{"id":1740,"date":"2007-10-30T06:18:23","date_gmt":"2007-10-30T11:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/cleveland-cavaliers\/"},"modified":"2007-10-30T06:18:23","modified_gmt":"2007-10-30T11:18:23","slug":"cleveland-cavaliers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/cleveland-cavaliers","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Cavaliers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record<\/strong>
\n48-34 (Tom), 54-28 (Gil)<\/p>\n

Last Year’s Record<\/strong>
\n50-32<\/p>\n

Gil’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nThe biggest victims of the subprime mortgage crisis appear to be Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao, who can’t get bupkes out of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, who made his fortune at online mortgage broker Quicken Loans. Improbably enough, both players were vital contributors to the Cavs’ even more improbable NBA finals run. That run was similar to the back-to-back finals appearances by the Nets from 2001-2003. As a Nets fan, I had a great ride, but I never really believed it was happening, which is a sure sign of succeeding in a weak division. I think Cavs fans felt the same way.<\/p>\n

In this case, the Cavs benefited from the fact that Flip Saunders was coaching the other team in the eastern finals. Mike Brown, on the other hand, got his team focused on defense and designed offensive sets that skillfully got everyone out of LeBron’s way.<\/p>\n

In addition to failing to re-sign its free agents, the team hasn’t added any new talent. They seem to think that Boobie Gibson will blossom into a legit player and that Larry Hughes will be able to do anything that complements LeBron’s game, and that LeBron will be capable of repeating his monster-sized run from the playoffs, even though he slacked off for half of last season.<\/p>\n

Rejoinder From Tom<\/strong>
\nLeBron James Over-Exposure Hangover Year.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Comics Connection<\/strong>
\nHarvey Pekar is not only Cleveland’s great comic book signifier, he’s one of Cleveland’s great signifiers, period.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Pharma Connection<\/strong>
\nI spent 24 hours in Cleveland to visit a contract manufacturer of cytotoxic drugs. It doesn’t get any better than that.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong>
\nThat said, the east will probably be haggard enough that the Cavs will continue to be a top 3 team, and 54 wins is more than the Nets managed to win in either of those finals runs.\u00c2\u00a0 –GR<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record 48-34 (Tom), 54-28 (Gil) Last Year’s Record 50-32 Gil’s Commentary The biggest victims of the subprime mortgage crisis appear to be Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao, who can’t get bupkes out of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, who made his fortune at online mortgage broker Quicken Loans. Improbably enough, both players were vital contributors … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Cleveland Cavaliers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1713,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"nba0708index.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1740","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4C7K-s4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1463,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007\/nba-2006-2007-playoff-previews","url_meta":{"origin":1740,"position":0},"title":"2006-2007 Playoffs","author":"Gil","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Introduction I'm told that the Phoenix Suns are the odds maker's second pick behind the Mavericks to win the NBA Championship. The Spurs are third. Obviously the Western Conference merely has to show up and they'll be handed the trophy by either Detroit or Miami. But I don't care who\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007\/nba-2006-2007-playoff-previews#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1715,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/boston-celtics","url_meta":{"origin":1740,"position":1},"title":"Boston Celtics","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 52-30 (Tom), 54-28 (Gil) Last Year's Record 24-58 Eric Grunfeld's Commentary While the summer acquisition of two all-stars in Garnett & Allen has Boston fans thinking Championship, I strongly disagree. The NBA is a league where it takes time to jell and work as a cohesive unit before\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/boston-celtics#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1755,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/tip-off-interview","url_meta":{"origin":1740,"position":2},"title":"Tip-Off Interview","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"To celebrate the Tipoff of the NBA season, I did an interview yesterday on the Adam Taxin Radio Show on WNWR 1540 AM in Philadelphia. You can download the audio (mp3, about about 3mb) or just read this transcript: Adam Taxin: The baseball season ended not much more than 24\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/tip-off-interview#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1181,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1740,"position":3},"title":"NBA Preview 2006-2007","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the Juggernaut, bitch! ATLANTIC Boston Celtics by Tom Spurgeon New Jersey Nets by Gil Roth New York Knicks by Gil Roth Philadelphia 76ers by Adam Taxin Toronto Raptors by Sam Richezza CENTRAL Chicago Bulls by Tom Spurgeon Cleveland Cavaliers by Tom Spurgeon Detroit Pistons by Tom Spurgeon Indiana Pacers\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1716,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/nj-nets","url_meta":{"origin":1740,"position":4},"title":"NJ Nets","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 42-40 (Tom), 45-37 (Gil) Last Year's Record 41-41 Gil's Commentary Some think this Nets squad will fall out of the playoffs, but that's crazy-talk. As long as Kidd is somewhat healthy, he'll maximize the output of the team's lesser players and keep them in the hunt for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1713,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1740,"position":5},"title":"NBA 2007-08 Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time for the race (well, marathon) to see who will keep the Spurs from repeating THIS time! Which is to say, \"The new NBA season is upon us!\" Sure, the league's been pummeled lately, what with the referee-gambling scandal, the Knicks' ugly sexual harassment suit, and the uncompetitive finals.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1740\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}