Live Thread: Cavs @ Pacers (#Developing)

Evening Cavs fans! Well, it’s rare these days for me to have a Friday night free, so color me excited to be able to actually watch a full 48 minutes of this young and developing team. I got some initial exposure to John Beilein’s darkroom process on Wednesday, as his competitive mix of vet post-players, neophyte guards and mostly converted “wings” came together to create a pretty picture against the Bulls.

Going to Bankers Life Fieldhouse is never an easy trip for any Cavalier squad, so this next one should be a decent next test for the wine and gold. The Pacers just finally got their first win of the season on the road against the Nets on Wednesday, and have already taken a short handed beating from the Cavs in the early going. They’ll still be without standout star Victor Oladipo, and are also down a big man with Myles Turner sitting out with an ankle sprain. Though, they will have swingman Jeremy Lamb baaaa-ck in the mix.

The Cavs will try to continue to ride the shoulders of their dynamic PF duo of Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, while hoping for further development from their young backcourt. We may even get a Brandon Knight sighting with Matthew Dellavedova out. Regardless, it will be great to see the team’s progress in sharper focus as the competition increases.

One other Cavalier development that happened today featured @CavsDan doing something he’d never done before…

ESPN story on Cleveland GM Koby Altman agreeing to a long-term contract extension. https://t.co/r5nLVdJGrV

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 1, 2019

That’s right… by extending Altman, Dan issued a statement of confidence not achieved by any GM since he took ownership of the team in 2005. And, whether you like the move or not, the one thing it does provide this re-developing organization is some modicum of consistency going forward.

In the immediate future, I see the Cavs struggling early, but eventually finding a way to come through in the end, 107-104.

Catch all the action starting at 7pm on FSO… and see what develops.