INDEPENDENCE — The Cleveland Cavaliers are a month and a half away from training camp opening up, but they’ve already found time to practice. They met in [Los Angeles last week](https://x.com/cavs/status/1955334255103332784) to work out together.
According to Max Strus, this speaks to the character of this team.
“It’s huge,” Strus said when asked about the meetup at his foundation’s basketball camp on Saturday. “It’s my third year here, but a lot of these guys have been around…So it’s not like we need the team bonding, we’re all pretty close and have that going for us already.”
The Cavs will largely be running back the same 64-win team as last season, but there will be a couple of changes to this year’s group. Isaac Okoro and Ty Jerome are out. Lonzo Ball and Larry Nance Jr. are in.
“You never want to see people go,” Strus said. “We love Isaac. We love Ty. Losing guys always sucks, especially after the success we had and the team that we had…that’s the nature of the business. It’s going to be a new team and new guys are going to come in. So it’s up to us to welcome them, and they’ve been great so far.”
Nance seems to have made an extra effort to get to know his new teammates. He came to help Strus with his basketball camp at Cleveland Clinic Courts this past Saturday and eagerly participated in drills with the campers. Things like that go a long way toward making good initial impressions.
It’s still difficult to truly assess the Cavs’ most recent season. On one hand, they showed that they have the talent and chemistry to be one of the best teams in the league as they stormed through the regular season. On the other hand, they’ve yet to prove anything meaningful in the postseason as they once again fell drastically short of expectations. Injuries played a significant part in that, but they aren’t the sole reason for their downfall.
How the group responds will determine if last season was a necessary speed bump on their journey to a championship or if it was the sign of a fatal flaw with this group. So far, it appears that their approach to this upcoming season is the right one.
“It kind of stuck out that everybody’s in shape already,” Strus said. “It seems like everybody’s pretty locked in on making themselves better. And then when we finally got together as a team, it seems like everybody’s locked in and wants bigger and better things.”
Despite how things ended last year, the goal is still the same.
“Winning,” Strus said. “Simply put. Getting the guys back together and doing what we do best, and putting our best foot forward, and making it farther than we did last year. A championship is still on the horizon for us, and that’s where we all have our mindset.”
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