Cleveland Cavaliers End Of Season Report

The Cleveland Cavaliers cap off a great regular season with a disappointing playoff exit. That’s kind of how last year went too, just one round further. That makes things difficult to grade. The regular season grades for this team would be A’s and B’s. The postseason grades would be D’s and F’s. You can suppose that averages out to a C overall though, and that may ended up being the perfect grade.

Expectations

With the Donovan Mitchell trade, the expectations were to get to the NBA Playoffs (a step up from last year where they were in the play-in) and fight someone tooth and nail, possibly making it to the second round. The Cavaliers achieved the first goal flawlessly, seizing a top four seed, which is impressive considering the top three teams in the East were pretty solidified.

The second part though, was an abject failure. The Cavaliers were bounced out quickly in five games against the fifth seed New York Knicks, and besides the first two games didn’t look particularly competitive during the playoffs. The offense was putrid, the rebounding worse and it exposed the roster in a major way. There wasn’t much that the Cavs did in the playoffs that you can really feel they can take encouragement in, which is not ideal. 

The Cavaliers had a great regular season where they were second in net rating and performed as well as they could be expected to in terms of standings. That was upended by a poor showing in the playoffs where the team underperformed in most facets of the game.

Offense: C-

Jeremy Reper/USA TODAY Sports

The offensive system of just letting Mitchell cook ended up not working really well in the playoffs. That’s an oversimplification of course. The Cavaliers also had the great play of letting Darius Garland cook. Honestly besides those Mitchell and Garland setting up the offense and creating, (along with Caris LeVert off the bench) the offensive system didn’t really exist. Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen couldn’t create much on their own, and primarily relied on being fed the ball in the post whether through pick-and-rolls or through one of the ball-handlers drawing defenders and dumping it off.

The same bodes true with the “shooters” on the team, who often just stood around waiting for the ball on a drive and kick. The Cavaliers needed more ball movement and off-ball movement as a whole. There weren’t many impressive out-of-timeout plays drawn up either, which is where creative coaches can shine. More than anything else, that needs to be the key for the coach. Either J.B. Bickerstaff will need to show something next season, or they need a new coach in the future. 

Let Them Cook?

To be fair, Garland and Mitchell are ball dominant stars, and can do a significant amount of work when they are simply left to their own devices. The duo was top-ten in offensive rating in the regular season, and Mitchell in particular had some outstanding performances. The roster also has a dearth of shooters, including the two big’s who start. The roster construction is not doing the coach any favors. That being said, there was quite a bit more juice to be squeezed out of this team on offense. Mitchell and Garland isolations can be a central system but there’s got to be something else in the tank when their guards don’t have it. 

Mitchell and Garland doing everything can take you pretty far, but a championship team needs to have more than that. The roster is oddly constructed which doesn’t help, but there wasn’t much creativity on offense regardless of personnel. The playoff grade is more of a D or F, but the Cavaliers were decent enough in the regular season to make a C-.

Defense: B+

Joshua Gunter/Cleveland.com

This was the calling card for the Cavaliers. The price the team paid for having less spacing by playing Mobley and Allen was theoretically made up for by elite interior defense. The Cavaliers did have the top defense in the regular season. In the playoffs they held the Knicks to under 100 points per game and a relatively low 111.1 offensive rating. That being said, the Knicks haven’t really been lights out offensively against anyone, and didn’t even have a healthy Julius Randle. The fact of the matter is, the defense didn’t get the stops they needed to.

Opposites

The Cavaliers have elite interior defense with their two big men, but it’s mitigated by their weakness on the perimeter. The only plus defender out there on the whole roster is Isaac Okoro. Okoro’s limited offensively though, which cuts his minutes severely. That’s compounded when playing with two other non-shooters. The Cavaliers desperately need a middle ground wing that can space the floor and mitigate opposing guards. 

The defense worked for the most part, but didn’t quite come through in the playoffs. The Cavaliers were fantastic in the regular season, and if their offense wasn’t so bad one can argue they did enough to limit the Knicks. Certainly if you looked at the two sides, the offense was the much bigger problem. That said, part of the weakness on offense is caused by the same personnel that lets them have a good defense. Balancing that is no easy task. 

Overall: C+

Nick Cammett/AP Media

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if it was just the regular season the Cavaliers could be happy. The Cavs looked a lot more promising then. After the playoffs though, matters looked far more bleak. Despite that, this year was never about being a true championship contender. With the core young mostly locked down and Donovan Mitchell also committed for at least the next two years, it’s okay to stumble a bit this year. The Cavaliers soaked in good playoff experience at least.

More importantly, General Manager Koby Altman has a year to fix the roster. There are a plethora of directions that the team could go, including a possible coach replacement. According to Spotrac, they’ll have about twelve million in cap space, but they have a decision to make with LeVert. That doesn’t give the organization a ton of flexibility.

That is, unless they move on from one of the core four. The Cavaliers also have the 2024 first-round pick. Small changes, like getting bench shooters, or big ones like trading Allen for a starting caliber three-and-D wing are both plausible. The roster needs work either way, as their is a real lack of balance on the squad.

Mitchell, Mobley and Garland are an untouchable and talented core. Mobley continuing to expand his offensive arsenal is critical. The Cavs don’t have a ton of assets, but also don’t have a ton they need to accomplish. The Cavaliers can keep Allen and get more shooters, or trade Allen and get a bonafide wing. Still though, the clock officially starts now. If this team isn’t a second round team by next year or at least as close as possible, it might be time to push the panic button.