The Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the most surprising teams this season. Having been in rebuild mode since 2018 after the departure of LeBron James, the Cavaliers have made some smart decisions and drafted some really good players like Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley.
On top of that, they’ve made some decent trades to land players like Jarrett Allen, who have helped the Cavs become one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.
With this renewed vigor, the Cavaliers would not be blamed for feeling confident. But one of their young stars, Darius Garland, believes that the team cannot allow their confidence to take away from their motivation, and they still need to fight and play like they are underdogs and that their win-loss record doesn’t mean that they are one of the best teams in the NBA right now.
“I think that we think that we cool and stuff, like we’re big dogs, but we’re not. I mean, we’re still underdogs, so we still have to compete like we’re underdogs, like we have no respect. So that just goes back to the last answer. We got to play hard for 48 minutes, play defense for 48 minutes, and we get wins… We can’t get the big heads since we got 28 wins. We just have to play our brand of basketball. And we haven’t had 28 wins in I don’t know how long, so we haven’t done anything yet.”
Garland and the Cavaliers maintaining an underdog mentality will probably be a good thing, as thinking of yourself highly could lead to complacency among the young stars on the team. The Cavaliers have done a great job with their rebuild over the years and could be set to have a great run as a contender in the next few years, the first time in their franchise history without LeBron James.
The Cavaliers have been one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference this season, with a healthy record of 28-19 as they currently sit as the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs could be on track to make the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
