The Cleveland Cavaliers are off to their best start in 48 years.
“You don't expect any team to go 8-0 and you certainly don't expect, oftentimes, a team with a new coach to go 8-0, just because when a new coach comes in, even if the team he takes over is good, tends to be making some changes and just some adjustment period,” said Ideastream Public Media's sports commentator Terry Pluto.
As of Tuesday, the Cavs are the only unbeaten team left in the Eastern Conference. The Oklahoma City Thunder are 7-0 in the Western Conference.
“Not only have they been winning, they've won a couple of close games, but a number of their games have been blowouts,” Pluto said.
The team is playing under new head coach Kenny Atkinson, replacing J.B. Bickerstaff, who was let go after Cleveland was eliminated from the playoffs in five games by the eventual champion Boston Celtics last season.
Atkinson was fired as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets in 2020 after three-plus rebuilding seasons, then served as an assistant under coach Steve Kerr, who’s won four championships with the Golden State Warriors.
“I believe that's part of the reason he was hired by the Cavs," Pluto said. "Koby Altman, the (Cavs’) president, he called when you worked for Steve Kerr, he called it going to coaches' finishing school."
When Bickerstaff was fired, Pluto believes the Cavs’ front office wanted a coach who could take the team deeper into the playoffs.
“(Atkinson) was handed a really nice cake," Pluto said. "He's just frosting it a little differently and adding kind of some different candles and decorations on top of the cake to see if this will be more appealing to the NBA game, especially come playoff time.”
The Cavs remain one of the youngest teams in the NBA, and the inexperience of players like Darius Garland and Evan Mobley were exposed during the playoffs.
“Darius Garland has been, to me, the biggest story of the early season,” Pluto said. “Garland, last year, had a couple of major injuries, but the biggest is his jaw was broken. When he came back, he just wasn't himself at all. You know, he struggled in the playoffs, and you could see now he's put on some weight, which he needed to do at 6-foot-1 because he was very almost frail looking. Now, he looks lean and stronger and he's playing with so much more confidence.”
Pluto said Mobley is starting to show his powerhouse potential entering his fourth NBA season at age 23.
“They're calling it ‘unlock Evan Mobley,'’ Pluto said. "(He’s) 7-foot, he's very athletic. They're trying to have him think more about scoring, use his ball handling skills (and) go to the rim, and he's embracing that."
Overall, Pluto said the Cavs are playing with confidence and purpose, led by star Donovan Mitchell, who signed a 3-year, $150.3 million contract extension over the summer.
“They're playing with so much joy," Pluto said. "It's so much fun and they just seem to be revived.”
And he believes they have a chance to make a deep playoff run.
“It's like they all lined up and came into place," Pluto said. "They made almost zero changes on the roster. It was just, 'Let's get these guys recommitted to the team, put them out there with a new coach and see what happens.' And what happened so far is their offense looks better, and they have not lost much of their defensive intensity, because with J.B. Bickerstaff, they usually were a top five defensive team and that's where they are right now.”
