“2025 NBA Playoffs: Will Solo Stars or Team Synergy Reign Supreme?”

There are reasons to think the Cavaliers might not be as vulnerable as they have been in years past to the targeting of their starters. Max Strus and Darius Garland have both made subtle but significant improvements to their defense. Strus actually rates a slightly positive defender this season (0.2 D-DRIP) while Garland has improved from -0.7 to -0.4, which is the difference between a well-below average defender and a below-average one.

Garland and Mitchell are both at -0.4 D-DRIP, so the Cavaliers barely qualified for this list. Every playoff team that qualified for this list in the past two years had at least one defender at -0.6 or worse, giving them at least one player who was worse than Mitchell or Garland. And Mitchell has shown in the past that he’s capable of a higher defensive ceiling; he’s just never been able to hit that ceiling consistently.

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