The Cleveland Cavaliers will reportedly hold training camp at a preparatory boarding school and sports training destination located in Florida named IMG Academy. Their training camp will span from Oct. 1 through Oct. 6, and the Cavaliers are the first squad in the NBA to hold a training camp at the academy.
Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman released a statement about the news and expressed his gratitude to IMG Academy.
“The city of Sarasota and IMG Academy in Bradenton is the perfect backdrop for our training camp this year,” Altman said. “This is a unique opportunity for us to utilize a world-class facility away from our usual environment, providing an excellent setting for building team chemistry and culture. We extend our gratitude to IMG Academy and the surrounding areas for their warm hospitality in hosting our organization. Their state-of-the-art facilities and supportive communities will be instrumental in helping us prepare for the upcoming season.”
IMG Academy chief operating officer or COO Mike Milliron also issued a public statement in which he spoke highly of the academy’s campus experience.
“IMG Academy is excited to welcome the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers to our world-class campus for their 2024-25 NBA Training Camp this fall,” Milliron said. “Our state-of-the-art environment, facilities, hospitality, and IMG Academy’s proven track record with regularly hosting professional sports leagues, organizations, and players make us an ideal partner for the Cavaliers as they prepare for their upcoming NBA season. We look forward to providing their staff and players with unrivaled IMG Academy campus experience.”
According to a press release from the Cavaliers, details regarding the team’s schedule during training camp will be revealed at a later date.
However, Cleveland’s preseason and regular-season schedules have already been released to the public in full. The Cavaliers’ preseason opener is scheduled for Oct. 8 versus the Chicago Bulls, and Cleveland will tip off its 2024-25 regular season with a game against the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 23.
The Cavaliers are certainly hoping that holding their training camp at IMG Academy will help the team reach even greater heights than it did last season. Cleveland is fresh off a successful season, as the team finished as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and then won its first playoff series since the year 2018 in the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
While the Cavaliers gave fans of the team a lot to write home about, the way in which Cleveland’s stint in the 2024 NBA Playoffs came to an end suggested that the squad still has plenty of room for improvement.
The Cavaliers lost to the Boston Celtics in five games in the second round, and Cleveland dropped both of its home games during the best-of-seven series, which came in Games 3 and 4.
But, if Cleveland had a healthy Donovan Mitchell for the entirety of the series, perhaps the Cavaliers would have put up more of a fight against the 2024 champions. He sat out both Game 4 and Game 5 with a calf strain.
