The Cavaliers’ playoff nightmare ended Tuesday with a 114–105 loss to the Pacers. Indiana is headed to the conference finals, while Cleveland is out after a five-game loss in the conference semis.
Getting back there next year might be easier said than done.
The Cavaliers had their best season in the post–LeBron James era, going 64–18 and claiming the top seed in the Eastern Conference. They started the season on a 15-game winning streak before adding a 16-game one in midseason. Donovan Mitchell was healthy, playing in 71 games, and Evan Mobley emerged as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.
But next season the Cavs will find themselves in uncharted territory in the dreaded second apron of the luxury tax. The team that notoriously underspent during James’s first stint with the franchise from 2003 to 2010 now finds itself among the league’s highest payrolls.
Extensions for Mitchell and Mobley will kick in next season. The next five years of Mobley’s deal will increase by a total of $45 million after Mobley won Defensive Player of the Year. Mitchell will go from making $35 million from this past season to roughly $46 million next season. In two years, Mitchell’s and Mobley’s salaries will account for more than $100 million combined. The team’s salary is expected to be $221 million for the 2025–26 season, roughly $14 million above the second apron and $10 million more than the league-leading Suns’ this season. The team’s luxury tax bill next season is projected to be $57 million, the most in franchise history. They did not pay the luxury tax this year, ranking 12th in team salary this season at $169 million.
The team will seek to re-sign key reserve Ty Jerome, who has been one of the biggest bargains in the NBA. Jerome made $2.5 million this season and was a finalist for Sixth Man of the Year. The Cavs have Jerome’s Early Bird Rights, meaning they can offer him a deal for four years and $64 million. Extending Jerome on that deal would add $80 million to the team’s luxury tax bill, which might make him too expensive to retain.
As the Celtics are learning after Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear, youth does not guarantee a long title contention window. The NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement is designed to punish the most expensive teams, no matter how those teams were cobbled together.
