After a heartbreaking end to the Guardians postseason and a disastrous 1-6 start from the now-injured Deshuan Watson led Browns, Cleveland sports fans are once again riding the wave of disappointment. Luckily, tides can always turn, and on Wednesday night, Lake Erie will wash some of us ashore. From there, a short walk past the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Tower City will take us inside a stadium adjacent to Jacob’s Field: the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. At 7:30, Jarrett Allen and Jakob Poeltl (did you get the Poeltl today?) will each launch upwards for the tip-off in Toronto and a new chapter of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball will begin. Believe.

So how did we get to this point?

"Cleveland, this is for you!" Lebron James screamed after completing an unprecedented 3-1 comeback against the greatest regular season team of all time. Not only do we all know where we were on that night, but we also remember waking up the next day, going online, and searching for the Game 7 score from last night - just to make sure that this time, we were not in a dream. We believed it.

Just to be clear, it took arguably the greatest athlete of all time to defeat the Cleveland Curse. Not only that, but that game and series was the closest NBA Finals contest in the history of the sport. 52 years of the curse, 52 years of belief from Cleveland fans.

Since then, we saw Kevin Durant join that super team in the Bay Area. 2017 gave us the best Christmas Day game of all time but also a painful NBA Finals. In 2018, we witnessed a dominant James playoff run, before it was all squandered from J.R Smith’s infamous play in Game 1 of that year’s Finals.

Lebron left once again and the Cleveland Cavaliers hit the reset button. Both 2019 and 2020 served as an opportunity for the front office to re-shape our roster. By the end of the COVID-spoiled 2020 regular season, a young core of Darius Garland, Colin Sexton, and Jarrett Allen was formed. Off-season additions via trade and the draft gave us Evan Mobley and Lauri Markkanen. The Cavs now had a real young-core and after a very fun 2021 season, the team had found their way in the new Play-In Tournament.

They quickly learned that success comes with expectation. A close loss to a more experienced Brooklyn Nets team set-up a do or die battle with the Atlanta Hawks. Our first taste of high-stakes basketball since Lebron was spoiled by a masterful Trae Young performance. Nonetheless, the fanbase had a new sense of belief.

Expectations mean action is necessary, and this was reflected when Koby Altman pushed a lot of his chips into the pot and made an offseason splash. This was by acquiring All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell. The fans rallied behind this group, making the 2022 season a roller-coaster, filled with entertaining games and key injuries. By season's end we ran into the New York Kincks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

Without going into too much detail, the team fell apart. The Knicks were more physical, forced the Cavs into a horrific shot profile, the bigs were out-rebounded, the list goes on. Any sense of belief going into the series was decimated from the underwhelming performance.

Last year, there were not many changes made to the group. Some role players were brought in for sure, but the organization’s leadership was relying on growth from the players they had. Once again, injuries riddled the team and rattled the confidence of our franchise point guard, Darius Garland.

After a "strategic" loss on the last day of the regular season, the Cavs were now ready to take on the Orlando Magic in the NBA Playoffs. The Magic exposed many of our weaknesses, including our head coach J.B Bickerstaff. The Cavaliers were able to defeat the Magic in a 7-game series but to no surprise were overmatched by the future champion Boston Celtics in the second-round.

This time, when the off-season rolled around, a change was made. Altman canned Bickerstaff and replaced him with former Nets coach, Kenny Atkinson. Before moving on, J.B deserves a lot of credit for developing this group. He believed in our young guys, created a new culture for the team and served as a role-model and effective leader. He is no masterful tactician on the court, but he acted as a great bridge from our champion roster to the era of Cavalier basketball we have today.

The squad we are looking at today is composed of the "Big Four." Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell in the backcourt with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen anchoring the defense in the paint. Many question how these pieces fit together, but surrounded by shooters like Max Strus and creators like Caris Levert there is serious potential for this team. Furthermore, it looks like Kenny Atkinson has already increased the vibe around the group and his experience will certainly pay dividends come playoff time.

Now is the time to believe in Cleveland Cavaliers basketball.

Let me leave you with this moment that I had this past week. I live in Canada and when at the dentist, I told the hygienist that I was American. She asked where I was from. When I responded, sharing my Northeast Ohio roots, her reaction was "Oh, Cleveland - anyway I’m going to New York this weekend for a designer event."

I was going to stay quiet, but my sense of pride for this city took over. Cleveland is not a flashy city, instead it is tough, real and full of heart. Cleveland wears its history on its sleeve, and that includes our sports scene. I will always believe, because it is that belief that is engraved and programmed into any Clevelander.

I told her:

"I’m from Cleveland - and I’m damn proud of it."

Now let’s see what this team can do this year. Go Cavs.