What we’ll miss about the Cavs while they’re gone

Here, a few FTS staffers share what they are missing with the Cavs away right. Be sure to share yours below. Again: we don’t plan to go anywhere and will do our best to keep engaging with you.

Chris Manning (@cwmwrites): Something I often take for granted is that I get to cover games in person. I frankly don’t go as much as I used to either, particularly on weeknights because of a day job and that pesky need for sleep. But I miss going to games - being at the arena, talking to people in the organization, seeing players go through their warm-ups - and working in that environment.

I am not the best at working a locker room or establishing connections with people. Ask anyone who knows me — I’m an awkward person. But right now, more than ever, I miss being in that social environment and trying to do something different that the other reporters there. When I am able to get back in the arena, I’m excited to push myself to do more. I’ll never take being that close for granted again.

Justin Rowan (@Cavsanada): I think what I’m going to miss is just the communal aspect that comes with games. Either getting together with friends to watch, or logging in online to talk about what is happening. Having that escape taken away at a time where distractions are desperately needed is a tough blow.

With the Cavs I really was interested to see how this season would finish. Collin Sexton was on an unbelievable streak as a scorer, Kevin Porter Jr. was getting better by the week and Darius Garland, while inconsistent, seemed to have the game slowing down for him. Even if this season resumes at some point there aren’t really enough games left to get back into game shape and any momentum has been lost.

None of this is important when you look at the larger picture. But these things are the type of enjoyable questions to run through your head, especially when you contrast it to the stress myself and everybody else will be dealing with for the foreseeable future.

David Zavac (@davidzavac): Well, it could be a very difficult way to see Tristan Thompson’s career with the Cavs come to an end. That really could be the full substance of my response and I think it’d be enough. Truthfully, this is perhaps good for Darius Garland. Maybe it blunts some of Collin Sexton’s improvement, but he showed enough. Cedi Osman was probably due for a break as well. In some ways, the season ending now is probably best for most of the Cavs organization, as there is sort of an era of good feelings at the moment.

But we’ll all miss Tristan, I think.

Jackson Flickinger (@akron_jackson): Watching the Cavs hasn’t always been fun this season. They were the second worst team and they don’t have a former MVP coming back to bail them out next season. While it was mostly bleak, there were still times you could catch a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll miss looking for that light.

Darius Garland, Colin Sexton, and Kevin Porter Jr. haven’t always been good, but there were brief moments where you could see them piece it all together. Garland struggled this season but seeing him take over the fourth quarter in Denver made me wonder if there is something there. We saw him hit step back threes and disrupt the defense repeatedly en route to taking down one of the best teams in the league. That game made me hopeful for what his ceiling as a point guard might look like.

Sexton’s 41 point game against Boston showed just how electric of a scorer he can be. Boston couldn’t stop him from getting to the rim even though the Cavs had no other options that game. Having a game like that made me hope that being an efficient high-volume scorer could be the norm for him.

Kevin Porter Jr.’s overtime performance against Miami showed just how far he’s come in a short time. Many times this year he struggled to get on the floor at the end of games. This was different. Here we saw him not just in the closing lineup, but taking over the game by showing glimpses of all-star level skills.

These three games shouldn’t mean anything in how we evaluate them as players, but they gave us hope for a what a brighter basketball future would look like. I’m going to miss watching for that.

Evan Dammarell (@AmNotEvan): I think I’ll miss most what Chris, Justin and David have all already touched upon. I miss being able to walk into Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse two hours before tipoff and feel the electricity and anticipation for tonight’s game in the air building. I miss being able to connect with other people who love this team, both in-person and online, and talk about the Cavs or the NBA as a whole. I’ll miss Tristan, and Kevin, and Delly, and any of the players that likely won’t be here next season both as a fan and as someone who covers this team.

I just miss all of it. I haven’t been part of the Cavs or NBA community for long but with the one thing unifying all of us now gone it feels a bit empty right now. Even more so with sports becoming so ingratiated with our culture and a lot of us using it as a temporary escape from reality. With the news being so heavy with everything going on, not being able to tune in to watch Cleveland’s future blossom is a bummer. So, I won’t take it for granted when it does eventually return and I want to do whatever I can to help make this fun, weird, sometimes frustrating community even more awesome when it happens.