabi in the 90s and was Blatt’s assistant over the past four years, is head coach now.) Showing none of that pressure on Friday, Blatt was in his usual jocular mood when he talked with the media, even when facing the questions about James and Mike Miller sitting out Friday’s practice.
”(LeBron’s) always around,” joked Blatt. “Like I told you before the season, he’s like that Superman line: ‘He’s always around.’”
Blatt and the Cavs have been rotating veteran players getting a practice session away from contact. Most of Cleveland’s vets have double-digit NBA seasons under their belt and don’t need to grind themselves down in early October.
The headlines will likely read something about LeBron sitting out of practice. Blatt couldn’t have stressed the unimportance of this any more clearly.
“Listen, this is really insignificant in the grand scheme of things if LeBron sits out of practice. And I probably value practice more than most. But the fact that we may need to rest him and others at different points during the preparation process and even during the season, it’s the right and the smart thing to do – because it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon and we have to be conscious of keeping these guys fresh and healthy.”
One Cavalier veteran who’s acutely aware of that is Anderson Varejao, who had a bounce-back season last year – rebounding to play in 65 games after being limited to just 81 combined over the previous three seasons. It hasn’t been an easy stretch for Varejao, who made the Playoffs in all but one season during LeBron’s first stretch.
“(The current situation) is a great thing,” smiled Andy. “The last four years, we went through the rebuilding process. It wasn’t fun. It was tough. Talking about myself, I had some injuries that I want to forget about. It was really, really tough. So it feels like everything is new. I feel healthy. I feel good about having LeBron back and the whole situation.”
Andy’s scoring numbers were down last year –8.4 ppg, his lowest mark since 2007-08 – but he was once again one of the league’s top rebounders. He finished 13th in the NBA, averaging 9.7 boards per contest. Among Conference leaders, Varejao was 6th in offensive rebounds per game (2.9) and 6th in defensive rebounding (6.8).
Those numbers are maybe why, when someone asked if he needs to prove himself all over again this year, Andy responded: “Who, me?”
The last four seasons have been tough on veterans like Andy, who were used to annual playoff appearances. But it’s also been a rugged road for fourth-year forward, Tristan Thompson. Thompson came into the league during the 2011 Lockout and, fighting through the rookie wall and a coagulated schedule, started the final 25 games at center.
He’s been in the lineup ever since. And while he may or may not be still in the starting lineup, he knows he’ll be playing some center this season.
“I’ve worked a lot this summer, trying to get stronger, especially with the new additions to our team,” said Thompson. “You’ve got to be ready to play the 5 and the 4. If I’m playing the 5, I’m playing against bigger, stronger guys, so I want to be prepared for that. And I think it’s paying off pretty well.”
Like Varejao, Tristan’s coming off another solid season on the boards. Last year, he had a team-best 36 double-doubles, which tied him for 5th place in the East and the most by a Cavalier since Drew Gooden posted 37 in 2004-05.
During an interview last year, Thompson made no bones about which opponent he least likes going against: Kevin Love. Now, he’ll find himself playing across from Love as a small-lineup center.
”I played a little center my first couple years here, so it’s nothing new to me,” said the former Longhorn. “And if you look at our league now, the 5-men are becoming a little bit more mobile. You look at the Spurs, they have Tiago Splitter. They had Chris Bosh playing the 5 a little bit in Miami. The 5’s kind of changing. Besides Marc Gasol and Roy Hibbert, the 5’s aren’t really as big as they used to be. So I’m prepared; I watched a lot of film over the summer on the centers in the league.”
We’ll probably get a look at that lineup when the Cavs open the preseason and face off against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Sunday night.
The Wine and Gold beat the international heavyweights in the 2006 preseason. I’m not sure who was guarding Cleveland’s power forwards for Maccabi that night, but Drew Gooden posted 21 points and eight boards and Donyell Marshall tallied 19 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. They’d better hope they have a better answer for Cleveland’s new duo this weekend.