Cavaliers Links Roundup: Tristan's kiss, LeBron's forgiveness, the Love-to-Bosh comparison, and more

The actual start of the NBA season is less than two weeks away. Are you excited? Are you ready? Fear the Sword will continue to get you both excited and ready with a bunch of player previews, preseason game coverage, and other stuff over the next few days. In the meantime, here's some other stuff you can read about the Cleveland Cavaliers from other websites.

Yahoo's Kelly Dwyer thought it was inappropriate for Tristan Thompson to kiss sideline reporter Allie Clifton on the cheek during a pre-game interview on Friday night:

Just because Allie Clifton remained calm and professional and kept a smile following the buss, it doesn't mean Tristan Thompson wasn't straight up sexually harassing her. She remained calm and professional because she is a professional - that is to say, she's doing her [EXPLETIVE DELETED] job. Don't kiss someone without their consent, ever, and don't kiss someone without their consent while they're doing their job.

Derek James wrote at Hardwood Paroxysm about LeBron James forgiving Dan Gilbert:

James summarizes forgiveness pretty well here, and you would assume Gilbert is on the same page. Certainly, a lack of forgiveness would have held James and the Cavaliers back. Without James, there is likely also no Kevin Love. Without James and Love, the Cavaliers wouldn't be in the position that they're in this season. Life, like NBA careers, are too finite to cling bitterly onto the past.

LeBron has a new Beats by Dre commercial out, and it's pretty neat.

USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt wrote about Kevin Love, and compared him to Chris Bosh:

Interestingly, Miami's Chris Bosh might be a rough blueprint for Love. In 2009-10 - the season before Bosh joined the Heat - he averaged 24 points and 10.8 rebounds for the Toronto Raptors. In four seasons with Miami, Bosh never averaged more than 18.7 points and 8.3 rebounds. Bosh sacrificed scoring and rebounds, but it also turned him into a more versatile player offensively and defensively. It also led to two NBA championships.

David Wood of Cavs: the blog previewed the entire Central Division, and -- as expected -- found that the Bulls would be the biggest threat to the Cavs:

If any team is taking out the Cavs, it will be the Bulls, and the worst part is they will be giving the Cavs trouble even if Derrick Rose isn't fully back to form. The Bulls defense is designed to cut shots in the paint and to limit threes. Unfortunately, those areas are the Cav's favorite areas, and the Cavs have guys that may fall into the trap of taking the long twos the Bulls allow (Dion Waiters definitely will, and LeBron James has been known to take that shot too).

Jeff McMenamin imagined a world in which Michael Carter-Williams could have ended up on the Cavs:

So what would be the next step if Irving did not sign? Well, instead of Andrew Wiggins being shipped off to Minnesota for Kevin Love, there could have been a trade with Philadelphia in the works involving Wiggins (and potentially Anthony Bennett) for Carter-Williams and a combination of Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid and Thaddeus Young. It would give the Cavaliers a backup plan with a ton of potential to pair with LeBron, and it would give the Sixers the man they had been pining for on draft night along with an intriguing prospect in Bennett.

ICYMI from a couple of weeks ago, here's Zach Lowe's Cavs preview.

And finally, Luke Sicari of King James Gospel looked at what the Cavs' rookies might be able to contribute, including the potential for Joe Harris to be a real weapon:

According to DraftExpress, 31.8% of Harris' offensive possessions had him coming off screens, which was in the top ten of the entire nation. Harris has an uncanny ability to gather himself quickly and put up the shot, even with a defender in his face while coming off screens. Harris shot 41.8% off screens last season. Shooting of off-ball screens is one of the key aspects of Blatt's innovate offensive and thankfully, that is one of the best parts of Harris' game.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any links that could be included in our weekly Fear the Links posts.