The Cavaliers Are Doing The Right Things
And there are still no guarantees about how far they'll go in the NBA Playoffs this season.
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I don’t know if the Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA championship this season. I do know that they have continued to make moves that put them in a great position to. As of this writing, the Cavs are 33-21 and just a game-and-a-half back of the Boston Celtics for the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference. If the NBA Playoffs began today, Cleveland would play the Toronto Raptors, which could be a major problem, as the Raptors are 3-0 against the Cavs this season. The Cavs have won four straight games and have won nine of their last 10 overall. Cleveland is also 14-8 against Western Conference teams this season. There is a reason for hope and optimism for the Cavs right now.
The Cavs took a big swing by sending Darius Garland to the Los Angeles Clippers for James Harden ahead of the 2026 NBA Trade Deadline. Cleveland included a second-round pick in the deal, too, and then the 11-time NBA All-Star was a Cav. The Beard has played in two games for Cleveland, the Cavs have won both, and Harden has posted a line of 23/8/6. The Cavs are fifth in offensive rating, trailing four other title contenders, the Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Oklahoma City Thunder, in that order. Garland has appeared in just 26 games this season, while Harden has nearly doubled that output with his 46. At 36, Harden is still routinely available. He plays 35-plus minutes a night and is averaging his highest PPG since the 2020-21 season, a year he was an All-Star and finished 13th in MVP voting. Harden’s addition to Cleveland was a worthy gamble, and one all NBA fans could win come playoff time with three of the top five offenses in the NBA residing in the East.
Before Harden, the Cavs made a bigger swing for Donovan Mitchell. The former Louisville star is 9th in the NBA in WS. He is sixth in VORP. Mitchell has been a fantastic player for the Cavs. Mitchell has been an All-Star every year in Cleveland. His numbers across the board are remarkably consistent from the time he got to Cleveland to now. The Cavs gave up a lot to acquire Mitchell in 2022. It included three unprotected first-round picks that went to Utah, two pick swaps, Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, and Ochai Agbaji. The Jazz have not qualified for the postseason since the Mitchell trade. Cleveland has won 65 percent of their games since the start of the 2020 NBA season. They could clear 100 wins combined over the last two seasons if things continue to trend in the right direction for Cleveland this season.
It was obviously a disappointment for Cavs fans to get bounced in the Eastern Conference Semifinals last season after finishing with the best record in the East. We’re coming up on eight years since the Cavs last made the NBA Finals, much less the conference finals. But that could change this season. The East is wide open at the top. Cleveland, Boston, New York, and Detroit all have compelling cases to make the NBA Finals this year. None would be a major surprise.
The Cavs have continued to do the little things well, too. J.B. Bickerstaff was a good coach for Cleveland for a long time. They replaced him with Kenny Atkinson, who should be a good coach for a long time. Cleveland sent DeAndre Hunter to Sacramento for Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroder, two guards who should really help them. They’ve drafted role players well of late. They’ve missed on guys like Hunter and Lonzo Ball, but they addressed both before the trade deadline this season. Cleveland’s front office has done a whole lot more right than wrong for a long time now.
They just need some luck, as so many other teams not named the Oklahoma City Thunder do, too. Nobody really believed in Cleveland last year, even as the team accumulated 64 wins. After that second-round exit, nobody will believe in the Cavs again this postseason.
A first-round date against Toronto is something the team should want to avoid. The Raptors not only have the Cavs’ number, but they are playing with fool’s gold based on where folks thought they’d be before the season.
The Indiana Pacers made it out of the East last season. The Cavs could make it out of the East this season. With a top-10 offense and a top-10 NETrtg, the Cavs are in the mix. They did what they were supposed to do and got better at the NBA Trade Deadline. That does not mean they’ll end their Eastern Conference Finals drought this season, but they have done the most important thing you want to see as a fan – lead with boldness and try.