Report: Cavs seemingly opposed to breaking up core 4

According to NBA insider Jake Fischer, the Cleveland Cavaliers seemingly want to keep their nucleus of Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland together.

“Cavaliers All-Star center Jarrett Allen still has two years and $40 million left on his deal, and that will leave no shortage of suitors for Cleveland’s big man after a rib injury left him on the sidelines during the Cavs’ second-round loss to Boston,” Fischer wrote. “Cleveland, however, has not been truly keen on entertaining rival teams’ offers for Allen, sources said, as the shot-blocker and rim-runner developed a strong on-court connection with Donovan Mitchell during a stretch of winning 17 of 18 games this winter — largely without Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. The Cavs don’t appear very motivated to listen to trade inquiries for any member of their core four, sources said, even with the possibility that Garland’s representation at Klutch Sports could move to request a trade if Mitchell extends long term.”

Allen has been featured often in trade rumors since Cleveland’s season ended, and Garland has been linked to teams like the San Antonio Spurs recently.

The Cavaliers’ core four players have been together for two seasons now, and during that span, Cleveland has been one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference during the regular season.

Starting with the 2022-23 regular season — Mitchell’s first season with the Cavaliers — Cleveland won 51 games, which secured the team the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. The only three teams in the conference to finish with superior regular-season records were the Philadelphia 76ers (54-28), Boston Celtics (57-25) and Milwaukee Bucks (58-24).

More recently, the Cavaliers ended the 2023-24 campaign with a 48-34 record, also good for the conference’s No. 4 seed.

But despite securing home-court advantage in the first round of each of the last two playoffs, the Cavaliers only have one playoff series victory to show for their regular-season success.

In the 2023 NBA Playoffs, the Cavaliers were outmatched by the New York Knicks in the opening round. Cleveland lost the series in five games, with the team’s lone win of the best-of-seven series coming in Game 2.

Fast forward to the 2024 NBA Playoffs, and Cleveland did enjoy more success than it did the year prior. The Cavaliers won a playoff series for the first time since 2018 after the squad eliminated Paolo Banchero’s Orlando Magic in seven games in the first round.

But the Cavaliers still came up well short of an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals, considering the Celtics eliminated Cleveland in five games in the following round. Mitchell missed Games 4 and 5 of the series with a calf strain after averaging 31.7 points per game on 51.5 percent shooting from the field and 53.3 percent from 3-point range across the first three games of the series.

While the Cavaliers’ core four players are all relatively young still and haven’t been together all that long, if the team can’t overcome its playoff woes soon, perhaps it might be time for the front office to consider breaking up the quartet.