Analyst Gives Intriguing Take on Cavaliers' Most Critical Player

Looking at the Cleveland Cavaliers' roster from last season, as well as heading into their 2025-26 campaign on the horizon, it's clear this group has a core four players in the mix leading the way as their most impactful and talented names on board: Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen–– a group that's been together for the past three seasons, but truly began to click across their latest campaign.

But, when taking a step back to glance at this Cavaliers roster, there's an interesting question concerning those top four stars: who's the most important name of the bunch?

It's a scenario Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley recently drew up in an intriguing hypothetical: "Who would every NBA team save if it could keep one player?" A compelling inquiry for many teams, but especially so for the Cavaliers.

Yet, in the mind of Buckley, the verdict for that honor in Cleveland comes down to two candidates: Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, the Cavaliers' pair of All-NBA recipients from last season, and the duo of key pieces leading this group to the success they saw across their previous campaign.

"Theoretically, Cleveland is built around a core four of Mobley, Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen. In reality, though, there are two tiers within the quartet. As Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor shared on the heels of the Cavs' second consecutive conference semis loss, Mobley and Mitchell are 'the two untouchables."