Cleveland Cavaliers hope to get Brooklyn Nets in the playoffs

The Brooklyn Nets appear to be wanted for a playoff series by the Cleveland Cavaliers, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Fedor recently wrote an article titled “Which potential Cavs opponent would be their best playoff matchup?” This piece is part of his “Hey, Chris!” where he takes questions from readers answers them in a mailbag format.

In the post, one of the questions from his readers was “Which opponent is Cleveland’s most favorable matchup in a first-round playoff series?” Before getting into Fedor’s response to the reader’s question, it’s important to note that as of the writing of this piece, the Cavs are the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference while the Nets are the sixth seed.

If the playoffs started today, Cleveland would play the New York Knicks in the first round while Brooklyn would play the Philadelphia 76ers. Cleveland is four games back of the 76ers while Brooklyn is 1.5 games back of the Knicks. So, the more likely way that these teams would play each other in the first round would be if Brooklyn can start stringing together some wins while New York struggles.

With that being said, it’s safe to say that Brooklyn will not make it out of the first round because of how new the current roster is along with the fact that teams like the Cavs are better on both sides of the ball. Also, the Nets are currently in a transition period as they are now rebuilding while trying to see what players fit in the team’s future moving forward. Here’s what Fedor thinks about a potential matchup between Cleveland and Brooklyn:

“No one inside the organization would say this publicly — and they shouldn’t. But multiple people I’ve spoken to recently are privately hoping for a Brooklyn matchup. It’s easy to understand why.

Brooklyn was 32-20 at the time it dealt Kyrie Irving — a move that preceded Kevin Durant’s departure. While the Nets haven’t completely imploded since those two megadeals, their organizational ceiling has lowered considerably, and they no longer pose the same challenge in a seven-game series.”