Are the Cleveland Cavaliers a sleeper still in the NBA Playoffs?

The Cleveland Cavaliers went from a Top 4 seed to a play-in team, what happened?

Around the trade deadline, the Cavaliers were seriously considered a dark horse for the NBA Championship. By no means a likely pick, or even an obvious contender, but a team that was good enough and playing well enough to be seen as a team that could make some noise. That was before the trade of Caris LeVert to the Cavs, which only cost them a late-first rounder and the expiring contract of Ricky Rubio.

It seemed like a Jarrett Allen-like steal, which was ironic, as the two were teammates in Brooklyn before the trade of James Harden to the Nets. The Nets gave up both players to the Pacers and Cavaliers in order to bring Harden in, only to trade him a year later.

The NBA was afraid of matching up with the Cavs, but then the All-Star break happened and two key things occurred. First, the Cavs were without Darius Garland for a bit, and when he came back, the Cavs then lost Jarrett Allen.

Garland and Allen are the team’s two best players. Without them, they can’t do what they want to do. It’s partly because of the injuries, and partly due to LeVert’s inconsistent play, that the Cavaliers have tumbled from a team with an outside shot to be the top team in the Eastern Conference, to a squad scratching and clawing to get out of the play-in tournament.

Since the LeVert trade, the Cavs are just 9-14 and their defense has absolutely failed them. LeVert isn’t a good fit, and the injuries to Garland, Allen and even rookie Evan Mobley have exposed the team at times.

So the Cavs are done, right?

Wrong.

Don’t sleep on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the post-season

The situation in Cleveland isn’t anything like what you’re seeing in Chicago. In Chicago, the team is falling apart, and that’s after getting Tristan Thompson. Yet, the Cavs are struggling because they lost their three best players in consecutive stretches this year.

Garland is back, and Mobley and Allen are days away from returning. The team is still working in LeVert, but JB Bickerstaff has proven to be a guy who’s quite capable of being found out a way forward. He just needs his best talent to do so.

The Cavs are not a contender for the NBA Championship as far as we’ve seen so far in 2022, but they’re still going to be a team that wreaks havoc in the playoffs. With five games to go in the 2022 season, it looks like the Cavs will face off with the Nets in the first play-in game.

If they win, they’ll face the number two seed, currently the Milwaukee Bucks. If they lose, they’ll have to face the winner of the nine and tenth seeds, currently the Hornets and Hawks. If the Cavs win that game, they’ll face the number one seed, currently the Miami Heat.

If the Cavs can overtake the Raptors or Bulls for the fifth or sixth seeds, they’ll be currently inline to face the Celtics and 76ers respectively. There is no “easy way forward”, but if you want the best path, the Heat are imploding so maybe the eight seed isn’t so bad.

Assuming the Cavs don’t fail in the play-in tournament and the squad is completely healthy, this is still a team that can do some damage. So don’t sleep on a healthy playoff team.