Haha, yeah, I'm biased in the sense that I dislike the Cavs. And I may well be overreacting to last night's one-game preseason sample. But I tend to measure my assessments of other teams based on how much I fear them as a rival to the Warriors, and in that regard, if I squint I can see more things to fear in Houston's, OKC's and SA's rosters and best units than I do in Cleveland's.
From what I've read about his injury, it has serious potential to be chronic and/or deteriorate, no? Kliq also is assuming he's not healthy. My sense is that it's just as realistic to think he'll be at least somewhat "gimpy" as it is to think he'll be peak 2015 IT. Most likely I suspect he'll be somewhere in between, and then you risk getting into grey areas which can sometimes be more troublesome than clarity one way or the other. ("Is Isaiah nursing an injury"? "What happened to last year's IT?" "Is Rose unhappy with his limited or undefined role?" Etc. etc.)
I mean, he's only 29, and his minutes and fga per game last season (32.5 and 15.3) were not far off his career averages (34.7 and 16.8). I could definitely see him chafing at being benched for IT, especially if he's been putting up superficially good counting numbers (as I suspect he will). And the fact that the two are effectively unplayable together (unlike, say CP3 and Harden, or Curry and Livingston) may exacerbate the problem. I also get the sense he's just a bad egg, but that may be neither here nor there with respect to how well he deals with a diminished role. The King does have a way of keeping other egos in check. (And as you say, they can always trade him if IT is fully healthy).
From everything I've read they're very close friends who spend a ton of time together in the offseason. Is it outlandish to think that might present serious chemistry challenges for Lue and co? By way of comparison: it's been widely reported that the presence of Austin Rivers caused a ton of clubhouse friction in Clipperland. I could definitely see similar weirdness if someone like JR thinks Wade is getting an overly favorable shake due to his closeness with the King. He has already said he's "absolutely" frustrated by the benching. Dude was last seen putting up .698 true shooting as a starter in the playoffs.
Yeah, that could well be. They can definitely run out some units that look far more interesting (read: scarier) than their current starting 5.
The "who's their #2 guy?" question remains for me. I almost feel like it may be Jae Crowder when you factor in both ends of the floor (which is why I was pissed the Cs coughed him up so easily), but that to me is the core problem: they seem stacked with specialists who are fine as your #5-12 rotation guys, but light on guys who are dominant or multi-dimensional enough to be part of a championship Big 3 or Big 4.
After last season, I felt that the Cavs' biggest hope for a significant jump forward came from either (1) flipping Love for Paul George (which apparently was scarily close to happening, till Griffin walked out); and/or (2) the small-but-real chance that 25 y.o. Kyrie's elite shooting ability gave him some untapped 2014 Steph Curry potential, given a bit more usage (Curry was also 25-26 when he made his big leap). Fwiw, Cavs fans
had this same hope.
With those two ships sailed, I feel like all their moves mostly amount to deck-chair-shuffling that I'm not sure gets them back to same level they were at.