Tristan Thompson Thinks The Cavaliers Are Still The Best In The East Without LeBron

TheSportster

By Rodrigo Lobato

Published Sep 29, 2018

Tristan Thompson doesn't think the departure of LeBron James will hurt the Cavaliers too much. In fact, he says they're still the best in the east.

Can someone let Tristan Thompson know that Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer?

In sports, media and fans love overconfident guys. They draw attention, make people feel excited about their teams, and it’s cool to see once in a while players saying what they actually think and not what the team officials want them to say. For example, on Thursday after the L.A. Rams beat the Minnesota Vikings, the running back Todd Gurley said that currently there is no team in the NFL that can beat them, and people liked it because it happens to be true. But when Tristan Thompson says that the Cavs remain the team to beat in the Eastern Conference after losing the best player of the league, it’s just sad.

And the 27-year-old power forward is not lying, Cleveland is indeed the East's reigning champion, they did beat Boston in the seventh game of the last conference finals, they have outplayed the Toronto Raptors every playoff matchup, and the Philadelphia Sixers couldn’t win more than one game when they faced Celtics in the second round. But again, implying that this season things aren’t going to be any different from last year, it's just nonsense.

The Celtics look strong with a young talented squad who now has Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back from their injuries. The young Sixers Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid will definitely step up their games this season now that they got some NBA postseason experience, and the Toronto Raptors are a new team with an NBA Finals MVP. Meanwhile, Cleveland hasn't done much to replace Lebron.

Vegas SuperBook set the Cavs' over/under win total at 30.5, far from what they gave to the three teams Thompson mentioned, all above 50 games. And it's just a matter of checking out the numbers to realize how bad teams do after Lebron's departure. The first time The King left Cleveland, the Cavs won only 19 games the following season, pretty embarrassing after reaching the conference semifinals the year before. And when Lebron left Miami after losing against the Spurs in the Finals, the Heat couldn't even reach the playoffs the year after that, finishing with a 37-45 record. So, things are not looking good this year for The Land despite Thompson confidence.

Naturally, Celtics veteran Marcus Morris couldn't pass on the opportunity to make fun of Thompson, responding to his comments via Twitter.