Do the Cavaliers have a rivalry with anyone at this point in time?

In the mid-2000s, the Cleveland Cavaliers had a rivalry with the Boston Celtics. That rivalry was most on display in Game 7 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals where LeBron James and Paul Pierce were locked in a scoring battle. But after James left in the summer of 2010, that rivalry dissipated and disappeared.

Then from 2015-2018, Cleveland developed a rivalry with the Golden State Warriors. In this rivalry, the two teams met four times in the NBA Finals. The Warriors ultimately won the series by a score of 3-1 (although it should’ve been 2-2 if Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were healthy in 2015). Much like the rivalry with Boston, once LeBron left that rivalry dissipated and disappeared.

So how about now for the Cavs, then?

Since the Cavaliers are now in a rebuilding stage and not really going anywhere quickly, it’s hard to say who, if anyone, Cleveland has a rivalry with at this present time.

The most obvious options would be the other teams in the Central Division: the Indiana Pacers, the Chicago Bulls, the Milwaukee Bucks (who are currently tied with the Phoenix Suns 2-2 in the NBA Finals), and the Detroit Pistons. Of these options, the one which seems to make the most sense is Detroit.

Cleveland and Detroit have always seemed to be intertwined when it comes to sports. There have stretches throughout history where the Cleveland Indians needed to defeat the Detroit Tigers in order to get to where they wanted to go. There were also times where the roles were reversed and the Tigers needed to defeat the Indians in order to get to where they wanted to go.

When people think of recent big games between the Cavaliers and the Pistons, Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills comes to mind. For a friendly reminder, that’s the game where King James scored 25 straight points and carried the Cavs to a 3-2 series lead.

As I previously alluded to, somehow someway, the Cavs would go on to win the series but got swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. All of the players from that 2007 ECF have gone on to do different things, some of them are still in the league.

Both teams are clearly in a state of rebuilding and it doesn’t look like they’re going to be competing for a championship anytime soon, although Darius Garland, Collin Sexton (though he’s been involved in trade rumors) and Isaac Okoro are intriguing young Cavs pieces.

But even with this being the case, that doesn’t mean there can’t be a rivalry, regarding the Cavs and Pistons before. And maybe Cade Cunningham for Detroit and say Evan Mobley or Jalen Green/Jalen Suggs for Cleveland could have their share of key matchups head-to-head from here.

Moreover, perhaps as the two teams improve and get into possible playoff contention, they’ll have to go through each other.