The Cavaliers won’t fall off and end up like the Knicks and Hawks

Some in the Cleveland Cavaliers sports-talk sphere are worried about regression.

While listening to 92.3 during the Bull and the Fox recently, both men talked about their fears of the Cleveland Cavaliers becoming the new version of the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks; two teams that looked unstoppable last year but may be heading to the lottery this year. As the three teams, Cavs, Hawks, and Knicks, all have/had great seasons after previous terrible ones, they believed that the Cavaliers could suffer the same fate in 2022-2023.

Fox mentioned that the Cavs play every game like it’s a playoff game, and inferred that type of intensity was impossible to maintain. That playing hard was somehow going to burn out the team heading into next year. A silly argument. Firstly, the Cavs “don’t play every game like it’s the playoffs”. There’s been more than one game where, for one reason or another, the team just didn’t have it.

Secondly, there were flashes of this very same team to start last year. It just didn’t have sustainability due to a multitude of factors. Not the least of which involved Kevin Love having serious attitude issues. Love is far more motivated today and isn’t just a key member of this revival but a true Sixth-Man of the Year contender.

So what either man failed to realize is that neither team was nearly as sound as the Cavaliers are this season. Both teams were, for lack of a better team, sloppily put together and were reinforced by aging veterans who were playing out of position.

Both teams captured lighting in a bottle, which isn’t the same for the Cavs.