Post-Mortem: 2022-23 Cleveland Cavaliers

[ElectricMayhem]

At least they'll have fond regular season memories.

Here is the data from previous years' Post-Mortems:
2020-21:

Spoiler:

Post-Mortem Results I: GM Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results II: Coaching Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results III: Performance Compared to Expectations
Post-Mortem Results IV: Rising/Treadmill/Waning

2021-22:
2021-22 Post Mortem Final Summary

Team Name: Cleveland Cavaliers
Record at Time of Death: 51-31 (.622) (1st Round Loss)
Head of Front Office: Mike Gansey (2022-) (POBO: Koby Altman)
Coach: J.B. Bickerstaff (2020-)

Offensive Rating: 8th
Defensive Rating: 1st
Rebound %: 20th
Turnover %: 12th

Front Office: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Rising, falling, or treadmill?
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Notes:
Players under contract next year:
Darius Garland ($34m)
Donovan Mitchell ($33m)
Jarrett Allen ($20m)
Evan Mobley ($9m)
Isaac Okoro ($9m)
Cedi Osman ($7m) (Partially Guaranteed)
Ricky Rubio ($6m)
Dean Wade ($6m)
Sam Merrill ($2m) (Partially Guaranteed)

Team Options:
Lamar Stevens ($2m)

Player Options:

Free Agents:
Caris LeVert
Dylan Windler
Danny Green
Raul Neto
Robin Lopez
Isaiah Mobley
Mamadi Diakite

Dead Money:

Previous Post-Mortems:
30. Houston Rockets
29. San Antonio Spurs
28. Detroit Pistons
27. Charlotte Hornets
26. Portland Trail Blazers
25. Indiana Pacers
24. Washington Wizards
23. Orlando Magic
22. Utah Jazz
21. Dallas Mavericks
20. Toronto Raptors
19. New Orleans Pelicans
18. Chicago Bulls
17. Oklahoma City Thunder
16. Brooklyn Nets
15. Minnesota Timberwolves
14. Los Angeles Clippers
13. Cleveland Cavaliers

[Johnny Tomala]

Keep, keep, worse, rising.

[ElectricMayhem]

Bickerstaff is a solid coach. Cleveland continued their climb which began with a surprising year last year. Often teams take a step back, so good for them for continuing their growth. I'd say Bickerstaff "deserves" another year, but on the other hand, if you can get a known quantity who is better (Nurse? Snyder would've been a good candidate) then a change would be understandable. Otherwise, just let Bickerstaff guide the young team through their growing pains and stay the course. They were 8th in offense and 1st in defense this year. Very impressive year followed by a disappointing playoffs.

They don't need to keep LeVert, but if that money has to be used to pay for Garland's new contract rather than getting outside help, they'll have to continue to bank on internal growth.

[RoxSteady]

Woof.

[lambchop]

Props to the Cavs for making the POs without LBJ. The front did a great job of drafting good prospects and putting together a nice little team. Their ceiling is probably the 2nd round, but I could see them drafting Bronny which would mean LBJ would come back and that would mean a potential finals run.

[balsamic_ducks]

Someone please explain how Jarrett Allen was an all star. He maybe one of the most overrated players in the league

[Bobbymcgee]

Mobley needs to take his game to Giannis level for the Cavs to have a chance to compete in the playoffs.

Don't know if he was injured or what but Allen being a non factor in this Knicks series was a bit surprising. Kind of expected a bit more intensity at least.

Still not sure the Garland / Mitchell backcourt really works.

[DaGawd]

enjoying this thread

[MrGoat]

Keep, fire, worse, treadmill

[ElectricMayhem]

Mobley is just a couple years away from getting paid too. I wonder what they'll be able to keep with Mobley, Garland, Mitchell, and Allen on the books. Having a lot of talent is a good problem to have, though.

[Mavrelous]

The decision not to use Kevin Love salary to trade for depth AND cutting him and have 0 big man depth on your roster is puzzling, Kevin Love logged 32 minutes, recorded a double double with 5 3s on the day they were eliminated, and helped his team against big frontcourt, and better than what the Cavs faced.
They were expected to be 2nd rd exit, they failed 1 stage earlier, they're VERY young, so nothing to panic about, but FO should've been smarter.

