Team page/schedule | Stats: Preseason | Roster
Last year: 30-52, sixth in Central, 11th in conference
Coach/GM: John Lucas/Jim Paxson
Arena, first game: Gund Arena (20,562); Nov. 8, 1994
All-time franchise record/NBA titles: 1,126-1,384/0
Notable: Were 4-0 when dishing out 30 assists or more

THE ROTATION
Pos	Player	Key Stat	Skinny
PG	Andre Miller	8 apg	If he gets range on his shot, watch out
SG	Bryant Stith	9.7 ppg	Job is hardly safe with other SGs here
SF	Lamond Murray	12.8 ppg	Jumaine Jones could get LM benched
PF	Tyrone Hill	9.7 rpg	Back injury might land him on injured list
C	Chris Mihm	53 blocks	Ilgauskas? Come on, time to let go
6th	Jumaine Jones	4.7 ppg	Could be good scorer; allergic to defense
7th	Wesley Person	44 games	Gunner could thrive if Cavs had big men
8th	Michael Doleac	6.4 ppg	Ugh, this team is not very good

		The Cavs are hard to read. I don't think they will move up this year significantly. They are really playing without a center, going with a front line of Chris Mihm, Michael Doleac and Lamond Murray. The Cavs may not be able to defend well enough in the frontcourt to make big strides. In the backcourt Andre Miller is a quality point guard, Wesley Person can shoot, and Bimbo Coles is a quality backup. But the lack of a quality big man will hurt them, assuming Zydrunas Ilgauskas doesn't come back. If he does, the Cavs would move up and become a challenger for a playoff spot. He's that good.

By Jeffrey Denberg
Special to ESPN.com

If you weren't on the Cavs' training camp roster and you weren't signed up by another NBA team, you have no shot at a career. There were 19 names listed and many of these belong to guys who can't play.

This is Cleveland's problem, as you may know. The Cavs are coming off one bad season on top of another. They've been beaten down by serious injuries, personnel moves and simply dumb decision-making, like John Lucas' idea of staging 6 a.m. practices, or GM Jim Paxson's three-year contract for backup guard Bimbo Coles, or the idea that drafting DeSagana Diop with a screw in his foot was somehow a good idea because center Zydrunas Ilgauskas has screws in both feet.

The Cavs are a bad third in their own town after the Browns and Indians, so desperate for support they actually invited fans and media to watch their torturous practices.

Paxson knows what he has and tries to build good will. "We know there's a lot of hurdles to get back on the map and John Lucas is open to that. It's more access than has happened in a while and that's a positive for everyone."

Who's Who
"I want to establish that it's a privilege to be on the team and that this isn't a place to roll over and retire, we're going to roll over and play," Lucas said. "It's the discipline that basketball is first in their lives." Uh, okay. Fine.

That revolving door at Gund Arena got a workout over the summer. The Cavs may have helped their bottom line by swapping for and then dumping players entering free agency -- losing Shawn Kemp was a triumph -- but they did not become a better team. Diop can't do anything on the court and probably will have no impact this season. Ex-76ers Tyrone Hill and Jumaine Jones can bring a little positive thinking after playing for the championship. They brought in Bryant Stith, Reggie Slater, Michael Doleac, Anthony Goldwire. Enough said? No matter how the roster shakes out the Cavs will have added a group of journeyman vets and long shot rookies. This isn't conducive to recovering from a 30-52 season.

	FANTASY SLEEPER
	Chris Mihm, C -- When he topped 30 minutes last season, Mihm posted a respectable 13.3 points and 8.5 rebounds. With center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and power forward Tyrone Hill starting the season on the injured list, Mihm should get those regular minutes.

The Big Question
It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that Randy Wittman lost his job because Ilgauskas broke his foot or that Mike Fratello lost his job to Wittman for the very same reason. Ilgauskas a coach killer? It's the agony of da feet. The big fellow was giving the Cavs 11.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.5 blocks a night when he had to stop after 24 games last season. Does anyone remember that the Cavs started 15-7 last season or that the tall Lithuanian had back-to-back 24-point games before he went down? With Ilgauskas in the middle, Chris Mihm behind him and terrific Andre Miller (15.8 ppg., 8 assists) in the middle and Hill at least a competent sidekick inside, the Cavs might have a chance. But they've got to get step up performances from Trajan Langdon and Wes Person, and who's going to score from the wings?

Best/Worst Case Scenario
If everything fell into place for the Cavs and a few teams stumbled ahead of them, well, they could win 40 games. If the bottom drops out you're looking at maybe 25 and one of the worst teams in the NBA. Winning even 40 means everything falling into place, including the hyper-active Lucas not wearing on the locker room when things are not going well. More realistically, they can't count on their 7-3 center for more than role playing and the project of trying to meld a lot of new players with a most unorthodox coach is going to be too much of a task.

OVERRATED	UNDERRATED	TEAM MVP
Michael Doleac. He's 6-11 and can't rebound. So really, what value does he have?	Jumaine Jones. Showed he can score points, and the Cavs need that.	Andre Miller. He's so much better than everyone else, it's embarrassing.