Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell during a game in the 2022-23 season. ESPN Cleveland/Rob Lorenzo.
Unveiling the Cavs holiday wish list
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and TheLandOnDemand.comThe holiday season has officially arrived. Maybe you’ve started shopping for the special folks in your life, or maybe you’re a person that waits until the last minute to get things done. Either way, you’ve got a list of wishes both for yourself and for those around you.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a lot like you in the sense that they too have a wish list of things they would like for the holiday season. Some items on wish lists are viewed as necessities, while others certainly qualify more as wants as opposed to needs. The list for the Cavs features a little bit of both.
Better play on the wing
Priority level – PlayStation 5 – definitely a want for everyone, but hard to find
The way the Cavaliers have built their roster is a bit unconventional compared to most of the NBA. A couple of high-level big men in Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley paired with two All-Star guards in Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland.
All four of those guys either have made an All-Star team or seem like a pretty safe bet to make one in the future. They’re the four core players for the Cavs. There may not be many teams across the league that can boast that much talent in the top four players on a roster, but none of that talent coming from a wing is something that needs to change for the Cavaliers.
For much of this season, the starting lineup has been a revolving door of players at the small forward position. First, it was supposed to be Caris LeVert, then it was Isaac Okoro, then Dean Wade, then Lamar Stevens. Every rotational wing other than Cedi Osman has started a game at some point this season, and nothing has stuck for a variety of reasons.
As the transactional window opens up, the Cavaliers surely will be in the market for any available wings that are competent defensively and have the ability to make open 3-point attempts. Every other team in the NBA is in that market, too. Will Cleveland have enough to swing a trade for a guy like that? Only time will tell.
The ability to win on the road
Priority level – Socks & underwear – do you ever think about it? Not really. But it’s still essential
The biggest problem for the Cavaliers this year hasn’t actually been the wing play. It’s been how bad the Cavaliers have been at basketball away from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
As things currently stand, the Cavaliers are in third place in the Eastern Conference with a 17-11 record. Of their 11 losses, nine of them have come on the road. The home record of 12-2 is the best mark in the NBA, while the 5-9 road record is the second-worst of any top-six team in either conference.
It’s not as if the Cavaliers have played exclusively bad teams at home to pad their record either. They’ve won home games against the likes of Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, and Boston. All teams thought to be in the playoff picture at the end of the year.
There’s a case to be made that the road schedule has been more difficult, featuring two games in both Milwaukee and Toronto (both losses), a game in Boston (an overtime win), and a west coast swing that featured a pair of games in Los Angeles prior to road losses in Sacramento and Golden State. The losses that really don’t make sense are the no-shows the team has had in New York and in San Antonio.
It's something the Cavaliers are going to have to figure out as time goes on. If this team has goals of not only being in the playoffs but going on a run once they get there, figuring out how to win games in buildings other than Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is a must.
Better health
Priority level – an Amazon gift card – nothing you can’t do with it
It’s been a rarity for the Cavaliers to be whole very often this season. On opening night, the Cavaliers had their full rotation available to them for almost the entire first half. That’s when Garland had his left eye lid lacerated and missed the next two weeks.
Since then the Cavaliers have lost Jarrett Allen, Donovan Mitchell, Kevin Love, Caris LeVert, Lamar Stevens, Raul Neto, and Dean Wade due to injury or illness for some stretch of time. When adding in that Ricky Rubio hasn’t played this season while recovering from the torn left ACL that prematurely ended last season for him and Dylan Windler not being available (although it’s unlikely he would be in the rotation) due to an ankle issue, the Cavaliers have not yet been whole this year.
According to Spotrac, the Cavaliers have lost a total of 10 different players to injury for a total of 100 games missed. That’s the fourth-most missed games due to injury of any team in the NBA, trailing only Orlando, Memphis, and Miami.
There’s no promises that this is something that ever goes away. If the Cavaliers do ever regain full health, it would be a great sign and give them the ability to find a rhythm, but only time will tell if that happens.
