CLEVELAND — For a Cavaliers team that had the opportunity to finish as a two-seed in the Eastern Conference going into the final game of the NBA's regular season, you would think optimism would be flowing throughout the city of Cleveland.
For a young team making their second straight trip to the playoffs while finishing in the top half of the conference, expecting the next leap forward in the playoffs would be justified.
Unfortunately, the conversation around the Cleveland Cavaliers going into their first round matchup with the young, somewhat ahead of schedule Orlando Magic paints a picture vastly different than the statements above.
As with most situations in life, context is everything. And the context presents a complicated set of storylines going into Round 1 of the NBA playoffs for the Cavs.
Is Donovan Mitchell healthy enough to be the player the Cavs need him to be? Can the Cavs win a series if he doesn't play at an All-NBA level? Can Darius Garland play up to his potential? Will the frontcourt pairing of Even Mobley and Jarrett Allen be exposed in the playoffs again? Can the Cavs generate enough offense against an elite defensive team in Orlando?
Everyone in the Cavs organization and their fans alike have had the 2024 playoffs in their sights as the only real proving ground to exercise the demons of last year's Knicks series, however the reality of the regular season provided little to calm the nerves.
Lets take a deeper dive into what I believe are the three biggest storylines for the Cavaliers as they look to win their first playoff series without LeBron James since 1993.
Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland
Often times, success in the NBA playoffs can be broken down into a simple question. Did your stars play like stars? Unfortunately for the Cavs in last year's series against the Knicks, too often the backcourt duo of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland did not pass that test, and Cleveland was dispatched easily.
There's more than enough reason to be concerned about the duo going into this year's playoffs. Donovan Mitchell's health being the ultimate factor for this team's success in and beyond round one. Garland isn't without his own health question marks as his road to recovery after suffering a broken jaw mid-season has proven tumultuous at best. He spent most of the second half of the season working his body back up to ideal playing condition after being on a liquid diet for weeks post surgery.
Garland was able to ramp up his production in six April games, bringing his PPG total up to the highest month-by-month mark since his injury in December.
Bottom line: The Cavs need Mitchell and Garland cooking. The stars need to be stars. This isn't complicated. The Cavs went through great lengths to add role players and shooting to compliment the guards. They need to prove that this pairing can work in the playoffs. Whether it was lightning in a bottle or an inconvenient truth, the Cavaliers built separation in the Eastern Conference on the back of a 17-8 record without Darius Garland in the regular season.
For the sake of the Cavs as they are currently constructed, they have to hope that was a coincidence rather than a trend.
Can the Cavs find offense against an elite defense?
Believe me, I truly do not want to keep referencing the Knicks series. But the Cavs' matchup against the Magic has a lot of potentially unsavory similarities for Cleveland.
Orlando ended the regular season with the third ranked defense in the NBA. The magic were fifth in the NBA in steals, second in points allowed per possession, second in points scored off turnovers and eighth in deflections. In other words, nothing is going to come easy.
The Magic have great size, are long and have the ability to frustrate the opponent with their defensive pressure and high pace of play.
Key Magic player to watch: PF Jonathan Isaac
I have a feeling Cavs fans will learn a lot about Isaac in the coming weeks. I doubt we will find a lot to like from our standpoint.
His stat line doesn't pop out at first glance only scoring 6.8 points per game along with 4.5 rebounds, but his defensive prowess along with his ability to block shots at a near-elite level could cause major problems for Cavaliers players all over the court.
Isaac has the ability to defend all five positions, switch onto guards, possesses elite closeout ability and uses his seven-foot wingspan to altar shots from everywhere on the court.
Isaac has mostly come off the bench for the Magic this year but just like the Knicks' Mitchell Robinson in last year's first round series against the Cavs, could have a profound effect on Cleveland's ability to do what they want to do offensively.
Set the lights to optimum brightness
For all of the questions and concerns when it comes to the x's and o's and their matchup against the Magic from a basketball standpoint, perhaps the biggest concern about the Cavs is whether they still lack the mental toughness needed to win tough series' in the playoffs.
Jarrett Allen pulled back the curtain after the 2023 playoffs saying perhaps "the lights were too bright" after losing 4-1 to New York.
If the lights remain too bright, the makeup of not only the team, but the organization could look very different going into the 2024-25 season.
The top of the Eastern Conference is no picnic to break through. For the foreseeable future, the Cavs will have to contend against a Celtics team that looks at the height of their ability and power, former MVP and NBA Champion Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, former MVP and the 76ers with two-time scoring champion Joel Embiid. All three of these teams represent perennial NBA Finals contenders if healthy.
In the next few seasons, we could see the ascent of the Magic and Indiana Pacers to contender status lead by their own budding superstars in Paolo Banchero and Tyrese Haliburton, respectively.
If the Cavaliers can't prove they've grown, learned their lesson or belong in that group of contenders, dramatic changes may have to be made.
Gone are the excuses of youth and bright lights. For the past few years, the Cavs' starting lineup has been revered by some on the national level as one of the most talented group of starters in the NBA. Now would be a great time for Cleveland to cash in that support and live up to expectations.
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