A Frustrating Season Ends In a Frustrating Way
In the closing seconds of Game 5 at TD Garden, the season ends in an odd spot to conclude a strange year. Sure, a gentlemen's sweep to the Boston Celtics might've been predicted by experts, but you feel a little bit cheated about how things ended, especially with Donovan Mitchell, Caris LeVert, and Jarrett Allen all in street clothes due to numerous injuries. In a season that was all about surviving to even get to this point, the Boston series was a microcosm of their season as a whole; the Cavs had a hand tied behind their back by injuries to the Core 4 and having to Houdini their way out of it. Sure, it worked to many people's surprise in the regular season, winning 48 games and securing the 4th seed, and they were resilient all season. They even escaped with a series win without Jarrett Allen going down with a rib contusion against the Orlando Magic. Unfortunately, against a Celtics team that was a historic offensive juggernaut, you feel robbed of not just giving Boston their best punch but also getting a proper evaluation for a critical offseason this summer.
The Cavs did show progress from a macro standpoint. They achieved the goal they verbalized before the season started; winning a playoff series and going as far as possible. How they got there has given many people pause, and who can blame them in the slightest with the data we have to sift through. Whether it was because of a lack of continuity due to injuries or pieces fitting better due to those absences, certain lineups propelled the Cavs, particularly the lineups with only one big on the floor, functioned a lot better than the actual starting 5. It's what made this season so frustrating to so many: the starting five of Max Strus, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Donovan Mitchell, and Darius Garland only played 28 games together, clocking in at a measly 368 minutes with only a net rating of 1.4 to show for it. If we are being honest here, I don't think anyone got a good grasp of the potential of this starting 5 since they were rarely on the court together outside of 5-game stretches. It's a credit to the front office they filled the roster with depth that could survive the injuries in an 82-game season to make this playoff appearance possible. Still, questions still remain unanswered about the capabilities of this group even when they achieved their team goals. It will be discussed throughout the summer whether those reasons are fit or just rotten luck with injuries.
In the waning hours of the night, as they are flying back to Cleveland, the Cavs will begin that journey of where to go from here. Many fans will have their hot takes and opinions about it, magnified even more by the backdrop of Donovan Mitchell's future. The future is uncertain in some ways, but this very uncertainty makes the offseason intriguing and the Cavs' journey compelling. Does Evan Mobley's 30-point performance and offensive progress in the Boston series make them believe he's ready to be more of a focal point in the offense in year 4? Was Darius Garland 2023-24 just a series of unfortunate events, or is this who he is? Will JB Bickerstaff survive the fallout as the head coach? They've made incremental progress through this current era of Cavs basketball, reaching the conference semi-finals for the first time without LeBron since 1993. There is at least proof of concept that they are heading in the right direction for a young Cavs squad. Still, the front office's decisions will determine how fast they want to scale up the mountaintop.