The change for the Cavaliers? The bench is better

Is there such a thing as addition by subtraction or are the Cleveland Cavaliers just good? Does Darius Garland and Evan Mobley being out of the lineup mean the Cavs are better? Or are the Cavs just a good basketball team that can get better? Those questions have rattled through the brains of the Cavs fanbase as Cleveland has won 9 out of their last 10 games, including a big win against a title contender in the Milwaukee Bucks. With a play style that involved shooting 3s in high volume, a new hero seems to emerge every night to contribute to winning. The answer, in my mind, seems simple, but a vocal minority feels like Garland and Mobley are the problem when I think that it's the opposite; here's why.Let's turn back the clock to last year; the Cleveland Cavaliers won 51 games, with the Core 4 + Issac Okoro, leading the charge but also carrying a heavy load that nobody realized until the Knicks series exposed their one major flaw: the bench unit. This group scored a paltry 28.7 points per game in the series; this was 24th among bench units, while also a lousy 33% from 3, ranked 17th in the NBA. The Cavs were a team that you could maybe trust six players, the starting five along with Caris LeVert, while the rest of the roster was a vast wasteland. No matter what head coach JB Bickerstaff tried to do, the wine-and-gold could not muster a consistent effort from the bench outside of the occasional Cedi Osman outburst. It is essentially why a 51-win Cavs, despite having the 2nd-best starting lineup in terms of net rating in the NBA in 2022-23, lost in such humiliating fashion; they won the starting minutes but were completely outplayed when any bench lineups were put out on the floor.Flash forward to now; the bench mob is one of the catalysts catapulting the Cavs back into the playoff conversation while steadying the ship after an up-and-down start to the season. They now contribute 36.3 points per game, making them the 12th-best scoring bench in the league. All while improving their 3-point shooting, shooting 37%, which ranks them 7th, something that Koby Altman and the front office envisioned when they put together these pieces last summer after the early exit in the playoffs. It's a big reason why the Cavs have been able to thrive while missing 40% of their starting lineup since December 15th; sure, Jarrett Allen and Donovan Mitchell have been playing at All-Star caliber levels, but all of their hard work and sacrifice would've been wasted if not for what the bench giving this team a strong backbone that didn't exist in 2022-23.When the day comes that Darius Garland and Evan Mobley do come back, ((And that day *is* today, as Evan Mobley is set to return Monday night at home against the Los Angeles Clippers.)) sure, there might be some bumps in the road to reacclimate them, but the fear of them ruining the excellent mojo isn't there. It should be appreciated that the Cavs' bench is super deep and can play multiple styles that weren't compatible in the past. It is one thing that plays better in the playoffs and will allow JB Bickerstaff to pull various levers in a seven-game series, which hopefully leads to more success. The Cleveland Cavaliers are a good basketball team and should get better once it's fully whole again.