The scars of another frustrating, second-round playoff exit are still fairly fresh for the Cleveland Cavaliers as they gear up for the 2025-26 season. 

In particular, the core four of Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen have felt the pain of coming up short in the postseason on multiple occasions now. While Vegas projects the Cavs as the favorite in the Eastern Conference and one of the most likely championship contenders, they'll enter the season with plenty of skepticism from the NBA world. 

To reach those aspirations, it will likely take Mobley raising his game to another level, potentially even that of an MVP candidate, as Mitchell even discussed over the summer. If he can do that the sky may be the limit for this team. 

Despite all their successes on the court, the Cavs have a lot to prove this season. Will it end with a second Larry O'Brien Trophy being added to the case in Rocket Arena? Here are some season superlatives and predictions. 

I'm buying the Mobley hype. When his own teammates and his coach are preaching that Mobley has to become an MVP caliber player for this team to achieve its goal of winning a championship, it's hard not to. 

Mobley has trained this summer like he wants it, players like Mitchell seem poised to enable him as well. It's probably a pretty lofty ask for the 24-year-old to go from being an 18-point per game scorer to upwards of 30 a night like most league MVPs flirt with. But he should take a big enough leap to become the MVP of his own team and lead his teammates where they hope to go. 

Maybe this is an unfair answer because Hunter is now part of the starting lineup and will be in line to make a major impact this season. But when the rest of the starting lineup is known as the "core four" (once Garland returns of course) he is sort of the lesser sung member of the starters. 

I don't think that will be the case for long, though. Hunter already flashed his two-way versatility in the preseason and his insertion into the starting lineup raises the ceiling for this team immensely. As excited as fans should be about Mobley's continued development, Hunter's role on this team is also going to be must watch, nightly. 

I've been riding the Tyson bandwagon since president of basketball operations Koby Altman highlighted he Cavaliers needing to prioritize the development of younger players at his end of season press conference back in the spring. And while there are other players who fall into that bucket Tyson, in year two, seems poised for a pretty prominent role off the bench. 

That will be especially true while Garland is sideline to open the season, as he continues working his way back from toe surgery. Tyson may not be a prolific scorer at this point in his career, but we'll see how that part of his game comes along and what's great about the Cal product is, even when the shots aren't falling he impacts the game in a multitude of other ways. 

Last year was a memorable season for the Cavaliers as they cruised to 64 wins (the second most in franchise history) and earned the No. 1 seed in the eastern conference going into the playoffs. Mitchell's comments after being eliminated by the Indiana Pacers are still ringing loudly as a new season commences, though. Cleveland could go 82-0 in the regular season and nobody will care. 

With that in mind, I think the Cavs take a pragmatic approach to the regular season, and finish 56-26, to clinch the No. 2 seed in the East. From there, they'll finally exercise their second-round demons and advance to the conference finals. The big question is, are they callused enough to make a run all the way to The Finals? Right now, I have my doubts. They fall short in seven games.