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Bleacher Report

There's a lot to like about this year's Cleveland Cavaliers, and it starts, of course, with their All-Star trio.

LeBron James is still the best basketball player on Planet Earth, with his homecoming adding to his odds as the favorite to take home a fifth MVP trophy. Kevin Love's taken so much heat for putting up empty numbers on bad teams that folks seem to have forgotten what a tremendously skilled and versatile player he really is. You could even make a case that Love will wind up as James' best NBA teammate.

Love, though, will have competition in that department from Kyrie Irving, who's racked up honors as All-Star Game MVP and FIBA World Cup MVP this year, in addition to signing a max extension.

Those three are good enough, as both individual producers and team pillars, to plug in the Cavs as one of the two best teams in the East.

But Cleveland has some serious questions to address before it can be considered the Beast of the East, much less a championship favorite. How will David Blatt adjust to coaching in the NBA? Can Anderson Varejao stay healthy? How are the Cavs going to protect the rim without a legitimate shot-blocker or any lockdown perimeter defenders beyond LeBron?

(No, a 36-year-old Shawn Marion doesn't count.)

And then there's the not-so-small matter of the lack of postseason experience among some of Cleveland's key cogs, as Grantland's Zach Lowe noted:

I was just having this conversation with a front-office guy the other day. Sometimes you get so deep in the weeds, you forget about the obvious stuff: Cleveland’s second- and third-best players have never been to the playoffs.

That being said, the Cavs could find themselves on a serious roll at season's end, and should be a joy to watch until then.