Pax Clevelanda: An era of peace upcoming for the Cavaliers

Things change rapidly in the NBA. Free agency, trades, injuries, and increasingly lucrative options abroad contribute to a dizzying amount of player movement. Approximately one-third of the players on any given NBA roster will change from one season to the next. Even marquee players can switch jerseys: three of the 15 players on last year's All-NBA teams (LeBron, LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Durant) have changed teams in the past two years, another one tried but was held hostage and prevented from doing so (DeAndre Jordan), and two more may be on the move soon (Cousins and Westbrook).

It's much the same for coaches; 12 of the 30 NBA teams will begin the 2016 season with a different coach than they had on opening night in 2015. Among the 18 holdovers, the median tenure is three seasons, and just four coaches in the NBA (Casey, Spoelstra, Carlisle and Popovich) have been with their current teams for five or more years.

The Cleveland Cavaliers haven't been exempt from the whirlwind. During LeBron's first tenure with the Cavs, spanning seven seasons and more than 600 contests, he had 69 different teammates. Just eight of them appeared alongside him in 200 or more games (Boobie Gibson, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Damon Jones, Ira Newble, Sasha Pavlovic, Eric Snow, and Anderson Varejao). He had three different coaches, one of whom (Mike Brown) lasted five seasons, essentially an eternity in professional basketball, but the situation was hardly stable. Playoff failures and obvious flaws (most notably an unimaginative offense) made the latter half of his tenure simmer with tension. When it all fell apart, Brown was the first to go, and a month and a half later, LeBron made The Decision to leave as well.

It wasn't all roses following The Return, either. The Cavs hired David Blatt prior to having LeBron in the fold, and their arranged marriage didn't exactly go smoothly. Some weeds needed to be pulled from the roster, most notably Dion Waiters. Kevin Love struggled to fit in, the team's centers failed to perform (until a mid-season trade for Timofey Mozgov helped solidify things up front), and injuries ultimately derailed their hopes for a title.

Things appeared to be going smoother in year two, but under the surface, resentment for David Blatt was bubbling up. In January, they boiled over. When Ty Lue was promoted, he became the Cavs' fourth coach in as many seasons, which is a remarkable sign of instability, even in an unstable league.

Despite that, Lue was exactly what the team needed. They marched through the East, stormed back after going down three games to one in the Finals, Kyrie Irving hit 'The Shot', and Cleveland got a parade. The parties on Huron, Ontario, Carnegie, 9th and Lakeside  were a celebration of what the Cavs accomplished - but in another way, they can be seen as ushering in a new era of peace and stability in The Land: the Pax Clevelanda.

LeBron is committed to staying in Cleveland for the foreseeable future. Assuming relative health (knock on wood), he'll reach the aforementioned 200-game plateau with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, all three of whom are under contract through the 2019-20 season on deals that will become absurdly team-friendly under the rising cap. Iman Shumpert is signed through 2018-19. Veterans (and steady locker room guys) Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson are on the books through 2017-18. J.R. Smith hasn't signed yet, but a contract extension appears to be a formality at this point.  Head coach Ty Lue has been given a new five year, $35 million deal that runs through the 2020-21 season, providing him much-needed security as well.

This entire core group, led by General Manager David Griffin, is in place and under contract for a long, long time (at least, what is considered to be a long, long time in the realm of pro hoops).There's no guarantee an Shumpert trade won't become prudent at some point, or that Jefferson will retire before his contract is up, or even that Kevin Love drama could pop up again at some point. Overall, the Cavs are in place to be a steady contender for at least the next half-decade.

So while the mainstream NBA media will undoubtedly attach themselves on the Bay Area Basketball Conglomerate, let us not forget that it is the Cleveland Cavaliers who have the best player in the world, dry ink on long-term deals for his most important teammates (and head coach), and the Larry O'Brien trophy in their house. Peace, stability, and winning basketball have come to The Land. Let's settle in and savor the Pax Clevelanda.