The Cleveland Cavaliers’ curse-crushing championship should’ve inspired more fear around the league because of the obvious reasons: The best player of this generation is capable of turning up his game to an untouchable level, even in his 30s. The craftiest one-on-one player in the league is still testing the limits of his shooting range and scoring prowess. And a former leading man made the pain of an uneasy adjustment palpable by finding a way to contribute when it mattered most.

But aside from the heroics of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, which played out in the final minute of Game 7 of the NBA Finals in the form of The Block, The Shot and The Stop, the more overlooked aspect of that title – and the one that should make the NBA more nervous about this season and beyond – is this: The Cavaliers reached the top floor without coming close to reaching their full potential.

These Cavaliers have been emboldened by a championship run that came together somewhat ahead of schedule, considering coach Tyronn Lue was only on the job six months when he completed the task previously assigned to David Blatt, and their three stars still hadn’t learned to play well together. They don’t believe that last year was a one-shot wonder that came as a result of an epic collapse by the Golden State Warriors or LeBron James simply reminding the rest of the world that he was LeBron James. They earned that title and more could be on the way.

“There’s no ceilings,” Lue told The Vertical, when asked how good the Cavaliers could become. “With the talent that we have, and the shooters that we have, and the one-on-one players that we have, I think we can be great. The confidence of our team is very high. We know we can get better. Those guys know that, so it can be scary.”

Off to the best start in the Eastern Conference at 8-1, Cleveland finally resembles what James envisioned when he returned home to begin a second experiment with three All-Stars; this time with sidekicks whom he’d studied, respected but only remotely knew. Sheer talent, led by the NBA’s only one-man championship contender, took the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in their first year, but James didn’t have Love or Irving around to finish out the season because of injuries. And if not for James’ not-going-to-lose determination once Cleveland reached the Finals last summer, the true upside of this organization may have never been fully revealed.

The Cavs have been able to stumble, fall, dust themselves off, trip over themselves again, repeat the routine and never be at risk of ceding the East to any other team. But those days of finding their way already feel like a distant memory. The championship forced the Cavaliers to be much more patient, for fear of disrupting a good thing that could be on the precipice of something great.

The Cavs' power trio is starting to hit its stride. (Getty Images) More

“We have the motivation that we’re the defending champs and we could have a chance to do it again,” Love told The Vertical. “If everybody remains healthy, with this veteran type of team, we can make a run at it again. We think that’s a very big deal. That’s not lost on us. We’re setting the foundation now for the rest of the season, to play good basketball and not have any lapses.”

Of all the other legitimate and alleged super teams, the Cavaliers have considerable edges in continuity and confidence. They’ve already done what these other teams hope to accomplish and there remains so much promise for the team to improve. Irving and Love are playing so well that James doesn’t have to exhaust himself trying to carry the Cavaliers or keep his teammates on edge with cryptic social media needling.

After a recent win over the Washington Wizards, a commotion was heard from outside the visiting locker room. Irving had pranked James after he became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 27,000 career points, as teammates gathered to dump a bucket of water on the unsuspecting James. Lue was asked the reason for all of the noise and initially responded, “LeBron and Kyrie got into a fight.”

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