Nobody outside Cleveland is rushing to crown the Cavaliers as the team to beat in the East, and that skepticism is shaping the early conversation around this group.
Fifteen ESPN writers were given the chance to pick Cleveland to win the Eastern Conference this season. None of them took the Cavaliers.
That kind of shutout can read like a slight. It can also be read as a challenge, and that’s closer to the way the conversation on the Wine and Gold Talk podcast framed it - national doubt on one side, real belief inside the building on the other.
“There is a real chance with this talent, with a team that I think learned stuff throughout the course of last year’s playoff run, a team that is more hardened, a team that is more battle tested, a team that is more experienced,” said Chris Fedor, cleveland.com’s Cavs beat reporter entering his 13th year on the beat. “And I think there’s more of a general readiness to this group than what existed at the beginning of last season.”
That confidence doesn’t just come from the media room. Ethan Sands pointed to Koby Altman, the Cavaliers’ president of basketball operations, making his case publicly at the team’s Wine and Gold intersquad scrimmage at Public Hall. “Koby Altman at the Wine and Gold intrasquad scrimmage at Public Hall specifically said that he believes this version of the Cavaliers is better, more dynamic,” Sands said.
That matters because it came from the man who built the roster, and he said it in public, not behind closed doors.
The ingredients have changed, too. James Harden brings a playmaking layer Cleveland didn’t have before.
Peyton Watson adds defensive energy and the kind of edge the team needed. Mario Hezonja is back looking more physically developed and more confident.
And the core still features five top-100 players, with Donovan Mitchell at the center after committing his prime years to Cleveland.
Still, the road through the conference is crowded. Fedor laid out the competition without sugarcoating anything: Miami now has Giannis, New York is bringing back essentially the same championship roster, Indiana has added to the dangerous Tyrese Haliburton-led core, and Philadelphia still owns what many view as the best starting five in basketball.
“I would not pick the Cavs right now to win the Eastern Conference because I think this group has something to prove,” Fedor said plainly.
That’s the line between caution and dismissal. Cleveland doesn’t have to be the favorite to matter.
The bigger point is that this isn’t the same kind of leap-of-faith season it was a year ago. Last year, belief in the Cavaliers depended on hope around Darius Garland’s health, Evan Mobley’s growth, and whether all the parts would finally fit together.
This time, the floor looks sturdier and the case for optimism is built on more than theory.
The national crowd hasn’t moved with them yet. The Cavaliers, for their part, don’t seem interested in waiting around for approval.
In Other News...
Cavaliers Still Have A Rival Problem They Thought Was Behind Them
The Cavaliers have already had one reminder this season that old problems do not disappear just because the roster looks better. They took a step forward by beating the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs, only to lose the series anyway, a frustrating outcome that exposed how much more work still has to be done before Cleveland can call itself secure against the teams it expects to handle.
There was at least an encouraging response in the season opener, when the Cavs rallied past the Boston Celtics with a comeback win that hinted at real progress. Even so, the bigger picture remains complicated, with Cleveland still sorting through who it can trust and how much growth is left in the current core before the team can feel comfortable that those familiar threats are truly behind it. [Read more 🡒]
Cavaliers Opener Could Hinge On One Newcomer Against Philadelphia
As the Cavaliers get ready to open the 2026-27 season against Philadelphia, much of the attention naturally falls on how Cleveland will handle a matchup that can stretch a defense from edge to edge. Peyton Watson is one of the new pieces in that conversation, and his appeal is obvious enough: he can guard multiple spots, bring length to the perimeter and give Cleveland another option when the game starts getting uncomfortable on the wing.
The real question is whether Watson can do more than just absorb tough defensive assignments in a season opener that already looks like a serious early test. Cleveland will need him to chip in offensively alongside Donovan Mitchell and James Harden, because the Cavaliers may not get much margin for error against a Philadelphia group that can punish mistakes on both ends. How quickly Watson fits into that balance could tell a lot about how far Cleveland can go from the start. [Read more 🡒]
Cavaliers Already Have A Playoff Problem Brewing In The East
The opening nights of the NBA season already offered a reminder that the East may be even more unforgiving this time around. Philadelphia opened with a win over New York after reshaping its roster around LeBron James, Toronto handled Chicago with a new-look group that includes Kawhi Leonard again, and Detroits comeback against Boston added another early wrinkle to a conference that feels loaded from top to bottom.
For Cleveland, the bigger concern is how quickly those shifts could affect its own path through the bracket. The Cavaliers have already been pointed toward a tougher road against the teams around them, and the early returns only sharpen that sense of urgency, especially with familiar East rivals making significant offseason moves and beginning to look like the kinds of clubs that can alter the playoff picture before the calendar has even settled in. [Read more 🡒]