Cavs Pre-Natal: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse Opening & Media Day Recap

Hey there again everyone here at C:tB, I’m back.  After a summer of family obligations, home renovations that I am not remotely qualified for, and most recently a bizarre and pseudo-undiagnosed leg injury, I like to believe that I am back for the long haul this season with all of you.  Seeing as my first contributions here were the Roster Post Mortem’s at the end of last season, it’s rather appropriate to come back to write a pre-natal about the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse Grand Opening and to give some thoughts on the Cavaliers Media Day to start the new season.

After snagging an invite to the pre-pre-season open house, I was able to get to the entrance just in time for a choreographed crowd shooting off a massive amount of party streamers and a good battery of fireworks and daytime pyro. (Feel free to click on an any of the pics to bring them up in Flickr). The brass wanted to more grand that just a big shiny pair of oversized scissors.  Essentially the event was an open house sales pitch for various season ticket packages for the coming season, but there was plenty worth seeing.

My tour started meeting one of the organization’s guides/sales reps at the large Championship Commemorative Wall made mostly from wood from the 2016 Championship Court itself.  This is definitely a good touchstone and start point both figuratively and literally for the tour.  All of us know this rebuild isn’t going to be magic, easy, or quick.  A gigantic shiny reminder of the glorified status that the team is trying to build towards in the future — complete with nostalgic videos, a championship ring, the trophy (a replica I believe), and the literal championship floor.  It is easy to be jaded about the salesmanship of such an event (especially for those of us that could never consider season tickets outside of Loudville), but getting fans to buy in on tickets and support for the team in these difficult years is the only way to keep a team in a mid market long enough to have a chance at a title again.

The wall and ceiling pavilion video tunnel was another visually impressive renovation investment.  It reminded me of Freemont Street in Old Town Vegas, if Freemont Street and Old Town Vegas weren’t tacky, low tech, and kind of depressing.  Better said, this is a well done “Wow” factor addition to catch people’s attention as they enter for the first time.  Apparently there are even motion sensors throughout the tunnel so that the images and sounds will “follow” people as they walk through.  I’m sure this will be an impressive and often pictured feature during the future All-Star Game in Cleveland and it was almost certainly designed with that national exposure in mind.

With any renovation of this magnitude there are a thousand details and shiny new things that I’m sure they’d like to show off.  As a utilitarian person by nature I keyed in to a couple specific features.  Above is pictured one of multiple eating areas added all around the main concessions.  The concourse is filled with vendors representing several local restaurants and chefs.  In a clever bit of branding, Westside locations are represented on the west end of the concourse, Eastside locations on the east, and so forth.  All of this is narrated with maps and artwork along the walls to represent different neighborhoods.

Going back to my utilitarian nature, these eating areas are what drew my notice.  Setting up places where you can actually stop to eat and drink comfortably with countless flat screens to catch every second of the game was a great idea.  Figuring out a way to comfortably eat a meal in most arena seats is impossible, so why not avoid the problem and let us eat comfortably without the risk of missing something?  As my guide pointed out, apparently people literally walked all around the concourse to look around and make sure there were no “dead spots” where someone could not see at least one screen showing the game (besides the bathrooms, unfortunately).

The second feature that caught my utilitarian admiration were the multiple “quick stop” like beer stores around the concourse.  Tired of waiting in line and balancing beer cups when you are just trying to grab a few dozen beers for you and your friends?  Problem solved.  It’s honestly a great idea to have these mini stores throughout the arena so people can grab beer the same way they would before a game or on a trip to the fridge.

Last on my utilitarian road trip around the new arena is the new sports bar that happens to be in the arena.  The guide talked a lot about expanding concessions in general throughout the upper deck of “Loudville”, but the deck of this bar in general is the best selling point to me.  There are a ton of times, especially last year, where I was tempted to grab some random three dollar tickets to a game just to be there but didn’t want to be tethered to uncomfortable seats.  This new open deck bar and eatery is a great answer to that problem.  Yeah, it’s still going to be overpriced compared to a local sports bar, but being able to pay a few bucks for terrible seats to actually hang out at the game seems like a pretty good pitch to me.  They have plenty of bars and party areas throughout the venue that groups can rent out during an event, but without even needing that much planning (and money) I heartily recommend that the locals among us here at C:tB could coordinate a game this season to all buy the cheapest random tickets we can find and plant a flag to meet up at this bar and enjoy the game as a group without having to have seats remotely near each other.

