Outside of Garland, where is the scoring coming from?
Darius Garland was absolutely fantastic last year, scoring a place in the All-Star Game, then in Cleveland. He averaged 21.7 points per game last season, and provided a bunch of scoring opportunities for the team on the offensive end. He was a deadly mid-range shooter, shooting over 45% from the field and just above 38% from deep.
But, now teams will be able to key in on him, and guys like Collin Sexton (with him seemingly likely back), Lauri Markkanen, and Caris LeVert need to be ready to be much bigger contributors in the upcoming season.
Overall, the Eastern Conference just got a lot better over the summer, regardless of what eventually plays out on the Irving and Durant front. Like I said the Cavs didn’t make a lot of moves, but it did add some depth, and I haven’t even talked about their first-round draft pick Ochai Agbaji out of Kansas.
However, even though the Cavs have a lot going for them, I just don’t see a finish as high as seven in the cards this coming season right now.
On the plus side, this group is a fun and exciting bunch, and they proved themselves to the league last season. It will be interesting to see how this group of guys reacts to the high pressure this upcoming year.