Speaker 1: This crowd rises to its meaning. What Carl slam it? Oh,
Speaker 1: Carl left wing free ball, perfect pop? Then HELLI lock
Speaker 1: the shot at the rim? How in the left hand
Speaker 1: and of fowl.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Chase Doown podcast, part of the Caves
Speaker 2: Media family. I'm your host Justin Browan. The Chase Down
Speaker 2: is presented by Fubo, the official streaming partner of the Calves.
Speaker 2: Watch over three hundred and fifty channels of live sports
Speaker 2: and TV, including fan Duel Sports Network without cable. There's
Speaker 2: no cost and no commitment. Try for free at foobotv
Speaker 2: dot com. Slash Calves. The clevid Kevaliers are in the
Speaker 2: final week of the regular season. Their magic number is
Speaker 2: down to one after missing an opportunity to clinch the
Speaker 2: number one seed in the Eastern Conference against the Sacramento Kings.
Speaker 2: Unfortunate to lose that game, particularly with Oka see cracking
Speaker 2: that doorback open for the best overall record appears to
Speaker 2: be a bit of a long shot now, but we
Speaker 2: still have plenty to play for in this last week
Speaker 2: and joining me today as my co host, Carl Rodriguez.
Speaker 1: Carter you doing, buddy, I'm doing well. Been under the weather.
Speaker 1: You know, the throat getting a little froggy. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just going through my pre playoff swoon. So I'm ready,
Speaker 1: you know, better better now then later. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: overall doing well. Disappointing to lose that game, disappointing to
Speaker 1: have to lose the way they lost it. You know,
Speaker 1: I do give big credit to the officials for you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in their you know, pool report effort wherever
Speaker 1: the conversation happened, just gone, hey, you know, made a mistake.
Speaker 1: You know, I will never ever, you know, I'll be
Speaker 1: disappointed by it by an outcome, especially one that like
Speaker 1: is influenced by a mistake like that. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like, you know, what can you
Speaker 1: ask other than accountability in that way, you know, so
Speaker 1: unfortunate way to lose, and like I thought, Kenny had
Speaker 1: a really grown up response, who was like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't all the way understand or you know, or like,
Speaker 1: you know, I got the explanation, and I'm disappointed by it,
Speaker 1: but I it's not why we lost the game. And
Speaker 1: I do think that's a fair summation, you know, like
Speaker 1: it would have taken quite the quite the leap to
Speaker 1: get them over the over the over that final hurdle,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of stuff they could have cleaned
Speaker 1: up to win that game, and just an unfortunate way
Speaker 1: to you know, unfortunate, uh, with the momentum back in
Speaker 1: their corner to drop that one. But what are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? Man?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think there's a reason why
Speaker 2: we tend to not focus on refs when it comes
Speaker 2: to this podcast, because it is so subjective. Basketball is
Speaker 2: one of the most difficult games to officiate. Everything happens
Speaker 2: so fast. In a lot of time, it's fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2: So guess where my you know, opinion is usually going
Speaker 2: to land on the fifty percent that benefits the cows.
Speaker 2: It's so much more productive to focus on, you know,
Speaker 2: the aspects that you can control. I definitely did appreciate,
Speaker 2: as you said, them coming on and saying, yeah, that's
Speaker 2: exactly being bucket shindt have counted. We saw today that
Speaker 2: the Max Strus technical has been rescinded, reviewed that situation
Speaker 2: and decided, you know, he shouldn't have got a technical
Speaker 2: in that situation. So you could, in theory, wipe three
Speaker 2: points off the board in this one. But there were
Speaker 2: certainly factors within the Cavs control that they came up short.
Speaker 2: But you know, as frustrating as it was to lose
Speaker 2: that game, I really here's how you know, sick.
Speaker 1: I am Carter.
