Which Cavs team shows up next? That’s still the question

One game up, one game down. That’s basically been the Cavaliers’ season so far. 

Hence, a 5-5 record entering Monday’s road game against the injury-riddled and struggling Hornets (7 p.m., DAZN). 

So which Cavs team should we expect? Well, we really don’t know. Part of that is OK. There are 72 games to go. We’ll be doing this until April, and that’s just the regular season. We can assume the Cavs are also going to the playoffs. So yes, it’s a marathon.

That said, the Cavs don’t want to keep traveling down this same road, not knowing what to expect from quarter to quarter. They can be brilliant, even dominant, as we saw Friday vs. LeBron James and the 76ers. They can also be pretty bad, as we saw against the Thunder in the game before that.

But I have no hot takes. We get plenty of those, like, everywhere. Social media doesn’t care that it’s much too soon for that. As one NBA GM told me years ago, you can’t really judge a wannabe contender until the 41-game mark.

Or as Donovan Mitchell said after Saturday’s home loss to the Knicks: “Nothing’s won in the first 10 games.”

For instance, a couple of years ago, the Cavs started 15-0. They lost in the second round of the playoffs to a Pacers team that started 11-15 (and eventually went all the way to Game 7 of the Finals).

Last year, the Cavs were 15-14 in early December. They reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in eight years, and the first without LeBron since 1992.

In other words, you can’t get too high or too low at this time of the year.

Do the Cavs have some issues? Yes. Do they have some key injuries? Yes. Could they afford to be more reliable? You’d better believe it.

The Cavs open a stretch of three road games in five nights Monday in Charlotte, followed by visits to New York and Miami. They don’t need to settle every question this week. But they could stand to become a little more dependable.

There are 72 games left. Plenty of time to get better. Plenty of reasons to start now.

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