A fatal mistake the Cavs must correct at the 2025 NBA trade deadline

It looks like the 2024-25 season will be quite the season for Cleveland Cavaliers; after two seasons in the middle of the playoff team in the Eastern Conference, The Cavs blossomed into the league’s top powerwhich boasts a 33-5 record at the time of writing. The front office’s faith in the core team is paying off big, and they’ve built a roster where everyone plays their role to a T.

Not many teams can boast of the fact that they are playing at a 73-win pace and almost half of the season has passed. But 2024-25 Cavs canand at this point, there is no reason to doubt their legitimacy as champions. They have two gifted guards to lead the offense, a versatile two-way power forward who can do it all on both ends of the court, and a rim protector who has earned them wins thanks to his relentlessness on the glass.

It’s easy to say now that the Cavs can’t rest on their laurels. Legitimate championship opportunities like the one they have don’t come around very often, and they must do whatever it takes to take advantage of this opportunity. But as the old saying goes, if something ain’t broke, then there’s no need to fix things at all. And the Cavs have to subscribe to this, unless a golden opportunity falls into their lap.

The Cavs’ fatal flaw could be impatience

It’s not a stretch to say that it is 2024-25 Cavs already have a complete team which can compete with other fighting teams in the association. They have the best offense in the league, and the personnel they have is versatile enough to change against powerhouses in the league like the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Everyone in the team fulfills their role in Kenny Atkinson’s system; everyone in the rotation can shoot except for Jarrett Allen, and they have a ton of players who can make plays and keep the ball moving, making it difficult for any team to defend them — even the Thunder. And then on most nights, they have a size advantage thanks to Allen and Evan Mobley, who give their offense some margin for error because they can make up for some misses with their presence on the glass.

The size the Cavs have also allows them to put together a competent defense that ranks just outside the top 10. The Cavs don’t have to do much, especially when they have the league’s best net rating. Competitive teams don’t have to overthink things. They don’t need to do anything that could disrupt the composition of the team when they have been as successful as it is currently constructed.

Can the backcourt duo of Darius Garland-Donovan Mitchell survive defensively come playoff time?

However, there could be something about the Cavs’ defense that could prove to be a sore spot come playoff time. Small guards don’t tend to have a good time in the playoffs. They’re targeted on every pick-and-roll, with huge ball-handling wings that create a ton of offense for their teams when the game slows down when they get the smaller man on top of them.

Garland and Mitchell do their best on that end of the floor, but at the end of the day, Garland is 6’1″ and Mitchell is 6’3″, and both could be put to the test by a team like the Celtics, who have Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown. This might be the most dangerous question for the Cavs when their championship hopes are put under the microscope.

If the Cavs were to do anything before the trade deadline, it’s to shore up their perimeter defense. They have Isaac Okoro’s contract to dangle, as Okoro ended up being an expendable piece for Cleveland following Max Struss’ return to the rotation.

Can Cleveland find a way to shore up the defense?

If ever there was a a perfect trade target for the Cavsit was the New Orleans Pelicans 3 and D wing Herb Jones; Jones is a lightly used defensive stopper who has proven in the past that he can block even the best perimeter shooters in the league. Jones, however, will be out indefinitely with a torn labrum, making this hypothetical moot.

Maybe the Cavs can negotiate to acquire Bruce Brown via trade, but Brown’s $23 million would make that nearly impossible. Perhaps the Portland Trail Blazers are making Danny Avdia available, even though they gave up a first-round pick for him not too long ago, making this scenario unlikely.