Cavs in Crisis: Coaching Questions, Core Concerns, and a Team Still Searching for Its Identity
If you're looking for a team that’s been stuck in neutral all season, the Cleveland Cavaliers might be Exhibit A. At 15-14, they’re barely treading water, and the cracks are starting to show-not just in the box score, but in the body language, effort, and execution.
Let’s start with the obvious: the Cavs are struggling to stay healthy, they’re missing open looks, and the energy just isn’t there. This isn’t just a slump-it’s a pattern.
Even after a player-led meeting aimed at addressing their defensive focus, the team has looked flat. They’ve lost five of their last seven games, all to teams with worse records.
That’s not just a bad stretch-that’s a red flag.
And while there’s no shortage of blame to go around, head coach Kenny Atkinson is squarely in the spotlight.
Questionable Tactics, Quiet Locker Room
Atkinson came in with a reputation for player development and modern offensive concepts, but some of his decisions are raising eyebrows. For a team that’s been shaky in transition defense, crashing the offensive glass as aggressively as they are seems counterproductive. And when your team is 27th in the league in three-point shooting percentage, do you really want to be second in attempts?
Defensively, the Cavs have leaned into gambling for steals-a high-risk, high-reward approach that’s pulled them away from the disciplined, top-10 defense they’ve built over the past few seasons. That identity, which once gave them a clear edge, is slipping.
Even more concerning? The message doesn’t seem to be landing.
Atkinson has been preaching the same points-get inside, play with energy-for weeks. The players have echoed that sentiment in interviews.
But on the court, nothing’s changed. When a coach’s voice starts to get tuned out, it’s tough to get it back.
And once that disconnect sets in, it’s often the beginning of the end.
But Is the Coach Really the Problem?
Here’s the thing: Atkinson isn’t the one missing open threes. He’s not blowing defensive rotations.
He didn’t pull the trigger on trades for De’Andre Hunter and Lonzo Ball. He’s not the reason the team is over the second luxury tax apron.
And if he were to be let go, he’d be the second straight respected coach this core has moved on from.
It’s always easier to fire the coach than to admit the roster might be flawed. But if the Cavs pull the plug on Atkinson, it would mean two coaches in two years-both of whom were finalists for Coach of the Year-have been let go because this group stopped responding.
That says a lot more about the makeup of the team than it does about the man on the sidelines.
A Familiar Pattern
We’ve seen this before. J.B.
Bickerstaff took this same core to the playoffs, but his offense eventually stalled. He couldn’t quite unlock the right combinations with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley on the floor together, and the team’s ceiling started to feel lower than expected.
Reports surfaced that the locker room had tuned him out, too.
Fast forward to now, and Bickerstaff is thriving in Detroit. The Pistons have become one of the most disciplined, surprising teams in the East, and they currently hold the third-best odds to win the conference. Clearly, he didn’t forget how to coach.
So if both Bickerstaff and Atkinson-two coaches with very different styles-struggled to get this group over the hump, maybe it’s time to look deeper.
The Core Questions
This Cavs core still hasn’t shaken off the ghosts of that 2023 playoff flameout against the Knicks. That series exposed their inability to respond to adversity.
They were the more talented team, but they folded when things got tough. It happened again this past spring in their second-round loss to Indiana, and now it’s bleeding into the regular season.
The front office has made moves to try to fix it-tweaking the roster, adding more versatile pieces, adjusting the style of play. But the foundational issues remain. Four years in, and the same problems persist.
Coaching matters. It can shape culture, fine-tune schemes, and elevate talent.
But even the best coaches need buy-in. They need effort.
They need execution. Right now, the Cavs aren’t giving any of that consistently.
So yes, Atkinson deserves scrutiny. But if this team really needs a third head coach in two years to stay motivated, the problem isn’t on the bench-it’s in the locker room.
The Cavs have the talent to compete. But until the players start holding themselves accountable and playing like a team with something to prove, no coaching change is going to fix what’s broken.