Cavaliers Ranked 9th-Best NBA Team Heading Into This Season

ESPN ranked the Cleveland Cavaliers the ninth-best NBA team heading into this season. 

The Cavaliers are one spot ahead of the Houston Rockets and one spot behind the Denver Nuggets on ESPN's list. 

Some pundits believe the Cavaliers got worse this offseason. Dean Wade left for the Philadelphia 76ers, Keon Ellis left for the Brooklyn Nets, Larry Nance Jr. left for the Indiana Pacers and franchise icon LeBron James signed with the 76ers instead of coming back home. 

The Cavaliers, though, have a talented core of James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Peyton Watson, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Cleveland will start those five guys this season and bring newcomer Mario Hezonja off the bench.

Cleveland defeated the Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons to reach the Eastern Conference Finals last season for the first time since 1992 without LeBron on the roster. The New York Knicks, who won the 2026 championship against the San Antonio Spurs, swept the Cavaliers in the conference finals.

Watson was a terrific addition for the Cavaliers, who needed a small forward after LeBron went to the 76ers and Wade left Cleveland for Philadelphia.

For the Nuggets last season, Watson averaged 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while shooting 49.1% from the field, 41.1% from beyond the arc and 73.0% from the free-throw line. He's one of the best two-way wings in the NBA.

Watson signed a four-year, $88 million deal to join the Cavaliers. The deal includes a player option and a trade kicker.

Cleveland opens this season against LeBron and the 76ers in Philadelphia. That will be an amazing atmosphere.        

Can a core of Harden, Mitchell, Watson, Mobley and Allen win a championship? We'll find out soon.  

The biggest move the Cavaliers made this summer was signing Mitchell to a massive extension. Mitchell agreed to a four-year, $273 million maximum contract extension with Cleveland.

The Cavaliers acquired Mitchell from the Utah Jazz in 2022. Mitchell is averaging 26.7 points per game in the regular season and 27.3 points per game in the playoffs in a Cleveland uniform.

It would have been fun to see LeBron come home to play with Mitchell, but King James is now a member of the 76ers, which is really weird to say. 

LeBron is first in NBA history in points, field goals, games and minutes. He’s the only player to rank top five all-time in points and assists, the only player to win three Finals MVPs with three teams, the only player with 40,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 career assists and the only player to score 50,000 points combining the regular season and playoffs.

LeBron holds career averages of 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks per game with the Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers. He’s a four-time MVP, four-time champion, four-time Finals MVP, one-time scoring champion and one-time assists champion.

This season, Mitchell, Harden, Mobley, Watson and Allen will try to do what LeBron did in 2016. The 2015-16 Cavaliers won the 2016 championship against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors.