Trying to figure out how to become the best version of yourself is hard, whether you're an NBA team or just any regular person out there. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, that task is going to become just a little bit easier down the stretch of this season for one clear reason — the schedule.
The Cavaliers have stumbled through the first half of the 2025-26 campaign. To say that things have been far from perfect would be a massive undersell of the situation. Despite that, Cleveland plans to hold steady. No one is being rushed out the door just yet.
The Cavaliers will get to enjoy the luxury of having one of the weakest remaining schedules in the second half of this season. For a team that has not caught a lot of breaks thus far, this fact should position them mightily well to figure things out before the postseason arrives.
Cleveland's remaining schedule is weak — and exactly what they need
Cleveland has been forced to navigate all the injuries, effort issues, and everything else that has come their way while facing some formidable competition in the process. There is no such thing as a completely giftwrapped win in the NBA, as the Cavaliers learned recently, but it still helps seeing fewer juggernauts on the schedule while trying to discover how to be a great team.
The Cavaliers are right near the top of the list for weakest schedules left in 2025-26. The best part about that is most of the teams above them in the Eastern Conference will face far less forgiving paths.
Among the toughest games left on the Cavs' slate would be: two matchups with the Oklahoma City Thunder, two games against the Detroit Pistons, two meetings with the Los Angeles Lakers, one game against the Denver Nuggets, one more duel with the Boston Celtics, and a showdown with the New York Knicks.
On the other end of the equation, the Cavaliers still get to play each of these teams twice: the Brooklyn Nets, Sacramento Kings, and Washington Wizards. They also get one more matchup against the Indiana Pacers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Utah Jazz.
The good outweighs the bad here.
With the Eastern Conference still packed in pretty closely, apart from the Pistons, the Cavaliers should get every opportunity to hit their stride in the second half and jump up the standings. If they don't, that should be pretty telling of whether this roster has any real championship upside.