The lack of competitiveness of the Eastern Conference finals was offensive to Kendrick Perkins.
The ESPN analyst went off on the Cleveland Cavaliers after they lost each game by double digits to the Knicks in the four-game sweep.
“They got punked, and they got embarrassed,” Perkins said on “First Take” on Tuesday morning.
“It was an embarrassment for the league to witness that. The lack of competition to compete in between the lines at this stage.”
Perkins went as far as to say that everyone in the organization should be on the chopping block, even after they were part of the final four teams in the playoffs.
“If I’m Dan Gilbert, I’m looking at every single person on that roster, every single person on that coaching staff, and I’m saying everybody is on the chopping block. Every single one of them,” Perkins said. “We are not going to give Donovan Mitchell a pass. Those points was cute, but they weren’t powerful.”
This was the fourth straight year in which the Cavaliers made the playoffs, improving steadily and now reaching the conference finals for the first time since 2018.
It is not just Perkins who was upset with the outcome of the latest series.
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert made a post on X, citing how the effort displayed by his team was “nowhere near where they needed to be.”
While the sweep and the Game 1 meltdown had some calling for coach Kenny Atkinson’s job, the Cavaliers are retaining him, according to ESPN.
The Cavaliers will also have important decisions to make regarding key players on the 2025 squad, which had the highest payroll in the NBA.
Firstly, their big trade deadline acquisition, James Harden, is set to be a free agent this offseason and was making $39.4 million at 36 years old.
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Fellow star guard Donovan Mitchell is eligible for a contract extension this offseason. Mitchell is making a team-high $46.4 million, tied with Evan Mobley.
Both players have indicated that they are interested in continuing what they built in Cleveland. But that decision will ultimately come down to general manager Mike Gansey.
He will be tasked with putting the right pieces in place for the Cavaliers to return to the NBA finals.
However, it will take a long time to get the bad taste of the recent series out of their mouth.
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