Hope to see some of you here.

As for the rest of the renovations, they are much as you’d likely expect.  Things look nicer and shinier.  The vendors look like they have better stuff to offer and while that tends to raise prices, they weren’t terrible from what I saw.  I stopped at a pizza place (which I hate that I forgot the name of) where at $11 pizza was both really tasty and honestly a pretty good sized meal for one person.  There are behind the scenes things that I wish I could’ve seen in the tour, and they always could have done “more” to be impressive, but generally I was pretty impressed by the project and I’m hoping to make it to more than a few games this year.

On to Media Day…

No one expects anything truly shocking or utterly new to come out of media day statements, and no, TT did not claim that “the East still runs through the Cavs”, but there were definitely a few moments that were interesting to hear.

The interviews started with Coach Beilein saying Coach Beilein things about how the team needs to build culture, develop players, and work towards the future.  He answered all the predictable questions with focus and positivity and the traps of either setting expectations too high or flat out admitting how rough the year might be.  Beilein did have a good chuckle at one press question that called him a “defensive minded coach” and reiterated that his defensive successes have been through delegation.  As in previous interviews he seems ready to heavily lean on J.B. Bickerstaff, and I think that is a wise perspective as he prepares to deal with the jump to the NBA.

Interestingly the first player interview was with Larry Nance Jr. and I think that reinforces the future leadership role that the organization sees for him.  Nance was probably the most openly optimistic of the interviewees and refused to assume the Cavs were lottery bound, but other than that his takes were grounded and interesting.  He touched on the new NBA height disclosure which I think will be a hugely interesting early season storyline.  Seeing players all over the NBA grow an shrink instantly will be both eye-opening and good for more than a few good laughs and I-told-you-so’s.

One very interesting thing the LNJ brought up during his time was somewhat related: he thought he would be spending more time this season positioned on the wing.  With all of his focus on improving Larry’s handles, playmaking, and shooting, I’m really wondering if he was hinting at playing not just the Four but maybe even spending some time at the Three.  Defensively, he is as capable of guarding small forwards as pretty much anyone else on the team is, so if his shooting and handles have really improved enough then that could be very interesting.  Nance stressed that he put up 20k plus threes this summer and seems confident in his improved handles, saying “I couldn’t really even dribble last year”.

If Larry is going to pick a season to take a huge gamble and try “change his position” this would likely be the year to do it.  Perhaps I’m misreading his statements and maybe that change is way too big an ask, but if that is an idea that he has been kicking around with the team this summer it does give a little more context to some roster decisions of leaving such a hole at the small forward position.  They could be thinking “If he fails, what do we lose?  But why not take the gamble now before it’s too late?” Outside of this LNJ, of course, was his affable self. If nothing else, he’ll obviously be a great leader and touchstone for the youth of this team. Check out the all the interviews, here.

Disco inferno. Burn baby burn! 😎@cavs #CavsMediaDay #TheFirstCedi pic.twitter.com/hRLBumm4q8

— Cedi Osman (@cediosman) September 30, 2019

Next up was Cedi Osman who received the predictable questions about the World Cup and being prepared for trying to make another jump this season.  He answered the best he could and seems to be aware of what we all see: confidence and consistency will be the watchwords for this season.  If he can nail those two things this year then everything else will likely fall into place.  Cedi also commented the Beilein’s approach appears to be a bit more of a “European style” and that he therefore feels very comfortable with that.

Matthew Dellavedova was next and had no real surprises.  He knows his role will be as a veteran leader and a stabilizing force this year and he seems ready to do that.  I hate to breeze by a guy that is so likeable to us, but Delly is Delly.  No one needs me to explain why Clevelanders like him.

