With the move of LeBron James to the Lakers, the Cleveland Cavaliers are surrounded by a lot of question marks for next year. People around the league say that the Cavaliers should try to tank immediately while they are still in contention to push for a playoff spot in the very weak East. The Cavs are in a position where they can do both. Here is a how and why for each option.

Pro-Playoffs

The Cavs are actually in a much better spot than they were the first time LeBron left them. Well, after this year at least. This year they are fully committed to a lot of people on their roster including Kevin Love, George Hill, Tristan Thompson, JR Smith, Jordan Clarkson, and Kyle Korver. Out of this group, Kyle Korver is making the least amount of money at 7.56 million dollars. Then since a lot of these guys’ trade value has diminished it will be very hard for the Cavs to trade away these guys and receive back anything of value that will help them significantly long term. Because of that, it makes sense for the Cavs to make a playoff push starting this year and I think they could slide in at the 7 or 8 seed. They would need good years and veteran experience out of all of their returning core players from last year. If these guys can give the Cavs some fire power and the young guys of Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Larry Nance, and Ante Zizic can give the Cavs a boost they have a realistic shot at making the Eastern Playoffs.

Now, I do think the Cavs will have to work harder than what one would think to make the playoffs in the East. I think the top 6 spots in the East are a lock going into the season assuming these teams remain healthy. These teams are the Celtics, 76ers, Raptors, Pacers, Bucks, and Wizards. This leaves 2 spots left open. The Cavs, Heat, Pistons, Hornets, and the Knicks will be competing for that final spot. Because Porzingis probably won’t be back until January or February, it will be very hard for the Knicks to make a push for the playoffs. The Hornets have a collection of players that being severely overpaid for their talent besides Kemba Walker. It will take a team effort for them to make the playoffs. That leaves the Cavs, Heat, and Pistons. The Heat made the playoffs last year, but aren’t adding anyone that will improve their roster. They do have one of the best coaches in the league in Erik Spoelstra though. The Pistons are an interesting team this year. The acquisition of Blake Griffin did not help them make the playoffs last year, but the team was ridden of injury the whole year. The core of Griffin, Andre Drummond, and Reggie Jackson with the addition of new head coach Dwayne Casey should make them a very competitive team in the East. Both the Heat and the Pistons will be grind it out teams that will play hard all the time. The Cavs will have to stay steady all year and probably have to win 42-44 games to make the playoffs.

The biggest question for the Cavs is why they should make a push for the Playoffs? If the Cavs pick isn’t in the top ten, then the Hawks will get their first round pick. A team that is most likely going to be in rebuild mode in the near future cannot afford to lose a first round pick. However, the Cavs do have reasons to try and make the playoffs. The first is the Cavs have made renovations to the arena and need to sell tickets to help pay for those renovations. Then the Cavs need to start their post- LeBron era on the right foot. They can’t let fans reminisce over LeBron for years like they did last time. They have to put a winning team out there and prove they can win without LeBron. That is more of a pride thing than anything else. Also, if you are going to have all of these guys under contract and not be able to trade them, then they might as well push for the playoffs with the guys they got. The last reason is to see if Ty Lue can actually coach. The past 3 years everyone has assumed that LeBron has been the coach of the team and Ty Lue is more of a babysitter rather than a coach. If Lue can prove he can coach this team to a winning record and to the playoffs, then maybe Lue is the coach of the future.

Pro-Tank

The reasons for pro-tank are a lot easier to see and understand rather than pro-playoff. A LeBronless Cavs will not be able to make a deep playoff run unless they start to tank and draft players in the top 5. The only way to do this is to lose a lot and lose right now. And they have to make sure their pick is in the top 10 the next two years or else they lose it to the Hawks. If they keep both of those picks then the Hawks get the Cavs’ secound round picks in the years 2021 and 2022. Losing second round picks are a lot easier to handle for a team trying to rebuild than losing second round picks. But, in order to secure a top 10 pick the Cavs have to trade away some players in order to assure that they will get into the top 10.

The first player they have to unload would be Kevin Love. Kevin Love’s trade value has diminished since arriving in Cleveland. He went from a possible 20 point 20 rebound guy to a good rebounder who spots up on the offensive end of the floor. The Cavs would have to trade Love to a team trying to contend now and try to look for draft picks in return. The downside of this scenario the Cavs would probably have to take on contracts they they wouldn’t want to have. But, acquiring lesser players would help them tank quicker. The other player that could could trade easily would be Kyle Korver. They would probably look to trade Korver to a contender and take back a late first round pick with a non guaranteed contract that the Cavs could waive and get off their books for the upcoming season. This would help the Cavs get closer to getting under the salary cap sooner and not have to pay luxury tax. Not paying the luxury tax as soon as possible will benefit the Cavs the most so they can stop paying the repeater rate for their luxury tax. These two scenarios would be a step in the right direction for the Cavs.

Like I said before, the Cavs need to keep as many of their first round picks and acquire as many they can get in order to speed up their rebuild process. As we have seen in NBA history, drafting players in the top 3-5 is the best way to acquire NBA super stars. In order for the Cavs to return back to the top of the league.

The interesting part of the Cavs is that after tis year they are in really shape with their salary. The contracts of JR Smith and George Hill are non guaranteed which means they can waive both of them and only have to play a combined 4.87 million instead of 33.68 million for both of them in the 2019-20 season. This will definitely put them under the cap so they won’t have to pay luxury tax anymore. That will also allow them to bring in a possible free agent who could help the team right away. Also, by then they will only have one more year on Tristan Thompson’s and Jordan Clarkson’s contracts. By then, they will be free of all the bad contracts they currently have be able to move forward. My suggestion to the Cavs would be to play the young players of Sexton, Osman, Zizic, and Nance a lot no matter what the decision on tanking is. This will hedge their bet for the future. If they make the playoffs, these guys will receive playoff experience and learn how to win. If they tank, these guys will receive a lot of playing time and will learn how to be in the NBA and gain a lot of experience. It’s a win- win scenario for the Cavs. I think the Cavs have a bright future ahead of them. They have some young promising players and with the addition of other young players they could be on the look out in the NBA in years to come. But, then again they are still in Cleveland, which doesn’t bring the best track record in modern professional sports.

Edit: With the signing of Channing Frye to a one year deal, it looks like the Cavs are looking to make the playoffs this year.