After a short playoff berth, the Cleveland Cavaliers enter the 2023-24 NBA season with improved depth and a greater level of confidence in their personnel.
The Cavaliers have had maybe the most intriguing rebuild this century of basketball, considering their dramatic shift from the bottom of the league to one of the East powerhouses. After a dismal 22-win season, Cleveland shocked the NBA world with Darius Garland’s breakout season and the historic rookie season from Evan Mobley. With Garland and Mobley at the center, the Cavs doubled their win total with 44 wins and earned a spot in the Play-In Tournament.
Unfortunately, the Cavaliers lost two straight games, falling out of the Play-In Tournament. Their first year as a competitive team was short lived. Cleveland was not down and out, though, trading for perennial All-Star Donovan Mitchell in September 2022. With a talented core of Garland, Mitchell, Mobley and big man Jarrett Allen, the Cavs entered the 2022-23 season with an entirely new identity after plummeting in the standings when LeBron James left for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018.
As accelerated as their rebuild has been, the Cavaliers are not immune to humiliating growing pains. In the 2023 Playoffs, the Cavs had homecourt advantage against the New York Knicks, but their lack of experience and outside shooting led to an anticlimactic season’s end in an uncompetitive five-game series.
With a disastrous playoff series behind them, the Cavaliers had one of the best offseasons across the NBA. Although they did not make a blockbuster move again, the Cavs had a commendable offseason. The Athletic gave the Cavs a B+ grade for their offseason moves, citing the offensive versatility added to the league’s best defensive team.
The Cavaliers are still a young team, with their two best future prospects in Garland and Mobley at 23 and 22 years old, respectively. They still have plenty to learn, and this preseason suggested a handful of answers for them as they approach their October 25 season opener on the road against the Brooklyn Nets.
The first pertains to their pace.
It can often be inappropriate to reduce any team down to a numbers game, but the analytics for the Cavaliers help paint the full picture.
Last season, the Cavs were dead last in the NBA for pacing (96.27). While pacing might not be the first statistic that jumps out at a fanbase as to how their team plays, it is a crucial component of a team’s ability to make the most out of every possession. A team’s pace is the average amount of possessions that team uses within the 48 minutes of regulation. When a team is sluggish coming up the court and drains the shot clock every possession, they wind up settling for bad shots and subpar results like the Cavaliers did last season.
With such a young athletic roster, their complacency to waste time on offense halted their growth far too often. Coupling that with a stagnant offense defenses could easily predict every time down the floor, it was no surprise Cleveland could not find the answer in the playoffs – they had one gameplan and sank or swam with it every night.
They already have shown strides in the right direction this preseason, ending the preseason with a 105.38 pace, placing them 12th in the NBA. Jumping 18 spots suddenly is a major stepping stone for this season, especially considering the Cavs are not playing at full speed in preseason.
If the Cavaliers were to label any player as the X-factor in their increased pacing thus far, Max Strus may have the strongest argument for it. Strus’ unwavering hustle and dynamic confidence are the reasons the Cavaliers targeted him in free agency, securing him in a sign-and-trade with the Miami Heat on a $62.3 million contract over the next four seasons. Plenty observers had questions whether or not Strus will be the same player outside of the Miami system, but thus far he has not lost a step.
Alongside Strus’ production has been internal growth of one key player who has already shown a fantastic two-man game with the former Heat forward.
The offseason additions for Cleveland could have ended up for naught if the existing core did not continue to improve. That led all eyes to focus on Evan Mobley as he enters his third season.
In his second season, Mobley showed slight improvement in offensive efficiency, but he had trouble absorbing impact in the post and could get outworked by more physical opponents. While many analysts and fans expected a second-year leap from the young star, it was only his defense that really jumped up, earning him a spot on NBA All-Defense First Team and he was a finalist in the Defensive Player of the Year voting.
For the Cavs to enter the next tier of competition, though, Mobley needed to become a driving force on offense. He has been compared to a growing myriad of NBA legendary big men, making the spotlight burn even brighter with a critical third season coming.
The path to Mobley’s growth has seemingly reared its head, something that was hinted at as early as Cavaliers President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman’s summer media availability in the midst of free agency. Altman said they plan to put Mobley in a facilitator role this season, relying on his unique passing ability and inside presence to accelerate the Cavaliers’ success.
With the addition of Max Strus, Mobley and Strus have quickly become terrific collaborators together on the court. Strus praised Mobley in training camp and insisted that he study film of his former teammate Bam Adebayo, one of the best playmaking centers in the NBA. The connection between Mobley and Strus has been instant, and that should continue moving forward.
The biggest flaw that halted Mobley’s progression last season was Cleveland’s poor outside shooting. Their starting lineup of Garland, Mitchell, Isaac Okoro, Mobley and Allen gave the Cavaliers two perimeter threats while their frontcourt and Okoro were non-threats behind the arc. This allowed teams to crowd the paint and force the Cavs into contested shots at the end of the shot clock. In the preseason, the Cavaliers were without Jarrett Allen due to an ankle injury, giving Mobley a chance to play with the best floor spacing of his career.
If the preseason is any hint as to how Mobley will perform this season, his growth over the summer might be an even bigger plus for the Cavaliers this offseason than any roster changes. A fringe All-Star season or better from Mobley is like signing adding a new star to the team in itself.
Finally, the Cavaliers saw a resurgence from one of their forwards who had a rocky finish last year.
Following the 2023 trade deadline, the Cavaliers agreed on a buyout with Kevin Love, allowing him to explore new destinations that could offer him more playing time than Cleveland could.
A deciding factor in parting ways with the final member of the 2016 NBA Finals roster was the belief that Dean Wade was emerging as a successor to Love. Dean Wade had shown true consistency from deep last season, and his hardened defense gave the Cavaliers reason to improve his role.
The timing behind the moves ended up unfortunate, as Wade spent the rest of the season and postseason recovering from a lingering shoulder injury that decimated his shooting form. Wade went from a consistent 40 percent from deep before February 2023, falling down to 23.3 percent with the injury issue being the root cause. His absence as a steady producer pushed Wade out of the rotation and hurt the Cavaliers’ chances in the playoffs.
This summer, Wade’s ability to return to form was undeniably crucial for Cleveland’s season. If he was the same player the team trusted last year, Wade could be a secret weapon for the Cavaliers as a tall forward with range. Thankfully, Wade had a strong preseason, landing 56.3 percent of his four 3-point attempts per game.
In addition to his offensive rebirth, Wade’s defense and rebounding improved in the preseason, grabbing 4.8 rebounds and holding his own both on the perimeter and interior. If Wade can maintain his production, he could prove to be an invaluable 3-and-D forward in Cleveland this season. With both Georges Niang and Wade as options at the backup four spot, the Cavaliers’ depth and versatility will be hard to overappreciate.
The preseason will only offer a glimpse into what the Cavaliers can achieve this year, but the signs of even greater success are there. Over the coming 82 games and following playoffs, Cleveland will have a lot more to prove to themselves and the world.