Why the Cavaliers might actually be the NBA’s best team

The Cleveland Cavaliers are having a great season. A wobbly January gave way to seven-straight wins in February despite a grueling travel schedule, and the Cavs are right in the thick of the race in the Eastern Conference. This is the best basketball team Cleveland has had since LeBron James was in town.

With one game left against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night, the Cavaliers are currently 38-22, good for fourth in the Western Conference. Two seasons after winning just 22 games, and a year after missing the playoffs entirely, the Cavs look poised to end that playoff drought and even host a first-round series.

Power Rankings around the league generally agree with this sentiment: the Cavaliers are a really good team, but they’re not elite. NBA.com ranked Cleveland fifth in the league, as did The Athletic. CBS placed them as high as third. We placed them third in the East earlier this week.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a really good team, but are they actually the best?

What if the Cavs aren’t just “really good”, though? What if there was a compelling and relatively easy case to make that the Cleveland Cavaliers are actually the best team in the entire league? Let’s look at three key pieces of evidence that suggest the Cavs are not just good, but great.