Speaker 2: I wanted to win that game because it would have
Speaker 2: clinched a better record against the Western Conference. We would
Speaker 2: have been twenty four and six against the West this year,
Speaker 2: which is a sixty seven win pace. Do you know
Speaker 2: how much fun it would have been to say we
Speaker 2: have a sixty seven win pace against the East and
Speaker 2: the West. Now, unfortunately, you know, we finished twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three and seven against the.
Speaker 1: West, twenty three and seven, which is.
Speaker 2: The best record against the Western Conference this season, significantly
Speaker 2: better than you know, even a team like the Thunder,
Speaker 2: who you know, has almost twice as many losses and
Speaker 2: only ten or so more wins. So you know, that's
Speaker 2: definitely a feather in their cap. But with the opportunity
Speaker 2: to clinch, you know, the number one seed in the
Speaker 2: Eastern Conference, it definitely was disappointing to drop that one.
Speaker 2: But I can't help but feel like the biggest win
Speaker 2: from that afternoon was Donovan Mitchell's injury scare, and that
Speaker 2: not being more serious. He's already been ruled out for
Speaker 2: Tuesday's game after the adrenaline war off, but the fact
Speaker 2: that he was even able to enter that game again
Speaker 2: and you know, look pretty pretty fine, I would say
Speaker 2: for the remainder of that game was a huge, huge relief, because,
Speaker 2: you know, if that's a high ankle sprain and we're
Speaker 2: talking about's he going to make it back midway through,
Speaker 2: you know, the first round of the playoffs, how are
Speaker 2: we going to fare if we have to play a
Speaker 2: series without him and those type of scary questions that
Speaker 2: this would be a much much more depressing podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I had to have one of my first why
Speaker 1: is Daddy in such a foul mood conversations with my
Speaker 1: daughter after he went down, because I was I was desolate.
Speaker 1: I was really worried something really serious it happened. It's
Speaker 1: something really I don't know. Like, guys have been hurt
Speaker 1: a couple of times this season, but it was one
Speaker 1: of the first times where I was like, oh no, oh, no,
Speaker 1: oh no. And Millie came up to me and goes,
Speaker 1: what's wrong, And I'm like, Donovan Mitchell got hurt, and
Speaker 1: she goes, why did he get hurt? I don't know, Han,
Speaker 1: but stop talking to me right now is a really
Speaker 1: selfish decision on his behalf. I'm a sad boy, and
Speaker 1: I can't. I you're you're a couple of years away
Speaker 1: from understanding why because it's not super logical. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: so ultimately glad to see them dodge the bullet. And
Speaker 1: I don't think they played a bad game. I definitely
Speaker 1: think they played a good first half that I didn't
Speaker 1: feel like was terribly reflective of the score. Do you
Speaker 1: feel that way about the second half or do you
Speaker 1: or do you think that they left a little meat
Speaker 1: on the bone there. So I'm a two minds when
Speaker 1: it comes to this game. One.
Speaker 2: You know, on our last podcast, we talked about how
Speaker 2: we as fans probably want them to make a statement
Speaker 2: a little more than they seem to want to right now.
Speaker 2: And I certainly felt that in this game because that,
Speaker 2: you know, I want something to calm some of the narratives.
Speaker 2: And I think there's justified concerns. I think there are
Speaker 2: some unfair framings and unjustified concerns that are mixed in.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's definitely a bit of a balance.
Speaker 2: But I came away from that game, if I'm solely
Speaker 2: like not thinking narratives and all all those sorts of things.
