Kevin->Write(thoughts, browser, time)

1. CLEVELAND
The big problem: Hey, speaking of GMs who screwed up the decade for their teams ... it's Danny Ferry! When you're trying to make the Finals with Eric Snow and David Wesley on pace for a combined 2,500 minutes, you know you've really accomplished something substantially crappy. What a shame. It's like the NBA decided to give LeBron a degree of difficulty to become the greatest player of all time. Here's how bad the situation is: Unless Larry Hughes can stay healthy (apparently an impossibility at this point), the Cavs' best five is Damon Jones, LeBron, Sasha Pavlovic, Anderson Varejao and Drew Gooden. Does that sound like the starting lineup of an NBA Finals team to you? Didn't think so.

Most interesting subplot: My buddy House went to a Cavs-Wiz game two Saturdays ago and reported that LeBron submitted one of those full-fledged "no matter how this game turns out, I really don't give a crap either way" performances out of the VC Playbook. Can't remember MJ ever having one of those.

Random fact No. 1: LeBron takes a four-hour nap after the team's shootaround on game days, explaining, "If anything's going on that's important between 12 and 4, I probably missed it."

Random fact No. 2: Cavs coach Mike Brown owns 22 different pairs of glasses that are color coordinated to his suits.

Random Fact No. 3: I didn't make either of the last two facts up.

Random prediction: Somebody is going to get into a fantastic brawl with Anderson Varejao this season. Mark my words. He's like the Daniel LaRusso of the NBA -- he has a natural instinct for pissing people off. You watch.

Worst-case scenario: Can you have a worst-case scenario when LeBron is involved? I say no.

Best-case scenario: One of the top seeds and at least one shady trade ordered by the Commish so that the 2007 Finals maintains a semblance of competitiveness. Did you ever think the Cavs could get Sam Dalembert, Kyle Korver and Andre Iguodala from the Sixers for Ilgauskas, Ira Newble and Eric Snow? Well, it's about to happen!

Prognosis: 52-55 wins and the title "Winner of the worst conference in the history of professional sports."

I think I'm going to do status reports every ten games throughout the season, since I can't seem to make non-Cavs blog posts.

Record: 7-3, First in the Central Division, Second in the Eastern Conference

Last Ten Games (* means games that I saw all or part of)
W-Washington(*)
W-@San Antonio(*)
L-@Charlotte
L-Atlanta(*)
W-Chicago(*)
W-Boston
W-@New York(*)
W-Portland
W-Minnesota
L-@Washington(*)

Big Ups: Sasha Pavlovic has been coming to play. Damon Jones has a pulse. Doc Gooden has carried the team at times. LeBron is LeBron.
Big Downs: Z is decomposing on the court. Free throw shooting has been horrid. Hughes is hurt again. Varejao looks like he's taken a step back.

This is a pretty easy early schedule, and those losses to Charlotte and Atlanta don't look so good, but a big win in San Antonio and good wins at home over Chicago and Washington are promising. The easy schedule continues for the rest of the month, with Memphis, Toronto, the suddenly shaky Pacers, the Sixers, and the awful Knicks again before December; this is probably the best strech of games for Hughes to miss, so if I thought that this would be the only stretch of games that he would miss, I would be optimistic. When Hughes is out, the Cavs need LeBron to be out of his mind to beat anyone good; he might be out of his mind often enough to keep them above water-but he might not. A starting backcourt of David Wesley and Eric Snow wouldn't be an adequate starting backcourt in the Big Ten. Still, if you had to pick a team that looks like the class of the East so far, you'd pick the Cavs. Unfortunately, this says more about the state of the Eastern Conference then it does about the Cavs.