The terrifying part isn’t the 15-0 start or the depth of this talented roster. It isn’t their ferocious offense under new coach Kenny Atkinson or the evolution of Evan Mobley, who, in his fourth season, is finally turning into everything he was promised to be coming out of college.
No, the part that should leave the rest of the league trembling as the Cleveland Cavaliers prepare for their much-anticipated NBA Cup showdown with the Boston Celtics is much simpler: If the Cavs’ contention window was an NBA game, they haven’t even pulled off their warmup shirts yet.
This team is just getting started.
As top contenders adjust to the parity party the new collective-bargaining agreement has thrust upon the league, the Cavaliers have the benefit of arriving fashionably late.
Previous champions like the Denver Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks were constructed under the old system and are now scrambling to keep their contention windows propped open while conforming to the rules of aprons and more punitive tax penalties. The Cavs were still growing and maturing in recent seasons as the new CBA was bargained and implemented.
Now, perhaps no team other than the Oklahoma City Thunder is as equipped on their cap sheet for what lies ahead as the Cavaliers.
The Cavs had the benefit of watching teams like the Phoenix Suns thrash against the restraints of the second apron and struggle to supplement their roster with talented role players, so Cleveland pivoted the other way.
Rather than break up the nucleus of a team that advanced to the conference semifinals last year, Cavs president Koby Altman doubled down with lucrative extensions for everyone. Over the summer, Mobley, Donovan Mitchell, Isaac Okoro and Jarrett Allen all signed deals totaling 14 years and $503 million to remain in Cleveland.
That type of stability ensures the Cavs have six of their top players — those four plus Darius Garland and Max Strus — under team control for at least the next three years and, in some cases, even longer.
Equally important, the Cavs have not been a tax team since LeBron James bolted in 2018. They began this season only a couple of million dollars into the luxury tax and have plenty of time and options to slide under the line if they choose to delay starting their tax clock another year.
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has never been shy about paying the tax. Cleveland had the league’s highest tax bill the year it won the championship, and it still ranks among the franchise leaders in total luxury tax payments.
The Cavs didn’t anticipate becoming a tax team until next season, when Mobley’s max extension begins, but their historic start may force them to reconsider their position before the trade deadline.
They are still limited in available draft assets to trade after acquiring Mitchell, although they can offer swap rights on their 2030 pick, and their 2031 first-rounder is now in play if a potential trade partner is interested in scouting current eighth-graders.
These are the types of conversations and decisions Gilbert and Altman will gladly welcome after an incredible start to the season has them opening their championship contention window a year earlier than expected.
Nevertheless, if the dreaded second apron and rebuilt repeat offender punishments teach the league anything, it’s to avoid the treacherous waters until and unless the roster is void of glaring weaknesses.
The Cavs benefited by learning from the teams who went before them and wisely signed as many players to extensions as they could before even worrying about the tax.
“There’s two or three teams last year that went over the second apron that had tough summers,” Altman said before the season. “If you don’t reach that pinnacle and you can’t get better, what does that mean? And you have this astronomical tax bill.”
Boston already has one championship and is now trying to transition eras from the time when egregious spending wasn’t as punishing to this more punitive tax world. The Celtics are well into the second apron now, but won’t face their first real stress test until next season, when Jayson Tatum’s $300 million supermax begins alongside extensions for Derrick White and Sam Hauser. The Celtics could be staring at a payroll with tax penalties north of $450 million next season, which would obliterate the Warriors’ previous record of $384 million. It’s little wonder, given those price tags, why the Celtics are now up for sale.
The soaring tax penalties are also what pushed Marc Lasry out of the NBA and allowed billionaire Jimmy Haslam, who also owns the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, to purchase half of the Bucks.
Gilbert is one of the NBA’s wealthiest owners after taking Quicken Loans public in 2020. How high he’s willing to go on the tax remains to be seen, but it’s a problem the Cavs don’t have to worry about anytime soon. They won’t even hit repeat offender status before the 2027-28 season — and that’s if they remain in the tax this year. If they wiggle out of it before February, they don’t have to worry about repeat offender status until 2028-29. Mobley and Allen are the only two players still under team control then.
“There’s definitely a portion of us looking at it saying, keep your best players under contract for as long as you can,” Altman said. “Before you get to this zone where almost the NBA doesn’t want you to be in — keeping your most talented players under contract. Then, it just becomes a discussion of how much Dan wants to go into the tax. We’ve never been afraid of that. It’s more strategic of when do you do it, and when do you become a repeater? We’re fortunate to have ownership that’s not scared of the number. It’s when we go in and how good we can be when we’re in.”
The Cavs already have their answer to the second question. They’re really, really good. And it’s only the first quarter.
(Top photo: Jason Miller / Getty Images )