Speaker 2: I was overall impressed with their effort, and I thought
Speaker 2: that they did the right things. I thought they came
Speaker 2: into the game understanding, Hey, last time Sacramento played us,
Speaker 2: they beat us up on the offensive glass, they beat
Speaker 2: us up on the inside. We're going to have to
Speaker 2: play with intensity. I thought their effort for loose balls,
Speaker 2: where sometimes it was the second or third player in
Speaker 2: from the Cavs making the effort that either secure or
Speaker 2: rebound secure to loose ball, whatever the case may be,
Speaker 2: I thought that was at a high, high level. You
Speaker 2: look at the offensive glass, the Calves out rebounded them
Speaker 2: thirteen to eight, almost doubled them up there. That's really
Speaker 2: really impressive. They outscored him sixty eight to forty eight
Speaker 2: points in the paint. Normally, Demonta Sabonis is one of
Speaker 2: the toughest covers that they have. Yonis vound Tunis is
Speaker 2: very difficult coming in off the bench the Calves. If
Speaker 2: you look at the combined plus minus for those two guys,
Speaker 2: the Calves won the Sabonus minutes and the Valanchunis minutes
Speaker 2: by five they played Sabonus to a draw and they
Speaker 2: beat the valn Tunis minutes by five. That to me
Speaker 2: is a win only two more turnovers than the Kings
Speaker 2: would have liked to, you know, win the turnover battle.
Speaker 2: But where they really killed us there is the points
Speaker 2: off of turnovers thirty seven to twenty one. So you know,
Speaker 2: there's not a big discrepancy in how many times we
Speaker 2: turned the ball over. We just failed to capitalize. And
Speaker 2: I really thought, from an effort standpoint, from a defense standpoint,
Speaker 2: from a hustle mentality kind of standpoint, I thought the
Speaker 2: calves were there in this game. I thought the offensive
Speaker 2: secure came up short. Do you think I'm cutting them
Speaker 2: too much slack here?
Speaker 1: For the most part, No, I do think that third quarter,
Speaker 1: you know, the string got let go of a little bit,
Speaker 1: the rope got let go of a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it was the weakest of the four for sure.
Speaker 1: And you know, I felt like Sacramento was getting what
Speaker 1: they wanted. I don't know I was. I will say
Speaker 1: I was a little surprised to say Kenny was disappointed
Speaker 1: with the energy that came out with because I didn't
Speaker 1: really think they I thought, if anything, they fell apart
Speaker 1: a little bit in the second half, just getting getting attacked,
Speaker 1: you know, getting attacked with those big wings, some of
Speaker 1: those smaller lineups that the Cavs were running. I just
Speaker 1: thought weren't able to to kind of keep muster and
Speaker 1: keep up with them. But again, I mean, I just
Speaker 1: kind of feel like it's a bit of a broken
Speaker 1: record with this team, where what is the you know,
Speaker 1: the one contributing factor to these losses? Bad three point shooting,
Speaker 1: bad free throw shooting. Yep, Like, and they shoot twenty
Speaker 1: six percent from three on a steady diet of pretty
Speaker 1: darn good looks. They got nineteen wide open threes for
Speaker 1: your rundown, thank you for actually doing homework on this podcast.
Speaker 1: So half their threes of their thirty eight attempts were
Speaker 1: wide open. Yeah, and uh and they you know, they
Speaker 1: only made seven of them, so they missed a lot
Speaker 1: of those. And then the free throw woes, man, are
Speaker 1: getting really really concerning. Yep. I just I like, again,
Speaker 1: we've said it on the pod before, but it's the
Speaker 1: least interesting thing to discuss, and even if I'm a coach,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what I'm supposed to do about that.
Speaker 1: And it's not like they aren't practicing them, but eleven
Speaker 1: of nineteen is like, yeah, that's literally the difference between
Speaker 1: you winning and losing this game.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, you know it's I really do think when
Speaker 2: when you look at kind of the Calves since the
Speaker 2: start of March, not shooting well seems to be the
Speaker 2: big theme here, right, And you know, from a Sacramento standpoint,
Speaker 2: you mentioned the Caves were seven to nineteen on wide
Speaker 2: open threes. This is just one of those kind of
Speaker 2: sets of stats that's going to make you pull some
Speaker 2: hair out. The Kings were fourteen four to fourteen on
Speaker 2: wide open threes, so they did not capitalize.
Speaker 1: Wide open three point attempts. Is very good just.
