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Life Without LeBron

With a certain superstar taking his talents to South Beach, Cleveland Cavalier fans will be at a crossroads once NBA Elite 11 and NBA 2K11 hit store shelves this October.

Life without LeBron is going to be rough on the virtual Cavs, especially in 2K11. In the 2K series, it has always been somewhat easy to focus your game plan around one player and handle most competitors. So that is obviously what everyone did with LeBron -- use his talents to dominate.

But without LeBron, what happens? Does Mo Williams start chucking 20 3-pointers a game? Maybe Jamison will be able to drop a near triple-double every night. And if not those two, then who? They are easily the best players on the team now (at least in the video game world), and neither of them was rated above 80 in 2K10.

Now in Elite I feel it will be a different story. In the old Live series, play calling was absolutely fabulous. It allowed you to use all of your team's strengths rather than just a single player's. Though I don’t see Cleveland being a dominant force, if you play your cards right, you could sneak them into the playoffs and suffer an early exit.

Unfortunately, Cavs fans have limited options either way now that the hometown hero has become public enemy number one. So at the very least let me start with the best option for Cavs fans out there.

Rebuild

When your team is old and has no future, you rebuild. When your team is just terrible, you rebuild. When LeBron James leaves, you rebuild.

Rebuilding has always been a major factor when starting a new dynasty/association with hardcore gamers, so add one more team to that list. However, rebuilding the Cavs will be no easy challenge. With a payroll that will not be dipping substantially for two years, it will be a long process until any major moves can be done.

The crop of young talent on the squad does not bring much hope either. With J.J. Hickson being the best young player in Cleveland, you better pray you get lucky in the Lottery.

Tough It Out

Maybe you are an optimist. After Miami, Boston, Orlando, Chicago and Atlanta, the bottom of the East is pretty wide open. Do you think you can still make it to the playoffs without your star?

It is possible to get into the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed, which could give you a shot to take down The King in the first round, but don’t kid yourself if you are a sim baller. Enjoy an early exit and another year outside of the lottery.

Take Your Talents Down To South Beach

LeBron is popular. He may be ostracized and vilified by many now, but he is still popular. And, simply put, people still like popular things -- otherwise there would not be the term "bandwagon" fans.

I am sure more than a couple fans have moved their "fandom" down to South Beach with LeBron, leaving the city of Cleveland with its true fans. While no one endorses this type of action, it is common in a situation like this. So this Cleveland tragedy is probably not even affecting fans who were more fans of LeBron than the Cavaliers. They are probably stoked, acting like kids on Christmas Eve waiting to open up Elite and 2K to demolish the Association with the Heat.

Forget About Sim, I Want Jam

Maybe you are the one who keeps saying "screw the NBA and LeBron." Well, in that case, NBA Jam is for you.

Jam is looking to be just like the original with some graphics hopped up on the Q. Yes, LeBron is still with the Heat, but in Jam any team can beat any other team on any given night. You can even take it to LeBron with Kevin Love and the T'Wolves.

Even for those of you who cannot handle the truth, the new Remix mode with classic players should be able to entertain you as well.


So what will you do with the Cavs in this year's basketball gaming lineup?


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Member Comments
# 1 brahmagoul @ 08/30/10 01:44 PM
I'm just saying forget the NBA. I'll pocket the $60 and buy neither game.
 
# 2 domidomdomz @ 08/30/10 01:57 PM
If I were a Cavs fan and uses that team in 2K11, I'd "tough it out". Gotta go to war with the army you have and be prepared to use your available weapons.

EDIT: And hey, I'm gonna make sure that the Cavs will have the O'Brien first before Lebron gets his.
 
# 3 DubTrey1 @ 08/30/10 02:07 PM
I think the Cavs will be a good "rebuilder" challenge team to use. Sort of like the Bucks were/are before Brandon Jennings. They have a decent starting point, now they just need to build on it. Doing so in 2K or Elite might be fun......somewhat LOL!!
 
# 4 Penny Hardaway @ 08/30/10 02:10 PM
Dom, I have an E-Friend I met on another forum and he's a true cavs fan, says if he can survive those ugly confetti unis they wore in the 90's and all the heartbreak thanks to MJ, he'll still roll with the Cavs. I don't think they're that bad though. Cheesers are milking their last drops from the Cleveland teet in 2k10 til this year drops. You'll almost certainly hear a thunderous bang when the bandwagon drops and everyone takes their "talents" to South Beach lol.
 
# 5 scatman @ 08/30/10 02:31 PM
Nice article.... Not a Cavs fan, and not really a Lebron fan either (the best player in the NBA is still KB24). But that's not the debate here nor do I really want to make that a debate. I guess what makes me funny about it all is that people who used the Cavs only because of LBJ, means Cleveland wont get any run....at all?! The Cavs of Cleveland now become one of those teams you only play against during your association. No more cool throwbacks for them (btw have you seen there new unis for the post LBJ era here's the link
http://www.sportslogos.net/team.php?id=222).

