Expectations for the Cleveland Cavaliers starters next season

Donovan Mitchell

In the regular season, the outfit needs similar offensive production as last year, but Spida must set up his frontcourt for more scoring opportunities. In 2022-23, he assisted on 120 possessions to Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. In comparison, Garland supplied the two bigs 258 times.

Mitchell will always be a scorer first, but the team feeding Mobley is crucial for his development because he gets his teammates open on a lot of the possessions they score on. Whenever Mobley has sealed someone out of the lane and is waiting for the pass, the ball should find him instead of swinging outside for a triple.

On the other side, the Cavaliers need more too. Mitchell is not their most effective defender, but since he is small, the Cavaliers can’t afford for him to take possessions off, even while the team held the top defensive rating.

Cleveland often deploys the drop coverage when defending pick-and-roll. When Spida is the guard following the ball up top, he must anticipate screens better so he doesn’t get pinned and an open shot or lane is available. He’ll never be an elite defender, but he needs to raise his effort consistently on that end because it will get more out of his teammates on that side, too, if they see him going as hard as he goes on offense.