The Cleveland Cavaliers have had a roller coaster of a year. Last season they had a catastrophic finish to the season, with unending injuries across the roster rendering a bad team even worse; the Cavs went 19-48 from January 1st through the end of the season.
Things have turned up from there. A strong offseason of moves set them up for success this year, and the Cavs have gone 20-15 with one final game on New Year’s Eve to go. That combines for a subpar 39-62 mark for the year, but certainly one ending on a high note.
The Cavs have built a team on the rise from a low starting point. What key moments from 2021 brought them to this exciting place?
As the calendar turns from 2021 to 2022, as a planet we hope for less COVID-19 and more happy moments. Fans of the Cavs can surely look ahead to a lot of joy and excitement given the trajectory of the current team. But before we look ahead, let’s take a moment to look back.
What were the key moments from the past 12 months that have brought the Cavs to this moment? Many things happened before 2021 (drafting Darius Garland, elevating J.B. Bickerstaff to head coach) but plenty happened this year to propel the rebuild forward. Let’s look at the 5 key moments that changed the Cavs in 2021, starting with a surprise inclusion in a blockbuster trade.
5 key moments that changed the Cavs in 2021 – 1. Trading for Jarrett Allen
The 2020-21 NBA season began in late December of 2020, and one of the key storylines was how badly James Harden was trying to pout his way out of Houston. By the second week of January his strategy had worked, and Harden was heading to the Brooklyn Nets.
The Nets needed to include center Jarrett Allen to provide enough value, but the Houston Rockets had just signed Christian Wood and didn’t want Allen. Enter the Cleveland Cavaliers, who jumped in and traded a first-round pick and Dante Exum for Allen and Taurean Prince.
It was a curious move for Cleveland, which was already trying to find enough time for Andre Drummond and JaVale McGee. Yet Koby Altman and the front office didn’t get bogged down by the present, instead looking to a future with Allen locking down the paint and catching lobs from Darius Garland.
It took a few weeks for the Cavs to shift from trying to mash Allen and Drummond together to sitting Drummond to let Allen shine. Since joining the Cavs the 6’11” center has averaged 14.5 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 64.6 percent from the field. Trading for Allen did mean giving up a pick and committing to a large contract, but Allen has played about as well as one could hope for and helped to change this team’s identity inside.
5 key moments that changed the Cavs in 2021 – 2. Darius Garland training with Team USA
The 2020 Summer Olympics were pushed back to 2021, and this summer a hastily-cobbled-together roster of American stars went to Las Vegas in early July to train and prepare for Tokyo, where they would ultimately win a gold medal. To help them prepare, a small number of up-and-coming players were invited to join them.
This “Team USA Select Team” included one Darius Garland, fresh off his sophomore season and burgeoning with potential. Garland surprisingly got the nod over his teammate Collin Sexton, who was inside the Top-20 in scoring that year. USA basketball saw something in Garland to bring him in.
When COVID-19 hit the roster and members of the Select Team were called to play with the Olympians in their exhibition games, Garland was one of the three players who got the honor. His combination of shooting, passing and shot-making caught the eye of some of basketball’s brightest then, and it almost resulted in a trip to Tokyo and a gold medal; if the head coach hadn’t been Gregg Popovich and Pop hadn’t taken his “own guy” in Keldon Johnson, it could have been Garland on the podium in Tokyo.
Whatever Team USA saw in Garland, they were dead-on. He has done nothing but excel to start the season, putting up 19.5 points and 7.3 assists while shooting 39.4 percent from 3-point range on a robust 6.8 attempts. He has a strong case to be an All-Star, and like so many young players before him, being in and around the stars and coaches of Team USA seems to have had an impact on Garland. Could he be wearing the red, white and blue in 2024?
5 key moments that changed the Cavs in 2021 – 3. Drafting Evan Mobley
The 2021 NBA Draft was loaded with exciting your prospects, but most sources agreed that there was a consensus Top 4, with three of those players (Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and Evan Mobley) all deserving choices with the No. 1 overall pick. The Cavs landed third in the NBA Draft Lottery, securing them a seat at the table of top prospects.
