Preseason Live Thread: Cavs @ Celtics (#BraveNewWorld)

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t.

— William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll

It’s a Brave New World for the Cleveland Cavaliers… and it starts tonight against the team they survived in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Well, sort of. Gordon Hayward (who missed all but a few minutes of last season) will be back, as will Daniel Theis and first round draft pick, Robert Williams. The guy who’s still MIA is former Cavalier, Kyrie Irving. The reformed (or at least recalcitrant) Flat-Earther, will be out due to rest… presumably from his apology tour to scientists everywhere. All the rest of the shamrocks who took the Cavs to seven games are still around though, and probably eager to introduce everyone to a new basketball hierarchy in the East.

The Cavs are also trying to discover their new utopia in a future minus a certain kid from Akron. It’s going to take a lot of bold optimism and totalitarian sharing of the ball to make it work, however. A little Soma would probably help get through the inevitable rough patches. Tristan Thompson has apparently already taken his…

https://twitter.com/BenAxelrod/status/1045383901949161472

So has Kyle Korver…

https://twitter.com/C_CavaliersNews/status/1047088070971912192

We’ll see how that all bears out starting tonight. Except, we probably won’t. We should see the beginnings of Ty Lue’s modified starting lineup, chock full of vets including remaining star Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson and George Hill. A minor injury to JR Smith means an opportunity for the re-signed Rodney Hood. The one young gun of the bunch will be Cedi Osman, as he attempts to fill the large shoes left by the former starting small forward. This group probably won’t play huge minutes, however, giving the Cavs’ brass a good look at first round pick, Collin Sexton, as well as new faces like Sam Dekker, Bonzie Colson, Billy Preston, David Nwaba, Isaiah Taylor and more.

The game will be televised on TNT (don’t get used to this), starting at 8pm EST. Locals should also be able to catch it on FSO.

It should be a fairly meaningless pre-season tilt for both teams, although you never know when Canadian Dynamite might blow up on a Morris twin. My recommendation is to pop some Soma, relax and enjoy the start of this Brave New World for the Cavs.

Oh, and don’t forget to chime in euphorically below…