CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers climbed their way back to relevance five years ago through their work on the defensive end. They ascended 20 spots in defensive rating from 2021 to 2022 thanks to the additions of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. That upward trajectory continued the next season as they finished 2023 with the best defense in the league.
Then, the slow decline started.
The Cavs’ defense dropped from first to sixth, and then to eighth. Last season was their biggest decline, with Cleveland
finishing the year 15th in defensive rating.
They intend to turn this trend around.
“We definitely want to get back to being a top-five defense,” Sam Merrill said. “It had been that way, and then last year that wasn’t the case. That’s been most of our discussion throughout this camp.”
Talking about wanting to improve the defense is a pretty common refrain in the preseason. Actually doing it is much more difficult.
“I don’t like saying much,” Donovan Mitchell said when asked about the defense. “I want to go out there and just do it.”
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The NBA game has changed drastically over the last 15 years; the need to protect the rim hasn’t. Attempts at the basket are still the most efficient place to score from and where every elite offense tries to get. Cleveland has the personnel to defend the rim well with Mobley and Allen, but the point of attack needs to be better to utilize that advantage.
“It’s understanding the strengths we have with Evan and J.A., but not putting too much on their plates,” Merrill said. “I think there were times last year where we put too much on their plates by getting beat off the dribble, getting into rotations and whatnot. If we can do a better job of keeping the ball out of the paint and force the right shots, that should help us ascend.”
To Merrill’s point, Cleveland’s defense has been predicated on funneling their opponents inside, making them finish at the rim, or more preferably, take a midrange jumper. This requires running your opponents off the line and then rotating back out to the perimeter to prevent three-point looks.
Last season, the defense’s rim protection numbers were in line with what we’ve come to expect. They were 16th in defensive rim frequency and forced the fourth-best rim percentage for their opponent. The difference was how many threes they gave up.
The best way to defend the three-ball is to prevent the shot from going up. The Cavs have traditionally done this well. They were in thetop ten in fewest threes given up per 100 possessions from ‘20 through ‘25. That changed last season when they surrendered the eighth-most threes in the league.
Mitchell didn’t specifically mention that they needed to tighten up the three-point defense, opting not to get into the specifics of how the defense will look different. Although he did say they needed to go “back to what we were.”
Another question facing the Cavs is whether they can have a truly elite defense with James Harden. Harden is a good rebounder and does compete better than he often gets credit for, but he doesn’t have the lateral quickness to keep guards in front of him or navigate screens as you’d like. That said, it isn’t impossible.
In 2024-25, the Los Angeles Clippers posted a 111 defensive rating with Harden on the floor (83rd percentile) and finished that season with the third-best defense in the league. It’s possible to have an elite defense with Harden on the court. It does, however, require a buy-in from everyone on the court.
“You have to play team defense,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Getting everybody on the same page and then being able to be adaptable, pliable, flexible. The NBA is not one [on] one defense.”
The Cavs have the tools offensively to be elite. We’ve seen that consistently under Atkinson. That said, championship teams can dominate both sides of the floor. A look at previous champions shows that pretty clearly. If the Cavs want to get to that level, they need to get back to their defensive roots.
“We can score with the best,” Mitchell said, “but for us, not having that be our calling card.”
