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NBA Playoff Positioning: How Important for the Cavaliers?

By Jared Mueller

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As the Cleveland Cavaliers have embarked on their 9 game winning streak the idea of NBA Playoff Positioning has started to come up. Prior to the win streak fans were far more worried about the quality of team the Cavs were and not looking forward as much. Now with the team seemingly putting things together the NBA Playoffs are squarely on our mind.

So how important could NBA Playoff Positioning be for the Cavaliers? First we need to take a look at where the team currently sits and analyze what it would mean “If the season ended today.”

The Cavs currently reside in the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference. With yesterday’s win, and the Chicago Bulls late night loss to the Phoenix Suns, the Cavs sit 1.5 games back of the Bulls for the 4th seed. If the season ended today the Cavs would face the Bulls with Chicago having home court advantage.

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    • Looking forward, if the Cavs won that match-up, they would have to face the winner of the 1 – 8 opening round series. Currently that would pit the Atlanta Hawks, with their amazing 39 – 8 record, including a huge 18 game winning streak, against the Charlotte Hornets. Crazier things have happened but likely the Hawks would move on.

    That would leave the Cavs to face off with the team with the best record in the East. Barring injuries, or some complete and total collapse, we expect the Hawks to take the top seed in the East going away at this point. So after facing the physically tough Bulls, the Cavs would then have to face off with the technically sound, sweet shooting Hawks in the 2nd round. Getting passed those two teams alone could be tough.

    Yet if the Cavs do pull that off they still would have the Eastern Conference Finals ahead of them where one of two teams would likely stand in their way. The Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards currently sit in the second and third seeds respectively. At this point they would have to fend off the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat before facing off with each other. Wins in those series seem very likely. A Raptors/Wizards series would be very fun and the winner would have home court advantage over the Cavs in the East Finals.

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    So given current seeding the Cavs would most likely have to go through the Bulls, Hawks and either the Raptors or Wizards to make it to the NBA Finals, all with a disadvantage related to home court. Even if they can pull off winning all 3 series they would likely be taxed heavily before the NBA Finals.

    So how important is Playoff Positioning? A move up two spots, to the 3rd seed, would mean a ton. The Cavs would then face the less than amazing, and barely over .500, Bucks before facing one of the rugged teams in the East. Instead of 3 difficult NBA Playoff series they would cut that down to two. No small thing. They also would have home court advantage in their opening series, against a lesser team.

    So how likely is changing their NBA Playoff Positioning for the Cavaliers? With the way things are going it is seems very likely. Not only are they only 1.5 games back of the Bulls, who are 4 – 6 in their last 10, but they are also only 3.5 back of the 3rd seed Wizards and 4.5 back of the 2nd seed Raptors.

    If the Cavs can crawl all the way back to the 2nd seed in the East they would turn all the weaknesses we discussed about the “If the season ended today” playoff scenarios into strengths. they would face lesser teams, the 2nd seed right now would face the Miami Heat (so much fun to think about that) and then the winner of the 3/6 match-up while having home court advantage. They still likely would face the Atlanta Hawks but only after/if they get by the Bulls, their likely opponent in the 2nd round, a team that beats you up physically.

    So how important is NBA Playoff Positioning? Very.

    What do you think of the Cavs need to have a high seed for the NBA Playoffs?

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