It’s Early, But We Have Some Fears Regarding The Cavs

We believe the Cleveland Cavaliers are experimenting for sure. They’ve had all kinds of key players missing to start the season, with the only real constants being Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and De’Andre Hunter.

They have provided several young players like Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Jaylon Tyson, Craig Porter Jr., and rookie Tyrese Proctor good opportunities to show they can contribute as the season moves forward.

And with all of this happening, they are still 13-10 and at least in terms of the ratings, a top ten offensive and defensive team.

But we do have a nagging lingering fear for this group. Perhaps the window to win a title was open widest the past two seasons.

The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder are sitting at 21-1. Two young, long teams in the East are off to great starts. The Pistons are 17-5 and the Raptors are 15-7. And long teams seem to bother the Cavs.

We have written about the lack of size on the Cavaliers’ roster over the past few seasons, and the move toward more size was never more evident than it this past NBA Draft.

Of the top ten picks in the draft, six of them were guards who were over 6’5″. This means the current duo of Mitchell and Darius Garland ranks even lower in terms of size among NBA backcourts.

We understand Garland is coming back from off-season surgery and he has missed time since re-aggravating the injury. He helps the offense greatly with his skill to penetrate and also shoot from distance.

On the other hand, one problem we have seen is his ability to take care of the basketball. It was an issue in his first playoff series against the Knicks, and it really hasn’t changed. He had two big turnovers down the stretch against Atlanta last week that cost the team a chance at a win.

Then we have the Mobley issue. The thought was always that the Cavs would be title contenders when he was the best player on the team. Can that happen? He’s a very good player, the Defensive Player of the Year last season. But does he have the temperament of an alpha?

We do think Kenny Atkinson is putting him in different situation to see where he fits best offensively. He’s bringing the ball up trying to initiate the offense, but his ball handling doesn’t seem to be strong enough.

Last year, he seemed to thrive with the ball at the foul line extended and set up his teammates from that spot on the floor or be able to take the ball to the basket. Again, our guess is Atkinson is trying some things out and may settle on what worked last season.

We know the Celtics won a title just a couple of years ago with heavy reliance on the three-point shot. However, they fell short a couple of years ago when they lost in the conference finals to Miami because of their shot selection.

Last year, 45.7% of Cleveland’s shots were from beyond the arc and they converted on 38% of them. This season, the number of long-range shots has increased to 48.8%, and even worse, they are making less at 34.8%. That 3% difference is huge.

Football people talk about “complimentary football”, but it can be used in basketball as well. The Cavs have two solid defenders inside in Mobley and Jarrett Allen, but when you miss threes, it generally results in a long rebound and a fast break by your opponent.

Fast breaks tend to make having interior defenders moot.

We know everyone loves to play with pace, but maybe it would be better to play a little slower, take better shots, and make better use of the two bigs you do have.

It is better to be playing their best basketball in March, April, and May (and hopefully June) than now. When the New Year hits, the Cavs need to tighten some things up.

Tomlin And Tyson Are Summer Leaguers Who Might Help

The NBA Summer League is fun. You get to see the draftees from the most recent NBA Draft and many of the second-year players from the selections made in the prior year, most because those guys got most of their action in the G League during the 2024-25 season.

And it’s also good because unless your favorite team played in the NBA Finals, it has been a while since anyone wearing the uniform has seen time. For example, it was great to see players wearing the Cavaliers’ colors out there playing.

However, the brand of basketball being played more closely resembles a playground game than an NBA regular season contest, let alone a playoff game. The defensive intensity isn’t there and let’s face it, these players are looking to make a name for themselves, as most of them aren’t under contract.

On the other hand, we don’t get too excited about the players on floor during the Summer League because let’s face it, the Cavaliers are a real good team, we are sure no one has forgotten they did win 64 games this past year.

So, if came out of watching these games in Las Vegas thinking second round pick Tyrese Proctor is going to be an important piece for the 2025-26 edition of the Cavaliers, you are either extremely optimistic or a Cavs’ influencer.

Players taken 45th overall are probably not helping a team whose goal should be to win the NBA title.

