The Cleveland Cavaliers flawed identity continues to show through

Adversity doesn’t build character. It shows it.

The Cleveland Cavaliers faced adversity in Game 4 when the Orlando Magic erased a nine-point deficit midway through the third quarter. Instead of responding, they wilted under the pressure and surrendered a 31-5 run. The third quarter showed they had no principles to fall back on when things went wrong.

This has created a team that lacks anything to hang their hat on. They attempted 39 threes and attacked the glass for 15 offensive rebounds in Game 2, but only attempted 17 threes and grabbed two offensive boards in Game 4. Those discrepancies aren’t a result of things not going their way. It reveals a team not knowing who they are and want to be even though they’ve had two regular seasons to figure that out.

The Cavaliers ran hot and cold throughout the regular season with each stretch coming with a seemingly different philosophy. Their best basketball came without Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. Their small-ball lineup with Donovan Mitchell running the show and Jarrett Allen as their only big took the league by storm. They dominated on the glass, were versatile defensively, and took a ton of threes. Garland and Mobley initially fit into the playing style upon their return, but old habits crept back in once Mitchell injured his knee at the end of February.

The Cavs are overly reliant on Mitchell to carry them as they fluctuated with his play all season. They were 16-5 in the regular season when he scored 30 or more points and were 32-29 when he didn’t. This included going 12-15 in games he didn’t play.

This has been true in the playoffs as well. Mitchell has dominated in the first halves through four games as he’s averaged 15 points and 4.5 assists leading to a 110.8 offensive rating for the Cavs in the first half. The second halves have been a different story as Mitchell is averaging just 6 points which has helped produce an embarrassing 81.9 offensive rating in the second half.

It’s not odd for teams to fluctuate as their stars do, but the ones that do to this degree typically have better stars, like the Denver Nuggets, or have next to no structure outside of their star, like the Dallas Mavericks. The latter shouldn’t apply to the Cavs as Mitchell was brought in to accent the previous core, but it does.

They traded for Mitchell to solve the offensive issues a two-big frontcourt with no shooting creates. While it’s helped in the regular season, the playoffs have repeatedly shown that having at least four shooters on the court at all times isn’t a luxury, it’s a prerequisite. The lack of offensive creativity from the coaching staff only amplifies this issue.

The Cavs turned it around in 2021-22 because of their defensive identity. But the premise was flawed. Defense alone doesn’t win in the playoffs if the defensive pieces can’t scrounge together a passable offense. Mitchell, as talented as he is, can’t consistently make up for their shortcomings on that end. Instead of being a team that can lean completely into their style, like the New York Knicks or Indiana Pacers, the Cavs have constantly been forced to make compromises that go against their initial vision until you get a team that gives up 233 combined points to the 22nd ranked-offense in pivotal road playoff games.

Ultimately, you’re left with a team with nothing to fall back on outside of their best player. And when that player fails, which Mitchell has shown he’s more than capable of doing the last two playoffs, the team can’t do anything to get him out of his rut as it was never built to help him in the first place.