The NBA’s latest schedule reveal sent a pretty clear message: the Cavaliers and Donovan Mitchell were nowhere near the league’s top table.
When the league rolled out its marquee dates Tuesday morning, Cleveland was shut out of both Opening Night and Christmas Day. That’s the kind of omission that stings a little more when you look at what the Cavaliers actually bring to the board: a small-market team with a genuine star in Mitchell, plus Evan Mobley and, as the source material notes, James Harden “thanks to his beard and State Farm,” along with a roster that mostly returns after last season’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Christmas Day wasn’t the biggest surprise. The NBA’s holiday showcase has gotten crowded, especially with the Eastern Conference changing shape this summer.
The Knicks are always part of the conversation, and this year’s slate is built around LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers going to Los Angeles to face the Luka Dončić-led Lakers, plus a Spurs-at-Knicks NBA Finals rematch. The Boston Celtics, meanwhile, lost Jaylen Brown and are now hosting the Heat, a pairing that doesn’t carry the same current connection.
In that setup, the source’s point lands: Jayson Tatum is getting the nod over Donovan Mitchell.
Opening Night is where the real head-scratcher sits.
If the league had stuck to the usual two-game format, leaving Cleveland out would have been easier to understand. New York needs an opponent for Ring Night, and Philadelphia fits. Oklahoma City versus San Antonio also works as a nightcap, given the teams’ recent playoff history and the rivalry the source describes as a looming one for years to come.
But the NBA didn’t stop there. It added a third game, and that’s where the Cavaliers’ absence starts to feel like a shot across the bow.
Boston is set to visit Detroit, and the schedule begins at 3:00 PM ET. The source calls that timing bizarre, and the matchup itself raises even more questions.
The Celtics are coming off a first-round exit and are a depleted version of the team that was on the floor before. Detroit, for its part, needed a Franz Wagner injury to get past Orlando in seven games and then lost to Cleveland in the second round.
So why are the Cavaliers not in that spot? They were better than the Pistons last season.
They have the more proven star in Mitchell. And if the NBA wanted to make a statement game out of that opening window, Cleveland would have made more sense either hosting Boston or even going to Detroit for a rematch.
Instead, the league went with Cade Cunningham over Mitchell, and the message to Cleveland was impossible to miss.
The Cavaliers do at least get one game during opening week: a Thursday trip to face LeBron and the 76ers in Philadelphia’s home opener. But that’s a consolation prize, not a showcase.
For now, the league’s biggest stages belong to everyone else. Cleveland got pushed aside, and Mitchell was treated like someone the NBA didn’t need to feature. The Cavs will have to spend next season proving that wrong.
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