Shawn Marion talks up Kevin Love’s Cleveland presence, while LeBron James talks up Chicago

LeBron James’ trail of delicious bread crumbs has helped reshape the entire Cleveland Cavaliers roster. Kevin Love forced a trade to the Cavs following James contract agreement with Cleveland, asking to go to a team that had an even worse record than his mediocre Minnesota Timberwolves club last season. Shawn Marion and former James teammates Mike Miller and James Jones soon followed suit. Suddenly, the Cavs are a destination team, and that doesn’t figure to change as the franchise continues to add free agents to surround James with over the next few years.

It’s not all about LeBron, though, apparently. Shawn Marion’s attempt secure another championship was pushed over the top by the acquisition of Love, who ironically plays the same position that Marion sees much of his time at. For once, LeBron James’ pied piping wasn’t tempting enough.

From Jeff Zillgitt at USA Today:

Marion blurted out that he would not have signed with Cleveland had James not come back, but he also said he wouldn’t be with the Cavaliers had they not acquired Love in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“LeBron coming here wasn’t enough,” the ever-honest veteran and NBA champion said. “It was more so finalizing the deal with Kevin Love. That sold it. That made it more realistic like we do have a shot to win the championship this year.”

Oh, they most certainly do. The Cavaliers head into 2014-15 as the stated Eastern and possible NBA favorite. With Chicago still rolling into shape, Oklahoma City worried about Kevin Durant, and San Antonio (here we go again) possibly falling victim to age, the Cavaliers would and should be the favorites.

In the hours before a pairing with those Chicago Bulls in Columbus on Monday, though, James gave Chicago the nod. From Brian Windhorst at ESPN:

“[The Bulls] are a team that’s much better than us right now just off chemistry,” James said. “They’ve been together for a while, we’ve got a long way to go.”

James’ former Miami Heat club infamously started 9-8 in his first season with the team, and even though they made it to the NBA Finals (past the Bulls along the way) that year, it was an uneasy run until the very end as the various parts figured their roles out. This Cavaliers group is just as familiar with each other, in spite of the presence of Miller and Jones, though not in as stark terms as a Heat team that was down to just one guaranteed roster contract in the summer that it chased down James, Chris Bosh, and a re-signed Dwyane Wade.

These Chicago Bulls have done some damage, of late, even in Derrick Rose’s absence. Tom Thibodeau and Joakim Noah have led some pretty fearsome outfits, Rose has been with the team despite being injured, and the team’s rotation will feature some players that have worked in Chicago for years.

This is still a new team, though. Pau Gasol effectively is replacing Noah at center on both ends, working out of the post offensively and acting as the last line of defense defensively so Joakim can work his high post passing and guard/forward chasing magic defensively. Rookies Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott will be leaned on heavily (or, at least, they should be), Aaron Brooks is Thibodeau’s newest tiny scorer, and Derrick Rose has played single-digit NBA games since April, 2012.

To say that this is anywhere near the same team that James and the Heat stared down in 2011, or tried to stave off last season, would be off.

Of course, LeBron knows this.

The Cavs have a rookie coach and new roster, and they will have some growing pains. They will also be a fantastic basketball team this season, and if they don’t finish with the league’s best record than they will have screwed up. This is the championship favorite, James knows this, and he’s both putting pressure on the new’ish Bulls and his new Cavaliers to step it.

This is what the best in the biz do. Even if their presence alone isn’t enough to lure Shawn Marion.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops