How strong are the Cavs now?

[vxmike]

Top-4 team

I don't think it is a top 4 in the East. Boston, Heat, Milwaukee, Philly, Nets. which TWO are you kicking out?

Heat didn’t do anything this summer and Lowry is getting older. Butler needs to coast in the R/S to save his aging body.

Nets are always an unknown. How many games are KD, Kyrie and Simmons going to play?

[wegotthabeet]

They’re going to be a fun team to watch with that Garland, Mitchell, Mobley, Allen core.

Biggest glaring hole as others have mentioned is SF.

Until they address and upgrade the SF position I can’t confidently put them in “contender status” yet.

It's a nice core, however they may eventually need to move Allen for a major upgrade on the wings.

[mcfly1204]

They’re going to be a fun team to watch with that Garland, Mitchell, Mobley, Allen core.

Biggest glaring hole as others have mentioned is SF.

Until they address and upgrade the SF position I can’t confidently put them in “contender status” yet.

It's a nice core, however they may eventually need to move Allen for a major upgrade on the wings.

I don't see that at all. With that backcourt, a 3 and D wing is what you want at SF. If for some reason the backcourt pairing did not work out, Cleveland would move one of them for a better fitting wing.

[QingJames]

They’re going to be a fun team to watch with that Garland, Mitchell, Mobley, Allen core.

Biggest glaring hole as others have mentioned is SF.

Until they address and upgrade the SF position I can’t confidently put them in “contender status” yet.

It's a nice core, however they may eventually need to move Allen for a major upgrade on the wings.

Definitely not. Allen is probably the single most important player on that squad. He’s an elite rim protector and they have nobody else who can fill that role right now. Mobley is great as a help defender, but as we saw last year he was substandard as the 5. It may take a few years yet for him to get strong enough to fill that role, and I think he’s likely to still be way more effective playing next to Allen than he would be supplanting Allen because of Mobley’s mobility.

Allen is crucial. He will clean up the awful perimeter defense. He’s really, really good. If you take him off that squad I think they’re going from a top 10 defense to a bottom 10 overnight.

[_NoMas]

I think they’ll be a really strong regular season team (top 4) but lose in the second round (maybe first round depending on match up) of the play offs, similar to Mitchell’s Utah over the past years.

Ultimately the teams that go to the finals/ win the chip have a megastar player, and Cavs don’t have one. Bucks, Nets, Philly do, and the Celtics and Heat have the next best thing (an elite two way wing leading them).

[iamoti]

I dont like the fit. 2x 6'1 guards. You cant hide that in the playoffs. Plus i dont think Garland will be that impressive with Mitchell next to him. I dont see how they can complement each other. Only a big growth by Mobley can make them a contender. They badly need an upgrade at the 3 or Okoro needs to shoot 38+% from deep at a decent volume.

I dont fault the management for the trade. They got a young star for some picks which will be late first rounds most likely.

Regular season this team can even be top2. In the playoffs i donno. They can get exploited bad.

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[CharityStripe34]

I wouldn't be shocked if they finished 4th or 5th. With a potential playoff upset. How far, no idea.

[TheLand13]

They went from bounce out of 1st round to now title contenders. They might have the best backcourt in all of the nba albeit very small. One of the best rising front courts in the nba. Starting 5 Talent wise on paper at least looks the best in the eastern conference not accounting for chemistry.

I think you are vastly overrating Cleveland's starting 5. Garland and Allen are one-time All-Stars and Mobley isn't guaranteed to be an All-Star level talent this season while it's a mystery who will start at the 3. Depending on who Cleveland starts at the 3 (Okoro? LeVert? Wade? Stevens?), they will likely have some spacing issues and the defence of the backcourt has the potential to cause problems (in a bad way).

Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Boston all have clearly better top options and at least comparable 2nd bananas with some very good 3rd options and/or role players to round out their starting lineups. Even a team like Toronto had 5 15+ PPG players last season (who are all in their 20s) that are two-way players while Chicago has 3 All-Star level players plus some potentional very good role players and Atlanta could also have a very good starting 5 if everything clicks.

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Garland and Allen are in fact one time all stars, but they are also less than 25 years of age and Mobley has superstar potential and already has game changing defense. And assuming Okoro starts, that just adds another great defender in that starting lineup who has an improving three point shot (especially if that's his focus this offseason). Make no mistake about it, Cleveland's starting five is not the best in the league, but in terms of age, and in terms of fit in general? It has the potential to be really, REALLY good.

It's all going to depend on how Mobley develops. If he can continue to make improvements to his offensive game, and bulks up, Cleveland has the potential to be a title contending team for years to come.

[TheLand13]

One thing people need to keep in mind also is that Cleveland is set to still have about 30 million in cap space after this upcoming season. That's plenty of room for them to use to get a pretty decent 3 and D player to fill in the SF spot. Someone in another thread suggested they should go after Wiggins. I don't know how plausible that is, but if they somehow manage to make that happen... good luck to the teams in the East.

