With better health and lottery luck, postseason may not be so far away for Cavs
By Corey Casey
The East is better, which won’t make it easy
The East has four legitimate championship-caliber contenders in the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia Sixers and the Indiana Pacers with a healthy Victor Oladipo (they were a top-three seed in the conference at the time Oladipo was lost for the season due to a reported injury in late January).
What could make things tougher is Kevin Durant‘s expected free agency move from the Golden State Warriors to the East, and reportedly likely the New York Knicks, or potentially, the Brooklyn Nets (h/t CBS Sports’ Brad Botkin).
Botkin also would add this on the Durant rumors.
"“Some people are wondering whether the results of this year’s playoff run with the Warriors will impact K.D.’s decision to stay with the team or cut ties and move on.”"
Additionally, Botkin would highlight a league executive’s thoughts on the Durant free agency possibilities, which was pretty telling (again, per Botkin).
"“I think he’s gone [from Golden State] either way,” a league exec told CBS Sports."
Long time NBA insider Ric Bucher, now of Bleacher Report, believes Durant to the Knicks is seemingly a sure thing, based on what he said on FS1’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” last month.
"From everything I've heard, it's done. Yes, he's leaving... If he so much as gets [the Knicks] into the Conference Finals, he will be beloved there like he never has been at Golden State after 2 Championships."@RicBucher on Kevin Durant's free agency pic.twitter.com/eCHgKQxKTF
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) April 3, 2019
There is also a lot of noise that Irving would join Durant in New York, and recently, according to former NBA player Kendrick Perkins, Irving and Durant have been “talking a lot lately.”
"[KD and Kyrie] have been talking a lot lately. If they were to link up, that would be dangerous. ... It could be special. I could only imagine KD and Kyrie in New York. I might move to New York. I'd have to buy me some tickets." — @KendrickPerkins pic.twitter.com/ikIoPGtgbK
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) April 30, 2019
That doesn’t necessarily mean anything concrete, but one would have to believe both players would be very intrigued, at minimum, by the idea.
The once-weak Eastern Conference has turned into a gauntlet lately and let’s not leave out the Nets.
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A few years ago, they were at the bottom of the NBA, but they have a good nucleus with emerging star point guard D’Angelo Russell (who they’ll have to make a decision on this offseason, but is a very talented player, anyhow) and other good young pieces such as Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen, Joe Harris and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who is due to hit restricted free agency (per Spotrac), but again, is talented as well.
The Nets also figure to be a big part of free agency as some of the top guys will reportedly “at least consider” the emerging Nets, according to SNY’s Anthony Puccio and h/t Bleacher Report’s Scott Polacek (granted, Russell and Hollis-Jefferson could feasibly be odd men out if Brooklyn lands bigger fish).
The East has other decent/up-and-coming teams such as the Orlando Magic who improved this year and made the postseason for the first time since 2011-12, and the Detroit Pistons, who got into the postseason for the first time since the 2015-2016 season (per Basketball Reference).
So again, what does this mean for Cleveland Cavaliers?
The Cavs just need to stay the course of the rebuild and keep doing what they’re doing.