August 06, 2024
David Richard/USA TODAY Sports
Can Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland's partnership progress significantly in its third season?
With much of the Sixers' 2024-25 roster locked in more than a month removed from the start of a franchise-altering free agency, the time has come to evaluate their opposition in the Eastern Conference: of last season's playoff teams in the East, which ones pose the biggest threats to the Sixers, and how do the teams match up with this new-look team?
Up fourth is a team that surprised the league with its lack of player movement this offseason: the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Out of any NBA team that won a playoff series last season, many viewed the Cavaliers as the most surefire bet to make significant personnel changes in the offseason. They were at a crossroads in multiple respects; the backcourt pairing of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland has disappointed in its first two years and the frontcourt pairing of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen is suspect offensively.
The Cavaliers chose to buck those expectations and make a massive bet on the talent they currently have. Not only did they not trade Garland, but they extended Mitchell, Mobley and Allen on significant deals. The only real change made to their organization was replacing head coach J.B. Bickerstaff with Kenny Atkinson.
Here is a quick rundown of the Cavaliers' activity this summer so far, but there is one crucial loose end to tie up: the fate of wing Isaac Okoro, the former No. 5 overall draft selection who remains a restricted free agent. Okoro is extremely limited offensively, but offers a lot of ability and versatility on the defensive end of the floor.
Added: Jaylon Tyson (No. 20 overall pick in NBA Draft)
Retained: n/a
Extended: Donovan Mitchell (three years, $150.3 million), Evan Mobley (five years, $224.2 million), Jarrett Allen (three years, $90.7 million)
Lost: n/a
The lack of movement in this roster — not just relative to expectation, but relative to the average upheaval that a team performs during each summer — signals an immense belief that going from Bickerstaff to Atkinson will significantly alter their chances of becoming a team that can contend for a championship.
Okoro returning would certainly strengthen Cleveland's wing rotation, where they severely lack trustworthy and sturdy defensive players at the moment. In the meantime, this is what Atkinson's depth chart figures to look like when the season begins:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
| Darius Garland | Donovan Mitchell | Max Strus | Evan Mobley | Jarrett Allen |
| Craig Porter Jr. | Caris LeVert | Dean Wade | Georges Niang | |
| Ty Jerome | Sam Merrill | Jaylon Tyson |
The Cavaliers will likely sign a depth center between now and the start of training camp, but Mobley is effectively their backup center behind Allen, as the team likes to stagger the minutes of their two defensive stalwarts. Similarly, Mitchell and LeVert typically function as the team's primary ball-handlers when Garland is off the floor despite not being point guards nominally.
The best thing the Cavaliers have going for them in a potential matchup against the Sixers is that in Allen and Mobley, they have two bigs who can conceivably handle a Joel Embiid assignment on the defensive end of the floor. Neither one is going to dominate the matchup, as there may not be a single player in the world capable of doing that against Embiid, but they each can hold their own without being embarrassed.
Another positive is that they have Mitchell, of course, and that means they have a player who can get so hot as a scorer that he can single-handedly take over a game or series. Mitchell is one of the game's single greatest scoring threats, and his consistency in that department has perhaps become a bit underrated. He is a true three-level threat who draws fouls and knocks down free throws at a high clip.
Mobley and Allen present lots of problems for opposing offenses on the interior, but the Cavaliers' lack of perimeter defenders is a concern, particularly against a team with two scorers as lethal as Tyrese Maxey and Paul George. They might have an especially difficult time handling the 6-foot-8 George if they fail to retain Okoro, as they lack players with the traditional size of a small forward who are capable defenders.
Beyond the subplots within the theoretical matchup, there is just a significant talent discrepancy at play here that will give the Sixers a massive advantage over Cleveland.
The Cavaliers have made a massive gamble against Bickerstaff and in favor of Atkinson. Time will tell if the coaching change can create such a drastic shift in production from a group that will be nearly identical to the one that had an up-and-down season in 2023-24.
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