The Cleveland Cavaliers have done what many thought was impossible and brought home LeBron James. While the prodigal son returning is obviously tremendously exciting, there is one thing and one thing only that drives LeBron James at this point in his career. Winning championships. So are the Cavaliers currently a contender? Well, the answer is probably to be determined. We've seen a 24 win Celtics team become a champion the following year by adding stars, young guys stepping up and the stars aligning. We've also seen a Miami super-team take a year to build the chemistry necessary to win. So what is next for the Cleveland Cavaliers?
Moving forward they will need to address their frontcourt as the current rotation of Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varejao, Anthony Bennett and Brendon Haywood is probably not sufficient. The most likely route that David Griffin will pursue in order to address this position would be through the trade market. The Cavaliers have been linked recently to players such as Kevin Love and Al Horford. The addition of LeBron James will no doubt open up new doors for the Cavaliers, who have an impressive stable of young talent and draft picks to help make a deal happen.
The next step will be surrounding the core with veterans and players that fit. Ray Allen and Mike Miller are two such players that have reportedly been contacted by LeBron in order to gauge their interest in joining him if he were to make this decision.
I have a tremendous amount of faith that David Griffin will do everything in his power to fill the roster with the best talent available. He and the Cavaliers front office deserve credit for everything they did in order to make this happen as well as former general manager Chris Grant. While he made a lot of mistakes along the way and his dismissal was deserved; he did get the franchise in the position it is today and that position was good enough to attract LeBron James.
While a lot of work remains, I'm beyond excited to have LeBron back on this roster. He was the player that I had looked up to during my formative years as a Cleveland Cavaliers fan and in life. While there is still some complicated feelings lingering and things will never quite be the same. He still brings this team back into a contender status just by his presence and that is something that the city of Cleveland and the best fans in the NBA deserve.