The Cleveland Cavaliers had the look of a title contender during the 2024-25 NBA season as they finished first in the Eastern Conference behind a strong offense and stingy defense.
The core of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen plus head coach Kenny Atkinson had the Cavaliers rolling through the rest of the league, but their postseason demons reared their ugly heads again.
Cleveland looked a step slower than Indiana, who took advantage of every miss.
The Cavaliers now enter the offseason with some serious doubts and concerns over the state of the roster and whether or not it has enough to compete in the playoffs.
It seems rash to think about breaking up the current group, but the results speak for themselves and right now it feels like the team is a tier behind the true title contenders.
Mike Polk Jr. brought up a hypothetical that might shake fans’ trust in Cleveland’s fortunes moving forward via WKYC.
“Even if the Cavs were to be even more dominant in the regular season next year and finish with a record of 79-2, would you be supremely confident going into a first-round series against an 8th seed? Yeah, me either, and that’s frustrating,” Polk said.
As Polk notes, there’s no sense of calm with the Cavaliers no matter how well they play in the regular season.
Beating teams in the middle of January versus May is far more difficult and Cleveland is proving that they’ll need to raise their game to another level if they hope to be a serious threat for the NBA championship.
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