3 Things the Cleveland Cavaliers have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is hardly a perfect holiday.

For one, it's really close to Christmas. If the goal were to spread out the family-gathering holidays, it would make a lot more sense for Thanksgiving to be the second week of October. Can it replace Columbus Day?

The worst part of Thanksgiving is that it has been the catalyst for the propagation of Big Turkey, where immense marketing campaigns ensure that we believe we need to continue eating the subpar meat of turkey at our family gatherings. Schools have kids decorate turkeys in November, influencers come up with new ways to try and make turkey taste good, and lobbyists ensure the President of the nation "pardons" one to keep them in the news.

If we could start from scratch, there is no chance we as a society would choose turkey as the food to eat at Thanksgiving. There is a long list of much better-tasting meats. 95 percent of our love of turkey is nostalgia, not proper reckoning with our taste buds.

With all of that being said, Thanksgiving does have something going for it: the focus on gratitude. It's altogether too easy to keep moving through our lives and not take a moment to be thankful for what we have. ur lives are genuinely enriched when we find ourselves truly thankful.

For example, I am thankful to be writing again at King James Gospel, and to be working both of my dream jobs right now as a Pastor at my church and as a Sports Writer here at Fansided. I am thankful for an amazing wife and two awesome kids. I am thankful for excellent friends, good relationships with my family and, as a longtime Washington Commanders fan, I am thankful for Jayden Daniels.

It turns out that the Cleveland Cavaliers have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving as well. They are 17-2, the best record in the NBA, and have a blisteringly hot offense. What has contributed to this charmed place in the standings? Let's highlight three things the Cavs have to be thankful for.

No. 1: The Cavaliers are thankful for Kenny Atkinson

In March of 2023, I wrote a piece that suggested the Cleveland Cavaliers may be in a similar boat to the 2014 Golden State Warriors, who were a really good team under head coach Mark Jackson. He was a coach who taught solid defensive principles, empowered and developed his young players, and oversaw a level of competence that propelled them into the playoffs and even to one series win.

Yet when the Warriors moved on from that floor-raising coach and hired Steve Kerr, suddenly their entire team took off and they became a dynasty. Now, the Cavaliers don't have a Top-12 player of all time - at least, it doesn't seem like it - but it seemed reasonable that if they moved on from J.B. Bickerstaff, a good defensive coach who lacked the intangibles to truly unlock their ceiling, the Cavs could take a step forward.

That is exactly what happened, and Kenny Atkinson has been an inspired hire. He has found a way for the offense to thrive with two non-shooting bigs, and his lineup combinations once the starting lineup begins to sub out have allowed them to play consistently great basketball for all 48 minutes. There is a lot of season and the palyoffs to test Atkinson's mettle, but what he has done thus far has been phenomenal.

If the Cavaliers had ended up with a different coach this past summer they may still have started strong -- Jordi Fernandez, for example, is off to a fantastic start with the Brooklyn Nets -- but Atkinson has been an amazing hire for this organization.

No. 2: The Cavaliers are thankful for Ty Jerome

In the summer of 2023, the Cleveland Cavaliers signed Ty Jerome to a contract just large enough that the Golden State Warriors couldn't match. They were excited to have him run their bench units as the backup point guard, but he suffered a serious ankle injury just two games into the season and missed the rest of the season.

Coming into this year, the team hoped that Jerome could be healthy, shake off the rust in a reasonable amount of time, and be a reliable backup point guard by the end of the season. Instead, Jerome exploded onto the scene, has shot the ball like he is prime Mark Price, and has closed multiple games for the Cavs already this year.

Jerome is shooting 53.5 percent from 3-point range on a large volume of attempts, and putting up 23 points and 7.3 assists per-36 minutes. He is solid enough on defense not to be attacked, and he can fit into a wide variety of lineups and unlocks an offensive ceiling for this Cavaliers rotation. Making just $2.5 million this season, he is one of the greatest bargains in the entire NBA.

No. 3: The Cavaliers are thankful for Evan Mobley

For all that Darius Garland is having his best season as a pro, and that Donovan Mitchell is the star of the team, this group was only going to take a true step forward as a contending team if Evan Mobley proved to be more than a below-average offensive player. That has happened and then some, with Kenny Atkinson making him a central hub int heir offensive attack.

He is handling the ball significantly more than he was before, running offense from the elbow or running pick-and-roll actions himself. He is grabbing the ball and taking off in transition as well, unlocking the fastbreak game for a team that has significantly increased its pace under Kenny Atkinson.

The 2021 Draft class looks like it is loaded with star talent, but Evan Mobley is the best of the group, and the Cavaliers could easily have made a misstep drafting a different player at No. 3 -- or not getting to draft Mobley at all because the Houston Rockets took him at No. 2. Instead, they have one of the league's best defensive players who is growing into his role on offense.

Put it all together, and you get the league's most successful team at the six-week mark. That means that the Cleveland Cavaliers and their long-suffering fans have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Now, if we can just get a nice pork loin on the menu for next year...