Cavs Mailbag: Impact of Kevin Love's departure, playoff expectations, and more
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.com. You can find him on Twitter at @RealDCunningham.The NBA All-Star break has come and gone and the Cleveland Cavaliers have 21 games remaining in the regular season. Unquestionably, the season has gone well, with the Cavs coming out of the break in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and the fifth-best winning percentage in the entire NBA.
With over a week between games, there’s no better time for your questions to be answered.
Questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How does the Kevin Love departure impact the backup power forward minutes for the Cavs? Is Dean Wade going to play more or maybe Mamadi Diakite? What about small ball? - @YoBoyPo
I think you hit it with the last suggestion. Obviously, the Cavs are committed to playing big with their starting lineup. Having both Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley is a combination that few teams in the league can matchup with. Obviously, those two don’t play 48 minutes together, and there are sometimes when neither of them is on the floor. That’s where things may become difficult.
Lately, the Cavs have been leaning into playing four guards alongside either Mobley or Allen at times. This will typically feature Ricky Rubio, Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, and one of Caris LeVert or Cedi Osman technically playing the power forward spot. While this type of lineup obviously has some shortcomings in the defensive and rebounding areas, it does give the Cavaliers the ability to have four guys that can create for themselves and others on the floor with one of the league’s best defenders to protect the rim.
It's disappointing that Love’s tenure with the Cavs ended the way it did, and I still think he could’ve helped the team at some point down the road, but he also hadn’t played in a game since January 24. If there’s an injury to Wade, things could get dicey, but I wouldn’t expect his departure to impact what the Cavs look like too much.
Do you see anyway Caris LeVert is on the team next year? - @EvanJosephKwan
I think it’s more likely than not that LeVert is a member of the Cavs next year. After the team didn’t trade him prior to this month’s deadline, I think that became the most likely outcome. Now, I can’t promise he will be on the roster a year from now or two years from now, but it doesn’t make any sense for the Cavs to let him walk away in free agency and receive nothing in return.
The Cavs will be operating as an over-the-cap team moving forward but they do have LeVert’s bird rights, which means they can exceed the salary cap to keep him. I would suspect that there comes a time when LeVert is part of a trade to bring a piece that fits a little bit better than he does, but for now I would expect him to stick around. While the on-court fit can be a little wonky at times, he does fit in the locker room and genuinely seems to like playing in Cleveland.
If the Cavs see the 76ers in the playoffs do you think Evan Mobley will guard Joel Embiid since he had his way with Jarrett Allen in the last matchup? - @AlwaysPositiveJ
I don’t know that Mobley is ready for a matchup with Embiid. Yes, he’s already an All-Defense level player, and I suspect he will receive that honor after this season, but defending a player as big and strong as Embiid presents a different challenge than what he’s typically been asked to do. With the most likely outcome for seeding (according to Basketball-Reference) being that the top four seeds finish in the following order: Boston, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Phialdelphia, it would mean that the Cavs and the Sixers couldn’t meet until the Eastern Conference Finals, and would have to beat Boston and Milwaukee to make it there. The chances of both teams arriving there aren’t super high.
But how Mobley is used as a defender in the playoffs is something to watch. Lately, the Cavs have been asking him to guard the opposition’s top wing player, opting to have Isaac Okoro guard down a position, rather than up. Think back to the game against Miami late last month with Mobley’s primary assignment was Jimmy Butler, or the New Orleans game when he defended Brandon Ingram. That wasn’t always the case earlier on in the season. I think that’s something the Cavs want to use when push comes to shove in April and May (and maybe even June!). The next handful of games will be worth watching in terms of defensive assignments for Mobley. Who he defends against Denver, Atlanta, Toronto, and in both games against Boston may tell a lot about what could be expected of him in the playoffs.
What are your realistic playoff expectations for the Cavs this season given they continue to play at their current level and stay healthy? - @Awkwardd_lefty
I think fair expectations for this team are to make it to the second round and play three games in Cleveland in that series. That would mean, in all likelihood, it’s a series of six or seven games against Boston or Milwaukee, depending on how seeding shakes out. That’s a little bit different than what my expectations were to start the season, and while moving the goalposts like this could be a bit unfair, the Cavs have exceeded where I thought they would be to this point.
Right now, the Cavs look likely to matchup with either Miami, New York, or Brooklyn in the first round of the playoffs. No matter which team they draw, that’s a series they should win. Miami may present the toughest challenge of that group, but all three teams have significant flaws. None of those series would be a cakewalk, but the Cavs should be expected to move on to round two.
As for the second round, it will be difficult for this team to beat a team like Boston or Milwaukee. Maybe a year from now things are a bit different, and expectations will certainly be higher, but right now getting to that point has to be viewed as a success. I also think it’s fair to expect, even in a loss, it to be a competitive series.
We do have to remember though, that Garland and Mobley have never played in a playoff game before. Danny Green, who has played one game for the Cavs so far, has by far the most playoff experience, having played in 165 postseason games. After that, Mitchell has the next highest number of postseason experience with 39 games player.
This will be the first time this group experiences what postseason basketball is like together. That has to matter when projecting what fair expectations are, too.
What one Cavs legend, while in their prime, not named LeBron James, would best help this year’s Cavs team? - @JaredKMueller
Before I get moving on this one, I’m going to not only abide by not including LeBron James in this exercise, but also guys that were thought to be franchise cornerstones. That means no Love, Kyrie Irving, Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, etc. I’m going to select from the pool or role players.
OK, do they have to be in their career prime or just their Cavs prime? This makes a big difference.
If I get a guy in his prime who happened to play for the Cavs at some point I’m going to go with Kyle Korver.
Korver was never a great defender, but he knew how to be in the right spot and was athletic enough to hold his own on that end of the floor earlier in his career. Korver made the All-Star team in 2014-15 thanks to the fact he was shooting 49.2 percent on 3-pointers on six attempts per game, which seems insane. Could you imagine the space his gravity would create for Mitchell and Garland OR the open looks he would get as a result of those two? He would be a perfect fit.
If I have to go with a guy for the peak of what they did in Cleveland I’m going to pick J.R. Smith.
Yes, Smith forgot the score in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals and it left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. I get it. But the good with him far outweighed the bad and he was (and still is!) beloved in this town. In his peak Cleveland form, Smith was a good wing defender and terrific shooter from 3-point range. In his time in Cleveland, Smith played in 79 playoff games with the Cavs and made 40.6 percent of his 3-pointers. Adding that to the current roster for the Cavs may not have the same impact that Korver would, but it would be a big boost.
