The Cleveland Cavaliers were exposed defensively in the Eastern Conference Finals by the New York Knicks, who figured out that constantly attacking mediocre-to-bad defenders in James Harden and Donovan Mitchell wasn't going to be met with any adjustments from Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson.
Indeed, the Cavs have a fundamental issue on defense as currently constructed. Harden and Mitchell are liabilities on D, and when you look across the NBA at the real contenders in this league, that type of situation just isn't happening. The Knicks have surrounded Jalen Brunson with elite defenders. The Oklahoma City Thunder have a collection of incredible perimeter defenders. So do the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics.
Then there's Cleveland, which rolled out Mitchell and Harden (after years of Mitchell and Darius Garland) and considered itself a contender. This was wishful thinking at its finest.
And you know what else would be wishful thinking/downright foolish? The belief that swapping out one of Mitchell or Harden for LeBron James this offseason would make Cleveland's defensive problem go away.
LeBron James wouldn't fix the Cavaliers' defensive issues
ESPN's Brian Windhorst talked about this during a recent episode of his Hoop Collective podcast. The odds of Cleveland landing LeBron are already close to zero, given their cap situation this summer, but even if the Cavs pulled off some magic and figured out a way to acquire Bron, that wouldn't change the fact that he wouldn't solve one of their biggest weaknesses.
"Even if they could get LeBron James for the minimum ... that's not solving all of their problems, because LeBron is no longer a good defensive player night in and night out," Windhorst astutely noted.
Cavaliers should retool and get younger, not acquire LeBron James and get older
The Cavaliers could go in a ton of different directions this summer, but if they're not going to explore the idea of trading Evan Mobley (while they can still get a haul for him), they might as well embrace the opposite idea of embracing a youth/defense-first movement around Mobley and guys like Jaylon Tyson.
Look, you're not going to contend with Harden and Mitchell as your two primary scorers if you're Cleveland. The Cavs are being delusional if they think they can just run it back in 2026-27 and expect different results. This team was sort of lucky to advance as far as they did this season, and could have easily lost in the first or second round. Don't ignore that message. Make changes that make your team younger, more athletic, and more defensively inclined. Please!
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