One of the biggest questions of this offseason for the Cleveland Cavaliers is how much they would attribute their second round playoff flameout to injuries, and how much to poor roster construction. The answer was apparently the former, as the Cavs look poised to run things back with the same core as last year, give or take a few transactions including adding Lonzo Ball and losing Ty Jerome in free agency.
Recently, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com took to the Wine and Gold talk podcast to detail some of the things that head coach Kenny Atkinson has been up to this offseason.
“He spent some time with Evan Mobley and DeAndre Hunter out in Los Angeles. He spent some time with Darius Garland going through the whole recovery plan with the doctors and stuff like that,” noted Fedor, via Hoopshype. “He went out to see Sam Merrill. He went out to see Donovan Mitchell.”
Fedor also spoke on one thing that’s clearly still bothering Atkinson from the way last season ended for the Cavs.
“He even told me he has watched the rewatched the Indiana series so many different times trying to study that and learn from that,” said Fedor.
A rough series for the Cavs
Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
The Cavs quickly went down 0-1 to the Indiana Pacers in their second round series and then shocked fans when they announced that several key players, including Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and De’Andre Hunter would be out for Game 2. The Cavs dominated that game for the most part depsite the injuries but then snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, blowing a seven-point lead in the closing minute to go down 0-2, essentially a death sentence for any NBA playoff home team.
The Cavs were certainly far from 100% during that Pacers series, and the current iteration of the team still hasn’t been together for that long, giving the front office some motivation to run things back.
However, if Cleveland isn’t able to put things together on go on a run to at least the Conference Finals, if not further, this year, it may be time for the team to look for some other options.
