At the end of last regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers held the Eastern Conference's best record with 64 wins. Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley were named All-NBA. Mobley won Defensive Player of the year. Head coach Kenny Atkinson won Coach of the Year in his first season with the team.
Now, the Cavaliers are battling to stay out of the Play-In Tournament one quarter of the way through the 2025-26 season. Injuries are devastating the lineup, but even most the healthy Cavs have yet to show grit and a hunger. Cleveland's lackluster effort spurred second-year wing Jaylon Tyson to light a fire, calling out his teammates to the media with a brutally honest and necessary take.
All of that criticism, while deserved, is not enough to sway some people from believing the Cavaliers can still win the conference by the final buzzer of game 82. One of the most respected voices in NBA media, Zach Lowe, gave a positive assessment of the dismal start on a recent episode of his podcast, The Zach Lowe Show with guest co-host Mo Dakhil.
"The wild card is [the Cleveland Cavaliers]. I think [they] will get healthy and normalize things a little bit. I just think the standings are going to be like this all season with some teams rising and some teams falling here and there. But I don't see this changing much in the regular season."Zach Lowe
Lowe later explained he does not see the Cavs as the best team in the conference for the playoffs, picking the New York Knicks as his favorite to reach the Finals. Still, his commentary on the Cavaliers provides a much more optimistic view of the surrounding factors Cleveland is facing this year.
Plenty of teams are struggling. The Detroit Pistons opened the year on fire while other squads like the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers struggle to stack wins. After chasing talent this summer, the Atlanta Hawks are tied with the Cavs in an attempt to avoid the Play-In race. The Miami Heat are making a larger impact than expected, but the sustainability of both Miami and Detroit are up for debate.
The Eastern Conference is a mess with injuries and rising teams with the potential to flame out fast. Cleveland has a cohesive unit in the fourth season together. Even just relative health could be enough to carry the Cavs back out of the Play-In piture and ahead of their rival contenders.
The Cavs may answer that question by repeating as the regular-season conference champions, but Lowe still raises another question.
Entering this season, it was painfully obvious the regular season successes would mean next to nothing for the Cavaliers without a deep playoff run. If Lowe is right, the Cavs may just be another Finals hopeful with excuses for a second-round exit.
Cleveland's ranking means nothing without winning in the postseason
Tyrese Haliburton and the surprise buzzsaw of the playoffs, the Indiana Pacers, decimated the Cavaliers in five games in the second round. Cleveland was once again missing key players, namely Darius Garland, along with a one-game absence for Evan Mobley and De'Andre Hunter.
The same injury the kept Garland from the playoffs is what has held him back this year. Garland's absence has been a focal point in Cleveland's offensive setback. Without an All-Star point guard and offensive general at the helm, the Cavs have fallen to the middle of the pack.
New injury reports on Garland suggest he won't reach full health before the season ends, raising alarms not only for this season but the future of the franchise as a whole.
Lowe is probably right. The Cavs are sitting in a conference complex enough and weird enough to warrant hope for the latter three-fourths of the regular season campaign. Yet, an 82-game sample size is not enough to know if the Cavaliers have championship DNA. The postseason presents a challenge Cleveland consistently fails to meet.
Injuries are derailing the early season. The Cleveland Cavaliers may finally be responding after Tyson ignited their focus, but if they cannot maintain it, next offseason will be just as deflating as the last.