NBA: Reasons for all 30 teams to be optimistic heading into 2021-22

Cleveland Cavaliers: A year away from being a year away

I feel like “a year away from being a year away” sounds like an insult, but it’s really not. There’s a lot of fan bases that would love to be in the Cavs’ current position.

There’s something happening in Cleveland with the surplus of young talent they’ve assembled from top to bottom: Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, Isaac Okoro, Jarrett Allen, and Lauri Markkanen – it’s as impressive of a young core as any team in the NBA. I don’t think it fits very well together, but that’s a problem for the future. Buy stock now.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards is awesome

I won’t insult any Timberwolves fans by trying to sell them on this year’s rendition of the Karl-Anthony Towns + D’Angelo Russell (or insert any of KAT’s ex-co-stars over the years) being any better than it has in the past, but Anthony Edwards seems like the real deal.

Edwards going up another level this year as a prolific scorer would make Minnesota’s future as interesting as it’s been in a long time. The front office still has to prove that they can find the supplemental pieces to build a winner, but Edwards could finish the year as a premier building block.