After four seasons with his hometown team, James has taken his talents to the Los Angeles Lakers.
James dominated the attention with the Cavs and coach Tyronn Lue must now rebuild the team with the likes of Kevin Love.
The Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics are widely expected to take advantage of James’ move to the West and dominate the Eastern Conference.
But Thompson believes the Cavs are more than capable of proving their critics wrong.
“We’re a playoff team – that’s realistic,” Thompson told cleveland.com.
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“Everyone that says playoffs is overachieving doesn’t know our squad and doesn’t believe in our squad.
“For us, we’re a playoff team.
“We just have to go out there, be ourselves and prove the naysayers wrong, which we will.”
With James, the Cavaliers were Eastern Conference champions four times and reached the NBA Finals each time.
And Thompson feels the Cavs need to build a new identity.
“We know what we can do here,” Thompson said.
“I think for us it’s kind of building an identity and what we need to do to be effective.
“And for us, that’s get up and down and play a high-octane offense, play fast, be athletic and be young.
“I think that’s what we realise that’s what we have to do and we see that in practice.”
The Cavs start their campaign on Wednesday against the Raptors.