Cavaliers can look to example of Bucks, Celtics
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio – The Cleveland Cavaliers are caught in the intersection between a sense of urgency to win right now and a trust in a process that often takes time.
It’s a desire to win now, but an acknowledgment that many other teams around the league needed more of a “runway for success,” which is a term Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman has used in the past.
Understanding that many other teams have needed time to reach their own summit gives the Cavs some optimism after they advanced to the conference semifinals in the playoffs and secured their first playoff series win since 2018. But they’ve also shown a clear sense of urgency, evidenced by the dismissal of J.B. Bickerstaff as the team’s coach, which has kicked off a search for a “new voice” to lead the team.
Speaking to reporters last week at the team’s practice facility in Independence, Altman made it clear that his expectations for this season were to be “highly competitive” in the playoffs. The Cavaliers’ aspirations are lofty. But he also pointed to three examples – the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets – as teams that had cores that needed years and years of continuity before they really broke through to a higher degree.
Cavaliers look to examples from Bucks, Celtics, Nuggets for success in NBA playoffs
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton were together for eight years before they finally won a title with the Bucks in 2020-21. The Celtics duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are in year seven playing together and have a chance to win a title, as they’ve advanced to the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. For the defending champion Nuggets, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray had played six full seasons together before they won their own championship.
In terms of a seismic shift on the roster, the Cavaliers have played two seasons as currently constructed, with Donovan Mitchell as the team’s star and Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen playing roles as key contributors on the roster.
It’s one of the reasons why Altman noted he doesn’t foresee any “sweeping changes” to the roster this summer,
though that’s entirely dependent on Mitchell’s contract status.
“We’re just in year two of this iteration and we got to a conference semis. We’re not content with that, but there’s a lot of runway left, and there’s a lot of learning left with this core,” Altman said. “Zooming out a little bit, when you look at some of the most successful teams over the past decade that had real success in the playoffs, they’ve had a long run at this thing.”
Mitchell contract remains a key factor in long-term plans
Of course, franchises needing that long of a runway isn’t a rule, but more of a trend. Kyrie Irving is in his first full season with the Mavericks, and they’re in the NBA Finals.
It speaks to the Cavs’ intention of keeping the core of the roster together as they begin the search for a head coach in an effort to find a new approach that might be a better fit for their personnel. It remains to be seen if they can do that, as it likely requires a long-term extension for Mitchell and keeping Garland and anyone else on the roster happy at the same time.
“We’re having success in the playoffs and we’re setting ourselves up in the future for a real run,” Altman said. “And that’s the key, is really diving deep into what are the levers we can pull where we can clean up some things? How do we maximize some talent in-house to give ourselves a chance to make a run?” They have time.
“Some of the teams I talked about are seven, eight, nine years into this thing and really knocking on that door of championships, if not won a championship. We’re just in year two of this thing.”