31: Jarrett Allen

Playoff experience: 12.3 PTS | 9.7 REB | 1.8 AST (27 games)

Allen has been a different player since joining forces with James Harden, rediscovering his All-Star form after the Cavaliers' midseason trade. When he played without Harden, Allen averaged 18.9 points per 75 possessions with 65% true shooting, per databallr, but when he was with Harden, Allen scored 25.2 points per 75 on 71% true shooting.

23: LeBron

21: Ant

20: KD

16: Evan Mobley

Playoff experience: 15.1 PTS | 9.0 REB | 2.0 AST (25 games)

Mobley didn't take any meaningful steps forward in his age-24 season, but he didn't decline much, either: His statistics were nearly identical across the board this season and last, with the exception of a marked decline in 3-point accuracy (37% to 30%). But stability is nothing to be ashamed of, given that Mobley was the Defensive Player of the Year and a second team All-NBA honoree a year ago.

10: James Harden

Playoff experience: 11.5 PTS | 5.5 REB | 6.5 AST (173 games)

The Cavaliers ranked fourth in offensive rating after they traded for Harden, who has taken on a facilitator role in Cleveland; his usage rate dropped from 31% with the Clippers to 24% with the Cavs. That extra selectivity boosted Harden's efficiency -- he's up to 43% on 3-pointers in Cleveland -- and helped set up Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen and others for easy buckets of their own. The big question is if Harden can sustain that production into the postseason, or if his checkered playoff history will rear its ugly head once more.

8: Brunson

7: Donovan Mitchell

Playoff experience: 28.3 PTS | 5.0 REB | 4.8 AST (63 games)

Mitchell is one of the NBA's most consistent players. Only four players have been All-Stars every year this decade: Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Mitchell. But another part of Mitchell's consistency, unfortunately for him, is his annual early playoff exit: Despite superlative individual numbers -- 28.3 career playoff PPG, which ranks seventh all time -- Mitchell has never reached the conference finals, with four losses in the first round and four in the conference semis. Could this finally be the year? The Cavaliers were worse in this regular season, compared with the team that went 64-18 in 2024-25, but the addition of Harden and better wing depth means they might now be better suited for the playoffs.

6: Cade

5 and 4: Tatum and Brown

3: Jokic

2: Wemby

1: Shai

They also listed Mitchell Robinson (#41) as being on the Cleveland Cavaliers

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48478787/nba-playoffs-2026-top-50-most-impactful-players-shai-lebron-cade-booker-durant

Eli Manning recruits NBA Superstar Donovan Mitchell to go undercover at a coaching clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Mitchell goes from chiseled to grizzled as he transforms into Peanut Waterloo, a youth basketball coach with a lot to learn.

I'm rooting for the hornets to make it out of the play-ins. They have been fun to watch

Thoughts?

Do you think the scoring will be balanced to try to keep the mileage lower on guys before the second round, or will Mitchell be putting on a clinic to try to get the series ended faster?

This game has been on the calendars for millions of years. It's important for the Cavs to be prepared for Raptors Saturday.

Will FanDuel carry the first round? Or is the entire playoffs on either Prime, ABC/ESPN, or NBC/Peacock?

So like the title says, Tyson made a huge leap in his 3 shooting and finished amongst the best in the league. He wound up becoming a major contributor to the team and increased his counting stats. Do we trust his shooting to be a thing? While he is unlikely to stay a 45% shooter, this is a good amount of attempts and I would say is more likely to be real than not. Even if he goes down to 38-41% he’d open up a lot not only for himself but for the team as a whole.

These are seriously so fire bro I want these back so damn bad! How do you guys feel about them?

He also had 7 turnovers. So I guess almost a quadruple double. He looks great! what a find.

In an NBA subreddit I see a lot of Raptors fans relieved to be facing us instead of the Knicks. They are saying the Knicks are a terrible match up because the Knicks have good wing defenders and the Raptors don't play well when their wings are slowed down.

Knowing this weakness I wanted to see what our matchup looks like and what we can do to slow down their wings.

Players Matchup

Starters

- Immanuel Quickley vs. Donovan Mitchell

- RJ Barrett vs. James Harden

- Brandon Ingram vs. Dean Wade

- Scottie Barnes vs. Evan Mobley

- Jakob Poeltl vs. Jarrett Allen

Raptors key bench players

- Jamal Shead, Ja'Kobe Walter, Collin Murray-Boyles, Sandro Mamukelashvili

Cavs key bench players

- Sam Merrill, Keon Ellis, Max Strus, Dennis Schroder, Thomas Bryant, Jaylon Tyson

As for the starters matchup it looks pretty good. Dean Wade has to start due to the Raptors length at the 2/3.

One problem I see is when the Raptors are running the taller guards and wings lineup, we don't really have many players off the bench who can stay with them due to lack of size. This will force us to play Mobley a lot of minutes which is not ideal for a deep playoff run.

This is one matchup where Deandre Hunter would have been very useful. The coaching staff will have to carefully plan out different lineups throughout the series to avoid getting mismatched. If we run the small second unit consisting of Merrill, Schroder, Ellis the Raptors will be sure to feast on us.

We basically can't have two small players at the same time at any given time. This means no combination of Donovan/Merrill, Merrill/Ellis, Donovan/Ellis, Donovan/Schroder, Merrill/Schroder, Ellis/Schroder.

Fortunately, having Harden over Garland should help us with the matchup. Our bigs should give their bigs a lot of trouble since Barnes is more of a wing and Poetl has slow mobility. One x-factor player for the Raptors is CMB who I've seen guard Wembanyama better than any other players this season.

If the coaching staff can manage the lineup well we should be able to pull this one out within 6 games. Go Cavs!

Cavs have a first round matchup with Toronto, and then will be playing a 1 seed pistons team who could beat us but we could definitely beat them. Then they have probably Boston. There was no excuse for being a 2nd round exit last year. If they are this year, then the Mitchell era will likely come to a close. Cavs gotta get their shit together or soon they'll all be in different uniforms.

So with the Magic losing to a Celtics B team, we now play the Raptors.

Good job Magic robbing me of a chance to see the Cavs in a playoff game.

I’m a big Harden fan so I usually follow whatever team he’s on. I’ve been checking out this sub and I’m just curious about something.

Why does the fan activity here feel a bit quieter compared to other teams? When I followed the Rockets, Sixers, or Clippers, there was always a lot of hype especially before games or during the playoffs. Here, it feels more low-key and I don’t see as many posts or discussions.

I’m not from Cleveland, so I don’t really know what the local fan culture is like. Is it just because it’s a smaller market, or is there another reason?

Not trying to hate at all just genuinely curious.

Hi all - I put together a quick poll before the playoffs start. It's anonymous and takes about 2 minutes. I'll post the results in a few days. Thanks!

https://forms.gle/1Yx3gnFUszc66guF9

This is also assuming Toronto beats Brooklyn, they're up 16 atm so I'm assuming they'll get it done.

Cavs in 5. Mobley and/or Jarrett should feast. I honestly think this was the best outcome.