Cavs: Projecting how team will fare in first quarter of 2021-22

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a few weeks away from playing basketball once again, showcasing the pieces that they’ve acquired over the offseason. With seemingly a full roster, the team has yet to figure out what the rotation will look like with the starting power forward, backup wing spots, and Kevin Love’s role all being question marks moving forward.

With that said, this year will be an interesting one as we see how each player fares, and the start of the team’s season should dictate how they perform for the rest of the season.

Players like Collin Sexton and Darius Garland are expected to make leaps in their games once again, asserting themselves into the NBA’s upper echelon of guards. As stated in previous articles, the front office has done a lot to put them in the best positions to succeed and each move made seems to revolve around that duo.

Defensively, the loss of Larry Nance Jr. hurts but progression from Isaac Okoro on the perimeter should help fill that burden.

Evan Mobley, Lauri Markkanen, and Jarrett Allen should all be interesting to watch next season, and seeing how they fare will depend on the success of the guards on the team.

Concerns on the team’s bench wing rotation are big but with improved playmaking and scoring in other departments, this area could have success until the team figures how to improve it.

Looking at the team’s first 20 games, the NBA did not do them any favors as 14 of them are against teams who made the playoffs last season. Seeing that some of those teams have had drastic changes, that may not matter too much.

So how will the Cavs fare?

We’ll dive into that next here, beginning with the first five outings.