Here is a short list of some of the things that have made the team so enjoyable.
It has been an amazing start to this Cleveland Cavaliers season. The vast majority of things have gone right thus far (all fingers crossed) and this team continues to not only win but do so in an enjoyable fashion. It’s hard to put into words how much fun the early season has been so let’s look at three things that have been particularly enjoyable to watch.
Sure the Cavs are only 11th in the league in three-point attempts per game, three spots below where the team finished last season (eighth). Amazingly though the Cavs are still shooting nearly two more threes per game on average this year over last year. But it’s not just shooting more, it is also getting more threes for our best three-point shooters with both Donovan Mitchell (fourth) and Darius Garland (17th) ranking in the top 20 in the league for made threes thus far.
What makes this so fun to watch is that it is coming at the hands of truly unselfish play. In past years the ball would tend to stop after an action or two on offense, but this team has consistently found ways to keep the offense humming even after a primary or secondary action gets stuffed. This team is getting into good three-point shots consistently and it is leading to winning as currently the team has the league's best record and second-best league-wide point differential.
Evan Mobley moves with the beauty of a Planet Earth episode. This has always been true but in the past two years, it has lacked those moments where the lion finally catches up to its prey and proves why it is considered the king of the jungle. Mobley this year has finally started bringing in that red meat. Even before putting up a 41 piece against the Charlotte Hornets Evan was starting to take the spotlight more and more for this Cavs team.
Here are the customary ridiculous stats thus far for Mobley. His net rating through the first quarter of the season is 14! For context, the best player in the world Nikola Jokic had a net rating of 12.5 in his last MVP season. On top of that, Evan is scoring four more points per 100 possessions this year vs last year while both growing his steals per 100 possessions (from 1.4 to 1.7) and his blocks per 100 possessions (from 2.2 to 2.4). Will all those numbers continue throughout the entire season? Maybe, maybe not, but even if they don’t now is the time to watch and appreciate how great Evan is.
The first two items are the main course. You can’t miss them if you turn on the Cavs on any given night. This last item is more subtle. Jalyon Tyson, the Cavs draft pick in the past draft (20th overall), is getting spot minutes for this team. It doesn’t happen always and he isn’t necessarily affecting winning at this point but just for a second let’s take a look at the past 15 years of Cavs draft picks that happened 15th or later in the first round, excluding players that were traded before they played a game for the Cavs :
Finding a good player late in the first round of the NBA Draft who can play on a good team with championship aspirations is really hard. Tyson may not end up being that, he may not end up getting many more minutes as the season progresses but even having a warm body that plays hard and can soak up spot minutes is excellent value for a mid to late first-round pick. There is also upside, in the one full game Tyson played against the hapless Pelicans earlier in the season he put up a double-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and chipped in 7 assists ... so who knows!
The first quarter of the season has been quite entertaining. There will undoubtably be setbacks, injuries and other hurdles as the season progresses but hopefully there will also be more fun surprises to enjoy along the way.
