CLEVELAND, Ohio — When the Cavs brought Kenny Atkinson on board last June as the next head coach, he was juggling international obligations with the French National Team and the challenge of connecting with his new roster on the fly.
Atkinson made it work, helping Cleveland earn the second-most win in franchise history.
But something didn’t translate to the playoffs, as the Cavs were bounced from the Eastern Conference semifinals in five games for the second straight year.
Now, for the first time, Atkinson gets a real summer. No jet-setting between continents. Just months of uninterrupted time to dig in, build continuity, and correct the mistakes that cost Cleveland a shot at the conference finals.
And Atkinson has already turned the film room into his second home.
“I came in today to get ready for this and Kenny’s already working out and he’s got all these ideas,” president of basketball operations Koby Altman said during his end-of-season press conference on May 19.
“... a big reason why we hired Kenny Atkinson was for the offseason program, we’re going to be still rooted in player development. I think you’ll see a lot of players get better.”
Watching is only the start. This summer is about action.
Here are five specific areas where the Cavs can level up, even without major roster moves:
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers in game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, May 13, 2025
Evan Mobley has already grown under Kenny Atkinson. Making the leap to an All-Star, All-NBA Second Team and Defensive Players of the Year all for the first time in just his fourth season in the league. Now, the Cavs need Mobley to become a reliable offensive fulcrum with the consistent confidence to let his abilities shine in the playoffs. And that only comes with even more reps. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com
1.Evan Mobley is Atkinson’s summer project
When Atkinson first took the job with the Cavs, he already had Evan Mobley’s evolution in mind.
“Can do it with Donovan,” Atkinson said when asked if Mobley needed to be the Cavs’ best player to make a championship push. “... But Evan’s a big piece of that. I’m going to feel a huge responsibility to help him get to that top 15, top 20, whatever it is. Who knows? Top five? Why not with the skill level and the athleticism and the human being, I don’t see why we can’t.”
That wasn’t a PR spin — it was a mission statement.
Mobley has already grown under Atkinson. Making the leap to an All-Star, All-NBA Second Team and Defensive Players of the Year all for the first time in just his fourth season in the league.
Now, the Cavs need Mobley to become a reliable offensive fulcrum with the consistent confidence to let his abilities shine in the playoffs. And that only comes with even more reps.
But it can’t just be empty gym work. It has to be live, game-like reps that challenge his mind as much as his body.
That means catching the ball at the top of the key and reading the floor. Recognizing whether to attack off the bounce, rise up for a jumper, or make the right read when the defense collapses. It means repping big-on-big actions with Jarrett Allen — setting and slipping screens, deciding when to roll hard or pop out for an open look, and playing off each other’s strengths.
Mobley also needs to bring the ball up the floor. Not just as a novelty, but as a weapon. Not to dance, but to probe. To scan for a mismatch and use his handle to get to his spot with purpose. That means driving through contact, absorbing hits from stronger defenders and finishing through them.
Pick-and-pops have to evolve into pick-your-poisons. If the shot’s there, take it. If the defense rotates, become the playmaker.
Live-action drills should force those decisions in real time, not walk-throughs or cone drills. That kind of situational work, especially with Allen, can fast-track the kind of chemistry Cleveland needs from its Twin Towers.
But perhaps the most important growth point? Shooting.
Catch-and-shoots with a hand flying at him. One-dribble pull-ups when the defense is late to recover.
Because when Mobley starts earning respect, the game opens up — and at 7 feet tall, most contests shouldn’t bother him anyway.
That’s the mindset he needs to carry into October when the season starts. Not when the playoffs roll around next year. Unshakable confidence. Not reckless, but intentional. The kind of quiet delusion all great scorers have.
And it’s not all on him, but Atkinson finding ways to put the ball in Mobley’s hands.
Against Indiana, with the offense bogged down, Mobley had the stage and didn’t take it. It’s time to script the show around him.
That means intentional offense. Not just duck-ins or late-clock kickouts. He should touch the ball on the first action of a possession — not as a reset valve, but as a decision-maker.
His ceiling is still higher than we’ve seen. Cleveland’s future depends on pulling it out.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers in game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, May 13, 2025
For a team with two All-Star guards, Cleveland looked disjointed when facing even token backcourt pressure. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com
2. Breaking the press: Cleveland’s must-fix
It wasn’t just the Pacers. Teams across the league started pressing the Cavs late in the season — sometimes with two, sometimes with one — and it worked far more often than it should have.
