Up until the playoffs began, the 2022–23 campaign was a bit of a dream season for the Cavs.
Fresh off the disappointment of barely missing out on a playoff berth the season prior, the club snuck in and pulled off an enormous deal for Jazz star Donovan Mitchell, someone who almost perfectly seemed to fit the young team’s upward trajectory and need for postseason experience.
With him joining fellow All-Stars Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen, and budding star Evan Mobley, coach J.B. Bickerstaff had an elite mix of playmaking on offense and rim protection on defense—a sign of things to come for a unit that would finish second in the NBA in net rating and fourth in the Eastern Conference standings. (Cleveland finished with the league’s best defense.) It all quieted a key concern that many outlets, this one included, had to begin the season: a question mark with the team’s fifth starter, and who, exactly, would fill that all-important spot, given the need to punish opposing clubs for overplaying Garland and Mitchell and, more importantly, to defend star wings like Jayson Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
