The Point Four-ward: Let’s Give ‘Em B-ball to Talk About…

Four points I’m thinking as the Cleveland Cavaliers kick off their 2015 preseason schedule this week…

1.) I don’t expect much clarity this week about what this team might look like sans Tristan Thompson for (should it come to it) the long term. Kevin Love still hasn’t been cleared to fully participate in practice and Timofey Mozgov is, according to Blatt, only at 60% of his necessary conditioning following off-season knee surgery. Also, while Anderson Varejao has been drawing the expected encouraging reviews following his return from a December 2014 achilles tear, the team plans to let him get his legs back slowly.

In Monday’s Wine and Gold Scrimmage, the Wine team tipped off with what will probably be David Blatt’s starting line-up until Love is ready to return: Mo Williams, J.R. Smith, LeBron James, James Jones and Mozgov.

With Thompson still holding out and Love, Mozgov and Varejao all limited to some extent, expect to see a lot of Sasha Kaun this preseason. Blatt, who coached Kaun on the Russian National Team, has been playing the 6-10 former Kansas Jayhawk at both center and power forward, and Kaun has already showed two qualities that tend to endear a big man to James: great hands and a high-energy, defensive mindset.

Kaun scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds in Monday’s scrimmage.

2.) Another thing to keep an eye on during the preseason: which, if any, of the team’s camp invitees will take advantage of the injuries to the Cavs back court. With both of the team’s expected starters — Kyrie Irving (knee) and Iman Shumpert (wrist) — out with injury, there could be an opening for the likes of Quinn Cook, the 6-2 undrafted rookie from Duke, 6-4 Jared Cunningham or the 6-5 athletic bundle that is D.J. Stephens.

Cunningham and Stephens both threw down some nice dunks in the scrimmage, showing their athletic ability is as advertised. As Mike mentioned in his scrimmage recap, though, it’s difficult to see the Cavs going with Cunningham, due to his poor outside shooting, and Stephens must continue to show that he is a basketball player, not just a draft combine wonder.

Cook impressed by playing under control and running the team effectively on his way to 13 points. But, even with Irving out for an unspecified amount of time, does the team really need to carry a third point guard when they have both Williams and Matthew Dellavedova capable of filling that role?

It will also be interesting to see how Austin Daye plays during the preseason. Daye is a six-year veteran and, at 6-11, has legit three point range. He’s also thin as a blade of grass, and was waived by the Spurs last January, less than a year after acquiring him, prompting SB Nation Spurs writer Jesus Gomez to opine, “This year has left no doubt that Daye is not suited to be a rotation player on a good team.”

3.) The Cavs’ first preseason game, a rematch against last season’s Eastern Conference Finals opponent, the Atlanta Hawks will take place tonight in Cincinnati. The Hawks, much like the Cavs, will be easing some key contributors back into action.

Their presumptive starting small forward, Thabo Sefolosha, is still recovering from a leg injury sustained in an incident with the police outside a New York City night club, during which Sefolosha was charged with resisting arrest. With his injury — and with the trial contesting those charges kicking off in Manhattan this week — it’s unlikely Sefolosha will be ready to go to start the season.

Likewise, Hawks guards Kyle Korver and Shelvin Mack have also been cleared to resume basketball activities, though cleared to “differing degrees.” This makes it sound unlikely that Wednesday will see Korver sharing the court with Matthew Dellavedova for the first time since Dellavedova injured Korver while diving for a loose ball in Game 2 of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals.

Al Horford, who got ejected from Game 3 of that series after putting a little extra mustard on the end of a tie-up with Dellavedova, is expected to play, though, meaning that the “Delly Villain Watch” will get almost less rest this off-season than the Cavs’ players.

4.) Meanwhile, the Cavs’ opponent on Thursday night, the Philadelphia 76ers, are looking forward to another down season — and that’s by design. When looking at the Sixers, the question is less whether or not this will be another losing season, than will this be the losing season when the tank-think Sixers will start to show glimpses of the competitive team they keep telling their fans they will be one day. Their long game of draft-and-rehab hit its first significant hitch this off-season with the news that Joel Embiid, the third overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, is expected to miss his second consecutive season after needing more surgery on his injured right foot.

Even with Embiid’s injury, it’s the Sixers’ front court that bears watching the most, as they’ve paired the defensive-minded Nerlens Noel with rookie center Jahlil Okafor, the most offensively polished and NBA-ready big man in last June’s draft. With the rest of the Sixers’ starting five, guards Isaiah Canaan and Robert Covington, and forward JaKarr Sampson, not exactly striking fear in the hearts of opponents, Sixers coach Brett Brown will have to be able to squeeze the type of hustling, high-energy play that made his team a tougher out than expected most of last season. While common NBA sense says that it’s difficult to squeeze maximum effort out of young players season after season before the losing takes a toll… that’s exactly what Brown plans to do.

“I think the culture is trumping the talent right now,” Brown says, putting a positive spin on his team as camp breaks. He’d better hope that continues or it could be another long season for basketball fans in Philadelphia.

Welcome back to NBA (preseason) basketball, everyone. LeBron James can wish for more time off this off-season if he wants, but I think I speak for all of us here at Cavs: the Blog when I say that the 2015-16 NBA season can’t get here fast enough.