LeBron James will definitely have his name etched in Cleveland Cavaliers history as the best thing to ever happen to the team. The pinnacle of success and many moments that entered the hearts of fans from the Eastern representative are all associated with “King James”. However, the day “The King” left his homeland for the second time, Cavaliers understood that they would have to stand up on their own two feet.

The 2018 NBA Finals marked the last time LeBron James wore the Cleveland Cavaliers’ colors. Losing to the super Golden State Warriors squad was truly the final straw that made the son of Akron decide to leave his homeland for the second time. But this time his address was in the far West and he had no return date. Cavs began to enter a painful but necessary transformation.

1. The Cleveland Cavaliers’ seasons of panning for gold

As a “curse”, every team left behind by LeBron James becomes a pile of ruins. The Miami Heat super squad after the summer of 2014 or Cleveland itself at the beginning of the past decade are clearly too big a lesson. Therefore, the team’s coaching staff decided to immediately rebuild in the 2018/2019 season.

With the squad led by Kevin Love losing their leadership instincts after months under LeBron James, they lost 63 matches out of a total of 82 appearances. The penultimate position in the East rewards the team with the 5th pick in the 2019 NBA draft. In a Draft overshadowed by giant names like Zion Williamson or RJ Barrett, the Cavs decided to use their selection. His choice was to bring in the less famous name Darius Garland.

Having a player with a potential ceiling compared to Kyrie Irving cannot help the Cavs get out of the mud. The main reason is that their defense is quite poor. The outside duo of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland have truly become the black spots of the Eastern representative. Statistics show that they let opponents score 117 points in 59 matches on the field.

With such a poor defense, the Cavaliers were only able to win 19 matches before the season was suspended due to the terrible impact of the pandemic. When the NBA Bubble was announced, the Cavs were not even on the list of teams called to compete in the remainder of the season. This young team continues to have a year of retreating into the background.

While the players rested, the team’s board of directors did not do the same thing. They and the coaching staff have had many meetings about the future direction of this team. And the decision was made to build a solid backline for their explosive defenders to rely on. The decision to bring back Andre Drummond, although not too successful, is a premise for the selection and exchange policy of players in the future.

The 2020/2021 season marks the season that can be said to be the final stage of rebuilding from the Eastern representative. The first important milestone to mention is acquiring the services of striker Jarrett Allen after the famous trade of James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets. Looking back at this deal, many people believe that this is an important bottleneck in the Cavs’ rebuilding process.

Although they still cannot improve their performance too much, coach Bickerstaff’s young team can still only win 22 wins in 72 matches of the season. But this is the last time they have to accept a failed season. It was the 3rd position in the 2021 NBA Draft that brought striker Evan Mobley to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

With a huge squad protecting the area under the basket, the young Cavaliers surprised the entire NBA by having a positive record for the first time after 3 poor seasons. Although 44 victories and 38 defeats are not great achievements, they are enough to show the extremely great potential of this young team. Especially when recalling that they have received many headaches due to injuries to key players. Special mention must be made of veteran Ricky Rubio’s ligament.

2. The future is wide open with the joining of Donovan Mitchell

The duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert swept across the fiery West and brought sadness to countless opponents. However, when the achievements in the Playoffs were not adequate, the Jazz Board of Directors felt there was a need for change. During the summer of 2022, they offered to sell both superstars and their biggest contract in the transfer market. If Rudy Gobert had stayed in the West, fate would have brought Donovan Mitchell back to the East but not his hometown New York. Cleveland will be your new home.

Having Donovan Mitchell is like heaven and earth, the advantages and disadvantages have all come together to help the Cleveland Cavaliers accelerate. After 18 matches, the team under head coach Bickerstaff has surpassed many giants such as Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers or Miami Heat to rank 3rd on the rankings. Even they were only behind the giant Milwaukee Bucks with 1 more defeat.

Cavaliers are truly as scary as an armored knight rushing towards the enemy. With a thick armor from strong centers like Evan Mobley or Jarrett Allen, they are playing an uncomfortable defense under the basket. It is not strange that the Eastern representative is currently the third best defensive team in the tournament, only allowing opponents to score 107.6 points per match.

If the defense is armor, surely the Cavaliers’ attack must be the knight’s powerful “Xich Tho” horse. With two All Star-class defenders at the forefront, including Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, they are giving every opponent a breather. The former Utah Jazz star is currently in terrible form since the beginning of his career. The star wearing shirt number 45 currently averages 30.1 points per game with 5.7 assists, which is also the highest ever.

Meanwhile, Darius Garland is also extremely flourishing with an average of approximately 24 points per game along with a scary 44% efficiency outside the three-point range. This shows that the young star is integrating very well with the senior next to him in the outside world. It was the appearance of a big name like Donovan Mitchell that helped Garland know how to be meticulous in every decision he makes with the ball.

With these two extremely great ways, the Cavaliers are also flying high in the NBA rankings. They currently possess the third strongest attack in the entire tournament. With an average of more than 116 points per match, the Cavs have a positive difference of 8 per match, enough to help them win against any team. The most prominent up to this point must be the two victories against the strongest team in the East, the Boston Celtics.

After 4 years from the ashes of LeBron James’ second reign, the Cleveland Knights have stood up strongly to become a new force ready to challenge the NBA throne. The future of the team is becoming brighter than ever and let time answer all the questions in our minds.