CLEVELAND, Ohio — Shortly before 11 a.m. today, the Cleveland Cavaliers (sans Matthew Dellavedova, Tristan Thompson, Andre Drummond and Cedi Osman) will leave their hotel rooms, take the service elevator downstairs, hop on the team bus, venture down the street, through about three traffic lights, and turn into Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for the first time since March 8 — a few days before the league stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This in-market mini-bubble, designed to mimic what the Cavs — and seven other NBA teams — lost because of their exclusion from the Disney restart, is something in which members of the front office have been clamoring.
For the first time in more than six months, the Cavs are permitted to practice. That includes up to one hour per day of 5-on-5 scrimmaging. It’s not training camp — even though this is right around the time camp typically begins. These are voluntary group workouts intended to foster team chemistry while also keeping the Cavs from falling too far behind 22 other franchises that were granted nearly two months of extra, invaluable, irreplaceable action in Orlando.
There are six practice sessions planned. About two-and-a-half hours per day. Both individual and group drills. There will also be a few days off, letting the Cavs carve out time for team-bonding activities inside the bubble. Players have the option of returning to the arena for late-night shooting sessions and many are expected to take advantage of that extra gym time. I mean, what else is there to do in a bubble besides watching sports, movies, playing cards or working out in the hotel gym that will be off limits to other guests for the next 10 days?
Free agents Thompson and Dellavedova didn’t come to town. Drummond is skipping due to a personal matter. Osman is still overseas. But the remainder of the roster, plus four G League invites (Sir’Dominic Pointer, Vincent Edwards, Marques Bolden and Levi Randolph) will be on the court.
Basketball is back. Sort of.
The participation from Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr. shows leadership and commitment. Still, this environment is more about the youngsters who need developmental reps, away from the mundane 1-on-0 or 1-on-1 setting that has driven the majority of this offseason. Those guys already lost out on 17 games in a coronavirus-shortened regular season. They didn’t get time to adjust to new head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
The Cavs’ best route to significant progress in 2020-21, whenever the season actually begins, is internal improvement. It’s why the organization was so peeved about not being invited to the league’s restart, forced to watch other rebuilding teams capitalize on eight highly-competitive matchups, three scrimmages and a bunch of practices.
“We wish there was Summer League. We wish we would’ve gotten reps down there in Orlando. We missed out,” A Cavs source told cleveland.com. “This will be really good for us. It’s about getting back, getting together as a team, practicing together, but I don’t know how much we can really try out in a short amount of time like teams could in Orlando.”
With the Cavs in their own bubble, spending the last two days quarantining at the team hotel, sources say fans should expect to see a hulked-up Collin Sexton, a slimmer and more toned Kevin Porter Jr. who has been sporting a braided-look hairstyle, an in-shape Darius Garland and a healthy Dylan Windler. Those four, all added in the draft’s first round over the last two years, will play the biggest part in the success — or failure — of this rebuild.
The next 10 days are a great opportunity for the coaching staff and front office to watch guys from a different lens. It won’t be solely about their altered physical appearance, movement or intensity throughout drills — the lone methods of evaluation inside Cleveland Clinic Courts. Live action allows for better assessment. This setting will be the first chance to see how offseason improvements…
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