For a team with two All-Star guards, Cleveland looked disjointed when facing even token backcourt pressure. Just getting the ball past half-court became an ordeal. Cross-matches ruined spacing. Mitchell and Darius Garland burned clock instead of attacking. The visually offense deflate before it ever got into a set.
This can’t be a scouting report weakness next season.
Atkinson’s known for his tactical creativity. That needs to show up here. Whether it’s using Max Strus as a short-corner inbounder who immediately becomes a backcourt screener, or stationing Mobley near the nail for an early-release middle option, the Cavs need structure against chaos.
More importantly, it needs to become automatic. No more deer-in-the-headlights moments against a single chaser. Or scrambling to get the ball in bounds late in games.
The press didn’t just bother the Cavs physically — it drained them mentally. It wore down their confidence. And when their top initiators are also the stars, that’s the last thing Cleveland can allow.
Because once it’s playoff time, that one defender at 94 feet becomes a 48-minute problem.
3. Get to know De’Andre Hunter
De’Andre Hunter was more than a midseason addition — he was an inflection point.
After Hunter arrived from Atlanta, Cleveland vaulted into the best stretch of regular-season basketball in franchise history — a 16-game win streak that even topped their 15-0 start to the season without Hunter on the roster.
But here’s the catch: Hunter barely scratched the surface of what he could be in this system.
“He’s had one practice, one real, full practice,” Atkinson admitted at practice on April 22 during their opening playoff series against the Heat. “Listen it reminds of Max a little. I know the other guys a little bit better. And even Max, when he was out, it took me a while to understand where to use ‘em, how to use ‘em. So we’re still in that mode with [Hunter], and I think it’s going to get better the more we’re together, the more this playoffs go on. But there’s no doubt about it, we’re going to need him. We’re going to need him in the big games.”
This summer is about building that understanding — and turning Hunter from an additive piece into a system enhancer.
His numbers with the Core Four are almost comically strong: 100th percentile in net rating, offensive rating and in the 99th percentile in defensive rating. But the sample size? Barely over 80 possessions, combining the regular season and postseason. That’s a missed opportunity and a massive offseason lever.
Hunter’s game is built to bridge the gap between Cleveland’s extremes.
He’s got the size to match up with wings, the foot speed to stay in front of bigger guards, and the instincts to disrupt the point of attack without being a liability on offense.
Hunter actually brings a tool this roster can use to create even more space: a confident, controlled mid-range scorer who doesn’t need a screen or a broken play to create a look.
Now it’s on Atkinson to plug him in the right way.
That means drawing up actions to get Hunter going. Set a screen for him near the baseline and let him curl into a jumper. Let him fake a screen, slip out, and pop for an open shot. It’s about giving him rhythm without needing isolation, letting him flow into his spots within the offense instead of forcing touches that feel out of sync.
Cleveland doesn’t need to overhaul the system for Hunter — they just need to carve him a lane.
If he continues to come off the bench, the offense can run through him in spurts, creating opportunities for him to grow as a distributor and ball-handler. That means reps making decisions off the dribble, reading help defenders, and initiating actions that loosen things up for Donovan Mitchell to operate off the ball. If Hunter gets comfortable as a connector, the entire offense flows cleaner. And if he proves he can do even more with the ball in his hands? That’s house money.
But for all that to work, Hunter can’t be just another interchangeable wing. He needs to be integrated into the core fabric of the rotation. That starts in July.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Miami Heat in game 1 of the NBA Playoffs, April 20, 2025
Cleveland has the individual defenders. Mobley and Allen are elite. But system defense only works when every piece locks in.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
4. Reclaiming Cleveland’s defensive identity
For all the attention Cleveland’s offense received this season — and deservedly so — the Cavs spent most of the year branding themselves a defense-first team.
And for one month, February, they looked the part.
But the playoffs aren’t about reputations. They’re about principles. And the Cavs didn’t defend with enough conviction in the postseason.
Indiana carved them up with constant motion, back screens, drive-and-kick layers that exposed Cleveland’s weakside help and off-ball discipline.
Atkinson leaned into a 3-2 zone at times with Mobley high, but without coordinated coverages underneath, it became an invitation to exploit the baseline and corners. Worse, the communication broke down in real time. The Cavs weren’t on the same page, and they paid the price.
