Cavs to finish 7th, according to ESPN
At the tail end of last season, Jarrett Allen picked up a finger injury, and the Cavalier momentum for the playoffs started to disappear. They did make it to the Play-In Tournament, only to be eventually be knocked out by Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks. Cleveland finished the season with a solid 44-38 record, but the playoffs have to be the goal this time around. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, finishing seventh in the standings would still land them in the Play-In as ESPN suggests.
With that being said the gap between the top three teams in the Eastern Conference and the rest of the teams is vast, and has grown over the offseason seemingly. The biggest question mark is probably in Brooklyn, where we really don’t know what to expect.
If they bring back Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, healthy, they immediately shoot to the top of the standings. Which is why I think the Cavs finishing seventh this season is a bit overly optimistic.
Yes, Koby Altman and company added a solid big in Lopez, and got a good backup guard in Neto. However, the decision to re-sign Ricky Rubio after rehabbing from an injury, is a puzzling one to put it lightly. He’s never shot over 40% from the field in his entire career, and he previously tore the same ACL earlier in his career.
I would have liked to see the Cavs draft a young guard, as opposed to signing an aging vet heading into his age-32 season, and maybe not back until January. Who even knows what Rubio may look like this coming season, additionally.