Preview of the NBA 2021-22 season on Cleveland Cavaliers. Data, results from the previous season, a look at their squad and future free agents, the objectives of the course, the player to watch and a forecast on the franchise.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Template
- Market movements: Transfers of Ricky Rubio and Lauri Markkanen. Jarrett Allen Renovation (all movements here).
- Backcourt: Ricky Rubio, Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Kevin Pangos, Dylan Windler, Denzel Valentine y Brodric Thomas.
- Frontcourt: Isaac Okoro, Cedi Osman, Lamar Stevens, Kevin Love, Lauri Markkanen, Dean Wade, Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, Tacko Fall y Mfiondu Kabengele.
This is how they face the season
With doubts to resolve and the need to step forward. Analyzing Cleveland is not easy. There is talent, veteran, guys with a huge margin of growth … but also players who seem more outside than inside like Kevin Love; And yes, we also have the dilemma of how JB Bickerstaff will play Jarret Allen (they have signed him 5 years and 100 million dollars) and Evan Mobley (number 3 of the 2021 draft). Both are centers and have an interesting future ahead of them, but a system with the two of them coinciding on the track is difficult to imagine.
As we can see, there are questions that need an answer, but in the same way, they cannot be an excuse for the 2021-22 campaign to be a new journey through the desert. Since 2018, when LeBron James left, it is not that the Cavaliers have not reached the playoffs, it is that they have directly won only 60 games totaling the last three seasons. In previous courses, such a result has been justified with a reconstruction that was just beginning. That is not the case now.
We started with Collin Sexton. With three NBA seasons behind him, the point guard is averaging 24.3 points, 4.4 assists and 1 steal. Despite being designated as “very available” during the summer and receiving the interest of the New York Knicks or Golden State Warriors, the reality is that he is still in Ohio and that he will once again be a key piece in the future of the season. The Cavs need to win, but so does he, as the next step in his career must be to turn his numbers into team results.
Next to guard trained at the University of Alabama there will be others whose progression should also mean an evolution in the team’s results. We are talking about Darius Garland, who has averaged 17.4 points and is one of the backcourt most dynamic of the competition with Sexton, but also others like Isaac Okoro or Jarrett Allen. And is that if something is not lacking in Cleveland, they are players to keep an eye on during the course.
And it’s time to stop not just on Allen, but on the Cavs’ inside game as a whole. Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, Lauri Markkanen, Kevin Love… It remains to be seen how Bickerstaff handles such options. The NBA has evolved into a fully open game in which playing with a power forward like ‘five’ is almost the norm. Cleveland has two natural centers that a priori have the vitola of being able to be the starter of any team. Allen will start in the starting five by contract and by what he has shown on the floor, but if Mobley turns out to be what is expected of him, he would not be surprised that he ends up occupying that position. We are not going to say that the 2021-22 campaign is a casting between the two, but almost.
And if we talk about proving things, what about Lauri Markkanen. Three years ago I was excited in Chicago. Comparisons that came to put Dirk Nowitzki on the table triggered the hype, and they did him a disservice anyway. What at first seemed like an All-Star project turned out to be a ‘problem’ for the Bulls, as the Illinois team was going one way and the Finnish player gave the impression of being in another movie. So it was. This summer they ended up breaking the relationship and Markkanen has signed 4 years and 67 million dollars with the Cavaliers. He is excited and needs to shut his mouths, and just that can be an impulse for a team that, even though it is yet to be formed, aims to start the campaign hungry for victory.
Cleveland is more than just a group of youngsters with a great future this season. In addition to continuing to count on the aforementioned boys, they have incorporated Ricky Rubio. The Spanish point guard adds his fourth team in as many years to play for the first time in the Eastern Conference. You can think that it is far from being an ideal destination for him, but in the same way it is clear that he will not reserve the slightest bit about the parquet. In addition, he himself has commented that he feels like a leader and mentor within such a young nucleus. You can be the one who imposes a certain order within an environment in which there will be many who wish to stand out. It can be the one who makes it understood that the common good is above each one showing how good it is. And we say it could be because the opposite case can also be the case. Last year he didn’t find his place in Minnesota; if he succeeds this time, it could be very positive for Cleveland.
If Ricky has a veteran, he treasures Kevin Love no less; the point is that your case is quite different. One more summer has sounded to leave the Cavs, but also being faithful to tradition … continues in the roster. It is perhaps the unfinished business in capital letters for the Ohioans. The adventure together seems long overdue, and everything that they extend it sounds complicated that it adds something good to the whole. Of course, we leave the door open for him to change the chip and be important in the development of players like Markkanen and, of course, that he adds to the court, but according to what has been experienced in recent times, the scenario is different.
As we said at the beginning, they start the campaign as one of the great unknowns of the course. A quintet with Sexton, Garland, Okoro, Markkanen and Allen may not tell you much compared to others in the NBA, but neither can you put your hand on fire to affirm that they have no options to fight to reverse the present closer to the franchise. Playoffs are not required, but they do grow and get used to winning. Perhaps it is the team that has the most to prove and that may be its gasoline. Nobody counts on them, but that hardly matters when you start to sweat on the track.
The player to watch
Jarrett Allen. The Cavaliers have bet heavily on the 23-year-old center. They have given him five years and 100 million dollars, understanding that he must be key in the future of the team. Last season, arriving traded from Brooklyn, he went up to 13.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 30.3 minutes per night. It is a good base, but with a view to 2021-22 – starting in the squad – the time has come for me to show whether or not it really deserves such an investment. At the end of last season he said that he could have helped the Nets win the ring, but the reality is that what he must make clear is that he can be the center starter of some Cavaliers who fight to be at least in play-in positions. There is competition in the Eastern Conference, but not so much as not to be demanding with Allen and the rest of the team. And beware, if he does not give what is expected of him, there is the rookie Evan Mobley to remove him from the job.
NBA preview 2021-22 Cleveland Cavaliers, prediction
Elio Martínez, director of Trends Wide, leaves a personal and subjective forecast on what he thinks each franchise will do during the season in the NBA 2021-22 preview.
The best team among the three worst in the East? Maybe. That is what I am inclined to think. I think Cleveland has enough players to score more wins than Detroit and Orlando, but it doesn’t even match what Washington, Toronto or Indiana can do.
Previous team analyzed: Minnesota Timberwolves. Next Team: Sacramento Kings.
(Cover photo: Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
