Hey there, Last Night In Basketballers — I am, as I do every year, re-appropriating the Three Things I Noticed on League Pass format to preview the upcoming season. Instead of three things I noticed, it’ll be something more along the lines of three things I’m looking forward to, interested in, or want to see. Some of them might be narrative-based, some might be stats, and some might include video. But they'll all be focused on the 2026-27 campaign.
The schedule for those posts will be as follows (podcasts previewing each division with Mo Dakhil are in parentheses):
- Atlantic Division (BOS, BKN, NYK, PHI, TOR) (Podcast)
- Central Division (CHI, CLE, DET, IND, MIL) (Podcast)
- Southeast Division (ATL, CHA, MIA, ORL, WAS) (Podcast)
- Pacific Division (GSW, LAC, LAL, PHX, SAC) (Podcast)
- Northwest Division (DEN, MIN, OKC, POR, UTA) (Podcast)
- Southwest Division (DAL, HOU, MEM, NOP, SAS) (Podcast)
So without further ado, let's get to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are mostly but not entirely just running it back.
Peyton Watson, fifth man
As I wrote after the trade:
The Cavs may have finally found their answer to the fifth man issue that I have been writing about (and everyone and their mother has been talking about) for years. Watson is a true two-way player in a way that most of the other guys Cleveland has cycled through in that spot have not been. He's a very good corner shooter (45.3% for his career) and can keep the line moving as a second-side creator, and he's a really, really good defender — especially against the type of guys the Cavs really need him to defend.
Watson is power-forward-sized in terms of height but he's at his best defending smaller players and even point-of-attack guards, which the Cavs desperately need someone to do. They've been counting on the likes of Dean Wade and Strus to do that job, and while they have good size and length, it's not the job they're best-suited for. It is the one that Watson is best-suited for. His ability to take the best perimeter option on a nightly basis will allow the Cavs to more capably and confidently slide Donovan Mitchell and James Harden into easier matchups. (Let's not speak too much here of the James Harden contract, which is at least a year too long and probably several million dollars too high, and which I truly cannot believe contains a player option for what will be his age-39 season.)
Watson is not as versatile a shooter as Strus or someone like Sam Merrill, but Merrill is still on the team even after the Cavs sent Strus out in this deal so it's not like they lost that option within their offense. They just now have someone who can both knock down shots and defend at a really high level, which they haven't had at this spot during this era. (There's some concern about Watson's shooting maybe falling off now that he's not playing with Nikola Jokic anymore, but Harden being there alleviates that concern to a certain extent. Whatever else you think of Harden, he's still an elite setup man for shooters.)