Commentary: Let's all enjoy the Cavaliers, who are fun to watch ... and winning

At 17-12, the Cavaliers are on pace to finish 47-35. With a win at home tonight over the lowly Houston Rockets — when was the last time Cavs fans could dream of calling another team "lowly"? — that jumps to 48-34. Let that sink in for a moment. Forty-eight wins!? To put that in perspective, the last season LeBron James played for Cleveland, it finished 50-32. Or try this: In the first three seasons after his (second) departure, the Cavs' win totals were 19, 19 (in 65 games) and 22 (in 72 games). Now I'm not saying Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, Ricky Rubio, Lauri Markkanen, Kevin Love, Cedi Osman and coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Co. are headed to the NBA Finals, like James' last Cavs team did for the fourth straight season in 2017-18. I'm not even saying the Cavs will win a playoff series this season, though that is looking more and more like at least a possibility, especially given that they are currently fourth — fourth! — in the Eastern Conference. All I'm saying is this sure has been fun to watch. Not only are the Cavs exceeding almost everyone's wildest expectations, they are doing it the right way. They play together. They share the ball. They have fun and like one another. They play defense, yet still run when the opportunity arises. They have no prima donnas. All of this makes them exactly the kind of team Northeast Ohio sports fans love to get behind. In some ways, this takes me back to the Cavs teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s. I'm 60 now, but I was 25 when I started covering the Cavs in 1986. The fact it was my first year is irrelevant, other than it also was the first year general manager Wayne Embry, coach Lenny Wilkens and players Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Ron Harper (sorry to bring that up for the other old-timers who remember) and John "Hot Rod" Williams were in Cleveland. That group finished just 31-51 in its first season together. The next year it won 42 games. Then, in 1988-89, it won 57 games and was labeled "The Team of the '90s" by one Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Alas, the third-seeded Cavs lost to sixth-seeded Chicago in the first round of the playoffs on Michael Jordan's last-second shot and Harper was traded early the following season. Still, guys like Larry Nance Sr., Craig Ehlo and Mike Sanders were added and the Cavs went on to win 57 games again in 1991-92, this time reaching the Eastern Conference finals before falling to the Bulls in six games. The next season, Cleveland won 54 games and got swept by Jordan and Co. in the second round of the playoffs. That remains the last Cavs team to win a playoff series that did not have James on it. I rehash all this in part because I'm old and nostalgic, but in larger part because those Cavs teams played much like the current Cavs are playing: They didn't have a megastar, the players liked one another, they had fun and they shared the ball. Except there are two big differences. One, the Cavs teams of the late '80s and early '90s didn't win a playoff series until 1991-92, which was the sixth season of the Embry, Wilkens, Daugherty, Price, Williams regime. Two, those Cavs teams, as much as most of us loved them, always lacked a certain degree of mental and physical toughness (and had to deal with not only the Bulls, but also the Pistons and Celtics). By contrast, the Cavs we are watching now have been together for — count 'em — 29 games. At 20, Mobley and Isaac Okoro — the jury is still out on him — are not yet old enough to legally buy a beer. Garland is 21. Collin Sexton — remember him? — is 22. Allen is 23. Markkanen is 24. Even the suddenly efficient Osman is just 26. That means that as successful as the present has been, the future is even brighter, though keeping the core of a team together is far more difficult now than it was 30 years ago. Allen, who should be playing in the NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in February, is in the first year of a five-year, $100 million contract. Rubio, who has been vital to the Cavs' success, is making $17.8 million in the last year of his deal and will be an unrestricted free agent. Garland will be eligible for a contract extension after this season and almost certainly will get one. As a means of comparison, Denver's Michael Porter Jr., who isn't nearly as good a player, got a five-year max deal in the offseason that will pay him a base of $172 million and as much as $205 million. Love, who is healthy and a valuable bench contributer, is on the books for $31.26 million this season and $28.94 million next season. Markkanen is in the first year of a four-year, $67 million deal. Sexton still doesn't have an extension and, if he does not receive one over the summer, will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2022-23 season, though due to a season-ending knee injury and the Cavs' success without him, general manager Koby Altman could get him at a reduced rate or elect to let this one play out and risk losing him as a UFA. The point is, franchise owner Dan Gilbert is going to be writing some serious checks in the future, and that's not even factoring in the potential record-setting deal Mobley might command prior to his fourth season in the league. Love will be off the books by then, of course, so that will help, but for now, let's not worry about any of that. Let's enjoy the 7-foot Markkanen, 7-0 Mobley and 6-11 Allen blocking shots, deflecting passes and making it difficult for anyone to score inside. Let's enjoy Bickerstaff pushing all the right buttons and give him immense credit for electing to go with an extremely tall and unconventional front line. Let's give Altman kudos for adding Rubio and Markkanen. Let's thank our lucky stars that the Cavs got the No. 3 pick in the draft and Mobley was still on the board, because he's a heavy, heavy favorite — especially for a 7-footer who weighs just 215 pounds — to be named NBA Rookie of the Year. Let's smile as Rubio repeatedly does Rubio things, including successfully making passes some guards wouldn't even recognize were available and repeatedly knocking down that odd-looking 3-point shot. Let's bask in Love's good health, defensive rebounding, 3-point shooting and apparent happiness in Cleveland. Let's rejoice in Osman's emergence while giving thanks his 3-point attempts no longer look like they got caught in a 30-mph crosswind. Let's shake our heads in amazement as Garland stops and starts, stops and starts and then splashes a long 3-pointer, hits another amazing floater or throws yet another perfect lob pass to Allen or Mobley. Let's enjoy that after having the toughest schedule in the NBA to start the season, the Cavs now have the easiest remaining schedule from an analytic standpoint. Let's really enjoy that none of this team's success has been a fluke. Let's enjoy all that as the Cavs continue to play together, share the ball, have fun, play defense ... and win. Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on Twitter.