The calendar has turned to September. You know what that means, right?! Our offseason outlook series is back for the third-straight year!
Hot Hot Hoops senior writer Matt Hanifan will provide his take on the offseasons of all 30 teams for the next 30 days! We will be going in alphabetical order, beginning with the Eastern Conference. Today, we will look at the Cleveland Cavaliers’ summer!
Previous offseason outlooks:
Evaluating the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2026 offseason:
Additions: Peyton Watson
Subtractions: Keon Ellis, Max Strus, Keon Ellis, Dean Wade, Larry Nance Jr.
Re-signed: Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Thomas Bryant
Draft: Meleek Thomas (No. 34 overall)
Hanifan’s outlook: Most of Cleveland’s activity came late in the summer.
Entering the 2026 summer fresh off two-straight exits in the East semis, the Cavaliers, once again, decided to bet on their trio of Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, for better or worse.
Nearly two months after drafting guard Meleek Thomas with their lone draft pick, they took a calculated risk by adding free agent wing Peyton Watson in a five-team sign-and-trade, sacrificing Max Strus, Tre Mann, one first-round pick and one second-round pick. Watson was the best free agent available, and the Cavaliers’ wing depth was flimsy after losing Dean Wade. It was a worthwhile bet.
Though the Cavaliers took two steps backwards by bringing back James Harden. That was always part of their vision, but it’s one I will not endorse. The 11-time All Star has had a great career with good longevity. However, he’s not a winning basketball player and always disintegrates when the lights shine brightest.
Harden and Mitchell are not natural fits, placing extra strain on Mobley and Allen defensively. They also don’t complement each other offensively, despite Harden being a far superior playmaker.
To me, any investment in Harden significantly limits the Cavaliers’ chances to compete for a title. They also re-signed Mitchell to a $272 million extension, which could cripple their future books if they remain stagnant.
Grade: C-
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I would definitely start Pelle against the Sixers and other teams with high scoring guards.
Pelle Larsson plays elite isolation defense, ranking in the 94th percentile against top perimeter scorers during the 2025–26 NBA season.
Defensive Metrics and Matchups
High-Level Isolation: Larsson grades out in the 94th percentile for perimeter isolation defense according to All U Can Heat.
Matchup Difficulty: He regularly takes on the toughest perimeter assignments, placing in the 92nd percentile for matchup difficulty.
Positional Versatility: His physical strength and footwork allow him to switch effectively against elite guards and wings.
Defensive Technique
Hands Up: Larsson keeps his hands up and off the offensive player’s hips to avoid cheap foul calls.
Absorbing Contact: He absorbs the first driving bump squarely before attempting a reach when the ball is exposed.
Hustle and Recovery: He recovers quickly on drives, navigates screens well, and is willing to take charges against fast guards.
As an example, Larsson played elite defense against Tyrese Maxey, holding him to just 0.56 points per shot (PPS) and a 27.8% effective field goal percentage (eFG%) over a sample of 18 field goal attempts across their matchups the past 2 seasons.
pelle dav not enough points sm..doesnt dav guard maxey mostly
Davion Head-to-Head Overview vs Maxey
Games Played: 9 career matchups
Tyrese Maxey Stats vs. Mitchell:
Points: 24.6 PPG
Assists: 5.9 APG
Rebounds: 3.1 RPG
Davion Mitchell Stats vs. Maxey:
Points: 8.0 PPG
Assists: 3.1 APG
Rebounds: 2.8 RPG
16 pt diff not good sm dav needs score more.i still say until proven otherwise davs a backup,he needs to change his no scoring mentality.cant have single digits anymore with greek here,if herro jjj ware still here ok but greeks here
He knows it. Spo knows it. We know it. He realizes he needs to take his game to the level. I would like to see 12ppg, 8apg and his “off night” defense. I see leadership qualities in him.
Keep the faith. I’m very curious to see just how good the defense can be. Good defense beats good offense. No easy targets like last year.
12 would be acceptable.hes capable of 15 its a mindset.great players maxey brunson u cant stop unless u double.that minus 15 pts every night from pg position hard to make up versus phil nyk.sm,defense w/o those 2 guys anymore will be much better.please no unc here if hes released please.if herro had average defense he’d be a true all star but no he never worked at it.glad his no d and injuries outta here
Mitchell and Harden had a long history of PO failures. Both tends to disappear when matter the most. Mobley is also worse player then anticipated.
I see them as top 3-4 in regular season and maybe in second round.
mitchells a fantastic player.with utah he had little help .last playoffs he kinda dissapeared versus knicks.id love to have him on the heat.thought we were gonna get him hes real good friends with bam.reminds me of d wade
One-way. I thought you hated those ones.
with an perfect nba build and athleticism he must saves himself for just offense.i have not noticed his unc and herro defense hes not my problem child.i concentrate mainly on my children
I think Cleveland improved, bringing in Watson, only losing Wade and Strus, of their rotational players. I believe they will go deep in the playoffs again, could be right there with Philly and New York. Those teams are all better than us, but the gap has closed.
theres a reason lebron didnt go back home imo (playoff james).mobley and their other big names escapes maybe allen just gave up vs nyk.i would rather have niko on my team than playoff james.ive never seen ahof player be so bad in the playoffs,its almost like hes playing so bad on rozier purpose.