[cupcakesnake]

Above all else, they have a bench unit consisting of Love (who was second in sixth man of the year voting last season), Rubio, Levert, Osman, and Lopez. I don't think people who don't follow Cleveland regularly realize just how deep this team is.

I keep forgetting Love is on the team. They're going to be able to create some big-scoring bench units.

AND Rubio is back on the team, who Mitchell loves playing with.

I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about the team.

Yeah Rubio is my favorite Minnesota player ever maybe. I understood why we had to trade him at the time, but it still didn't feel worth it. I was hoping he was going to play out the rest of his career in Minny. That trade was part of why I started watching Cavs games last year. Garland's passing, Allen's sneaky cutting, and Mobley's defense got me fully on the bandwagon. Also the jumbo lineup was a fun anomaly.

But how much are we expecting from Rubio this season? It's been about 250 days since his injury. Is he expected to start the season "healthy"? Some guys come back from this injury as soon as this, but it usually takes a full year or more for the player to resemble their pre-injury selves. Rubio has been kind of slow for years now. Sometimes players that don't rely on speed have more cushion, but sometimes players lose that specific ounce of quickness that was the minimum amount their game needed to function at a high level.

I'm rooting for Rubio to be a big part of this team on both ends. But I'm still waiting to see him play, or hear more about his recovery.

[mcfly1204]

I keep forgetting Love is on the team. They're going to be able to create some big-scoring bench units.

AND Rubio is back on the team, who Mitchell loves playing with.

I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about the team.

Yeah Rubio is my favorite Minnesota player ever maybe. I understood why we had to trade him at the time, but it still didn't feel worth it. I was hoping he was going to play out the rest of his career in Minny. That trade was part of why I started watching Cavs games last year. Garland's passing, Allen's sneaky cutting, and Mobley's defense got me fully on the bandwagon. Also the jumbo lineup was a fun anomaly.

But how much are we expecting from Rubio this season? It's been about 250 days since his injury. Is he expected to start the season "healthy"? Some guys come back from this injury as soon as this, but it usually takes a full year or more for the player to resemble their pre-injury selves. Rubio has been kind of slow for years now. Sometimes players that don't rely on speed have more cushion, but sometimes players lose that specific ounce of quickness that was the minimum amount their game needed to function at a high level.

I'm rooting for Rubio to be a big part of this team on both ends. But I'm still waiting to see him play, or hear more about his recovery.

Rubio = playoffs, that's how I see it at least. Garland played great next to him last season, Mitchell is supposed to be very fond of him, just Rubio's presence in the Playoffs should be huge for Cleveland.

[Johnny Bball]

Strong enough for LeBron to plan his third stint there.

If i’m Lebron i’d regret that Lakers extension. This Cavs core looks great

how does salary cap work

When Love comes off next summer they have a ton of cap space so yeah...how does it work again?

They aren't winning anything now, but next summer is going to be tough to watch for the rest of the east.

[PhilBlackson]

The East is ridiculous next season.

[yoyoboy]

Things can get interesting if we can make use of the 30m in cap space we have next summer. Middleton, Wiggins, Barnes, Grant, Kuzma, OPJ, and Crowder are some of the names available.

The team doesn’t even need a star at the SF. We already have four All-Star level players. Just need a wing with size who can defend and hit some threes.

[Wall_To_Clips]

Very, very good on both ends. Likely a top 4 seed now. Could be the best team in the east within 2 years if Mobley takes a KG leap.

[Zman80000]

I had them below or around the Raptors pre-trade.

Now I have them firmly above and in the top 4 of the East.

Raps are still strong and Barnes is more experienced now.
I could see the Raps ending up with a better record than the Cavs.

I hope not but I'm trying to be realistic.

[TheProfessor]

They are in the Raptors/MIA/ATL tier. I think the top 3 of MKE, PHI, BOS is solidified as the cream of the crop and much better than CLE. After that is much a bunch of question marks. BK/MIA/Raptors all have questions marks. I can see CLE going anywhere from 4-7. I think I give BK and the Raptors a nod over them and have them at 6.

[Ballerhogger]

If i’m Lebron i’d regret that Lakers extension. This Cavs core looks great

how does salary cap work

When Love comes off next summer they have a ton of cap space so yeah...how does it work again?

They aren't winning anything now, but next summer is going to be tough to watch for the rest of the east.

how much cap do you think lebron going sign for? 28-33m

[BodieB]

2nd round team. That's pretty good though.

[mg]

One thing people need to keep in mind also is that Cleveland is set to still have about 30 million in cap space after this upcoming season. That's plenty of rim for them to use to get a pretty decent 3 and D player to fill in the SF spot. Someone in another thread suggested they should go after Wiggins. I don't know how plausible that is, but if they somehow manage to make that happen... good luck to the teams in the East.

Actually they could have about $22mil in capspace next summer after acquiring Don and trading out the contracts of Lauri+Agbaji.
If they pick up Okoro's $9mil 4th year option that will cut into the capspace as well.