CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs (10-5) are winning games. That should be cause for celebration, right? Not so fast.
As the Wine and Gold Talk Podcast team dissected in their latest episode, beneath the veneer of a solid won-loss record lurks a team that isn’t playing championship-caliber basketball – and everyone in the locker room knows it.
“Talk to anybody in that locker room, they’ll say that something is off with this team,” cleveland.com Cavs beat reporter Chris Fedor revealed on the podcast. “And I think it’s true. I think something is off with this team. Their last two victories have been more about who the other team didn’t have or what the other team was dealing with as opposed to their own brilliance that they showed.”
This candid assessment comes despite the Cavaliers being on pace for approximately 55 wins – a record that would normally suggest a legitimate contender. However, as the podcast conversation made clear, this team’s record is more a product of the Eastern Conference’s weakness than their own excellence.
The Cavs’ struggles were evident in their recent win against Milwaukee, where they were locked in a tight game with a Bucks team missing Giannis Antetokounmpo for most of the contest.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson was clearly disappointed, using words like “clunky” and “slog” to describe his team’s performance.
What’s most concerning is that the Cavaliers appear to be adopting a “flip the switch” mentality – the idea that they can coast through the regular season and then elevate their play when the playoffs arrive. Cleveland.com columnist Jimmy Watkins took issue with this approach:
“I will continue to say I really don’t like the Cavs taking this approach when they haven’t really done anything in the playoffs. This sort of switch flipping thing is reserved for teams who have accomplished things in the NBA.”
Fedor echoed this sentiment, saying, “On one hand you want to give them the benefit of the doubt because you know what’s missing and the impact of those absences. On the other hand, they haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt. They’re still trying to get to that point where you can just say, ah, they’ll flip a switch when the playoffs come around or eh, they’ll flip a switch when March hits, or something along those lines. And I just don’t think that this team has earned that yet.”
The podcast discussion highlighted several factors contributing to this identity crisis. Injuries to key players like Darius Garland and Max Strus have certainly played a role, forcing players like Craig Porter Jr., Sam Merrill, and Jaylon Tyson into larger roles than initially planned.
But the issues run deeper than just missing personnel. There’s a palpable lack of focus and intensity that seems to permeate the team.
As Watkins noted, “What happened to the focus? Feel like they had lapses of focus against last week against the Raptors. They just didn’t have any juice.”
The Wine and Gold Talk podcast host Ethan Sands pointed out the contradiction between last year’s mantra of “setting habits in the regular season that they can then execute in the postseason” and this year’s inability to maintain intensity on either end of the floor for 48 minutes.
The question now facing the Cavaliers is whether they can rediscover their identity and elevate their play before the playoffs arrive. Because as the podcast made abundantly clear, this current version of the Cavs – regardless of their record – isn’t built for playoff success.
And for a franchise with championship aspirations, that reality is far more important than any regular season win total.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
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