[therealbig3]

I mean, feel like there are a lot of excuses being made, but this was absolutely an embarrassing result for the Cavs. They already made the play in last year, were supposedly a lot better just from internal improvement, and then ADDED Donovan Mitchell. Were picked by many to be a darkhorse Eastern Conference contender just on the back of their defense alone, never mind whatever offensive firepower the Mitchell/Garland back court gave them. Won 50+ games, top 4 seed...and then loses 4-1 to an overachieving Knicks team that only got the 5th seed because Miami underachieved all year and the Nets imploded due to internal issues that forced them to trade their best players.

It was a terrible result for a team that was supposed to be better.

[BostonCouchGM]

Keep GM, Fire coach, as expected and rising team. Obviously the coach is a fraud that needs to go. I'll give the GM credit for the Mitchell trade and getting them the badly needed #1 option that can carry them. But that only buys him one more season. They have to get rid of Allen and maybe even Garland and find some talented wings that have length and can hit a three. I build around Mitchell and Mobley and use Garland and Allen to find length and shooting around them. If they run it back they'll spin their wheels. Allen at minimum has to be moved. If Mobley doesn't live in the gym and learn to shoot it's probable he'll never be the elite guy people claimed he was and if that happens nothing they do will matter as they'll be screwed.

[dans1230]

Mobley needs to take his game to Giannis level for the Cavs to have a chance to compete in the playoffs.

Don't know if he was injured or what but Allen being a non factor in this Knicks series was a bit surprising. Kind of expected a bit more intensity at least.

Still not sure the Garland / Mitchell backcourt really works.

That seems like an unrealistic ask of Mobley.

[Bobbymcgee]

Mobley needs to take his game to Giannis level for the Cavs to have a chance to compete in the playoffs.

Don't know if he was injured or what but Allen being a non factor in this Knicks series was a bit surprising. Kind of expected a bit more intensity at least.

Still not sure the Garland / Mitchell backcourt really works.

That seems like an unrealistic ask of Mobley.

Definitely needs to be better than 6 points on 2 for 6 shooting in an elimination game.

But maybe playing with Mitchell and Garland, two ball dominant guards, has stunted the growth of his game.

Giannis mentioned back in November that he thinks Mobley can be better than him.
https://nba.nbcsports.com/2022/11/26/giannis-antetokounmpo-says-of-evan-mobley-he-can-be-better-than-me/

[JujitsuFlip]

Front Office: Keep

Coach: Should fire but they won't

Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year? For the regular season exceeded, playoffs underperformed.

Rising, falling, or treadmill? I'd say rising but could potentially be a treadmill depending how the summer goes.


If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason? I'd fire JB but they won't, so they need him to have a big say in who is signed with MLE & BAE, who is traded for with the TPE, who is drafted with the 49th pick. To a lesser extent the price point for LeVert to retain him or let him walk.

[indiegrind]

Keep Keep Worse Rising

[jokeboy86]

Imo their loss is more disappointing than the Bucks because at least the Bucks can say they lost to a championship coach and organization with some pedigree. Knicks are basically at the same place the Cavs are at and you would think the Cavs had more high -end talent in Mitchell, Garland, Mobley, and Allen. If Mobley doesn't become the Cavs best player they'll never seriously contend unless they make a trade and get someone who then becomes the best player on the team. Right now with Mitchell it's never going to happen.

[Jadoogar]

Mobley needs to take his game to Giannis level for the Cavs to have a chance to compete in the playoffs.

Oh is that all? Become a 2x MVP?
Mobley needs to play better for sure and i believe he will but it's unreasonable to ask him to become Giannis.

[Hugi Mancura]

Pretty much what was expected. They are a team who has holes in offense and in defense. On regular season teams don't try to exploit those too much, but in playoffs those holes were exploited. They don't have great perimeter defender who aren't negative offensive players. Then you have two bigs who neither can shoot, so if you play those perimeter defenders you pretty much have 3 guys on the court who can't shoot. They need some roster changes. Maybe even use Allen in a trade.

Personally don't like Bickerstaff. I don't think he is good playoff coach. He is good regular season coach. In playoffs you need to do some adjustments to win the games. You need to take advantage of other teams weaknesses and try to hide your own. Bickerstaff can't do these adjustments. He pretty much does the same he did in regular season. But I think they will keep him one more year, cause team has still moved forward.