The Cleveland Cavaliers have the talent to be great, but do they have enough time to put it all together?
The Cleveland Cavaliers look much different from the way they did just a few weeks ago. Ahead of the trade deadline, the Wine and Gold acquired Dennis Schroder, Keon Ellis, and, most notably, James Harden to add to their already strong roster.
On paper, this group should all mesh fairly well and have the potential to be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference heading into the playoffs. However, they're still facing one major challenge over the final stretch of the season: time.
The Cavaliers don’t have the luxury of a full 82-game season to get everyone on the same page. Coming out of the All-Star Break, Cleveland has 33 more regular-season games left on the calendar, which isn’t as much time as it may appear.
Kenny Atkinson even admitted this after Wednesday's practice, the first opportunity the team had to work out with all the new additions, and everyone was healthy.
That's probably our number one challenge, Atkinson admitted. “How we how we keep building on what we did today? Where do we trickle stuff in?”
Feb 9, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden (1) during the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn ImagesThere’s only so much that a team can do in the middle of a season. With that, Cleveland’s head coach said they must “take advantage of every moment, every shoot around, every practice, because of time periods so short.”
The good news is that the Cavaliers are already finding ways to build that necessary rapport and communication with one another, even when they don’t have access to a gym or hoop.
“in the NBA today, you have to do a lot on film,” continued Atkinson. “We had a long film session today, just to kind of reset, and go back to almost training camp stuff, to get everybody on the same page. I thought that was productive.”
Again, there’s no reason to believe that this Cavaliers team can’t all mesh or work well off one another, but in order for that to happen, they must continue to have this sense of urgency that every moment matters. Time isn’t on Cleveland’s side, but they're figuring out ways to level that playing field.
Cavs Roundtable also offers a fan community and message board. We’d love to have you join us to talk all things Cavs. Click the “Join” button at the top of the page to join our community for free.