Life Without LeBron

[RaychelSnr]

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.

Read More - Life Without LeBron

[brahmagoul]

I'm just saying forget the NBA. I'll pocket the $60 and buy neither game.

[thetruth12349]

Re: Life Without LeBron

christian eyenga is the future

[domidomdomz]

Re: Life Without LeBron

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.

[DubTrey1]

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!!

[oOausarOo]

Re: Life Without LeBron

Coming from an online perspective a lot of it depends on how the game plays and how they rate players.

In real life guys like Ryan Hollins and Jamario Moon are scrubs, but in the game it's totally different. Depending on how the game plays Moon might be a beast again. For whatever reasons Moon was a beast in 2k10. Also Hollins is one of the nastiest shotblockers in 2k10.

[Penny Hardaway]

Re: Life Without LeBron

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.

[scatman]

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.

[youvalss]

Re: Life Without LeBron

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.

[oOausarOo]

Re: Life Without LeBron

The Cavs are in that select range now of teams most people won't ever touch this year; Toronto, Minnesota & Detroit.

I can't really blame anyone. Unless you're a masochist why would you want to ball with those teams? It's not like 2k provides incentive to use a variety of teams. They don't even factor in team rating for wins and losses.

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.

I'm a long time Cavs fan and seeing MJ in a Cleveland uni would disgust me.

[jeebs9]

Re: Life Without LeBron

^^I would throw-up myself^^

[HotSauce2k3]

Re: Life Without LeBron

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.

[st0rmb11]

Re: Life Without LeBron

I wonder how many Cleveland fans will move LeBron back to Cleveland as soon as they get the game.

[youvalss]

Re: Life Without LeBron

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.

[Teebone21]

Re: Life Without LeBron

i will run with cleveland in 2k11 because i dont count on one player to do majority of "paint" scoring