They had Steve Blake (a poor man’s Mo Williams) and Brandon Roy (a very poor man’s LeBron) playing together. Roy, a 6′7″ point forward was the primary playmaker often (especially in 4th quarters) and Blake was a tweener who could handle the ball but was very comfortable hitting spot up 3s.

The key is having two dynamic offensive threats – the Cavs have never had this. Not only is going to lead to more easy baskets – which should keep Lebron fresh, but it is going to improve their team Shooting Percentage which is always at the bottom of the league. The Cavs win with defense and rebounding. Offense has been their achilles heel, so if that is improved and the defense stays the same, they are immediately a very dangerous team.

Mo williams has the skill set to improve the Cavalier’s offense. And if Varejao, Pavlovic, and Gibson are healthy and show the gradual improvement that most young players (all under 25) show, then their offense will improve there as well.

But here’s the way I am looking at it. First of all – Mo Williams is a great shooter. Yes he likes to pull up and create offense for himself, but trust me – he is a good shooter. Guys that can hit 3s off the dribble generally don’t have trouble spotting up. Now very often spot up 3 points shooters don’t have the athleticism to shoot them off the dribble. I watched some of the Cavs preseason games and I saw a few things that showed me what the Cavs are capable of. First of all, I saw LeBron fire a few SPOT UP 3s – which he NEVER, I repeat NEVER gets. In fact LeBron almost never gets spot up j’s PERIOD. He has to create EVERYTHING on his own. In the final preseason game against washington, there was a sequence in the 3rd quarter where Mo Williams had the ball, made a move on his defender, drove the lane, a washington help defender stepped up and LeBron’s man kinda collapsed on Mo will and he kicked it out to LeBron who laced a spot up 3. that NEVER happens. It sounds very simple – but it’s something the Cavs have never had – Lebron has always been the best ball-handler, best passer, and best scorer. Now they have a legitimate point guard. Say what you want about Mo Will’s sticky fingers, but it matters not – as long as he is an efficient scorer, that’s all Cleveland needs. they don’t need him to average 10 assists a game. this is playmaking by committee. LeBron is going to be the primary playmaker and Mo will needs to feed off that, just like Lebron needs to feed off Mo Will – it’s a very interesting setup. how many teams can say they have a legitimate point guard and a legitimate point forward – BOTH who are efficient scorers and excellent ball handlers?? I’m trying to think of a team like this – and all I can come up with is Houston – T-Mac is a playmaker – a good passer and he creates a lot of the offense. Rafer Alston is their PG but he often is hitting spot up 3s off T-mac dishes. Mo Williams is a better shooter than Rafer though and LeBron is the best playmaker in the NBA. But you get the idea.

As far as athleticism – there are plenty of good teams that aren’t full of track stars. But as for the Cavs – I think you are underrating their athleticism. First of all, the ball-handlers on the Cavs are athletic. Mo Williams is very very quick and Lebron as everyone agrees is THE MOST athletic player in the NBA if not all professional sports. Delonte West is not that quick in the shifty sense but he has mad hops and a great nose for the ball. He always ranks near the top in rebounds for his position. I will agree that the main bigs of Cleveland aren’t particularly athletic – but they all rebound very well – and that is their job. They don’t need to be streaking down the court a la shawn marion. Philly is the best fast break team in the NBA and it’s because guys like AI are the ones finishing. On the Cavs who is going to be finishing fast breaks?? LeBron, LeBron, LeBron, and sometimes Mo williams and Delonte West – the ATHLETIC guys. Big Z, Big Ben, and Varejao are going to be rebounding and throwing the outlet passes.

Look, as far as defense is concerned, the Cavs have NEVER had great defensive personnel other than Eric Snow. But Mike Brown has this team playing championship caliber defense. They were the best defensive team in the playoffs last year – even better than Boston and that was a essentially the same team as they have now. Joe Smith was NOT a good defender – trust me, KG burned him enough times. Hughes was gone long b4 the playoffs although I agree he was an underrated defender (good hands). But they played championship caliber defense in spite of poor health. Varejao is healthy, Pavlovic is healthy, Gibson is healthy, and LeBron is going to be playing a lot at the 4, where he is DEVASTATING on defense – as evident by the Olympics. He calls out all the rotations, can sneak into passing lanes, and is strong enough to help out against most bigs.

This team will be a top 3 defensive team come seasons end, behind only Houston and maybe Boston.

A-Train, I like the Pacers in a year. I just don’t know if they have the speed outside of Ford to excel in transition. They don’t have many perimeter defenders, and I don’t know if they have enough raw offense to compensate. They’re a team that could surprise but I’m a bit more tempered about their expectations.

Tsunami, Whenever I used to see Williams do his damage, it was driving and pulling, and he’d have trouble spotting up. Others have questioned the validity of that statement, so maybe I’ve just seen him have a lot of bad games.

And is Williams so good at blowing by his man, and especially passing after drawing, that he’d automatically draw a help defender, and automatically make a good pass? He has a history of sticky fingers.

Obviously LeBron is ridiculously athletic but he hasn’t been the problem. David West and Mo Williams are average to slightly above average for point guard athleticism, but that’s it. Pavlovic has moments where he looks explosive, and then he faces good teams, and he’s exposed for being slow as molasses. Big Z is slow, Ben Wallace is slow, Wally Szczerbiak is slow, for a point guard, Daniel Gibson is relatively slow, Andy Varejao can’t create his own offense, these are the supporting cast members who are asked to complement LeBron and there isn’t much there.

Smith was a smart help defender, and Larry Hughes was a better defender than he was given credit for. They’re both gone. Ben Wallace is breaking down. Big Z is ancient. Pavloovic isn’t anything special, Williams can’t defend…there’s still a lot of problems with Cleveland’s roster.

They’re tough enough and strong enough where they’ll beat up whatever too-soft first round opponent they get (unless it’s Cleveland), but I wonder if they have the supporting cast to get by Boston.

Bullsblogger, Hinrich has preety good court vision and is a good shooter. Condense the description, and you get heady shooter =)

I’d like to know what the heck this means.

Mo Williams is one of the best spot up shooters in the league. So i don’t know where you got he’s not a great spot up shooter.

When Mo Williams gets into the paint, it’s going to make a help defender converge – when he passes out of it, LeBron now has the ball and the defense is out of “LeBron Position”. The Cavs have desperately need a point guard that can break down defenses – and that is what Mo Williams can do.

As far as being unathletic…well, LeBron is the most athletic player in the league. Mo Williams is fast – and Delonte West is one of the more athletic guards in the league – as evident by his excellent rebound rate. The question marks are Pavlovic and Varajeo – who both looked much more explosive in the pre-season.

I guess we’ll see – but as a Cavs fan, my BIGGEST focus of excitement so far this pre-season has been HOW ATHLETIC the Cavs have looked.

The Cavs biggest questions are front court depth – but they are young, fast, and they didn’t get WORSE on defense? They were one of the best defensive teams in the league at the end of last year – the only personnel they have lost since then are Joe Smith (not a good defensive player) and Damon Jones (a defensive liability). Not to mention the fact that Pavlovic only gets minutes because he’s a pretty good defensive player and he’s healthy again – along with Varajeo, who was injured most of last year.

The Cavs have a high ceiling this year.

The Bucks are a sexier pick because of the names, but they have a glaring hole at point guard, and they too play zero defense. They also lack the depth the Pacers have.

Good analysis overall… I’m just disagreeing with you on Indy.