The end of last season, marked by a dry elimination by Boston in the conference semi-finals (4-1), could have left its mark in the ranks of the Cavs. Talent is not everything and Cleveland's rear-wheel drive understood this well during the last offseason. Cohesion and team spirit count at least as much.
To explain the Ohio franchise's thunderous first part of the 2024/25 season, Darius Garlandpodcast guest “Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis”thus returned to a frank conversation that the two outside players had in order to start again on solid foundations after the last playoffs.
“To be really honest, I would say it happened this summer. We really focused on assessing what we wanted to do and what we wanted to accomplish.”he said. “He knew that I was really, really upset about the season, about not having managed to achieve the performances I wanted and him too, but also about the team. We just sat down and talked, and each of us was really able to explain to the other: 'Here's what we're going to have to do to win, to get to the conference finals and the NBA Finals.' It was a conversation between two big boys. We just sat down and put everything back together. This is probably the first conversation of this type I’ve had in the league so far.”
Use the talent around
If the arrival of Kenny Atkinson helped take the Cavs to a new level, the understanding between Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell has never seemed so good. Individual considerations seem to have taken a back seat, in favor of a much greater common goal.
“It was a conversation that took a lot of weight off my shoulders and I know it did for him too”added Darius Garland. “Because I know that the tandem can work perfectly. He's a fullback who scores and I like to create. This season, while he averaged around 30 points and I averaged around 20 points, he played a little less and averaged around 23 points, but we are the number 1 team in the league. He realized the talent he had around him, he made my job easier and relied more on me too. I'm trying to do the same and get him open shots, while everyone is going to have him in their sights on offense because he's Donovan Mitchell, an MVP candidate. And when we get to the end of the match and we need him to make difficult shots, that's when we ask him to go back to being the 'Spida' that everyone knows.”
After 42 regular season games, the understanding between the two is still good, and the objectives set this summer are more than ever in the crosshairs of this version of the Cavaliers.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Donovan Mitchell | 40 | 31.1 | 44.6 | 40.2 | 83.3 | 0.7 | 3.9 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 23.3 |
| Darius Garland | 41 | 30.1 | 49.8 | 42.7 | 90.1 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 6.8 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 21.1 |
| Evan Mobley | 38 | 30.2 | 57.3 | 42.1 | 77.4 | 2.1 | 6.8 | 8.8 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 18.6 |
| Jarrett Allen | 42 | 28.8 | 71.1 | 0.0 | 74.0 | 2.6 | 7.4 | 10.0 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 14.0 |
| Caris Levert | 35 | 24.1 | 47.3 | 42.0 | 69.9 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 10.8 |
| Ty Jerome | 39 | 17.7 | 50.3 | 42.3 | 87.9 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 10.2 |
| Georges Niang | 42 | 20.2 | 47.7 | 38.9 | 78.9 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 2.3 | 8.5 |
| Max Strus | 14 | 23.1 | 39.8 | 37.2 | 80.0 | 0.8 | 2.9 | 3.6 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 7.6 |
| Sam Merrill | 35 | 18.1 | 37.3 | 33.9 | 95.0 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 6.6 |
| Dean Wade | 33 | 22.7 | 41.1 | 35.7 | 52.0 | 1.0 | 4.1 | 5.1 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 6.1 |
| Isaac Okoro | 28 | 19.7 | 42.7 | 39.7 | 72.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 5.8 |
| Jt Thor | 8 | 4.9 | 64.3 | 60.0 | 87.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 3.5 |
| Craig Porter, Jr. | 25 | 7.7 | 59.5 | 53.8 | 75.0 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 2.5 |
| Jaylon Tyson | 25 | 7.4 | 43.1 | 35.0 | 60.0 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.3 |
| Tristan Thompson | 18 | 7.9 | 48.6 | 0.0 | 25.0 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 2.3 |
| Luke Travers | 6 | 6.9 | 42.9 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 1.3 |
| Emoni Bates | 2 | 2.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
