The 2023-2024 Cleveland Cavaliers season was filled with ups and downs. The team won their first playoff series since Lebron James left the team in 2018. However, it ended up meaning very little as they lost to the Celtics in five.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are now at a crossroad. They have two guys in their prime who they traded for, Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen. Meanwhile, they also have two guys who they drafted and believe will develop, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. The weird mix between trying to win now and building for the future clearly isn’t working and the Cavaliers need to make a decision on which path they want to take.
Cleveland Cavaliers try and win now
The Cleveland Cavaliers have Mitchell on contract for next season before he has a player option. Meanwhile Allen is on contract for the next two seasons. This means that next season is make or break for this core. If the Cavaliers want to convince Mitchell to play the rest of his career on the Cavaliers they will need to show him they’re committed to winning. The best way to do that is to trade Garland or Mobley for a star.
Garland particularly should be a player the Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to move. Garland was drafted in the 2019 draft. He struggled in his rookie season but bounced back during the next two. In 2022 he made the all star team. However, since the trade for Mitchell in the 2022 offseason Garland has taken a step backwards. The two guards have struggled to develop chemistry together on the court.
One of the stars they could trade for is Lauri Markkanen. Ironically, Markkanen was a part of the trade that brought Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Since the Jazz traded Mike Conley to the Timberwolves, they have been looking for playmaking. A swap of Markkanen and Garland could be a good move for both teams. Markkanen has played small forward a bit for the Jazz. However, if the Cavs would prefer to only have two big men they could trade Evan Mobley for a young wing.
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The only possible downside to making a big move to shake up the roster is that there is still no guarantee that gets Mitchell to stay. It’s fair to say that winning would definitely help convince Mitchell to stay, but stars like Kawhi Leonard have still left winning situations to go to a bigger market. Unless they win a championship it would be hard to justify shaking things up if Mitchell is bound to leave regardless.
Cleveland Cavaliers rebuild
If the Cleveland Cavaliers decide they can’t win a championship with Mitchell as the first option, they could choose to rebuild. Plenty of teams would be interested in acquiring the star guard. The Spurs have already shown interest in making a trade for Mitchell. They hold two lottery picks and are looking to give Victor Wembanyama a star teammate. If the Spurs are willing to trade both of those picks and a player like Keldon Johnson for Mitchell that could be a hard deal to resist.
Part of going into a rebuild would be to trade Allen as well. The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Allen as part of a four team trade involving the Nets getting James Harden and the Rockets getting 4 first round picks. Despite all those assets being tossed around the Cavaliers did the best out of that trade. Allen made the all star team in 2022 and has been a consistent force in the paint. The Grizzlies recently traded their center Steven Adams after he suffered a season ending injury. The Grizzlies could make a move for Allen to get themselves back into the playoff hunt in the wild west.
If Allen is traded Evan Mobley will need to live up to his potential. Mobley was drafted third overall in the 2021 NBA draft. He was top three in rookie of the year voting in 2021-2022. In his second season he finished top three in defensive player of the year voting. However, after a poor playoff series vs. the Knicks in 2023 he has taken a step back. He was tasked to be the defensive anchor with Allen out due to injury and didn’t step up nearly as much as you’d hope a defensive player of the year finalist would.
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