Speaker 2: For the terrific, right, Like the Caves for the season
Speaker 2: average twenty wide open threes with nobody within six feet
Speaker 2: and that's not even you know, near the top of
Speaker 2: the league. On those late contests where Calves defenders are
Speaker 2: within four to six feet, Kings shot four of twelve
Speaker 2: on those shots. Didn't shoot particularly well. There tightly contested
Speaker 2: threes where the defender is within zero to four feet,
Speaker 2: the King shot six of seven.
Speaker 1: God, that's a great pull, brother, That's that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: And I was discussing this with our buddy Ben Cox,
Speaker 2: where he said, you know, it kind of feels like
Speaker 2: when the Calves lose, it's never just one little thing,
Speaker 2: it's everybody that struggles. And I said, yeah, that actually
Speaker 2: makes a lot of sense, because the Cavs have so
Speaker 2: much depth, and our margin for error because of that
Speaker 2: depth is so significant that it really does take almost
Speaker 2: everybody struggling in order for a loss to occur. Because
Speaker 2: even throughout that winning streak, that sixteen game winning streak,
Speaker 2: things weren't necessarily going great, right, Like Donovan Mitchell and
Speaker 2: Darius Garland were struggling with their shots at times, like
Speaker 2: we had, you know, things that made us feel like, hey,
Speaker 2: there's a bit of a slump occurring here. It really
Speaker 2: does take, you know, pretty broad struggles across the board
Speaker 2: from the team in order for them to ultimately lose
Speaker 2: a game. And when you talk about ten of thirty
Speaker 2: eight from three eleven of nineteen from the free throw
Speaker 2: line in a game that.
Speaker 1: You know the other team can't miss the shots that
Speaker 1: you're all over them on, like on shots from two
Speaker 1: to four feet for a frame of reference so tightly
Speaker 1: guarded the Bucks take four a game and lead the
Speaker 1: league at thirty seven percent. No one else has passed
Speaker 1: thirty four. Like, so six of seven is bananas bad luck.
Speaker 2: And particularly when you know, I think two of those
Speaker 2: came from Tomorrow de Rozan, who's probably you know, bottom
Speaker 2: three volume shooter wing in the last twenty years, right,
Speaker 2: So you know that you can attribute to poor luck.
Speaker 2: But the Calves, even with that, it's not like the
Speaker 2: Kings were hitting an abnormal amount of their open shots.
Speaker 2: It's not like, you know, it's not like there were
Speaker 2: things that were outside the calves control that they just
Speaker 2: couldn't handle and it was an unfortunate game. It was, Hey,
Speaker 2: you generated open looks you didn't capitalize on. You generated
Speaker 2: the most open look that you will ever have in
Speaker 2: a game, which is free throws, and you couldn't capitalize
Speaker 2: on those. Like, to me, that's the kind of stuff
Speaker 2: that I focus on more so than a zach Lavine
Speaker 2: shot left his hand a second late, shouldn't have counted. Obviously,
Speaker 2: that had an impact on the last minute. It has
Speaker 2: an impact on the shot decisions you make and all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. But to me, the one result
Speaker 2: isn't as interesting as the last month in a bit
Speaker 2: here where the Cavs have been slumping offensively, because that,
Speaker 2: to me is a more macro trend that you have
Speaker 2: to take a look at. Because since the start of March,
Speaker 2: Carter the Cats are twenty three and three point percentage.
Speaker 1: Yep, it's been rough, man uh like, and it does
Speaker 1: really just feel like I mean, and the thing is,
Speaker 1: it's a relatively centrally located bad three point percentage. It's
Speaker 1: not like it's not the whole team can't hit. DeAndre
Speaker 1: Hunter is still shooting fine, Dean Wade shooting fine. Oh,
Speaker 1: Korro even as mostly shooting fine, a little less in
Speaker 1: that stretch less on that, a little lower. But but
Speaker 1: you know, like, uh, you know, even Evan. Evan's had
Speaker 1: more up and down games, I would say, but he's
Speaker 1: had good games where, you know, I don't feel like
Speaker 1: his three point shooting is significantly worse than it was
Speaker 1: the beginning of the season. No, it's Darius Donovan time.
