Promising Cavaliers Season Ends With More Questions than Answers
September 3, 2022. The day a Cavalanche of expectations were dumped upon the 2022-23 Cleveland Cavaliers, when President of Basketball Operations, Koby Altman pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade to acquire Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz.
It was an unheard-of move by Cleveland sports standards. Star players don't end up here, unless acquired through the luck of ping-pong balls. Or of course, they were born here and decide to return home.
That celebratory day for the franchise also became an expiration date for all those warm and fuzzy feelings about the young, spry, upstart Cavs that fans grew to adore a season prior. Now, this franchise had some real expectations.
What followed was nothing short of a successful season, considering the depths they rose out of over the last 5 years. They emerged from behind the shadow of LeBron James, posting the franchise's first 50-plus win season without him since 1992-93. It was their first playoff berth without No. 23 since 1998. There was a magical 71-point performance from Mitchell and plenty of Evan Mobley dunks and blocked shots along the way. Sprinkle in plenty of lessons learned and growth for this young team.
But in many ways an unexpected gentleman's sweep at the hands of the New York Knicks, sours all those good things and more ominously, leaves this promising young Cavaliers team with more questions than answers heading into a crucial offseason.
Those questions will begin and end, for many, with JB Bickerstaff. The Cavs head man called the 2022-23 campaign an overall success, citing many of those aforementioned regular season benchmarks. But in his words "what our goals are, [come from] these moments." He means the playoffs. And because teams are always measured by how they perform on this stage, the months ahead will be filled with ponderings like, 'is Bickerstaff the right man to lead this young team into the next phase of its evolution?'
It's not that abnormal for one coach to be the guy who gets a franchise back on its feet, but another to take it to that next level. Just ask Mark Jackson what he thinks about seeing the Warriors become a dynasty on Steve Kerr's watch.
The fact that the Wine and Gold seemed ill-prepared for the playoff stage and that the issues that plagued the Cavs in their series-opening loss to New York – offensive rebounding, second-chance points, physicality – were the same problems that did them in, in games three four and five, is an indictment on Bickerstaff.
Assuming the Cavaliers take a patient approach and retain him though, he'll carry those criticisms with him until he proves otherwise.
The inquiries hardly stop with Bickerstaff.
Allen was thoroughly bullied in this series. Was his ineffectiveness a warning sign that he's just not built to challenge bigger front-court players?
Similarly, Evan Mobley wasn't well-equipped to take on the Knicks' more physical bigs like Mitchell Robinson and Julius Randle. Were the Cavs front-court of finesse, seven footers exposed and if so what's that mean for the future of the "core four?"
Perhaps most eye-opening of all was Mitchell's vanishing act. The exact player Altman shipped three first-rounders and a small convoy of role players for seven months ago, seemed to shrink under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden - a place the Cavs star dreamt of playing in, mind you.
"I don't feel like I was the person I needed to be for this group. That's what's gonna keep me up at night," he lamented. "I've gotta be better. My teammates hate when I say that but I gotta be better for my guys."
It was truly perplexing and does open up a Pandoras box of discourse about his long-term presence in Cleveland.
Admirable as Mitchell accepting responsibility for the team's shortcomings is, the blame hardly resides solely with him.
The team's lack of depth has been a glaring problem all season, which makes Altman's reluctance to make a move at the deadline perplexing.
Meanwhile, the team let its relationship with Kevin Love sour to a point of no return, leading to his departure to Miami. Adding insult to injury, Love could be seen putting up a double-double for the Heat that helped end the top-seeded Bucks season. Makes one wonder, is all.
Whether or not the 2022-23 campaign was a success garners a complicated answer. To Bickerstaff's point, winning 50-plus games in this league "isn't easy," and that should be celebrated.
That said, for it to come crashing down in the form of a stunningly, grotesque beat down from the Knicks, though, was unnervingly telling.
How exactly did such a promising Cavaliers team and season end up here? The answer to that question will provide a blueprint for the future of this organization. A future that comes with even bigger expectations and therefore, some difficult decisions.
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