Sometimes the sum is greater than the parts. I’m imagining there could be big years coming from Mitchell, Larsson, Portis, Gardner, Conwell, Fontecchio and hopefully Jovic.
Some call me a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
speaking of dreamer i saw supertramp on my concert channel live in 79 from paris what a great under the radar band they were.right right your bloody well im right
Cam Thomas anyone? The Heavy on Heat guy touted him for our fifteenth spot. Of the players available, I’d take a flyer on him.
he seems to be a one on one me type player 30.need team players not selfish herro type players.imo.a guy like gabe not overly skilled but a team player rather have.prob good locker room guy seems well liked,team chemistry very important in sports.as is in life especially with partner.old express happy wife happy life.happy heat locker happy hfl 30 rc sm,especially if locker has greek
It’s just my opinion, but his skill sets are in a bit of short supply on this team. He’s, in my mind, the best usage of our 15th spot that I’ve heard of.
how much cam thomas have u seen.theres a reason hes still out there.but i do agree not to many bucket getters on team i would have preferred dd over klay
I’ll remind you of that when you start oohing and ahing over the 26-28 foot shots that Klay will hit. DD max is about 12-14 feet. Klay was the smarter addition.
dd gets his own klay doesnt.klays 36 this is not 2017gsw klay we are getting .lots wear and tear on that bod rc.when greek gets doubled end of game who u going to down by 1.dd 50%bucket getter klay % much lower from 2 or 3.i like klays addition would have liked to get both for my 4th.i think tim hardaway jr klay same level right now.
Pure scorer, which is not a compliment. He really can do just that, nothing else.
I appreciate your perspective. But, I’d like to have another buckets getter, especially a realistic reclamation product, one with upside, for cheap. We have a decent amount of team players. We need more scoring from shooting guard or small forward.
Respectably disagree. In my opinion, the weakest position in the team now is point guard.
Which doesn’t mean, that I propose to hire Gabe or Victor.
I would leave this spot empty to get a better player at point guard position, if opportunity arises.
kyrie will become avail this year
Issue with Thomas’ scoring is it was on a bad team and was not impactful. He isn’t a floor spacer from 3 or efficient scorer. His best scoring year he averaged 24 ppg and 51.3% eFG. BKN’s team eFG% was almost the same whether he was on the court or off (+.003 difference) and offense almost the same (+0.2 on). So when a 24 ppg scorer entered the game it made almost no difference to the BKN offense that year, other than he would take the shots over Schroeder, Cam Johnson etc, and there would be fewer assists. And on the other end there was a huge difference, opponent eFG% was +.026 with him on and the defense went from 113 to 119.8.
He is a scorer that can give you 20-25 ppg, but he is a net negative. There’s a reason why no team wants him. In his 18 games played for Milwaukee, he was -4.44, in his 16.6 mpg played. He has a +/- total of – 213 for the season, in 42 games played, which is 13-15th percentile. And 1 more stat: His on off differential for the Bucks was – 9.4 net (-7.1 on court vs +2.3 off court). He doesn’t play any defense, I don’t see how any way he could help the Heat.
can he defend is the ? if he can might want him never paid much attention to him hes not my child
What about Bruce Brown?
kyrie
On vet minimum? Who knew?
Yup, give or take about $40m.
A Girl Can Dream, Can’t She?
hes as good as gone kyrie
But most likely not to the Heat. $$$
I would not rate Cleveland higher than Miami. Cavs are maybe top 6…maybe not. Team’s back court defense sucks big time. Front court depth not so great either compared to Miami.
wasnt so long ago they killed us in playoffs.pat said fk this team it aint going no where
Not exactly. It was the team formerly known as the Miami Heat…minus quitter.
a team going no where .quitter was the whole team before he quit
It stings worse when a player quits on his team and fans all because he got a little butthurt when he was called out for talking shit. Quitters are punks. F’em.
teams been together a while watson will help.their bench is weak though .donovans a year older lots wear and tear on that body.i have them at about4- 8 nyk phily miami(big 3)bunch teams next level cleve being one of them
I also don’t see them better than us. They strike me as the Sixers of Ohio. Good players, no threat to win the east.
I didn’t mean this year’s Sixers, btw. This Sixers team is loaded.
on paper theyre clearly the most talented.on the ct maybe maybe not.we’ll see how they will gel together.jels health always a factor.goats been injured alot lately.
Loaded with offensive talent. They will excel against teams with average or below average defenses. I think Miami’s smothering defense will take a lot of high scoring teams out of their games. It will be like a boxing match…the boxer (finesse offense) vs the puncher (physically imposing/ assertive). The Indiana Pacers vs the Detroit (Bad Boy) Pistons.
Ali – Frazier (or Liston)
Ali vs Foreman. Rope a dope.