This offseason, Cleveland spent championship-level money on its core four players. The Cavaliers extended Donovan Mitchell to a three-year, $150.3 million max contract, Evan Mobley to a five-year, $224.2 million max contract, and Jarrett Allen to a three-year, $90.7 million deal. All that in addition to the five-year, $197.2 million extension Cleveland gave Darius Garland a year ago.
That’s a massive bet on a core that won 51 and 48 games the last two seasons, finishing with the four seeds both years and advancing out of the first round once. Are the Cavaliers better than that? Mitchell thinks they are and told ESPN’s Andscape’s Marc Spears about it.
“We’re championship contenders when we’re healthy. I feel like last year we grew in a lot of ways. We played a lot of different ways. Now during that stretch, we kept going, obviously DG. [Darius Garland] and Evan [Mobley] were injured But we found something that can really help us to the next level. So now the trick is how do we continue to implement that style of play over 82 [regular-season games] and then the final 16 [playoff] wins But the development is part of the reasons I decided to sign, because I believe in our development. I believe in the hunger and the will that we have as a group.
“And so, for us, I think we’re favorite contenders when healthy. But at the end of the day, I can tell you this, we have to go out and continue to prove it every day. We have” done anything.”
That’s exactly what a franchise should want its best player to say – Mitchell talks about loving the city and wanting to win there in this interview. Cavaliers fans should be ecstatic.
For Mitchell to be right, for Cleveland to be a contender and a threat to Boston – or at least on par with Philadelphia, New York and, maybe, Milwaukee — some things have to go right. Mitchell hit the first one, they have to stay healthy. That applies to every team in the league, but the Cavaliers have not done in recent years, and it became harder to trust that they will.
Second, and the most critical: Evan Mobley needs to step up his offensive game and become an All-Star level player. Mobley, the 6’11” big from USC, is already a top-tier defender — he was all-defense in 2023 and would have been again last season if he’d been healthy and played enough games (see previous paragraph) — but he’s pedestrian. His offense game did not grow as projected for this purpose.
Last season Mobley averaged 15.7 points per game and shot an improved 37.3% from 3 – but only on 1.2 attempts per game. The Cavaliers floor spacing falls apart when he’s on the court because teams aren’t afraid of him taking and making 3s, so when he’s paired with another non-shooting big in Allen opposing teams pack the paint and take away driving lanes for Mitchell. and Garland. The numbers explain it: Last season the Cavaliers were seven points per 100 possessions better when only Allen was on the court than when it was Allen and Mobley. That’s because when Mobley was in street clothes, floor space four was next to Allen and everything fit better.
Which brings us to the third issue: new coach Kenny Atkinson needs to fix the spacing and fit issues in Cleveland, and with that jump offense, which was 18th in the league last season. Atkinson comes with a history of strong player development, which we saw when he coached a rebuilding Brooklyn squad, plus he spent the last few years at Steve Kerr’s right hand and working with the Warriors’ motion offense.
Atkinson’s challenge is that it didn’t look like the pieces fit. Mitchell and Garland each need the ball in their hands to be most effective and seem to alternate, playing next to each other not with each other. Then there’s the no-shot combo of Allen and Mobley.
When most front offices would have pivoted, Cleveland bet that Atkinson could solve these problems, that Mobley could take a step forward as a shooter on offense, and that the Cavaliers could finally stay healthy. If all that happens things will get even more interesting at the top of the East. If not, the trade rumors will start swirling again in the city by the lake.
