With the 2024-25 NBA season approaching, predictions are rolling in, and former NBA executive John Hollinger appears to be pretty high on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Making some predictions for The Athletic, Hollinger picked the Cavs as his No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference with a projected record of 56-26.
The Boston Celtics came in as the only team ahead of the Cavs in Hollinger’s predictions for the East. He sees the Celtics finishing at 62-20.
Hollinger also sees two other teams in the East winning 50 games: the New York Knicks (with a predicted record of 51-31) and Philadelphia 76ers (with a predicted record of 50-32).
Here’s some of what Hollinger wrote about the Cavs.
“Cleveland is good,” he wrote. “Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.
“I think the Cavs made one possibly important mistake this offseason, which I’ll talk about in a minute, but aside from that, they had themselves a very good summer. Extensions for Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen assure this core group will be together for years, re-signing Isaac Okoro on a reasonable deal locks in the wing stopper who was the one looming weakness on the roster and first-round draft pick Jaylon Tyson could push for minutes right away after an impressive summer league.
“Cleveland won 48 games a season ago despite Mitchell missing 27 games, Evan Mobley missing 32 and Darius Garland missing 25. Their ‘core four’ of Mitchell, Garland, Mobley and Allen only played 28 games together and just four of their 12 playoff games. They’ll almost certainly have their best players more often this season.
“There’s a case that core four will be better individually too. Garland struggled after an early-season jaw injury and had his worst season since his rookie year, something that untracked the offense in the non-Mitchell minutes. Mitchell made his fifth straight All-Star Game, but sore knees had him running in mud for much of the second half of the season. Mobley is just 23 and entering his fourth season. And if the spacing doesn’t work, Allen is still tradeable despite his offseason extension.”
Hollinger later questioned Cleveland’s decision to give Mobley a max extension this offseason, a year before he was set to hit restricted free agency. He raised concerns about the impact that decision will have on roster-building going forward. But for the most part, he had good things to say about the Cavs.
“OK, enough of my negativity,” he wrote. “Other than ‘they’re not the Celtics,’ there isn’t a whole lot to complain about for 2024-25. The Cavs have shooting, size and defense, and while the backcourt is small, they have multiple wing options with Max Strus, Caris LeVert, Okoro, Tyson and 2023 scrap-heap find Sam Merrill. Backup power forward looms as the biggest issue after Dean Wade and Georges Niang both struggled last year.
“Of course, there’s another question with the Cavs: What does this add up to in the playoffs? The Knicks walloped the Cavs in 2023, and they barely outlasted Orlando in last year’s first round, although they did take it to Boston for one glorious afternoon before running out of players. Can they thrive in the playoffs with two non-shooting bigs and two small guards, or is that where they hit their limit and end up playing a desperate game of Mitchell-on-five again this spring?”
The Cavs earning the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference would give them their best playoff seed since the 2016-17 season, the last time they were the No. 2 team in the East.
These days, in two straight seasons, Cleveland has earned home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs as the No. 4 seed, but the team would certainly like to grab an even higher spot this season.
Not everyone is high on the Cavs going into the 2024-25 season, but Hollinger clearly sees something that he likes in the squad. Cleveland did enough last season (by winning a playoff series) to give its fans something to smile about, but the organization has bigger goals, and Hollinger may see the vision.
The Cavs will open their season on Oct. 23 against the Toronto Raptors. The matchup will give new head coach Kenny Atkinson his first real chance to show the NBA world what Cleveland is going to be all about this season.
Hollinger sees the Cavs winning 56 games this season. The last time they won that many was in the 2015-16 campaign, when they went 57-25 and also won something else: their first title in franchise history.