Darius Garland was up next and did a good refusing to take the bait of “expectations” and “who is the point guard” questions.  I like many of us was not sold on Garland as the number five pick, but the kids is humble, friendly, and seems to have learned from an NBA father how to avoid sticking his foot in his mouth (unlike a certain point guard and his “almost NBA” father).  Beyond that, Garland’s answered mirrored most other interviews from this summer and there wasn’t anything to stop the presses.

Jordan Clarkson came next to the podium, and JC gonna JC.  Here, he was asked a couple unanswerable questions about future free agency and at least sounded convincing saying he’d like to be a Cav is the future.  I know many of us don’t see him in the future of the Cavaliers, but I also know we wouldn’t want to hear him say “I want out”.  He was overall positive and it a pretty quick stint just seemed excited to go do some more JC things on the court this season.  Notably when asked about Beilein, JC stated it was “tiring” dribbling five times to get a basket and he was excited to use Beilein’s sets that only used one or two dribbles.  We’ll see.

Kevin Love was up next and his interview also played out much how we would expect.  He spent a good amount of time answering questions on his celebrity travels over the summer.  This was the long and suspense filled “calm before the storm” of pleasantly answering questions until someone finally asked the obligatory “blah blah blah trade rumor blah blah blah” question.  I know opinions are all over the map about how/if/when Love should be traded, but  most everyone can agree that we are sick of hearing reporters write mindlessly about it.

When it finally came up, he deflected it well, expressing how he wants to lead this team and that he will continue to do so until someone tells him that he’s going elsewhere.  K Love talked a little bit about how he hopes to balance a team-first attitude this year with remembering to also be selfish for the good of the team.  There was also a little talk about his continued work in the field of mental health and Love continues to be an admirable force in this arena no matter what happens with the rest of his basketball career.

Sexton was the second to last to the podium and also got the questions you’d expect.  Mostly it was a mix of semi-polite “remember when you sucked early last year?” followed up by “but then you totally didn’t suck later, right?”.  Sexton focused on what he always does, hard work and positivity.  Young Bull seemed genuinely excited that there will be some more young pieces to grow with (and hang out with).  He continues to seem very excited about working with Darius Garland going forward and has continued to validate the reports that he likely really was consulted before the Cavs pulled the trigger on drafting Garland.  As a second year player that showed tremendous growth throughout the season, Sexton continues to show a mix of humility, ambition, dedication, humor, and appreciation that we’d like to see in a building block of the future.

Most exciting was Youngbull’s talk of watching “1000 hours” of defensive film, including lots of film of two smaller back-courts including Lowry/VanVleet and Lillard/McCollum (maybe more of the former, than the latter would be good). This year will be huge in determining Sexton’s place on the Cavs and in the league and he seems ready for and aware of his situation.

Finally for the day was Tristan Thompson.  TT didn’t set out to drop the brazen confident headlines of last year, but when asked about his future contract considerations in the NBA he did repeatedly call himself a “made man”.  Thompson says that he is one of a select few in the NBA that does what he does and he is unconcerned about his future.  While I’m sure he won’t be worried about unemployment after this year, it is a little amusing to hear him project that he seems to expect a similar contract to appear for him from somewhere after this season.  Beyond that, Thompson’s attitude seems much like last year, ready to be a leader and hoping to play as much as possible like he used to be known for.  With as much as he started to win back my confidence for stretches last year I hope he is right.  I’m sure he has heard the same trade rumors everyone else has but it’s good to know that he can at least still sell his commitment to the team that drafted him.

Most of media day was what you’d expect. These guys have been coached for similar events since college. Positivity was where you’d expect and tact where necessary.  My biggest takeaway was the Larry Nance Jr wing comment, which admittedly I may be reading too much into.  Other than that there was all the optimism that there should be at the start of a season.  There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical or critical of a rebuilding team like the Cavs but hopefully every year there will be more and more things to also look forward to. This summer, the team added a lot of youth and potential.  I for one can’t wait to see many of these pieces take the floor for the first time in a preseason that might be the most interesting and useful in half a decade.  The Dylan Windler leg injury to start the season is a definite bummer, but at least he is the one draft pick we got to see at Summer League.  So until Preseason Game One all we can do is continue to analyze interviews and guess.  Either way, it’s great to be back!