Cleveland Cavaliers Get Off on The Right Foot In First Practice

One thing is for sure, nobody can call new Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott a Liar. He told the media from day one that the team is going to be a well-conditioned machine who can outrun any other team in the league, and on yesterday's first day of practice he showed just that mentality.

At yesterday's first practice for the 2010-11 season, the Cavs ran, and then it seems they ran some more, and just as they thought they were out, they ran just a bit more.

Scott had the team running at the beginning and running at the end, and they were up to it, they came into camp in good condition, the first good sign after a relatively bleak off-season.

Cleveland, coming off one of the most tumultuous off-seasons in basketball history have shown that they are a dedicated bunch of individuals and are ready to play some basketball and put the past behind them.

The fact that the whole team came into the first practice in shape tells me three main things.

They're Professional and Dedicated

This team is ready to play, and by coming into training camp in excellent condition, it shows that they are ready to prove the national media (mostly the ones from Yahoo! that predicted 12 wins from the team) wrong.

They could have come into camp heads hanging, and out of shape, because they will not be the team they were last year. They aren't winning 61 games.

But they didn't do that. They took this off-season and kept working to stay in shape, the best thing they could have done to show that they are professional basketball players and are ready to play their hearts out, no matter the situation they find themselves in.

The biggest thing you can ask from a group of players is that they are ready to play when game time comes around, and these guys were ready to play in the first practice of the season.

They didn't just come sprinting out of the gate, they were running in place before the gates opened.

They Have Faith in Scott's System

Byron Scott told the team from day one that being a well conditioned team was their main priority, and by showing up ready to do just that, it shows that they were ready to do whatever it was that the coach told them to.

That is something that has been missing in the past.

Over the past few seasons the team listened to Mike Brown and played hard, but it didn't seem as if they really believed in his "give the ball to LeBron and let's see what happens" system.

At times you could see players become openly frustrated with the lack of running a well rounded offense. With Scott coming in and setting up a real structured offense, they should run much more smoothly on the offensive end.

Whether that will result in successful offensive trips remains to be seen, but it is good to have an offensive game-plan that doesn't revolve around one player for a change.

They Believe

Coming into camp in great shape is more than just being ready for the season, it is being ready to win games this season.

They put in the hard work in their time off between April and October, and that shows that they think they can win, and the Cavs fans should appreciated their show of faith in the coach, team, and the organization as a whole.

This is going to be a fun season Wine and Gold faithful, besides, Cleveland teams aren't supposed to be favorites. They fight for each win and bask in the glory of any victory they can get. A gritty team and a grind it out coach are going to make for some interesting basketball this winter.

Get ready for the run-and-gun, Coach Scott is buying the team running shoes this Christmas.

This is going to be a fun season.