There's plenty of optimism in the post-LeBron era in Cleveland, thanks to a solid young core and the addition of All-Star Donovan Mitchell.
CLEVELAND — There’s perhaps no one better positioned to sum up the Cavaliers’ state of being than Kevin Love, the club’s 34-year-old elder statesman.
The power forward, somehow now entering his ninth season in Cleveland, was traded to the club in exchange for then-No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins—a blockbuster move the Cavs made to flip the win-now switch upon LeBron James’s return to town in 2014. Two years later, Love was part of the championship team that won the city’s first major sports crown in 52 years in improbable fashion. And two years after that, he saw the joyride end abruptly when James took his talents to Los Angeles, largely leaving the Cavs with Love, coach Tyronn Lue and leftover parts. Cleveland immediately went from having reached four consecutive NBA Finals to a 19–63 campaign in 2018–19, a 19–46 season in ’19–20 and a 22–50 mark in ’20–21.
People understandably wondered why Love, seemingly on an island as a valuable vet with a rebuilding club, remained with the wine and gold. At times, after a couple of ugly on-court tantrums, it honestly appeared as if Love himself might have been wondering the same thing.
But last season seemed to mark a beautiful turning point for the organization, which saw two young players (point guard Darius Garland and center Jarrett Allen) make the All-Star Game and another (forward Evan Mobley) nearly snag the Rookie of the Year award. Cleveland even held the Eastern Conference’s best net rating through the first week of February. Yet with ill-timed injuries to Allen and Mobley in the latter part of the year, the Cavs finished 44–38—tied for seventh—and failed to reach the playoffs after losing both of their play-in chances.
Still, as the Cavaliers open the season in Toronto on Wednesday night, there’s ample win-now optimism—more than there’s been in perhaps decades in Cleveland without LeBron on the roster. (The Cavs haven’t made a single playoff appearance without James in the picture since 1998.) Some of that was present generally, coming off a surprisingly good season. But the vast majority of the hope stems from landing three-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell, the shooting guard who for months seemed destined to end up with the Knicks until the Cavs swooped in and stunned the league with the offseason swap.
Cleveland now arguably possesses the NBA’s best young core—Mobley is 21, Garland 22, Allen 24 and Mitchell 26—and can realistically begin contemplating contention in the not-so-distant future. It’s that reality that brings a smile to the graying Love’s face.
“It’s amazing to see this thing come full circle and have a team we were already excited about now have a chance to win, and win big,” Love said during training camp. “Everything is up for grabs and there for the taking with us, and that’s what gets me most excited. I haven’t been on a team where, throughout the entire lineup, there’s been so much young depth.”
A simple look at the Cavs’ last game of the season, a 107–101 play-in loss to the Hawks, provides an obvious window into one of the things that hindered last year’s club.
Cleveland put up 65 points through the first two quarters and carried a 10-point lead into halftime. But as Atlanta turned up the pressure on Garland in the second half by often throwing a second defender at him, the Cavs—with few experienced playmakers aside from him—wilted. They managed just 40 points after the half, as Garland shot 4-for-13 against the increased pressure, finishing just 7-for-27 in the deciding contest. By contrast, Trae Young, the opposing star guard, notched 32 points by himself in that second half, doing just enough to get the Hawks back to the playoffs for a second consecutive season.
One clear way of looking at the result: For all his ability, Garland might benefit from having more playmaking help, particularly with a team that essentially played three seven-footers at a time last season. The Cavs, who figure to be without backup guard Ricky Rubio (torn ACL) for a few more months, also realized they’d be well-suited to find someone who can keep the offense flowing when Garland takes occasional breathers. Last season, Cleveland was 10.6 points per 100 worse on offense when Garland took a seat, one of the steepest drop-offs in the league.