We will say the performance of Nae’Qwan Tomlin was very promising and he should be given the opportunity to play early next season. Why? First, because he’s 6’10” and if you read this site regularly, you know we believe the wine and gold need to add players with some length.

Tomlin averaged 19.6 points and 8.2 rebounds in Las Vegas, and better yet, shot 33.3% from three. Kenny Atkinson can use a big man with some range from the perimeter, and at his height, the only players on the roster taller than him are Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.

The Cavs have had better first halves the past three seasons than they’ve performed down the stretch, and we believe one reason is that other teams are looking at guys like Tomlin early in the year. Why not see in October and November if the big man can be a rotational player, rather than trying to see in March and April.

The other player in Vegas who could make an impact this season is second year wing Jaylon Tyson. He impressed us last year as an all-around talent, and in three games out west, he averaged 19.7 points, 6 rebounds and 6.7 assists. Again, does a bit of everything which we like.

With Ty Jerome and Isaac Okoro no longer on the roster and Lonzo Ball’s injury history, Tyson could be in Atkinson’s rotation at the beginning of the season. And if he can play some in the backcourt, that would be a plus because he’s 6’6″.

For a team in the Cavaliers’ position, players like Proctor and Cleveland State product Tristan Enaruma are right now organizational depth, and most of their playing time will come with the G League Cleveland Charge.

And that’s okay. Just don’t get crazy with expectations for them in ’25-’26.

On Cavs’ Trade And Draft

The off-season in the NBA officially started with the draft on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The Cleveland Cavaliers did not have a pick in the first round but had two in the second round.

They used their first pick on guard Tyrese Proctor from Duke. The scouting report on Proctor is that he has a high basketball IQ and the good shooting touch, thriving in a half court setting. The rap on him is although he played both guard spots in college, his ball handling needs to get better.

Our first thought is everyone has a type, and Koby Altman’s is 6’5″ players. He collects them like some people collect trading cards. He can’t get enough of them.

However, the Cavs won 64 games last season and are projected to be in the mix for the best record in the conference again this year. That means it is doubtful that Proctor sees much court time, if any, with the Cavaliers this season. He will likely get mostly G League minutes to see how he performs.

Cleveland had the penultimate pick in the draft and used it on Saliou Niang, a 6’8″ forward from Italy. He will play this season there.

The report on him is he is very raw, but has quick feet and good lateral mobility, which means he should be a factor on the defensive end of the floor. He also has a high free throw rate, which means he is aggressive on the offensive end.

The bigger news was a trade over the weekend, a rare one for one player deal. The Cavs shipped Isaac Okoro to Chicago for the injury plagued Lonzo Ball.

When healthy, Ball is a very good ball handler with size at 6’6″, a perfect pairing for the Cavs’ small backcourt combination of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. In his career spanning 287 games, he’s averaged 11.4 points, 5.8 assists, and 5.5 rebounds per contest. His shooting percentage from three is 36.2%, much improved from his first two years of 30.5% and 32.9%

The key phrase in that paragraph though is “when healthy”. Ball has never played more than 63 games in any season, and that’s the only season he appeared in that many. And since 2021-22, he missed the entire next two seasons and played in 35 games last year.

The Bulls used him just 22 minutes per contest and maybe reduced time will keep him in the lineup more. But he’s far from a “for sure” in the Cavs’ rotation.

Besides, the cost for Ball wasn’t much. Okoro simply never developed enough of a reliable offensive game to be on the court in the playoffs. Perhaps he was miscast as a “three and D” wing, because it seems like all the Cavs did for him offensively was put him in the corner for the three.

We wondered why the front office extended him last off-season, and now that has been rectified.

The one surprise, at least to us, was signing Sam Merrill to a four-year deal, pretty much closing the door on Ty Jerome’s tenure in wine and gold. The latter averaged 12.5 points per game a year ago and was up for sixth man of the year honors.

Merrill is more of a one-dimensional player, but that dimension is shooting and guys who can shoot get paid in today’s NBA.

It’s a good start to the off-season for Altman, GM Mike Gansey, and the Cavs, but they still haven’t addresses length on the wing and another solid power forward/center.

Hopefully, we will hear on those spots soon.