With a roster that includes the NBA's best player, LeBron James, and two top-caliber All-Stars, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, expectations are high for the Cleveland Cavaliers heading into the 2013-2014 season. Some league insiders have Cleveland among the favorites to win the Finals.
But that belief isn't being publicly expressed by the Cavs and their head coach David Blatt. The first-year NBA coach attempted to temper expectations placed on his players.
"Anybody talking about us winning it all, I think they're being unfair to those great NBA teams that are out there that have either won it or have been there to win it, and also to us as a team that's talented but new," Blatt said Tuesday. "We have a lot of work to do before we can start claiming anything before it's time."
Post-practice media scrums are expanding exponentially.... ...must be two days away from Opening Night. #CavsRadio pic.twitter.com/WLnxAOGSnA
— John Michael (@CavsJMike) October 28, 2014
While the Cavaliers have significantly upgraded their roster during the off-season, they will rely heavily on three All-Star players who have never played together as well as a number of young, highly talented players who have yet to get fully acclimated to the pro game.
"We haven't done anything yet," said third-year shooting guard Dion Waiters, who averaged 15.9 points last season.
"You got to look at the Spurs, teams like that, who won the championship last year and got every guy back. We got to look at teams like that.
"We can't just come into the game thinking everything is going to be easy. We know everybody is going to be gunning for us. That's what makes it fun though, just to go out there and we know we're going to get everybody's best shot."
The Cavaliers open their regular season Thursday night [8 ET on TNT] at home against the New York Knicks.
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