By Brian Fitzsimmons
PA SportsTicker Staff Writer

COACH: Mike Brown (fourth season, 145-101)

ARRIVALS: F Lorenzen Wright (free agent), G Mo Williams (trade
with Milwaukee Bucks), F Darnell Jackson (second-round pick), F
J.J. Hickson (first-round pick)

DEPARTURES: G Damon Jones

IN A WORD: Urgency

SLAM DUNKS: LeBron James perhaps is the most prolific player in
the game, making the Cavaliers a bonafide winner out of the
gate. He is an electric scorer with the gifted ability to take
over a game and, because of this "Jordanesque" way of
dominating, the Cavs are actually a whole lot more dangerous in the
playoffs than in the regular season. After all, it's easier to
win a short series than leg out an 82-game schedule with ease.
Entering this season, James has more help than he did last year.
The team added point guard Williams, who averaged 17.2 points and
6.3 assists with the Bucks. James has yet to play with a true
playmaker at the point, so this addition should help them cut the
margin the Detroit Pistons have created over the years. They also
re-signed guards Daniel Gibson and Delonte West and drafted two
promising big men - Hickson and Jackson. Regardless, it's hard to
ignore that the Cavaliers missed out on a division title by 14 games
last season. That shortcoming came during a transition year in which
Cleveland's braintrust did a fantastic job of ridding itself of bad
contracts and dead weight. The Cavs suffered with guard Larry Hughes,
whose time with the club was an expensive, cap-killing fiasco. At the
trade deadline, they cut the cord on his tenure by trading him along
with almost half the roster in an 11-player, three-team blockbuster.
Cleveland sent Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown to
Chicago for Ben Wallace and Joe Smith; and then dealt Donyell Marshall
and Ira Newble to Seattle for West and Wally Szczerbiak. Perhaps we can
throw James' team a mulligan for dealing with chronic changes.
One must not forget the team got just 48 games from Anderson
Varejao, who averaged 8.3 rebounds.

AIR BALLS: Fixing their woes on the road is one aspect the Cavs
must address. They went 18-23 away from Quicken Loans Arena -
tied with three teams for the third-worst mark of the eight
Eastern Conference playoff qualifiers. Cleveland won 50 games
two years in a row and then dipped to a pedestrian 45-37 record
in the regular season in 2007-08. Sure, a first-round win over
the fifth-seeded Washington Wizards was nice, but a Game Seven
loss to the eventual champion Boston Celtics was downright
heartbreaking to this team trudging through a time of urgency.
Will the possibility of James testing the free agent market in
summer of 2010 slowly form a black cloud of negativity over this
franchise? No one knows for sure, but it should develop into a
daunting task to fend off as time goes on. Having a very thin
squad behind James doesn't help matters, either. Cleveland's
frontline is dependent on Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Ben Wallace,
two players that are limited offensively and running on empty
tanks.

GUESSWORK: The Cavaliers have made the playoffs three straight
seasons and have yet to get thwarted in the first round.
They've also made it to the Finals, but will this be the year
they finally get over the hump? ... This team relies on James
like humans rely on air to breathe. What happens if he were to
go down with injury? Well, what would happen if we didn't have
air? ... How much will Williams step up as the floor general?
Or, a better question - how good will this team be if he can
truly serve as Robin to Batman? ... Like mentioned before, will
LeBron's off-court life affect the Cavaliers? Are the whispers
of sweet nothings by New Jersey Nets part-owner and close buddy
Jay-Z loud enough to cause a disturbance in Cleveland?

D-LEAGUE CANDIDATE: Jackson

THE COACH SAYS: "No disrespect to the media, but I couldn't care
less where other people say we're going to finish. I like our
team. We are a championship-caliber team. A lot of things have
to go right for you to win a championship at any level,
including luck and good health. We have what it takes to make a
run at it. I have felt that way every year since I've been
here, though the first year was different because I didn't know
what we had, and they didn't know me. After that, we've been
good enough to contend. As long as our inner circle believes,
that's how we take it. We're OK with flying under the radar,"
Brown said to the Cleveland Plain Dealer

OUTLOOK: James' presence will make any team a contender,
especially in a weak conference. This team will finish behind
the Pistons, but by a smaller margin than last season. Perhaps
the Boston Celtics, Pistons or even the Philadelphia 76ers will
be the cream of the crop in the East. However, it's near
impossible to write the Cavs off during the early stages of the
season. If coach Brown can get any production from his
frontline, they could make a serious run at a conference
championship.