After a blockbuster trade and a crushing playoff exit to the New York Knicks, Cleveland exits the posteason with a bad taste in its mouth after a largely successful season. But for the Cavaliers, success is measured by one man's opinion.
Success is such a fickle thing in professional sports. That's become especially true in the NBA, where the league's biggest stars are seemingly measured only by the number of rings they can wear at any one time.
By that flawed logic, the 2025-26 Cleveland Cavaliers were an utter failure. With the most expensive roster basketball can buy, there's no denying the expectations were sky high for this team – as they should have been.
Those expectations were only underscored when Koby Altman swung the blockbuster deal for James Harden at the trade deadline back in February, swapping 10 years of Darius Garland for a few with and NBA Hall of Famer.
That move officially started the timer on Cleveland's championship window, with Mitchell and Harden becoming the franchise's next great dynamic duo. Anything short of a title was always going to be immensely unsatisfying.
Getting swept by the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, and being embarrassed on your home floor 130-93 in Game 4 with your season on the line turned it from merely unsatisfying to sickening for many fans.
That's how it should be. Fans should want it all every year, and hold the organization's feet to the fire when they aren't meeting expectations. That doesn't mean the season wasn't at all successful, though.
The fact of the matter is, Cleveland made it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time without LeBron James since 1992. Regardless of what it looked like once they got there, being one of the final four teams competing for a championship is a success in its own right.
When did a city synonymous with decades of sports heartbreak become so spoiled that it can't see the forest through the trees on that?
Winning a championship and making four straight NBA Finals in the process will do that, I suppose. LeBron James made it look so easy just to get there at times that people seem to have this largely fanciful concept of what playoff runs are supposed to look like.
For what it's worth, even Mitchell needed a second to process his answer to whether or not the 2025-26 season was a success, then pointed to several reasons, especially the young guys who contributed to Cleveland's season as one of the biggest reasons why there were some successes.
No matter how Mitchell feels. No matter how I feel. No matter how you may feel, what success looks like for this Cavs team ultimately comes down to one person only...
Team owner Dan Gilbert, who made a telling statement about the current iteration of his team on social media in the hours after it was eliminated by the Knicks.
"We took a step ahead this spring, but we are nowhere near where we need to be," he said via X. "I can’t thank the fans enough for the support this year. We will dig in all summer and do everything we possibly can to take the next step. We will grind until we get there."
Those remarks don't sound like someone satisfied with a mere conference finals appearance. They also sound like someone getting ready to make major changes to continue trying to maximize a championship window that tends to close quickly.
What that looks like could come in different forms. It may mean firing head coach Kenny Atkinson. It may mean Gilbert crawling back to James and convincing him to come back home for a third time. It may mean pulling off another blockbuster move to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks. It may mean all of the above.
Wholesale changes being on the table is a telling message from Gilbert. Success is in the eye of the beholder, and the owner is saying this season wasn't for the Cavs.
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