We had the opportunity to catch up with Josh Hill of King James Gospel this morning to talk about the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Portland Trail Blazers before their matchup at the Moda Center tonight. Here is what he had to say about his team and ours going in.
Q: Newly reformed teams often face growing pains, regardless of incredible talent. What are the expectations for this one among Cleveland fans this year?
The expectation is a championship, just like it was for Heat fans when LeBron went there in 2010. Realistically though, this team should get to the Eastern Conference Finals at the very least. That’s the expectation level-headed fans have as anything less would be massive failure. There are holes in the roster — like the lack of a rim protector — and things clearly aren’t gelling completely, but a trip to the Conference Finals is a very reasonable expectation to have.
Q: David Blatt is one of the most successful coaches in Euroleague history, but has never handled NBA superstars before. How has he looked through preseason and these first few games?
He has some work to do, that’s for sure. To be fair though, he’s admitted as much with his minutes distribution in the first game drawing criticism and his rotations raising some eyebrows. We won’t know for sure if he has a grasp on things until 20-25 games in but so far he’s looked better than most would in his situation, which is all Cavaliers fans need for now. As we saw with Erik Spoelstra in Miami, you can’t just throw superstars out there and say ‘okay, go win now’. Blatt will figure it out, and the more he gets used to 48 minutes of rotations and not the Euroleague 40 minutes, the more rounded this team will become.
Q: Outside of the big three, who do the Trail Blazers need to watch out for tonight?
Portand should be mindful of Tristan Thompson, especially after his electric game against the Bulls on Friday night. He struggled to find his footing down low against the Knicks, as he was boxed out most of the night but he fixed those problems against the Bulls. He’s in a contract season and playing for a max deal which means every opportunity he gets to shine he’s going to take it. There was talk of Thompson even starting over Anderson Varejao at center — even though he’s undersized — which shows you how much the Cavaliers love what he can do. He’ll have a tough time if matched up against Robin Lopez or Chris Kaman, but he handled his own against the Bulls bigs and that’s one of the best frontcourts in the NBA.
Q: LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Love are presently central to the “best power forward” debate. Which do you think will shine brighter this evening?
I’d put money on Love making this matchup personal. He’s played Aldridge before but done so on a crappy Timberwolves team that offered him no help and he still stood toe-to-toe with him. Now that he has help, Love is going to try and prove that putting him with a good cast of players makes him the best power forward in the NBA, and who better to prove that against than Aldridge? So far the narrative has been about LeBron but that shifts to Love tonight, and he’s going to try and take full advantage of the spotlight being on him in a situation he’s finally proud to be in. It’ll be tight, but Love will shine just a little bit more.
Q: Who wins this game? Final score? Why?
I really like the Trail Blazers and think they’re going to be a playoff contender this year, but the Cavaliers are starting to groove and there’s a good chance they’re going to be a streaky team this year. Once they start winning, that will get the roster rolling and they’ll rattle off some wins in a row before they trip up — just like the LeBron led Heat did. It won’t be lopsided, but I’d expect the game to feel like the inverse of what happened to the Cavaliers against the Knicks where the Blazers click early but get swallowed up by an improving late quarter Cavs team. They refused to get closed out by the Bulls on Friday night and that will be the case again tonight. Final score: Blazers 91, Cavaliers 98.
To read the rest of our conversation, in which I answered his questions about the Trail Blazers, check out the Q&A on kingjamesgospel.com.