I just feel bad for the way that team pretty much loses it's marketing appeal after being dominant because of a guy like LBJ. To no fault of his own because as we know the media can paint you in any color they want. But the Cavs were "cool" to play with because of guy like LBJ. Just like he does in real life, you could easily amass a triple double without that being your sole focus. Just by playing the way he plays, it was going to happen. The Cavs are in that select range now of teams most people won't ever touch this year; Toronto, Minnesota & Detroit.
 
# 6 youvalss @ 08/30/10 02:53 PM
Some Cavs fans here have said that they're going to replace the ex-Cavs #23 with a young rookie #23. This mode may be extra interesting for Cavs fans, as long as they don't mind playing as MJ all the time.
 
# 7 jeebs9 @ 08/30/10 03:21 PM
^^I would throw-up myself^^
 
# 8 HotSauce2k3 @ 08/30/10 05:06 PM
I just hope 2k gets the team's tendencies down right. I know no one except the Cavs themselves have seen the way the new look team plays, but from the onset, Byron Scott said he is taking the run'n'gun approach. I hope 2k took that into account regarding coaching tendencies, player tendencies, playsets, etc.
 
# 9 st0rmb11 @ 08/30/10 05:21 PM
I wonder how many Cleveland fans will move LeBron back to Cleveland as soon as they get the game.
 
# 10 youvalss @ 08/30/10 05:44 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by oOausarOo
I'm a long time Cavs fan and seeing MJ in a Cleveland uni would disgust me.
I feel the same about any uniforms that aren't the Bulls ones. I'm honestly not sure if I will even play this mode.
 
# 11 OSUFan_88 @ 08/30/10 06:12 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by st0rmb11
I wonder how many Cleveland fans will move LeBron back to Cleveland as soon as they get the game.
I would say somewhere between 1 and 5 %.

I never did play with Cavs when they had LeBron because it felt like cheating. Now, I'll happily take on the Cavs challenge.
 
# 12 MarvellousOne @ 08/30/10 07:00 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by OSUFan_88
I would say somewhere between 1 and 5 %.

I never did play with Cavs when they had LeBron because it felt like cheating. Now, I'll happily take on the Cavs challenge.
I feel the same way, I never used the cavs one time in 2K since lebron has been there, but now he is gone I think I can put some work into them this year. Sad part about it is I would occasionally use Miami because of D-Wade but now that Lebron is there they have become off-limits to me.
 
# 13 Beastly Wayz @ 08/30/10 08:21 PM
One thing First, there are no Cavs fans out there. They were LeBron fans, you will be lucky to see 1 person out of a 10,000 to use the Cavs online. So I don't think this will be an issue....
 
# 14 Beastly Wayz @ 08/30/10 08:21 PM
But you will see 10,000 outta 10,001 people using the Heat this year. - - - Bandwagoneers
 
# 15 drewbs @ 08/30/10 08:35 PM
Well... if there was still a college video game, I would assume that Cavs players would just virtually tank for Harrison Barnes.
 
# 16 neptuneniq @ 08/30/10 08:46 PM
Mo Williams can drain 3's like its nothing in 2k
 
# 17 HotSauce2k3 @ 08/30/10 08:59 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beast0627
One thing First, there are no Cavs fans out there. They were LeBron fans, you will be lucky to see 1 person out of a 10,000 to use the Cavs online. So I don't think this will be an issue....
Sigh...
 
# 18 Gotmadskillzson @ 08/30/10 09:30 PM
Yeah I think people were more of a Lebron fan than Cavs fan. Because if you asked all the people who played as the Cavs online last year, what were some of the great Cavs players in the past, I gurantee you more then 95% of them will have a deer in the headlight look and just say duh duh duh .......

Online is full of superstar band wagon players instead of actual fans of the team. People just flock to the team with the most highest rated players on, instead of playing as the team that is in their city.

I mean seriously before Favre and AP, how many Vikings players did you see online ? None

Before Lebron.......who played as the Cavs online ? nobody
 
# 19 HMcCoy @ 08/30/10 10:23 PM
Cavs 4 Ever.

I hate the fact that I have to rush my offense more now, I've always been more of a walk it up type...but ish don't change. I will ride with the Cavs til they move the franchise. If I enjoyed running seasons with Dre Miller and Lamong Murray as the best players, I'll be OK with Mo and Twan.

It'll be nice to see the only Cavs users actually being Cavs fans now.
 
# 20 killer miller31 @ 08/30/10 10:35 PM
the pacers have sucked for years.. now do what every other fan of a crappy team does cleveland quit crying and wait it out the cavs proved they could never bring in enough talent to over come the refs and the nbas biased against small market teams lebron did the only thing he could go to the larger market and he will dominate..Blame the NBA for being biased money hungry pigs
 

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