Here at King James Gospel, we try to take a measured approach. We want to be excited about the Cleveland Cavaliers without leaving the realm of sanity. Evan Mobley is not as good (yet, perhaps) as prime Kevin Garnett. Emoni Bates isn’t ready to be a starting 3. The Cavs can’t trade Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro for Paul George.
Let’s predict Evan Mobley to be in play for an All-Defense team without predicting him to be MVP. Let’s trace an offensive improvement without declaring them the next coming of the Seven Seconds or Less Phoenix Suns. The Cavs can be improved without being on track for 70 wins.
With that being said, sometimes it’s fun to dip a toe in the hype waters, to step out of the comfort zone of “reasonable” and make a bold statement. We’re no First Take, but perhaps we can heat things up to the level of a true Hot Take.
What’s more, what if there are some bold statements that we actually believe in? What if there were Cleveland Cavaliers Hot Takes that are both scorching hot and incredibly possible? Let’s look at three blistering takes and explain how they actually can come to pass.
Evan Mobley was considered one of the best defensive prospects to enter the NBA Draft in recent memory, and his rookie year did not disappoint. He averaged 1.7 blocks per game and was racking up defensive highlights on a nightly basis. The following season Mobley took another large step forward, serving as the linchpin to the league’s No. 1 defense alongside Jarrett Allen. He finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting and landed on the All-Defense First Team.
Can Mobley take another step forward this season and be the best defensive player in the league? On the surface that seems attainable; if Mobley was the third-best defender last season it’s not that far to being No. 1. At the same time, winning Defensive Player of the Year this season would make him the youngest winner in league history.
Mobley has the size and length to swallow up shot attempts in the paint, excelling at rotating to the rim and swatting away shots. His lateral agility and timing make him ideal in any spot of a zone defense, and he even has untapped potential as a perimeter wing defender, giving him versatility no other player in the league can likely claim.
The competition is fierce around the league to be considered the league’s best defender, but no single player seems unassailable. Jaren Jackson Jr. won DPOY last season but his combination of injuries and frequent foul trouble result in limited availability. Draymond Green, Rudy Gobert and Brook Lopez are aging out of the combination, while Nic Claxton and Walker Kessler aren’t yet there. Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo are both strong candidates, but Mobley was better than both last season. Anthony Davis was the best defender in the playoffs but is unlikely to play enough or hard enough during the regular season to claim the title.
Evan Mobley is already one of the league’s best defenders after two seasons in the league. Could he be the very best as early as this year? It’s not that crazy.
This Hot Take ratchets up the heat quite a bit, as the idea of the Cleveland Cavaliers taking the No. 1 seed seems improbable in the context of the competition in the Eastern Conference. Last season the Cavs finished fourth, and two of the teams above them added stars this summer.
The Milwaukee Bucks were No. 1 a season ago and traded for Damian Lillard. The Boston Celtics were No. 2, with the league’s best point differential, and added Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. They are not only projected to finish 1-2 in the East, but they are the top two betting favorites to win the title heading into the season.
Cleveland and its fans should be undaunted by that fact. Yes, the Bucks and Celtics should be considered the top two teams for the playoffs, with rosters built for postseason success and experience going all the way (the Bucks won the title in 2021, and the Celtics made the NBA Finals in 2022). For the regular season? The Cavaliers have the inside track.
They had the second-best net rating in the league last season, the best indicator of team quality, and they returned all of their top eight players and added Max Strus, Georges Niang and Ty Jerome this summer. Their core is young and should improve, while no one in their rotation figures to suffer from age-related decline.
The Bucks have an aging core and are integrating a very new player, not to mention they now lack the depth to get through a regular season playing at an elite level. The Boston Celtics have younger stars but will be relying on older players around them, not to mention the injury issues Porzingis has dealt with his entire career. If they lose one of their bigs their lack of depth becomes apparent very quickly.
The Cavs, on the other hand, have plenty of depth at every position except point guard. They don’t have any players with significant health concerns in the rotation. They still need to prove themselves in the playoffs, and not having a Top-10 player in the league is a real issue on that stage, but in the regular season, the Cavaliers have an excellent chance to land the No. 1 seed.
This final Hot Take may not seem as bold as the one before it, but appearances can be deceiving. Predicting the Cavaliers to be the No. 1 seed is saying they can move up three spots and is buoyed by their No. 2 net rating a season ago. To say that Dean Wade should close for the Cavs is to take a player who may not even be in the rotation right now and thrust him into the top 5.
The Cavaliers signed Max Strus to start at the 3 for the Cavs, and they signed Georges Niang to be the backup power forward and pair frequently with both Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley as the stretch-4. Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro will both be a part of the regular rotation and play minutes regularly at small forward.
That doesn’t leave many minutes for Dean Wade, if any when everyone is healthy. Wade was a part of the rotation last season but suffered a significant shoulder injury; when he came back his ability to shoot cleanly and even rebound were hampered by the injury, and his numbers struggled across the board.
Wade completed his rehab for the shoulder injury over the summer, and he looks like the player he used to be, if not even better. His shot form looks smooth and he is 6-for-11 from 3-point range this preseason, a healthy percentage (54.5 percent) and volume (11 attempts per 36 minutes). He is the best option on the team for defending big wings and forwards other than perhaps Evan Mobley. No other player on the team profiles better as a 3-and-D forward than Wade if his shot is falling, and thus far it appears to be.
Starting Max Strus makes sense, at least to start the season, but at 6’5″ he puts the Cavs at a size disadvantage from the jump. When it’s time to close games the Cavs need size and perimeter defense, and Wade brings that. Last season, a lineup of Wade with the four stars had a +20.7 net rating, in the top 10 percent of all lineups leaguewide (per Cleaning the Glass). The offense was essentially unstoppable., scoring 132.9 points per 100 possessions.
Playing Wade with the four stars is probably the Cavs’ best lineup, but the other tantalizing option is to pull Jarrett Allen and play Strus at the 3 and Wade at the 4, giving the Cavaliers a truly lethal offensive group with the defenders to still keep up. It may take J.B. Bickerstaff time to figure it out, and he may never get there, but Dean Wade is among the best five options to close games for the Cavaliers.