Cleveland signed Donovan Mitchell and they managed to have a solid regular season by securing a first round home court advantage with a 51-31 record. However, their record was built on beating losing teams (NBA’s best 30-5 record vs losing teams), while struggling against the best teams in the league (21-26 record vs winning teams). The Cavs consolidated the good defense they had already built the previous season with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen patrolling the paint and building together an elite rim defense unit.
At the same time, Cleveland now with Mitchell managed to significantly improve on offense by becoming a top 10 in the league unit. However, in the playoffs, the Knicks explored three weaknesses of the Cavs: they attacked Cleveland’s two small guards on defense, explored the team’s lack of perimeter shooters to load their defense on Mitchell and Garland, and abused the Cavs on the boards, an area where Cleveland was subpar the whole season.
2023/24 OUTLOOK:
For this offseason, Cleveland had as its main objective to add some perimeter shooting in order to improve their offense. So, they signed Max Strus and Georges Niang, two solid shooters who also have good size for their positions. On the other hand, the Cavs should remain a great defensive team behind Allen and Mobley, while on offense if Mobley manages to breakthrough this season, then the Cavs will certainly be one of the best regular season teams in the league.
