We said all summer long that Cavaliers’ president of basketball operations Koby Altman’s instance on not making any roster changes, thus putting all the blame for what went wrong last season on J. B. Bickerstaff was misguided.
After the first seven games of this NBA season, we are eating a big fat excrement burger.
New coach Kenny Atkinson’s edition of the wine and gold is off to a tremendous start, winning every single one of the seven games they have played.
The Cavs opened with three non-contenders in Toronto, Detroit, and Washington, but then went to Madison Square Garden to beat the Knicks and then handled the Lakers and short-handed Orlando Magic easily, before heading back on the road to beat Milwaukee.
Last season, Cleveland scored 112.6 points per game, ranking 20th in the league in scoring. So far, although it is early, the Cavaliers are second behind Boston, scoring 122.4 points.
What’s even more impressive is they haven’t sacrificed defense in doing that. They were 7th in points allowed and 6th in defensive efficiency in 2023-24. This year, they are 5th in points allowed and 4th in defensive efficiency.
They are knocking down 40.6% of their three-point shots, up from 36% a year ago, and they are taking about the same number of shots from distance. And the only players shooting a seemingly ridiculous percentage was Caris LeVert (11 of 21) and Ty Jerome (6 of 12).
Atkinson has gotten more players involved, playing at least 10 players in each game, with no one averaging 30 minutes per game. Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell lead the team at 29.6 per night.
The most surprising contributor early on has been Jerome, who played just two games last season due to an ankle injury. We liked the signing a year ago because Jerome has point guard skills and has size at 6’5″.
He is averaging 9.9 points and 3.1 assists per contest but has a calm presence about him and doesn’t try to be spectacular, he just makes the right play more often than not.
The great start is excellent, but unfortunately for this group, the real test for these Cavs will not come until April and May, meaning the playoffs.
Barring injuries, we know this is a playoff squad, so can this style win in the post-season. The questions will be there until proven otherwise: Can the Donovan Mitchell/Darius Garland backcourt win in the playoffs and can Jarrett Allen and Mobley be on the floor together and provide an effective offensive system.
On the other hand, we love the more diversified offense, not as reliant on the pick-and-roll, while not losing the defensive focus. We also always thought Allen and Mobley can both be active on the offensive end and Atkinson has given them the ball at the free throw line and let either find open shooters.
Again, we will stress it is very early in the season. And that the Cavs brought back the same team is huge early in the season, while other squads are working in new players, Cleveland has an advantage in that they’ve all played together.
The Cavs’ best start in their history? They went 8-0 to start the 1976-77 campaign, the year after the “Miracle of Richfield”, when the NBA/ABA merger took place, and many teams had major roster shifts.
The wine and gold did not and won 16 of their first 20. Spoiler alert…they finished 43-39. Just so no one gets too carried away.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 