There is one team out there that should be dominating the headlines right now. No, it’s not the Thunder. It’s not the Lakers or Sixers, though varying levels of drama will always keep them near the center of conversation. It’s not Golden State, who are off to a tremendous start, or even the defending champion Celtics. It’s the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After an unholy shellacking of the Warriors last night — 83 points by the half and a 41-point lead — the Cavs are a perfect 10-0 and are wiping a lot of opponents off the map. Evan Mobley’s improvement as an offensive weapon, plus Kenny Atkinson’s focused effort to get more out of him, now gives Cleveland three players who could erupt on any give night, plus the ever-steady Jarrett Allen. They no longer need to rely on a huge scoring effort from Donovan Mitchell and Atkinson’s system has not only elevated Mobley but brought Garland back into form after a tough season last year.

They’re doing this all without one of their expected starters, as Max Strus has been sidelined with an ankle sprain. The Cavs got good minutes out of Dean Wade and then when he got sick, Isaac Okoro, who started the year basically at the edge of the rotation. Even Ty Jerome is balling. Cleveland won’t stay this hot forever but it has been an attention-grabbing start. They have all the pieces that a championship contender covets and a genuinely good coach getting everything organized. There are a lot of teams that should be kicking themselves for not hiring Kenny Atkinson, including at least two in the same division.

As a neutral observer, there’s something immensely satisfying about the Cavs doing all this in the aftermath of signing Mitchell to an extension following a few years of the talking heads trying to manifest a trade request out of the team’s best player. Good luck to the Cavs, not that it looks like they need it right now.

Joel Embiid is Back

Joel Embiid is ready to return from his knee inflammation management program, but not without a little more drama. He’s serving a three-game suspension for shoving a reporter (you can’t do that, even if someone deserves a good shove) and is in line to make his season debut on Tuesday. What a coincidence that Embiid was cleared to play as soon as his suspension, which couldn’t begin until he was cleared to play, was announced!

Anyway, the big takeaway here is obvious. You’re about to get Embiid back. The Sixers do have a back-to-back on Tuesday-Wednesday, so you can already rule him out for that, but still — he’s back. Don’t expect him to play a full workload right away but even 20 minutes of Embiid is going to be better for fantasy than like 80% of the league. There’s not much you can do but hope he avoids aggravation and that the ramp-up isn’t a long process. As for the rest of the roster…

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