The Cleveland Cavaliers are preparing to open their preseason schedule against the Atlanta Hawks and LeBron James, Mo Williams, Timofey Mozgov, James Jones and JR Smith will be in the starting lineup. The team will be without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving due to injuries, while Tristan Thompson remains away from the team after not signing a contract this offseason.
The Cavaliers are coming into the season as eastern conference defending champions and they will take on the Hawks in a rematch of the playoffs last season. The Cavs are playing at the campus of Xavier University in Cincinnati and the game will start at 7 pm ET. According to Cleveland.com, the starting lineup will include Mo Williams, JR Smith, LeBron James, James Jones and Timofey Mozgov, as players Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are coming back from injuries.
Love is expected to be ready for the start of the season, while Irving may not be back for a couple months. According to Jason Lloyd at the Akron Beacon Journal, Irving and Love stayed back in Cleveland to continue rehabbing their injuries, while James Jones will get the start at power forward with Thompson and Love absent. Thompson and the Cavs have not been able to reach a contract agreement and Thompson let the deadline pass for signing his qualifying offer.
Iman Shumpert is out for the Cavaliers with a wrist injury and he will be off the court for a few months after having surgery. Irving fractured his knee in the finals last season and while he is making solid progress in his rehab, it's unlikely that he will play over the first month of the season. Williams will likely be the starter and Matthew Dellavedova could see some extra minutes with Irving out. The Cavs priority is to get Irving back healthy for the playoffs and they will not try to rush him back.
According to ESPN.com, the Cavaliers and Thompson have still not been able to come to an agreement and there is a chance that things could extend into the season. LeBron James called the situation a "distraction" and said that he hopes a deal can get done. Thompson reportedly rejected an $80 million offer from the Cavs and he is "willing" to sign a shorter term deal at around $50 million if that is offered, but the Cavs have not been willing to go to that either.
The team is coming into the season with championship expectations and the Cavs spent a ton of money in the offseason to keep the roster together. The team signed back James, Kevin Love, Shumpert, Dellavedova and Smith while also adding free agents Richard Jefferson and Mo Williams to help the bench. The team also brought in Sasha Kaun from overseas and he helps add depth to the front court for the team.
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