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This is where Mitchell, the engine behind the NBA’s top scoring offense last season, comes into play. This is a guy who dropped 57 points—the third-most in playoff history, behind Michael Jordan’s 63 and Elgin Baylor’s 61—as a 23-year-old. One who, in 2021–22, drew defenses in enough with his well-documented slashing ability to assist 173 triples. Someone who averaged 25.9 points and 5.3 assists last season despite often seeing the sorts of defenses that frustrated Garland toward the latter part of that play-in game against the Hawks. He’s a bonafide scorer, meaning teams won’t have the wherewithal to dedicate as much attention to Garland anymore.
That was music to the ears of Garland, who’d been training in Nashville as the deal closed in September.
“After my workout, [Cavs president] Koby [Altman] calls me and says, ‘We just got Donovan Mitchell in a trade.’ So I’m just running around, screaming, happy in the gym,” said Garland, adding that he’s ready to have a bit less scoring responsibility on his shoulders. “Then he tells me I can’t tell anyone yet, because it was still a couple minutes before the deal came out. So I had to calm down and had to act normal. But deep down, I was super happy for the trade.”
So were Cavs fans, who have flocked to buy season-ticket memberships as a result. (According to the team, this year already marks the second-highest number of new packages bought in franchise history, trailing only the 2014 offseason, when James returned and Love joined.) And so was Altman, even as the executive sought to temper expectations for the young core.
“There’s a runway here, and I don’t want everyone to think we have to be contention or bust this year. That’s not what this is,” the 40-year-old said during the team’s media day. “There’s a runway for these guys to grow together, learn how to play together, get better each year and hopefully grow [into] some really exciting basketball.”
Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff, knowing the immediate dip his club experienced whenever Garland came out of games last season, has already vowed to stagger his star guards by having at least one of them on the floor at all times. But for all the unmistakable upside that seems present with this new backcourt, there’s also a fairly obvious question that crops up as a result of it. How will Garland and Mitchell, both of whom stand just 6'1", hold up on defense?
On some level, it’s a question Mitchell is individually prepared for. And rightfully so after a postseason in which he repeatedly got torched at the point of attack by then-Mavs guard Jalen Brunson. (It was a bit ironic to see Mitchell and the Jazz fall apart due to terrible perimeter defense. His playoff career got out to a fast start in part because of his ability to take advantage of Carmelo Anthony’s lack of lateral quickness on defense in Oklahoma City.) Rightly or wrongly, the guard says he’ll have more capacity to exert himself on that end with this group.
“A lot of it for me is focus and attention to detail. I don’t have to do as much offensively [here], so I’ll be able to lock in on defense and won’t be as tired,” Mitchell said. “I’ll be in better shape to play both sides of the ball. It’s not the ability—I can play defense. I know that for a fact, but I haven’t shown it. I look forward to doing that here.”
Even if the effort is improved, though, challenges figure to surface. Hell, the first preseason game alone made that readily apparent. Sixers third-year guard Tyrese Maxey tallied 21 points on 9-for-11 shooting in just 15 minutes, carving up the Cavs in transition and when shielded by screens the diminutive Cleveland guards couldn’t maneuver around.
It isn’t enough to assume the team’s talented bigs, Mobley and Allen, can clean up every mess that spills over into the paint. First, Bickerstaff could use the same staggered thinking with those two that he plans to deploy for Garland and Mitchell, meaning there might often be just one of them on the court at a time. (Injuries are always a possibility, too, as last year showed.) Secondly, Mitchell previously played with three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, illustrating that things can and probably will break down—even with an elite rim protector—if the basics aren’t handled at the top of the key.
So much of the Mitchell fit and how quickly it meshes will come down to the progression of Mobley, both as do-it-all star and as a communicator on defense. Altman said Mobley was back in Cleveland a number of times during the summer to get extra work in, and that he illustrated a dedication to not only on-court work, but also to strength training and nutrition in the offseason.
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“He has the ability to be a superstar without being the leading scorer on your team, and the ability to be the best player on the floor without having to take the most shots,” Bickerstaff said. “That’s hard to find. But he can stuff the stat sheet in every category, and that’s our expectation for him. We think he can be—and hopefully it’s this year—in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.”
