Depth is a beautiful thing when trying to pursue an NBA championship. The Cleveland Cavaliers have it in spades, and then some.
Look no further than last year's NBA Finals as evidence of its importance. The era of superteams dominating basketball has quickly become a thing of the past. Both the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers highlighted last season just how much it means to have a unit with plenty of options and versatility.
With the Cavaliers getting to bring back the significant chunk of their core from last season, minus Ty Jerome, and add more quality players into the mix, they can continue the trend set by those squads last season. All of this stood out mightily to the members of the Game Theory Podcast.
Andrew Claudio said, "I keep coming back to the fact that they have 10 guys I could see contributing to a playoff rotation, which is already enough depth for the regular season to utilize your entire roster without overtaxing their stars."
Cavaliers' depth is the envy of the Eastern Conference
Claudio pointed out that the most impressive number for him last season was the minutes played by the Cavaliers core four in the regular season. Donovan Mitchell led the team with 31.4 minutes per game. That was 61st in the entire NBA. Everyone else was below the 31-minute threshold.
The Cavaliers only improved their depth when they added Lonzo Ball, Thomas Bryant, and Larry Nance Jr. in the offseason. Drafting Tyrese Proctor certainly does not hurt the cause either.
Teams like the New York Knicks, the Cavaliers' main competition, had to scramble to shore up their bench by contrast. Adding Guerschon Yabusele, Jordan Clarkson, Malcolm Brogdon, and others helped. Yet, it did not quite put them in the Cavaliers' territory in that department by the end of it all.
Cleveland will get to enjoy the luxury of a dominant regular season without asking their stars to carry the burden of accomplishing that. Granted, that was the formula last year and players still got injured in the postseason.
However, sometimes mitigating and being cautious still does not solve the fluke of bad juju. There is always an element of luck involved in any championship.
The Knicks comparatively got some of the best injury luck they have ever seen in the 2025 NBA Playoffs with key contributors who are not known for their durability. They, similarly, fell short to the Pacers in the end.
The Cavaliers have everything they need for 2025-26 to tread carefully throughout the regular season, and gear themselves up for a deep playoff run. The execution needs to match the preparation, but there is no doubt that Cleveland does not lack the latter.