The Cavs head to the playoffs this weekend with excitement and apprehension. They capped off a historic regular season with the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Now, our sports commentator Terry Pluto says there’s pressure on head coach Kenny Atkinson to deliver.
“I love Atkinson's honesty," Pluto said. (He’s) more candid than most coaches, because he recently talked about when they had won over 60 games and he said, 'You know, I look back and (I) took over a team that won 48 games (last season) and I'm thinking, can we win 49? Can we win 50?’”
Pluto said no one imagined the Cavs would finish 64-18, the second-best record in franchise history.
“They were fun to watch," Pluto said. "In terms of grades for the regular season, like, everybody gets an A or an A+, they really do."
The Cavs’ best-ever regular season was the 2008-2009 season, when they went 66-18. They lost to the Orlando Magic in the conference finals.
“That team's simply forgotten,” Pluto said. “And a year later, LeBron James was gone and (head coach) Mike Brown was fired and the whole thing fell apart.”
Pluto believes Atkinson’s job is safe regardless of the outcome this season, but there is pressure to deliver.
“In fact, that's the exact quote, Koby Altman, the president, said when I interviewed him before the season,” Pluto said. “He said, ‘I'm not predicting a championship or whatever,’ (but) he goes, ‘The moves we've made, the roster we have (and) the coach, you know, that I really am high on, I expect us to win rounds in the playoffs.’ And the Cavs have not done that pretty much since LeBron left.”
Pluto believes Atkinson is still figuring out his playoff roster.
“He's trying to decide how many different players he wants to put out there," Pluto said. "In the regular season, he used 10 or 11 per game (with) the idea being to keep these guys healthy and fresh. You don't want to wear your starters out. But in the playoffs, you rarely have games back-to-back. You usually have at least one day's rest between games, sometimes two. So, you could play these guys more minutes.”
Pluto also said the difference about the NBA playoffs is that every round is a best-of-seven game series.
“So, in other words, you got to beat a team four times within seven games to advance," Pluto said. "There's nothing like that in the regular season that replicates it and that's why sometimes you get these strange upsets.”
Pluto says fans should feel confident heading into the playoffs.
“I mean, you could look at some of the games they lost in March or whatever, but my goodness, your team played 82 games and they won 64 of them," Pluto said. "And your team has three legitimate All-Stars, Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, and Evan Mobley. Your team has a coach that clearly has the attention of its players. I mean, I feel good about it.”
And what about the "woe is Cleveland" mentality?
"We don't remember when our teams come back and won," Pluto said. "We just remember all the times they seem to have let us down. We have to deal through our rubble of negativity."
