Well, Cleveland, the historic 2024-25 Cavaliers season has come to an end. The Cleveland Cavaliers, for a second year in a row, could not get past the second round of the East Conference playoffs, this time losing to the Indiana Pacers in just 5 games. This season will be remembered for a lot of highs, Mobley’s defensive player of the year award, Ty Jerome’s emergence, and Kenny Atkinson’s coach of the year award, for example. But what will ultimately be remembered, not just in Cleveland but the national sports world, is the fact that a team with a 64-18 record got embarrassed by a fourth seed with less star power. So one must ask, what happened and what’s next?

The Collapse

The Cavaliers were flat-out outplayed by the Indiana Pacers in this series. The Cavs, who were one of the best scoring teams during the 2025 NBA season, shot just 29.5% from three in this series, an almost ten percent drop from their 38.3% shooting during the regular season. The Pacers, who were one of the top teams in terms of pace during the regular season, controlled the pace of each game to the point where Cleveland couldn’t keep up. But what bothers me most is the fact that it felt like the team regressed to offenses of the past despite being coached by a completely different head coach. What I mean by this is the team was playing what I like to call “Donovan bail us out ball,” where the team can’t score, so they just keep passing to star Donovan Mitchell and hope he can take them to the promised land. While Mitchell was impressive, averaging over 40 points at one point during the series, we have seen in past playoffs that this offense does not work. It truly felt like the lights got too bright for this team once again.

What Now?

So what now? That is a loaded question, The Cavaliers are in the second apron, a new set of rules implemented to prevent teams from overspending, meaning they cannot combine two players’ contracts to take on a bigger contract, use a mid-level exception, or trade a first-round pick 7+ years in the future. These rules make it nearly impossible to trade for a star or even sign solid bench depth in free agency, so what will most likely happen is that they will run this same core back again. Now I know this may not be a popular option, many fans have pointed out star center Jarrett Allen’s lack of aggressiveness, or productivity, scoring only 11 points and 6 rebounds in the Cavs’ final two games of the postseason, or Darius Garland’s inability to remain healthy. These are valid concerns, concerns that people above my pay grade will have to decide how to handle, but as the cap situation looks now, I do not expect a big “blockbuster” type move to happen for this team. Realistically, I could see the Cavs try to move players like Issac Okoro, who just signed a sizeable roleplayer extension, and maybe even sign and trade Ty Jerome, who unfortunately fizzled out during the playoffs.

There are lots of questions to be answered after yet another disappointing Cavaliers postseason run, and to expect answers right away is truly unrealistic. Let’s hope, as we always do in Cleveland, that the people in charge, Dan Gilbert, Koby Altman, and co., can figure out what the best path forward is for this team, as they look toward the 2025-26 season with an even weaker Eastern Conference.