As a defender, Mobley showed unusually high IQ and mobility as a rookie big man last season, giving Bickerstaff leeway to pull from more rarely used game plans. The coach utilized 3–2 zone looks, with Mobley serving as the point man at the top of the alignment—an idea he got from working alongside the late Flip Saunders in Minnesota, where Kevin Garnett showcased freakish defensive ability. That Mobley replicated that style of play for a top-five defense as a rookie speaks volumes.
Mobley’s ability to cover up teammates’ mistakes might be his biggest responsibility for now. (Sensing that, they say the 21-year-old has been far more vocal defensively this preseason.) But he could be primed for a sizable leap on the offensive side of the ball this coming season.
Mobley himself said he spent ample time this summer working on his three-point shot after hitting just 25% of his tries last season. And the added strength from the weight room has made him more difficult to stop inside the arc. “Every time I’ve had to guard him,” said Allen, one of the best defensive centers in the league, “it seems like he scores.”
While the Cavs’ first four starting positions are signed, sealed and delivered, the last one remained there for the taking throughout the preseason and may not be fully settled yet.
Asked who all was in the running for the starting small forward spot, Bickerstaff rattled off a list that included Caris LeVert, Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro, Cedi Osman, Lamar Stevens and Dylan Windler. Just in case you’re keeping score at home, that’s six players, or nearly half the roster.
Bickerstaff’s still figuring out what he wants out of that position. Given all the ballhandling the backcourt features, conventional wisdom might yield someone that fits more of a 3-and-D role, like Okoro if he can knock down enough shots from deep. There’s also the school of thought that another scorer who can handle the ball—like the veteran LeVert—could be a better option by taking advantage of how strained the defense will be in trying to limit Garland and Mitchell. Someone like Wade, at 6'9", would give the club something a bit closer to what it had last year, when seven-footer Lauri Markkanen stretched the floor as an oversized small forward.
Regardless of who the coach goes with, there’s always the potential to hurt some feelings and possibly splinter the group with a position battle, particularly one that involves half the players.
Yet no one seems worried about that here, at least not publicly.
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“No, not really. I wouldn’t call it tension. It’s a very competitive group of guys we have, so everyone’s just excited to get out there and compete against each other,” said Wade, who joined the club as an undrafted free agent in 2019 and just last month signed a three-year, $18 million extension. “We all love each other, and we’ve been doing this our whole lives.”
Above all else, this group—a mix of elite young talent and a dash of veteran sage—has fun and doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously yet. Allen can and will talk for minutes on end about Pokémon. Robin Lopez, the 34-year-old big man, was asked by a photographer during the media day festivities to strike a natural basketball pose for the camera. After thinking for a moment, he opted to box out—perhaps the most fundamental pose possible for a player who has long thrived on the fundamentals. And Garland, Mitchell and Mobley all spent portions of media day paling around with each other like middle schoolers—a promising sign for camaraderie.
This isn’t to say they cordon themselves off from others, though. Garland had nearly all his teammates come down to Nashville over the summer to get work in as a group. (He’s also been said to set up paintball competitions with teammates.) Even Mitchell joined the workout sessions, despite having been traded days earlier, wanting to ingratiate himself with the club.
It’s part of what Love reflected on over the course of the offseason. After the high-stakes nature of winning it all in 2016, then being part of Cleveland’s rebuild after 2018, he knows having this much fun isn’t necessarily normal or to be expected.
“Getting to play this role, and getting to see these young guys be special? This is new for me. I’m having a lot of fun playing my part. You don’t always get something like this,” Love said. “You wanna bottle it up, because you don’t want it to pass too fast. Time is fast fleeting. It’s not elastic; you can’t stretch it. But I’ve never had so much fun going into work every single day.”
In a sense, you quickly get the impression Mitchell sees this as a new day, too. As he looked around during media day, seeing just how many reporters and photographers had turned out for the festivities, he said to no one in particular, “We didn’t have this in Utah.”
It’s been a while since Cleveland’s had this, too, though. Particularly without James in town.
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