CLEVELAND, Ohio — Fourteen wins and 11 losses through 25 games isn’t what a championship-caliber Cavs roster expects. It’s noisy, unsettling and ripe for hot takes.
For some fans, a string of ugly losses — like the recent one to an injury-depleted Golden State team — feels like a signal that the ceiling isn’t what we hoped. For others, a handful of games of wrong-footed energy is an annoyance that needs to be addressed but is fixable.
There is no right or wrong answer to how fans perceive this version of the Cavs. But success in the modern NBA rarely moves along a clean, upward line.
The recent history of teams that ultimately reached the Finals shows that slow starts and midseason turbulence have been a common prelude to late-season surges.
Seven teams in the last five seasons made the Finals after stumbling through their first 25 games: the 2025 Pacers (10-15), 2024 Mavericks (16-9), 2023 Heat (11-14), 2023 Nuggets (15-10), 2022 Celtics (13-12), 2021 Suns (16-9) and 2021 Bucks (16-9). Only two of those teams — the Bucks and the Nuggets — ultimately won it all. That’s an important distinction: being resilient enough to reach the Finals is different than having the final margin to lift the trophy.
But the broader pattern shows that early adversity doesn’t disqualify a team, nor do the setbacks that come after a supposed turnaround.
All but one of those teams went on to at least a six-game winning streak at some point, and nearly all dipped back into multi-game losing skids even after their supposed “bounce-back” moments. That’s the key piece for Cleveland. Peaking at the right time matters more than peaking early.
The Pacers this past season, for instance, produced two separate six-game winning streaks (one stretching into April), bracketed by multiple losing stretches for a team learning to handle its own chaos.
Dallas went on two seven-game heaters but endured three three-game losing streaks. Miami’s longest streak was just four games, and they suffered two four-game losing streaks. Denver paired a nine-game January tear with a four-game stumble in March. Boston had a nine-game run and a six-game run and still hit multiple three-game dips. Phoenix stacked six- and seven-game streaks but still fell into a three-game hole. Milwaukee, another champion, paired an eight-game run with a five-game losing streak.
These teams used those valleys to identify weaknesses before the postseason spotlight exposed them. That’s the potential advantage Cleveland has now. Confronting its issues in December rather than discovering them in March or April, when there’s no time left to repair or recalibrate.
These jagged arcs show that teams can evolve, correct course and build momentum when it counts.
Donovan Mitchell and Kenny Atkinson share a moment of focus, embodying the Cavs’ challenge of navigating a 14-11 start and using early-season adversity to build momentum for a potential deep playoff run.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com
Kenny Atkinson has lived that storyline before and has been direct about it, pointing back to his Golden State experience. The ugly runs and the internal troubleshooting are often what teach a team who they are. It’s not romantic; it’s educational.
So what’s different between a slow-start team that becomes dangerous and a slow-start team that fizzles? Three things stand out.
1. Honest diagnosis and accountable correction.
2. The ability to manufacture buy-in on the margins (effort plays, help defense, 50-50 plays)
3. Timing. Avoiding cascading frustration while still finding a rhythm before the playoffs.
Atkinson’s job — and this roster’s next step — is to stamp out the repeatable errors while accepting that variance will exist. The payoff is a team that can handle the NBA’s inevitable bumps without letting those bumps harden into a self-fulfilling narrative.
“We can compete with anybody in this league, but the next level is being able to push through that mental,” Donovan Mitchell said earlier this season. “And I think mentally that’s what you want to see every single night, every single play. When you have a mistake, how do you bounce back from it, not continue to let it linger? So every night on both ends of the floor, whether it’s offense, defense, whatever, you’re mentally there. Whether it’s 50-50 balls, whatever we’re doing, you’re mentally like, ‘this is how I’m going to help the team win.’”
Cleveland sits at a .560-win percentage. Hardly ideal, but far from fatal in an era where several champions have lived in that range or lower deep into winter.
The Cavs have 57 games left to find form and health. That’s long enough to construct a meaningful run, especially as this five-day stretch of practice and recovery serves as a strategic reset while other teams are in midweek in-season tournament games.
This also means fans’ reactions should be calibrated.
The loss to Golden State stings more because of who was on the court for both teams, and because injuries to opponents amplify frustration (how do they lose that one?). But whether that game was “rock bottom” or a teachable low point depends entirely on the Cavs’ response.
The historical record says they’re not out of it. However, being salvageable and being a champion are two different states. That nuance must guide the narrative.
What should fans expect next? Expect the Cavs to come out with a fierce intensity, particularly against lower-level opponents over their next six games as they face the Wizards, Hornets (twice), Bulls (twice) and the Pelicans. Cleveland cannot continue stooping to the level of its opponent. That habit is part of the Cavs’ recent history, and this stretch is their best opportunity to show a mental reset after their time off national television.
If Cleveland treats this five-day pause as a springboard — an opportunity to restore energy, tighten principles and rebuild identity — then 14-11 could read not like a verdict but like a course correction that eventually proves useful.
If they let frustration calcify, the season could erode and the early losses will look more like the harbinger some fear.
This team has All-NBA and All-Star talent and a coach with championship-adjacent lessons to draw from, which suggests the potential for a deep run is still real.
The only remaining question: when the Cavs start their next stretch of games, will they play like a team that learned from its turbulence or like a team still stuck in it? The answer to that will tell everything that’s needed to know about Cleveland’s 2025–26 trajectory.