Cavaliers shooting guard JR Smith is as confident a player as there is in the NBA. The prolific shooter has the utmost confidence in his abilities and apparently, he has that same confidence in his team. Cleveland has been to three straight finals since 2014, winning one in 2015. You could make the argument that Smith’s defense against the Warriors the year the Cavs won helped a ton.
On the way to their third championship series last year, Smith and the Cavs faced the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics fell to Cleveland in five games. This season, Boston will look much different with the addition of Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, and others.
The changes, according to Smith, haven’t prompted anyone in the Cleveland locker room to sound the alarms just yet. Smith, probably correctly, noted that the Celtics procurement of Irving from the Cavs might have negatively affected the depth of the Boston roster.
J.R. Smith said he doesn’t view the Celtics too differently from last year. “I don’t think they really pose a big threat to us” #3Cavs pic.twitter.com/l7D4A2WxgJ
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) October 16, 2017
Following from Ben Axelrod of Wkyc in Ohio,
“Yeah, they have [Kyrie] but last year, they had Isaiah,” Smith said. “Avery and Gordon, obviously, they bring different things to the floor. Gordon’s a better offensive player, but obviously Avery’s a better defender. Pretty much a wash there. I think they’re the same. I won’t say the same team because of different people in different jerseys.”
The Cavs roster has seen its share of changes this summer as well. Last year’s starters in Smith and Tristan Thompson have been sent to the bench.
The team signed Dwyane Wade at the start of October and added players like Derrick Rose, Jae Crowder, and Jeff Green over the summer. The organization shed Richard Jefferson’s contract via a trade to the Atlanta Hawks.
LeBron James and the Cavaliers open their season against the Celtics at home in the Quicken Loans Arena.
