Cavaliers: Finals Appearance Good Enough?

The Cleveland Cavaliers are winding down on the most wacky, crazy, fun, depressing, weird and strange regular season in franchise history. The team has gone through win streaks, losing streaks, trades, starting line-up changes, media controversy and pretty much anything else you can think of. Simply put, the Cavs have seen it all this season, something that really isn’t new to Cleveland sport fans.

It’s crazy to think then, that the real season hasn’t even started yet.

The playoffs are when this season will truly be defined as a success or a failure for the Cavaliers. Once mid-April rolls around, all regular season wins and losses go out the window and the big boys of the NBA come out to play.

For Cleveland, this will be the franchise’s first appearance in the tournament since 2010, ending a four-season long drought. The excitement levels for this team are through the roof now, as Cleveland is steamrolling their way to the post-season, as evident by their 27-6 record since January 15. Cleveland has looked unstoppable as of late and will be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time.

For many of the Cavaliers though, such as Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, this will be the their first post-season appearance and LeBron James knows how important that is, per cavs.com:

"“It’s a huge accomplishment for our team. For me, I don’t look too far into it. But for our team, for the guys that have never been in the postseason, we have a few guys – looking around I know Double T (Tristan Thompson), Kev (Kevin Love) and Kyrie (Irving) have never been in the playoffs and I don’t think they should take that for granted and just overlook that. It’s a huge thing for those guys. I’m happy I was able to be a part of their first clinch for the postseason.”"

With all the playoff inexperience on the team, it makes me wonder- if the Cavs just make the NBA Finals, would that be considered a ‘successful’ season? Let’s explore.

Before the season began, odd makers were already penciling in the Cavaliers as NBA Champions, which was just ridiculous. Yes, the Cavs probably had the best team on paper heading into the season but championships aren’t won on paper. As people were placing multiple bets on the Cavs, I was thinking to myself that an Eastern Conference Finals appearance would be a success. Despite the talent levels, with a new team in the improving Eastern Conference, I thought that if the Cavs could make the ECF’s, it would be a great achievement.

Now though, it seems as if getting to the ECF’s is almost a foregone conclusion for Cleveland. The aforementioned 27-6 tear that the Cavs have been on since January 15 has simply been stunning. The new pieces of Timofey Mozgov, JR Smith and Iman Shumpert have been gems for the Cavaliers and all three of them have helped the Cavs turn their season around. Simply put, with the three ‘new’ Cavaliers, along with the big three, I’m 99.9% sure the Cavs are going to be competing for their first Eastern Conference title since 2009.

So while before the season I would have said a successful season for the Cavs would be an ECF appearance, that statement simply isn’t true anymore.

According to John Hollinger’s Playoff Odds, the Cavs have the best odds at making the Finals in the entire league, at 53.4%. The top seed in the East, the Atlanta Hawks, have a 23.8% at making the Finals, per Hollinger’s calculations. While the Hawks play beautiful basketball, and have beaten the Cavs 3 times this season, my money would still be on Cleveland beating them in a seven game series.

Cleveland’s talent level is superior to the Hawks and that will be a key in the playoffs. The NBA is a superstar driven league and come playoff time, that holds true. Despite the brilliance of Atlanta this season, many still question whether the team will be able to succeed in the playoffs. With the inconsistency of the rest of the Eastern Conference teams though, Atlanta and Cleveland should have no real scares on their way to a clash in the ECF’s. Like I mentioned, the Cavs have superior talent to the Hawks and in a seven game series, Atlanta won’t have enough firepower to stop James, Love and Irving.

While Cleveland should be able to take care of the Eastern Conference, more problems will arise against the team that survives the brutal Western Conference. Whether it be the Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzles or even the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland’s work will be cut out for them in June.

Amazingly, Cleveland holds a 17-12 record against the West this season, a nice number to have. Like I mentioned earlier though, come playoff time, regular season records count for naught. So whoever comes out of the Western Conference, it will make for an intriguing match-up with the Cavaliers.

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If last season was the ‘Season of Huh’ for Cleveland, then this one might as well be the sequel. Except this one will have a much happier ending. Whether it will be a successful ending though, remains to be seen.

With the multiple roster changes and the ridiculous strength of the Western Conference, if Cleveland manages to make the NBA Finals, it would be impossible not to call this season a successful one for the Wine and Golders.

Would you consider an NBA Finals appearance, but no ring, a successful Cavaliers season?

Next: NBA Playoffs: March Madness Style