Deja vu: The 2025 Cavs look a lot like the 2015 Warriors
Ten years ago, an upstart team in Oakland laid the groundwork for a modern dynasty.
Head coach Steve Kerr took over for the deposed Mark Jackson just as Steph Curry was ready to morph into an MVP-caliber superstar, and the 2014-15 Warriors exploded into the stratosphere playing a beautiful yet devastating brand of basketball. That Golden State team cruised to its first of four championships and six Finals appearances in eight years.
History appears to be repeating itself a decade later. Not in The Bay but in The Land, where Kenny Atkinson has the Cleveland Cavaliers rolling after spending the last three years on Kerr's staff.
The Cavs began the season as the fourth team in NBA history to start 15-0, while Cleveland's 35-6 record through 41 games was a top-15 all-time mark through a campaign's first half, per Stathead. The Cavs arrive in Boston for Friday's heavyweight bout against the defending champions as winners of eight straight - the team's third streak of eight wins or longer this season - and on pace for 67 wins.
Most of their contests haven't been close, either. Only nine teams in history (including this year's West-leading Thunder) have managed better point-differentials through 58 games.
Still, some might find it hard to believe this club is a genuine contender. After all, this is largely the same roster that was solid yet unspectacular over the last couple of years. A whopping 96% of Cleveland's 2024-25 minutes have been filled by members of the 2023-24 Cavs team that went 48-34, according to Basketball Reference. (Only the Celtics have enjoyed more continuity year-over-year.) The Cavs are also one of nine teams to post roster continuity rates of at least 70% in each of the last two seasons, with their core four of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen now in Year 3 together.
Plenty of skeptics are left to wonder, could Kenny Atkinson really be the difference between a 48-win playoff team and a championship-level juggernaut?
The same question was asked of Kerr 10 years ago.
When Kerr took over from Jackson, the Warriors brought back virtually the same team that averaged 49 wins over the previous two seasons, with only one playoff series victory to show for it.
Kerr reinvented the Warriors' offense, turning a stale, predictable attack into a dizzying, read-and-react system. In addition, an early-season injury to former starter David Lee spurred Kerr to empower defensive forward Draymond Green, unlocking Green's playmaking prowess and two-way genius. Suddenly, a Warriors team that somehow ranked in the middle of the pack on offense in 2013-14 despite the Splash Bros. presence soared to second in offensive efficiency in Kerr's first season.
Fast forward a decade, and Atkinson's script has been eerily similar. He inherited an elite defensive team that wasn't getting the most out of an explosive backcourt or a defensive phenom (Mobley) in the frontcourt. Like Jackson's Warriors, J.B. Bickerstaff's Cavs averaged 49.5 wins over the last two years and won one playoff series.
Under Atkinson, the most notable difference in Cleveland's attack is Mobley, who looks more fluid and decisive. It's quite common to see the formerly rigid big man bringing the ball up the floor after corralling a defensive rebound, bullying opposing bigs inside, and even orchestrating the offense from the elbows, allowing star guards Mitchell and Garland to spend more time off the ball.
The result? Cleveland went from 16th in offensive efficiency last season to having the second-most efficient offense in league history this year while maintaining the same seventh-ranked defense.
Green, among the last remaining Warriors from the 2015 title team along with Curry and Kerr, praised Cleveland's new attack after one of the Cavs' two victories over Golden State. "That ball was humming so crazy, my head was on a goddamn swivel," Green said on a November episode of his podcast. "They were moving that ball so fast."
Cleveland's newfound mojo can't be fully explained by Atkinson's Midas touch, just like much of Kerr's success is tied to Curry's star leap rather than sheer strategic ingenuity.
Atkinson's Cavs are deeper and healthier than Bickerstaff's version of the team - none of Cleveland's top-four players have missed more than six games this season. Garland, in particular, has benefited from a return to full strength after missing 25 contests last year. Atkinson, in turn, is reaping the rewards of Garland's career year. Ditto for Ty Jerome, who's been a revelation off Atkinson's bench after an ankle injury limited him to two games last season. Atkinson also has the good fortune of coaching the Cavs after the team finally found its fifth starter (or at least fifth closer) in forward De'Andre Hunter, whom Cleveland acquired at the trade deadline.
However you assign credit, there's no denying this team's level of dominance, with the 2015 Warriors serving as a cautionary tale for Cleveland's current doubters. By the time people accepted that Kerr's team was as good as its record suggested, Golden State was already raising the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
No Cavalier will redefine the game or warp the floor like Curry, who remains the most integral ingredient in the Warriors' secret sauce. Mobley also isn't a carbon copy of Green. Not to mention, the Cavs have no chance of landing another superstar as good as Kevin Durant was in 2016, a free-agency coup that accounted for half of the modern Warriors' titles and Finals appearances.
But Atkinson's Cavs have been just as shockingly good as Kerr's Warriors were in the coach's first season on the job. And Cleveland's title window appears wide open, with Mitchell, Garland, Allen, and Mobley all under contract for at least the next two to five years (though things can crumble quickly in an apron world).
When you spend as Cleveland has - both in terms of asset capital and future dollars - this is the promising payoff you dream of: a rising juggernaut that looks positively Warriors-esque.
Joseph Casciaro is theScore's senior Raptors and NBA reporter.