CLEVELAND — Players and coaches were still dressing and lingering around the arena Monday night when the owner sent the first tremor shivering across the court and into the streets of downtown.
“We’re nowhere near where we need to be,” Dan Gilbert wrote on X, and suddenly, anything seems possible.
The Cavaliers have another summer of difficult decisions to make and Gilbert’s tweet perhaps complicates that a bit more. This isn’t nothing. It reminded me of the time Gilbert tweeted during a Cavs rebuild, “When the Cleveland Cavaliers arrive back to the top tier of the NBA we will be a DEFENSIVE 1st team.”
Byron Scott was fired two months later. We won’t have to wait two months for action this time.
Advertisement
Gilbert didn’t spend $280 million on this roster in payroll and taxes just to get swept in the conference finals by the New York Knicks and get embarrassed by their fans taking over his arena for Game 4. I’ve covered this team for more than 15 years, and I’ve never seen anything like what we witnessed here Monday night, the sheer amount of Knicks fans who infiltrated the seats. Even though it’s the same thing Gilbert did in the second round when he bused more than a thousand Cavs fans up to Detroit, I understand why he’d be aggravated watching this team unravel over these four games. It was a pitiful ending after fighting so hard to get there.
The painful truth about how this season ended, where the Cavaliers now stand and what lies ahead is that there is no easy way out. Enough dynamite can make any roster decision possible, but a series of difficult choices has led them to this pressure point — where a major roster pivot will be incredibly difficult.
I would love to tell you the Cavs have options and flexibility this summer. I wanted to write that the Cavs’ best path forward is to either trade Donovan Mitchell or acquire a better star to put above him. The reality is that neither of those paths seems plausible.
With the payroll at the current level — a second apron team — and a lack of control over many of their own draft picks for the foreseeable future, the Cavs are boxed in a bit. In the macro of these playoffs, Mitchell certainly did not play like someone worthy of a $270 million extension, but that’s exactly what the Cavs are going to put in front of him this summer. Most of the decisions this franchise has made over the last few years have been geared toward acquiescing to Mitchell’s wishes. Firing J.B. Bickerstaff, hiring Kenny Atkinson and acquiring James Harden were all moves that came with his blessing/approval. They aren’t about to turn from him now, particularly after finally breaking through to the conference finals, and Mitchell doesn’t sound like someone looking to move anytime soon.
Advertisement
“I love it here,” he said after the Cavs were eliminated Monday night. “I don’t know how else to say it.”
{“endpoint”:”https://api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com/graphql”}
It stands to reason he also loves money, and delaying another extension by one more season could mean an extra $70 million on his next contract. Who could blame him if he chooses not to sign a new deal this July, even if it makes things a bit awkward next season with Mitchell entering his final year of team control?
After LeBron James left for Miami in 2010, Gilbert vowed to those around him that he would never let another player hold his organization hostage as James had during his final season in Cleveland. Would Gilbert view Mitchell entering the final year of his deal next season the same way?
Gilbert hasn’t been the same reactionary, irascible owner since his health issues. This Dan Gilbert is much, much different from a decade ago. That’s what made the tweet late Monday night so fascinating.
He has been a staunch supporter of Atkinson to this point, while Mitchell and Harden both gave Atkinson full-throated approvals after the sweep.
The reality is, Atkinson had an awful series against the Knicks. From his timeout debacle and the collapse in Game 1 to his silly insistence that “analytically … we’ve won two out of three,” before Game 4, this was not Atkinson’s finest hour. Back here on Earth, the Knicks outscored the Cavs by 77 points in the sweep.
Atkinson spent most of the last week bemoaning how tired the Cavs were in this series and complaining about the NBA’s scheduling, which forced them to play every other day after doing so in the conference semifinals. In all, the Cavs played 14 high-intensity games in 27 days, spanning the end of the first round and culminating in Monday’s sweep. Certainly, fatigue was a factor, but the Cavs did it to themselves by allowing series with the Raptors and Pistons to both go seven games. As the coach, that’s on Atkinson. It’s hard to feel sorry for any of them now.
Advertisement
Mitchell and Harden seem all but assured of being on this roster next season, whether Atkinson is coaching them or not. At 36, Harden has played the most minutes of anyone in the NBA in this postseason, a remarkable feat. The Full Harden Experience was on display over the last six weeks, both the good and the ugly. Committing any sort of big-dollar contract to him this summer comes with risk, but the Cavs have left themselves with few outs.
For years, Cavs president Koby Altman talked about this team’s long runway. That is no longer the case. Mitchell’s looming contract decision and Garland’s inability to consistently play at a level worthy of his max contract forced them to make the trade with the Clippers. They had to get the plane off the ground, and Garland was a distressed asset. There wasn’t much of a market for Harden, either, so both teams traded their problems. To his credit, Harden was a capable pilot. The Cavs probably don’t get to this point without him. It’s still fair to wonder if a core of Mitchell, Evan Mobley and an aging Harden is enough to win a championship within the next year or two? Can the guards commit to giving Mobley the space necessary to become the franchise’s top option?
I wrote after last season’s disappointing second-round exit that the Cavs will only win a championship if Mobley is their best player. A year later, that still seems true.
With enough dynamite, any roster decision is possible, and the Cavs can get fairly old, fairly quickly if they so choose. Giannis Antetokounmpo can become an option. Maybe LeBron returns for a third run. That’s what Gilbert’s tweet implies: that major changes are coming.
Reality indicates that a significant roster overhaul will be difficult to execute. The Cavs seem pot committed with this group. They have to see the river card at this point. Even if it drowns them.