A little bit of luck and a little bit of scouting went into selecting Evan Mobley at No. 3 overall, just after Cunningham and Green, just before Jalen Suggs and Scottie Barnes. Some questioned the pick as the Cavs already had a pair of centers in Jarrett Allen and Kevin Love, but the organization was confident they had the chosen the right guy.
Mobley then came out this season and has been a revelation, one of the league’s best and most versatile big men already as a rookie. Offensively he isn’t as polished, but he has incredible touch and an improving jumper. Add in strong big-man passing and a good handle, and Mobley is a truly unique and impactful player.
He is currently the front-runner for Rookie of the Year, and while he won’t make the All-Star Game he deserves to at least be considered. Mobley would likely go first in a redraft already, and the Cavs long-term future changed dramatically because they took Mobley at No. 3.
5 key moments that changed the Cavs in 2021 – 4. Starting Three Towers
One of the more questioned moves of the offseason was when the Cleveland Cavaliers swept in and executed a sign-and-trade for Chicago Bulls big man Lauri Markkanen, adding the 7-foot former lottery pick to a roster that was already spending gobs of money and draft capital on big men. How could they all fit?
The answer was presented suddenly on Opening Night, when head coach J.B. Bickerstaff shocked the league and Cavs fans by starting three 7-footers (we’ll round Allen up from 6’11”). With Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen starting at the 4 and the 5, Bickerstaff didn’t want a non-shooter on the floor in Isaac Okoro. Instead, he moved Okoro to the bench and started the sharpshooting Markkanen to help space the court.
The results have been excellent thus far. Defensively Markkanen is not fast enough to stay with most small forwards, but the Cavs have addressed that problem by having the three bigs all switch with each other, negating the speed of opposing forwards. On offense teams are afraid to leave Markkanen, opening up room inside for Darius Garland and one of the two bigs to run actions, or interior passing leading to wide open finishes.
The Cavs’ greatest weakness on their roster is a lack of wings, and playing Markkanen at the 3 mitigates that issue and finds more minutes for the team’s best players. Kevin Love and Markkanen can fill similar roles in the offense to give this team an excellent four-big rotation across three roster spots. If the team was only playing Markkanen at the 4 the lineup combinations would be more limited, and there would be fewer minutes there for a Love rebound season, or for Mobley to stretch his wings.
This lineup is weird, and it probably won’t work to win big in the playoffs, but right now it is absolutely working.
5 key moments that changed the Cavs in 2021 – 5. Collin Sexton getting injured
Of our five biggest events of the year, this one is the only happening that appears negative on the surface. For Collin Sexton is unquestionably is, as he is heading towards free agency and has some tough decisions to make about his future. The Cavs, likewise, will have to evaluate his value to the team without the helpful knowledge of how he would have played on the court this year.
Yet when Sexton went down to a meniscus injury in that game against the New York Knicks, it opened up an opportunity for the rest of the backcourt to step up. Darius Garland suddenly had more of a scoring load, while Ricky Rubio had minutes alongside Garland he could step in and fill.
Together the two have taken off, and the Cavs have followed suit. Sexton is a talented player who would help this team, especially with Rubio now out for the season, but his ball dominance was taking the ball out of Garland’s hands. Sexton is a good scorer; Garland is a good scorer, better shooter and a significantly better playmaker. With Sexton he scored points; with Garland everyone scores points.
There is a world where Sexton is traded or signs with another team this summer, but there is also a world where he returns healthy next season and fits into his role, perhaps as a high-minute substitute given the green light to score without Garland. Right now this is becoming Garland’s team, and that transition may have been delayed or suppressed if Sexton was still suiting up.
2021 was a good year for the Cavs, one in which they added three starters in a frontcourt that is dominating teams. Perhaps in a year’s time, we can look back on 2022 and see successful transactions, big wins and a rise in status for this exciting young team.