Bold predictions for the 2018-19 Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers start their 2018-19 campaign Wednesday night. Thinking about it, it’s weird that the NBA season has even tipped off already. It’s even more strange that the Cavs season is about to tip off in just a few hours. Over the last four years, there has been plenty of hype surrounding the wine and gold, especially at the start of the season. While the hype wore off as the regulars season went on and then regained itself once the postseason started simply because the Cavs and their fans knew that they could put it on cruise control until April, this season is much, much different.

Without LeBron James, the wine and gold are no longer favorites to win the East, much like they have the last four years. They no longer have any pressure on them to make the postseason, let alone their fifth-straight trip to the Finals. In fact, considering the Cavs have a top-10 protected first round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, some fans hope that Cleveland somewhat bottoms out this season to assure themselves that they keep the pick.

Although the Cavs won’t nearly be as good and competitive as they have over the last handful of years with No. 23 no longer anchoring the team, it doesn’t mean they won’t be fun. With young players such as Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman, along with veterans like Kevin Love and Channing Frye, among others, there’s plenty to look forward to this season, even if their aspirations are seemingly polar opposite than in years past.

They will be fun, but this group has so many questions. Do they have enough talent to make the playoffs in the East? Can they stay healthy? After leaning on LeBron the past four years, how will this group play without him? Who will be the go-to guy down the stretch? Will Kevin Love be able to return to his Minnesota-type numbers? Will Cedi Osman develop into a legitimate NBA player that the Cavs can count on? How will Collin Sexton do his rookie year? The list goes on and on. As they showed in the preseason, Cleveland will have plenty of highs and lows throughout the entire season. As a fan, just remember that you should never get too down during their bad moments and too excited during their really good moments. They’ll be average, which is understandable.

With the Cavs set to open their season Wednesday night north of the border, I decided to give a couple bold predictions that I have for the wine and gold for this season. Keep in mind, 2018-19 is all about Wins and Lessons for the Cavs, not wins and losses. That’s courtesy of head coach Tyronn Lue, and it couldn’t be more true for this team.

If the Cavs are not one of the top-8 seeds in the East at the All-Star Break, they will tank in the second half of the season to make sure they keep their top-10 protected pick.

From the moment Love decided to sign a four-year extension after James took off to Los Angeles, the Cavs have repeatedly said that they won’t tank. It’s one of the reasons why No. 0 decided to sign here long term. They hope that they can compete and earn a spot in the postseason, even if that means that they’ll miss out on their first-round pick.

With that said, if Cleveland can’t prove that they are a playoff-caliber team by the All-Star break, they will seemingly have no choice but to tank in the second half of the season to make sure they keep that pick, all while continuing to develop and looking ahead to the 2019-20 season.

Cleveland will make at least two trades prior to the trade deadline.

I hate talking about who will get traded simply because, in a perfect world, no one does because the Cavs are playing well. With that said, George Hill, JR Smith, and Kyle Korver all seem like guys that will likely be dealt to a playoff team before the deadline. All three veterans can help a team in the postseason.

Fan-favorite Cedi Osman, while many hope he is an All-Star this year, will average double-digit points and play over 27 minutes per game.

Scoring in double figures and playing in at least 27 minutes a night may not seem like much, but considering Osman averaged just 3.9 points in 11 minutes per game during his rookie campaign last season, that’s quite a leap. While some fans have already chalked him in as an All-Star, All-NBA, and even MVP, seeing major improvement from the fan favorite during his second season in the NBA would be huge for the Cavs.

Kevin Love will average at least 20 points and 14 rebounds a game.

He averaged just over 18 points and 11 rebounds per game in six seasons in Minnesota before his numbers dropped to 17.1 points and 10 rebounds per game over the last four years in Cleveland. With James no longer on the team, Love will be leaned on to be the team’s top option offensively, all while producing on both ends of the floor. The wine and gold will sure miss plenty of shots, especially early on, which gives Love an opportunity to collect rebounds. He’ll also be counted on to score 20 points a game if the Cavs want to compete.

Collin Sexton will lock up the starting point guard spot less than 20 games into the season.

He still needs to develop a consistent shot and not turn the ball over so much, but considering the Cavaliers would love to speed up the development process of Sexton, starting him seems like the best option to do so. While he won’t early on, the rookie will lock up the starting gig just under a fourth of the way through the season.

There’s no way the Cavs will miss out on the postseason and lose their first-round pick.

This would be devastating for the Cavs if they allow this to happen. No way it happens. Nope.

Rodney Hood will return to his Utah-self.

It was clear that Hood couldn’t handle playing alongside LeBron last season. He played too many mind games with himself and therefore struggled a lot. Seemingly without any pressure on him this season, Hood will return to the numbers he had with the Jazz. Cleveland may need that if they want to be competitive.

Kyle Korver will make plenty of threes, but his biggest influence for the future of the Cavs will be seen by how he helped Osman develop this offseason and throughout the season.

We saw it during the offseason. Osman seemed to change his shooting form into Korver’s, or at least something very close to it. If he can start shooting like the three-point specialist, the fans will love Cedi even more. They’ll appreciate Korver even more as well.

Jordan Clarkson will both take over some games and then be too overconfident and be abysmal some others.

If there was one person in this world that’s confident in Clarkson, it’s Clarkson himself. There will be points throughout the season where he gets on hot streaks, but the law of averages will also get us and he will turn into an unwatchable player at times as well.

Larry Nance Jr. will have at least five poster dunks.

Fresh off his first big payday, Nance loves Cleveland. In case Cavs fans already didn’t, they will love him as well. The Akron, Ohio native who finally returned home last season will bring the crowd to their feet with a few poster dunks this season.

Channing Frye will have at least two dunks.

He can’t dunk, we all know that. Well, he rarely dunks, anyways. Frye will have at least two dunks this year and then proceed to brag about it, whether it be on TV, radio, or the Road Trippin’ podcast.

JR Smith will throw soup at a coach again.

This is just to make sure you are still following along. Are you? If so, I’m impressed. Please let this happen again, all while your shirt is off and you’re twirling it around your head, JR. Cleveland will need plenty of funny (serious?) moments like this throughout this the season. Although many question how Smith will perform this year given that LeBron is no longer in town and the Cavs are supposed to be average at best, this would be yet another way to win the fans over again.