If they’re going to be a No. 1 seed again — and this team absolutely can be as the East is set to change due to the new CBA — they can’t wait until the postseason to flip a switch. They must become the same team every night.
That means defensive coverage rules that aren’t optional, even when the offense is humming. That means roles for Garland and Mitchell that are defined not just by what they score but how they rotate and recover.
Cleveland has the individual defenders. Mobley and Allen are elite. Dean Wade and Hunter can take pressure off them by guarding heavier on the perimeter when called upon. But system defense only works when every piece locks in. The NBA Finals-bound Oklahoma City Thunder are a prime example.
The Cavs have said they’re defense-first. Next year, they need to be in the same flow state on defense as they are on offense.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers in game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, May 13, 2025
Even with a plan since last offseason to manage workloads, Cleveland didn’t have the legs to match Indiana’s pace. Maybe it was because they didn’t have the same ramp up process as they expected. John Kuntz, cleveland.com
5. Never get run off the floor again
The Cavs got physically overwhelmed in the playoffs.
It wasn’t just that the Pacers ran them off the floor in transition. It was that they did it repeatedly, from Game 1 to Game 5.
Even with a plan since last offseason to manage workloads, Cleveland didn’t have the legs to match Indiana’s pace. Maybe it was because they didn’t have the same ramp up process as they expected.
“I will say, we definitely had a plan post-All-Star in terms of, and you kind of see the minutes, of getting guys more games with higher minutes leading up to the playoffs,” Atkinson said after Game 5 against the Pacers. “Now some of that gets skewed, right? You’re up 20 and the plan is to play Don 39 minutes and you don’t do it. ... But there was a plan in place, I think we executed it OK, but I do think there are some circumstances around that.”
That’s the balance Atkinson and the training staff have to strike.
How do they preserve their stars’ health while also building the physical and mental resilience to play at playoff speed?
The answer may not be cutting minutes — it may be simulating intensity. That could mean high-tempo, situational scrimmages deep into practices. Maybe it’s rotating offseason conditioning windows so players peak closer to May.
This isn’t just about cardio. It’s about game speed. It’s about not turning into a different team when the clock winds down and the game tightens. Atkinson has the buy-in and the track record. Now he needs to reengineer the Cavaliers’ pace for an entire season.
Because no team wants to look up in the fourth quarter of Game 2 and wonder if they have anything left. The Cavs did. They can’t again.
Cleveland Cavaliers v Miami Heat - Game Four
Koby Altman hasn’t hinted at a teardown. He’s tripled down after the Cavs’ third year with the Core Four. He believes in this group. And unless the right blockbuster presents itself, Cleveland’s next step likely comes from the inside out.Getty Images
If the Cavs triple down, Atkinson is the key to making it work
The Cavs aren’t entirely boxed in this summer. The second apron adds obstacles, yes but it doesn’t bolt the door shut. If they wanted to shake up the roster, they could. It would just likely require bigger moves, not marginal ones.
But Koby Altman hasn’t hinted at a teardown. He’s tripled down after the Cavs’ third year with the Core Four. He believes in this group. And unless the right blockbuster presents itself, Cleveland’s next step likely comes from the inside out. Not a new cast of characters, but a new version of the same team that just won 64 games.
" Internal growth is something that we’ve always banked on and we’re going to continue to bank on," Altman said. “If we are a second apron team, we still know we have internal growth to get better.
“... I think there’s an internal belief because of what we prove this year during the regular season and what we’re capable of to run it back and see what we can do.”
And all eyes point to Atkinson to get the best out of this roster.
After a year of learning on the fly, a playoff gauntlet that exposed hard truths, and a summer with no distractions, he finally has the time—and the mandate—to mold this team completely. And it’s not just about tactics. The Cavs need a transformation. On the court. In the locker room. In their identity.
This isn’t about pushing toward contender status. It’s about proving they belong there.
Cleveland already showed it can dominate the regular season. But that’s not the bar anymore. Not in a wide-open Eastern Conference where opportunity is there for the taking.
Now it’s about getting over the hump and shedding the label of a team that has peaked by March.
Atkinson has the board. What happens behind closed doors over the next few months will define whether this team makes good on its promise — or goes through another season rerun with the same ending.