{"id":99882,"date":"2024-10-07T16:18:52","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T20:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=99882"},"modified":"2024-10-07T16:18:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T20:18:52","slug":"cavs-start-new-regime-as-preseason-gets-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/07\/cavs-start-new-regime-as-preseason-gets-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs Start New Regime as Preseason Gets Underway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cavs 2024-25 campaign will begin on Tuesday, Oct. 8 with an evening preseason matchup against the Chicago Bulls. Cleveland enters this preseason with a new regime. The Cavs replaced long-time head coach J.B. Bickerstaff this offseason with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/02\/cavs-big-man-potentially-addign-new-move-to-arsenal-jarrett-allen\/\" target=\"_self\">Kenny Atkinson<\/a>. The warmup games will be the first time Cavs fans can see their new coach in action.<\/p>\n<h2>Cavs Start New Regime as Preseason Gets Underway<\/h2>\n<p>Atkinson was an assistant coach this summer with Team France, as he helped the host nation achieve Silver. Now, back stateside Atkinson will look to lead the Cavs to a deep postseason run. However, that all starts with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/cavaliers\/news\/releases-2024-preseason-schedule-240812\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preseason<\/a> in which the Cavs have four scheduled matchups.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3>vs Chicago Bulls &#8211; Oct 8.<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>vs Indiana Pacers &#8211; Oct 10.<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>at Detroit Pistons &#8211; Oct 16.<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>at Chicago Bulls &#8211; Oct 18.<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What To Watch For<\/h3>\n<h4>Kenny Atkinson and Health<\/h4>\n<p>Though it&#8217;s the preseason, having a new coach certainly increases the importance of these early-season games for the Cavs. It will be the first time not only the role players, but also the starters will be running Atkinson&#8217;s sets. It will be important to see the difference between Bickerstaff and Atkinson&#8217;s offenses. Ideally, the Cavs will be able to score at will with their high-scoring, ball-dominant guards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garlada01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darius Garland<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mitchdo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donovan Mitchell<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Atkinson has been quoted recently explaining his analytical approach to improving his team. &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fearthesword.com\/2024\/10\/7\/24263627\/cavs-embracing-analytics-kenny-atkinson-alex-sarama-constrants-led-approach-nba-cleveland-cavaliers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fear the Sword<\/a>&#8216; contributor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/users\/Jackson%20Flickinger?_gl=1*15v4eaq*_ga*MjA2ODU5NzI5NC4xNzI3MTE0MTI4*_ga_2M5GYNY1YS*MTcyODMyODQyOS40LjEuMTcyODMzMDMxMS41MC4wLjA.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jackson Flickinger<\/a> has detailed Atkinson&#8217;s ideas including his approach to lineups.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhen Evan is on the court alone [without <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/allenja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarrett Allen<\/a>], <a  href=\"https:\/\/cleaningtheglass.com\/stats\/team\/6\/lineups?on=4866&amp;off=4337#tab-four_factors\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the rebounding numbers aren\u2019t great<\/a>,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cFor me as a coach, I can use those numbers [and say], \u2018You could really help us when we are in those spread lineups. We need you to rebound more.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Also, this is the first time the Cavs will be in full health since the end of the 2022-23 season. Having the &#8216;Core four&#8217; healthy from the start of the season will be crucial to the success of the team this season. However, the starters will play limited minutes throughout the next week and a half. Therefore, fans will get a closer look at the bench rotation.<\/p>\n<h4>New Additions<\/h4>\n<p>Cleveland had a relatively quiet offseason when compared to their peers. But, the Cavs <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/17\/cleveland-cavaliers-sign-olympic-forward-jt-thor-two-way-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">added<\/a> two-way players <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thorjt01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">J.T Thor<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/travelu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Luke Travers<\/a>. Additionally, the team drafted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tysonja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylon Tyson<\/a> in the first round of the NBA draft this summer. Both Travers and Tyson played major minutes in the Summer League for the Cavs. <a href=\"https:\/\/basketball.realgm.com\/nba\/summer\/1\/NBA2K-Summer-League\/55\/stats\/Cleveland-Cavaliers\/5\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Travers<\/a> averaged 8.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 23.2 minutes in July. While\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/basketball.realgm.com\/nba\/summer\/1\/NBA2K-Summer-League\/55\/stats\/Cleveland-Cavaliers\/5\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyson<\/a> notched 15.4 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists. But, this will be Thor&#8217;s first appearance as a member of the team. Thor has been with the Charlotte Hornets in each of his first three NBA seasons.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>Despite their peers seemingly improving drastically across the course of this past offseason. The Cavs will enter this season with increased optimism. Atkinson&#8217;s new offense should inject some energy into an already immensely talented team. The preseason will be a good chance for the coach and players to gel ahead of a major season for this iteration of the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cavs 2024-25 campaign will begin on Tuesday, Oct. 8 with an evening preseason matchup against the Chicago Bulls. Cleveland enters this preseason with a new regime. The Cavs replaced long-time head coach J.B. Bickerstaff this offseason with Kenny Atkinson. The warmup games will be the first time Cavs fans can see their new coach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5174,"featured_media":99905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,9,62],"tags":[1937,900,49128,236],"class_list":["post-99882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-nba","tag-darius-garland","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-jb-bickerstaff","tag-kenny-atkinson"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}