After the NBA season, Cavaliers’ GM Koby Altman said the plan was for the team to “take the next step” and at the very least get in to the play in tournament for the league’s playoffs, meaning we was hoping to finish in the top ten in the Eastern Conference.
In 2020-21, that spot belonged to Charlotte and they won 33 games last season. The wine and gold finished with just 22. How would the organization make up the ground and also pass up Chicago and Toronto, who finished 11th and 12th in the East?
We are confused because right now, we see no path which leads to the Cavs making that leap and training camp will be starting in about a month.
We said before the draft that picking Evan Mobley with the third overall pick is not the move of a team that wants to start winning next year and we stand by that. While very talented, especially for someone his size, because of his current build, we would be surprised if the rookie made a huge impact in 2021-22. Perhaps the talent was too much to pass up, but Altman’s words and actions seem to be at odd with each other.
The Cavaliers also ranked last in the NBA in three point field goal percentage and 25th in overall shooting percentage. Mobley is certainly not going to help with the former, and we doubt newcomer Ricky Rubio, a career 32.5% shooter from beyond the arc, will help much either.
In fact, of guys who played ten or more games for the Cavs last year, the best three point shooter was Taurean Prince (41.5%) and of course, he was the player Altman moved for Rubio. So, on paper, Cleveland’s long distance shooting got worse.
We understand some of the young veterans like Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and Isaac Okoro will improve naturally and that should translate into more wins, but will it mean winning 36-40 games that will likely be needed to at least get the 10th seed, if not higher?
Garland averaged 18.8 points and 6.3 assists per game after the All Star Game, how much better can he do this year? Remember, that despite those numbers, Cleveland went 8-28 in the second half of the season.
Perhaps the team will be healthier this year, which would help. Maybe Kevin Love will play more 25 games and Larry Nance Jr. will be available for more than 35 contests. Both of those guys would help in the win/loss department, although you can debate whether or not the former will be on the roster at all this season.
Counting on the growth of the young players in order to make a quantum leap forward would seem to be dangerous if your job was depending on it, and recent reports say ownership is going to reevaluate Altman and coach J.B. Bickerstaff after the first half of the season.
So if Altman thinks his job is on the line (and quite frankly it should be), he is taking an odd approach or he is putting his trust in his evaluation of talent and hoping everything gels for this group of Cavaliers.
If we were making a wager on what will happen, we wouldn’t make any long term financial plans if we were Altman. His plan has a lot of blind faith in it.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 