The Cavs keep hearing the same comforting basketball myth, and Ethan Sands wants no part of it: the idea that a team can coast through the regular season and then suddenly become something sharper, tougher and more connected once the playoffs arrive.
That “flipping a switch” talk, in Sands’ view, is exactly the wrong way to think about Cleveland’s season. On a recent episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, he pushed back hard on the notion that playoff readiness can be summoned on demand.
“I don’t believe that you can just flip a switch in May and suddenly become a team that is comfortable with the physicality, the pressure, the decision-making, and the level of execution that the playoffs require,” Sands said. “Because I think you have to build those habits in October and November.”
That’s the lens Sands is using as he looks ahead to the 2026-27 season. The Cavs did reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2018 last year, but the path there also featured the kind of sloppiness that can sink a team before it ever gets to spring. Cleveland opened 17-16, gave away fourth-quarter leads and went through stretches where the offense stalled and the ballhandler looked unclear.
Sands’ point is simple: in a tougher Eastern Conference, those habits can’t linger.
“They cannot lose games because they didn’t respect the opponent or give up a 20-point lead,” he said, pointing to the Game 1 collapse in the conference finals against the Knicks as the latest example of a pattern that has hung around this group for years.
The warning extends beyond the marquee matchups. Sands singled out the kind of games that can quietly wreck a season - the ones against rebuilding or overlooked opponents like the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets.
Those are the traps that can turn a 53-win pace into 47 wins before a team realizes what happened. And in a crowded conference, that kind of slide can separate a clean playoff path from a messy play-in chase.
“If Cleveland wants to finish fourth or fifth, they have to be the team that doesn’t give away the games that everybody else is giving away because they don’t care as much about the regular season,” Sands said. “Cleveland has to care.”
There will be chances to grab extra wins along the way, including nights when a rival rests stars. But those opportunities only matter if the Cavs have already done the daily work - the part that doesn’t make headlines but usually decides the standings.
And the reminder is sitting right there from last season. Many of these Cavs watched the Knicks celebrate a title in front of them.
“This is the second time we’ve lost on our home floor in a row to end the season,” Donovan Mitchell said after Game 4 against the Knicks. “So that’s the biggest motivation.
… I have no doubt for the group that we’ll take this on the chin. We got to take our lumps.
We’ve got swept. You got to own it.
It’s what happened. But what are you going to do about it?
How are you going to respond? I’ve been saying this all year.
How are we going to respond? And I would say our response from last season was pretty good.
Can we do it again? And I have no doubt we will.”
That’s the challenge for Cleveland now: carry that memory into the regular season, not just the postseason. Sands’ argument is that the real foundation gets poured in October and November, not when the pressure is already on in May.
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For the Cavaliers, the decision is not just about adding a young guard with some traction around the league. A move for Nembhard would require creating room by moving on from Riley Minix, and the clock matters because Cleveland is not alone in monitoring him. With other teams also interested, the Cavs have an immediate roster-choice to sort through before the market closes around a player whose emergence has made him more than a throw-in name. [Read more 🡒]
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New faces around them should help, especially if the supporting cast can deliver defensive energy and keep the group deeper over the course of the year. Even so, Clevelands ceiling may end up tied to how quickly its main pieces learn one anothers tendencies, because in a crowded Eastern Conference the difference between a promising lineup and a true contender often comes down to chemistry more than reputation. [Read more 🡒]
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The comparison that naturally comes to mind is PJ Tucker, who rebuilt his NBA stock overseas by becoming a dependable jumper and a more versatile defender. Hezonja is not there yet, but the path is easy to see: if his improved shooting translates and he can offer enough toughness on the perimeter, he could end up looking like a low-risk addition with a chance to stick. [Read more 🡒]