CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers are getting ready for another NBA season. The team held its annual media day at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Monday. The Cavs are going from up-and-comers to a team with experience and a new layer of pressure to win a championship.

What You Need To Know

  • Cavs leadership admitted last season came to a disappointing end

  • Coach J.B Bickerstaff said the team has added new pieces this season

  • Players like Evan Mobley and Donavon Mitchell agreed that this year the team will be held to higher standards

After a disappointing first-round post season exit last year against the New York Knicks, Cavaliers President of Operations Koby Altman said the bar is higher now that they have experience.

"The playoffs left a sour taste in our mouths and I think we collectively as an organization, from the players, coaches on down, used it as fuel this offseason to get better," he said.

After finishing last season 53-31, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said the team did not get to where they wanted to end up.

"If everything is easy, you never figure it out. You learn a hard lesson but you can't take away what our guys have accomplished as we continue to build," he said. "So you know, we understand the process. We understand the steps that need to be taken."

Bickerstaff joined the team in 2019 and said the progress being made is starting to show, and with newly added pieces, coach said the team is ready to compete.

"We will be a much more physical basketball team this year, and again, that will prep us for those moments," he said.

Players like Evan Mobley and Donavon Mitchell agreed that this year, the team will be held to higher standards.

"Definitely going way further than we did last year. We got the playoff experience that we needed. We know the defensive play and everything, so this year we will top that and go even further," Mobley said.

Mitchell said he has his eyes on the future.

"We obviously had a season that could kind of rate, went really well until it went really poorly, so for us that’s where all of our heads are at. That’s where my head is at and I think we've.. I’m really excited about what we have got going here," he said.

While the Cavs are welcoming new faces to the team, like Max Strus, Georges Niang and Emoni Bates, the eastern conference is already seen as a heavy weight, with the Milwaukee Bucks adding Damian Lillard.

Opening night is on Oct. 27 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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