The core is only as good as the supporting cast around them
Cavs news and links for Friday, August 2.
We’ve nearly made it to the weekend. Here’s your Cleveland Cavaliers news and notes for the day.
The first sip
With the Jarrett Allen extension, the Cavs have their core four under contract through the 2026-27 season. This core has won 99 games and earned home court in the first round of the playoffs both seasons they’ve been together. Their collective price of keeping that going will be $162 million in the 2026-27 season. The cap will continue to go up, but that alone is above what the current cap of $140.6 million is.
We’ve talked about the fit of the core and will certainly do so again. They have overlapping skills that don’t exactly mesh with each other. Kenny Atkinson is getting paid to figure out how to solve that problem. That said, the fit of the supporting pieces has a lot to do with that as well.
The best teams are the ones that constantly win on the margins in this current era of parity. The Cavs core is talented enough to do so in the regular season despite their flaws, but it’s difficult to envision them reaching their ceiling if the supporting cast remains as is. You don’t win playoff series with depth, but at the same time, good teams have multiple lineup combinations and styles that they can shift to depending on the matchup. This team doesn’t have that.
LeBron James and Kyrie Irving were the biggest reasons the Cavs won The Finals in 2016. They don’t get a chance to do that if the ancillary pieces don’t work like they did. That team needed J.R. Smith’s outside shooting. They needed Tristan Thompson’s ability to rebound and guard on the perimeter. And they needed Richard Jefferson’s positional versatility. They allowed the group to reach their ceiling.
This version of the Cavs doesn’t have the ceiling the 2016 team did. That’s okay. But they aren’t going to reach whatever their ceiling might be if there isn’t a clear vision or guiding principle in how this roster should be supplemented. That’s not okay considering the money invested in the core.
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Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images
Random Cavalier of the Day - Caris LeVert
LeVert is a polarizing player and understandably so. He has a versatile skill set, but he may not be exceptional in any one area. This makes him valuable on a Cavs team that struggles with overlapping skills. Conversely, this also places him in situations he won’t be his best self in. This was seen this past season where he was forced into the backup point guard role. The season before that, he was the only player on the wing who could pass, dribble, and shoot. He did okay in both roles, but neither was ideal.
It’s important to keep in mind that the Cavs traded for LeVert after Ricky Rubio tore his ACL in 2022. He was brought in to be another ball handler and scorer on a team that needed one. He wasn’t brought in to compliment a Mitchell-led group.
The Cavs had numerous ways that they could’ve gone two trade deadlines ago. This except from Chris Fedor’s report for cleveland.com at the time shows that they could’ve gone in a vastly different direction.
The Cavs entered Sunday’s action with a 32-21 record, fourth in the Eastern Conference. As the wins kept piling up and a postseason appearance became more of a reality, the Cavs showed a willingness to attach a first-round pick to Rubio’s $17.8 million expiring contract for the right piece. Cleveland was one of the most active teams in the trade market, considering other players, including Houston veteran Eric Gordon, Milwaukee’s Donte DiVincenzo and San Antonio guard Derrick White, among a bigger list of names. But given LeVert’s age, talent, contract situation and skill set, members of the organization believed he was the best fit.
It’s interesting to think about how different the Cavs would look if they traded for Derrick White or Donte DiVincenzo instead. Both would be considerably better fits for this team. However, you can see why Koby Altman and company opted for a more proven scorer in 2022.
LeVert’s best moment as a Cavalier came on October 28, 2022. He scored 41 points, along with Mitchell, to defeat the Boston Celtics in overtime. LeVert will enter next season 60th on the Cavs all-time points list with 2,107.
Olympic men’s basketball on this weekend
- Australia vs. Greece, Friday 7:30 AM
- Canada vs. Spain, Friday 11:15 AM
- France vs. Germany, Friday 3 PM
- USA vs. Puerto Rico, Saturday 11:15 AM
- Serbia vs. South Sudan, Saturday 3 PM
Olympic women’s basketball on this weekend
- USA vs. Germany, Sunday 11:15 AM