cleveland has noone past lebron, yet somehow they got to the finals. If the c's were in the west i would agree with you, but this is the east where lebron himself got the cavs to the finals....it's stupid to think that a team with garnett, peirce, and allen don't have a chance. I consider contending to be having a good chance of getting to the eastern conference final, and then then final.........the c's as presently constituted have that chance, and they are not done getting new people yet.