5 Factors That Will Steer Cleveland Cavaliers' Season

The Cleveland Cavaliers have begun the 2014-15 season with perhaps the highest expectations in their 46-year history.

Now, it's time to deliver.

Winning a championship is never easy of course, even when LeBron James is on your team. Every year since 1970, Cleveland has tipped off a new season with perpetual optimism and occasional title hopes. Every year, this hope has gone unanswered with the Cavs again and again coming up short of their championship goal.

Now with a team stocked full of talent and a bright coaching staff to guide them, the Cavaliers finally have a real chance at ending their franchise-long drought.

Lots of things have to go right for this to happen, naturally.

Here are five huge factors that may mean the difference to the Cavs' ultimate success this season.

Bench Production

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The Cavaliers will no doubt be carried by their starters, but that doesn't mean the bench can just take nights off.

Cleveland's starting five of Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, James, Kevin Love and Anderson Varejao should average over 80 points a night between them. That's a number that only the Portland Trail Blazers (82.9) and Houston Rockets (80.9) topped a season ago, per hoopsstats.com.

Still, one can't underestimate the importance of a reliable reserve crew. The San Antonio Spurs' bench ranked first in the league in points, defensive rebounding, assists, field-goal percentage and free-throw percentage during their 2013-14 championship season.

Although it doesn't pack the star power of the starters, the Cavaliers' reserves bring a nice blend of experience and young talent. Here's who Cleveland's second unit consists of:

Point Guard: Matthew Dellavedova, A.J. Price

Shooting Guard: James Jones, Joe Harris

Small Forward: Shawn Marion, Mike Miller

Power Forward: Tristan Thompson, Lou Amundson

Center: Brendan Haywood, Alex Kirk

Miller, Jones, Marion and Haywood have all won titles in the past. Thompson has proved his worth as a starter the last two seasons with the Cavs.

What this group lacks, however, is a true play-maker and offensive threat.

If the units become too unbalanced, don't be surprised if coach David Blatt ends up moving Waiters back into a sixth-man role. He would bring that scoring ability this group may ultimately need.

Dion Waiters' Adjustment

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Waiters' move to the starting lineup has been met with some skepticism by those who've watched him the past two years.

After all, Waiters was sent to the bench just nine games into the 2013-14 season because he and Irving couldn't share the ball. How is a ball-dominant guard like Waiters now supposed to not only play alongside Irving, but James and Love as well?

Waiters certainly didn't appear to be adjusting his game much during the preseason, continuing to shoot off the dribble and take offense-stalling shots. He finished second on the team in field-goal attempts per game (12.7), ahead of James and Love.

Despite his preseason playing style, Waiters is confident he's learning how to adjust his game, via Brendan Bowers of Slam:

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Just when to take a shot, or when not to take a shot. I feel like I do understand how to be efficient. Some of those shots in the preseason, LeBron and Kyrie weren’t playing in those games. I wasn’t on the floor with all three of those guys for all those shots. But I am learning. I know I need to take the correct shots in the heat of the moment this season. And I know I’ll be where I need to be.

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Part of Waiters game already translates to being an effective off-the-ball guard.

Last season, Waiters knocked down 41.6 percent of his three-pointers off the catch-and-shoot (via NBA.com/stats), a higher success rate than even Love achieved with the Minnesota Timberwolves (39.9 percent).

If Waiters can't truly make the transition and prove his worth as a starter, a sixth-man role could once again become an option.

For now, Waiters has his chance to prove he belongs in the starting five.

Can Anyone Protect the Rim?

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This has been a hot topic all summer surrounding the team.

The Cavs' paint trio of Love, Varejao and Thompson bring a lot of skills to the table. None of said skills involve inhibiting the path of an in-flight basketball.

While reserves like Haywood and Kirk have size and some shot-blocking ability, their minutes appear to be few and far between.

During the Cavaliers season-opening 95-90 loss to the New York Knicks, Cleveland collected two blocked shots. One came via Varejao on a baseline drive, and the other by Irving from behind to stop a Knicks' layup.

Other than that? Nothing.

When the Cavs were forced to go to a smaller, offensive lineup late in the fourth quarter while trying to erase a nine-point deficit, things really got ugly. Using Love at center, the Knicks' J.R. Smith easily drove the lane and hit a floater that all but sealed the game. One couldn't help but wonder: would he have even attempted such a shot had someone like Roy Hibbert or Dwight Howard been there?

This weakness was also exposed earlier in the preseason against the Chicago Bulls.

Point guard Derrick Rose torched the Cavs, blowing past whatever guard they threw at him en route to 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting. Cleveland could do nothing to stop him at the rim, and Rose had no reason not to keep attacking the hoop at will.

If they don't plan on adding a shot-blocker anytime soon, the Cavaliers must instead do a better job of stopping penetration and keeping players out of the paint.

We've seen what happens when they get there.

Irving's Evolution as a Point Guard

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During his first three seasons, Irving actually took a step back as a pure point guard.

His per-36 minute assist average went from 6.4 to 6.2. Irving's assist percentage also dropped from 36.5 percent down to 31.6.

To his credit, Irving had to play the role of scoring guard. The Cavs just didn't have enough offensive options around him.

Now, Irving can no longer play that card. With James and Love, Irving becomes the third offensive option, possibly the fourth on nights that Waiters has the hot hand.

The good news? Irving recently proved he was capable of adapting to his role as distributor.

During the FIBA Basketball World Cup this past summer, Irving was named tournament MVP while leading the U.S. team to a gold medal. He did so despite being just the fifth-leading scorer on the team. Irving did, however, lead the U.S. in assists, even with guys like Rose and Stephen Curry on board.

In Cleveland's opener against the Knicks, Irving appeared solid in his adjusted role. He lead the Cavaliers with seven assists while still collecting 22 points on an efficient 8-of-15 shooting.

For the Cavs to really click on offense, Irving must continue to embrace his evolution as a true floor general.

Kevin Love: Ultimate Sidekick

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Love should already be getting a taste of his new role as a sidekick next to James.

According to a former running mate of James, it's an adjustment that will take time.

"It's going to be very difficult for him," Miami Heat center Chris Bosh told Bleacher Report's Howard Beck this preseason. "Even if I was in his corner and I was able to tell him what to expect and what to do, it still doesn't make any difference. You still have to go through things, you still have to figure out things on your own. It's extremely difficult and extremely frustrating. He's going to have to deal with that."

One early factor Love has been forced to deal with is a decrease in shots.

He ranked fourth on the Cavaliers this preseason in shot attempts at just nine a game. Last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Love attempted 18.5 field goals per night.

While Love was use to being Minnesota's do-everything guy on offense, the Cavs will require less of him notes Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.

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Love simply must accept his fate as a floor-spacer. Even though he's a deft scorer on the block, his real value to Cleveland is as a pick-and-pop threat. He draws defenders away from the bucket, and the space that creates makes life on offense immensely easier for James, Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters and everyone else on the roster.

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Love has acknowledged this new change in an article he wrote for The Players' Tribune. According to the All-Star forward, he doesn't care about being a star or a sidekick as long as wins follow.

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After I was traded this summer, I kept hearing about how our challenge was going to be figuring out how to share the ball among LeBron, Kyrie and myself. Reporters kept asking me how I felt about it:

Are you the second wheel? Are you the third wheel? What about your stats?

To them I say: I don’t care. I’ve never played in a playoff game. I came to Cleveland because I want to win. I’ll grab a broom and sweep the floors if it gets me an NBA title.

"

That all sounds great now, but will he really hold true to these sentiments? What happens if a few months go by and Love is averaging just 15 points a game while James and Irving grab all the headlines? Will he still be OK with it then?

Let's hope so, as his ability to complement James and mesh with the team will be crucial to the Cavaliers' success this season.

Greg Swartz has covered the Cleveland Cavaliers for Bleacher Report since 2010. Connect with him on Twitter for more basketball news and conversation.

All stats provided by Basketball-Reference.com and my imagination unless otherwise noted.