CLEVELAND, Ohio — The 2025-26 Cavs are not the team that won 64 games last season. But are they still searching for who they are?
Injuries, experimentation, and circumstance have reshaped the roster. Every game feels like a reshuffled deck: a new combination of available players, a fresh challenge, a test of identity under pressure.
Darius Garland recently returned from offseason toe surgery only to suffer another injury. Max Strus is still recovering from offseason toe surgery. Cleveland expects to work around these key absences, but the grueling early schedule has offered no reprieve.
Multiple back-to-backs, a stretch of five games in seven nights, and ever-shifting injuries have forced the Cavs into constant adaptation. They’ve made limited excuses. And yet, they haven’t consistently met these tests either.
Each night is a lesson in improvisation, in figuring out not only what they are but what they could be. The Cavs’ ongoing battle for a sense of self.
Donovan Mitchell has leaned into the early-season chaos with his typical honesty.
“I hate to sound like a sicko, but this is great,” Mitchell said after the Cavs’ debilitating loss to the Toronto Raptors on Thursday. “Like, to be honest, because last year you started 15-0. We’re blowing teams out. You’re never really mentally tested.
“What are we, 8-5? Like, in those 13 games, we’ve had 13 different scenarios ... and you’re learning so much.”
Mitchell’s perspective is shaped by memory. Last year, the lessons came too late.
“Just got to be better one through 15, 18. I know it’s the same message on repeat, but obviously I’d rather have this happen now than in about three weeks. So we learn from things like these,” Mitchell said on April 6 after the Cavs’ 120-113 loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers in game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, May 13, 2025
Donovan Mitchell has leaned into the early-season chaos with his typical honesty. His perspective is shaped by memory. Because last year, the lessons came too late.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
Just over a month after that message, despite a historically potent offense, Cleveland fell in the second round against Indiana. Injuries played a role in their second-round loss to the Pacers, once again highlighting the limits of Cleveland’s depth.
This season, the bench has become a source of occasional stability.
Wednesday’s win over Miami was emblematic: without Mitchell, Garland, Strus, Evan Mobley, or Jaylon Tyson, the reserves produced sparks, resilience, and urgency, reminding anyone watching that this team isn’t just about its stars. But the challenge is sustaining that energy, translating it from momentary heroics to consistent identity.
That identity has been elusive.
Last season, Cleveland boasted the second-best offensive rating in NBA history but quietly drifted from the defensive habits that once defined them. This year, with Garland and Strus sidelined, head coach Kenny Atkinson leaned into defense, particularly with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen anchoring the rim.
“I said this at the beginning of the training camp, our defense is way ahead of our offense,” Atkinson reiterated ahead of a matchup with the 76ers.
Even so, consistency has been scarce. Cleveland sits 15th in defensive rating, far from its top-five goal, while offensively, the team has fallen to eighth. Opponents dictate more than the Cavs do. The team reacts rather than sets the tone, scrambling in moments that require clarity and cohesion.
Through the flux, Mitchell has been the constant. At 30.5 points per game, he ranks fourth in the league, carrying the team through uncertainty. His play since joining the Cavs has been a reminder that leadership, skill, and focus can lift a team but only so high.
The bench has also shown flashes, with Lonzo Ball, Sam Merrill, Craig Porter Jr., Tyson and two-way big man Nae’Qwan Tomlin providing sparks when starters falter. But one night of brilliance is not a season-long solution.
The 64-win season plays a part in this. With the No. 1 seed secured last year, the roster exuded confidence, assuming it could win a championship as constructed.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers in game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, May 6, 2025
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus reacts after a three against the Indiana Pacers in the second half of game two of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com
Yet as Strus said in May, “As you can see, the regular season doesn’t really mean anything. I would say we were pretty tough all year. We bounced back. We were resilient. You don’t win 15 games in a row twice without being tough and having to battle through some adversity at some point. But you got to do it when it matters, and we didn’t and that’s hard.”
The Cavs told anyone who asked that the team was preparing for the playoffs, gearing up months in advance, fully expecting early struggles, growing pains, and a period of experimentation with lineups and rotations.
Wins, losses, rotations and injuries are all variables, but the core principle — the nightly desire to fight — is not.
Comparison may be the thief of joy, but the NBA is a copycat league, and every team is searching for examples of how to win and sustain success.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
The Cavs would do well to learn from the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Not their plays or schemes but their heart on any given night.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com
The Cavs would do well to learn from the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Not their plays or schemes but their heart on any given night.
Wednesday night, on the second night of a back-to-back and their third game in four nights, the Thunder dismantled a rested Lakers team by 29 points through grit, tenacity, and an unwavering identity.
The question looms: what will this Cavs team be known for come playoff time?
Bench players understand their roles, but the stars — Mitchell, Mobley, Garland — remain in the process of discovery. Mitchell has often navigated this tension, balancing the need to take over games against empowering teammates to rise:
“Yeah, but is that what we need?” he said when asked if he thought he could lead the league in scoring. “I mean it’s more so like, what do we need as opposed to what could I do? I just feel like my role is a little different than those guys who are. Obviously, I’m scoring at a high level, but it’s not what we need to get to that ultimate point.”
Mitchell’s caution is grounded in history. Previous postseasons forced him into hero mode because no secondary scorer could consistently alleviate the load. This year, he hopes Garland and Mobley will share that responsibility.
Evan Mobley
Evan Mobley is still carving out his niche. Defining where he can thrive, what his teammates need from him and how he can be most effective.AP
Mobley, however, is still carving out his niche. Defining where he can thrive, what his teammates need from him and how he can be most effective.
Injuries, rotations and returning players will continue to shift roles. When Strus and Garland rejoin the lineup fully, the team will have to recalibrate again. But Cleveland has players who can slightly mimic their strengths to allow a system to function reliably.
The Cavs need a core identity now, one that can weather substitutions and absences, one that becomes instinctual, one that defines who they are. Because the window for this Cavs roster is finite. Every game without clarity is a reminder that time is slipping.
This is a team in search of itself. They must find a version of themselves that can be trusted every night, regardless of opponent, score or circumstance.
Thirteen games in, it remains a work in progress. But the full grind of an 82-game season will expose the truth: either the Cavaliers discover it, or the playoffs will.
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