Speaker 1: And all three of these dudes are just ice cold
Speaker 1: as jump shooters and have been since the beginning of March.
Speaker 1: And I just don't know what to do about that, dude,
Speaker 1: because it's like, you know, every time, I think that
Speaker 1: they are kind of on their you know, on their
Speaker 1: way up, and oh Darius has a great game and
Speaker 1: now now he look he figured it out and he's
Speaker 1: back like it doesn't take long before it's you know,
Speaker 1: three four games a row of one of five, two
Speaker 1: of seven. Yep. And it's just one of those things
Speaker 1: that's just really disappointing. I mean, Okra, Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: Okor's at thirty point six since March first, so he
Speaker 1: is not helping. But yeah, open, wide open looks too
Speaker 1: in that sample size, which is so he's shooting significantly
Speaker 1: better when he's contested. He's on that deroz and kick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we're we're at a fifteen game sample now of
Speaker 1: Donovan and twenty five percent. Yeah yeah, And you know,
Speaker 1: it's not like the quality of shots has gone worse
Speaker 1: over that stretch, right, because that's one of the things
Speaker 1: where all right here, here is a result. Let's work
Speaker 1: our way backwards and try to figure out what's going on.
Speaker 1: You look, before March first, the Cavs generated twenty point
Speaker 1: one wide open threes per game, and they shot forty
Speaker 1: three percent. Since March first, they're generating twenty point three
Speaker 1: wide open threes per game.
Speaker 2: So it's actually up to a little bit. They're just
Speaker 2: shooting thirty seven point six percent. But if you look
Speaker 2: at just those wide open looks, Garland's shooting thirty three
Speaker 2: percent on those, Mitchell's shooting thirty two percent, on those,
Speaker 2: Isaaco korro is shooting thirty one percent, Ty Jerome thirty
Speaker 2: seven point nine. So those are the four guys that
Speaker 2: are kind of dragging that down that are around you know,
Speaker 2: that percentage or worse, every other member of the Cavaliers
Speaker 2: that takes you know, a decent number of threes wide
Speaker 2: open ones are shooting above forty percent. So it really
Speaker 2: is Darius and Donovan who are dragging that down. And
Speaker 2: then you know, you can mention o'korl and you can
Speaker 2: mention tie tie at least, you know it's somewhere around
Speaker 2: that average. O'cral's not taking a large enough volume to
Speaker 2: bring that number down. But but you look at you know,
Speaker 2: since March first, overall three point shooting, Darius shooting thirty
Speaker 2: three percent and as you said, Donald Mitchell shooting twenty
Speaker 2: five percent. And it's not much better from the field either,
Speaker 2: Mitchell shooting thirty nine percent. From the field, Garland shooting
Speaker 2: for forty percent, right like it, both of those guys
Speaker 2: are struggling on a decent diet of good looks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just I think I'm not quite sure what
Speaker 1: to make of it. You know, the volume is right
Speaker 1: about what you want. I don't think they're shucking your point.
Speaker 1: The open shots are have been good, and like, only time.
Speaker 2: There's really chucking is like a couple of these late
Speaker 2: game scenarios where it felt like, you know, Darius and
Speaker 2: Donovan have put up like five threes in ten seconds span.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which, like you know, like even that none of
Speaker 1: those even feel close, And like I do think, like
Speaker 1: I think something we're always trying, we try to be
Speaker 1: as careful as we can on this podcast. Is playing
Speaker 1: the result instead of playing the process. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just wonder if we're griping about sam Merril minutes
Speaker 1: at the three, if Darius and Donimo is shooting a
Speaker 1: little better, you know, and like, how how much that
Speaker 1: just meaningfully if each of those guys is making one
Speaker 1: more three a game, you know, that's that's six points
Speaker 1: a game that meaningfully changes your offensive rating, meaningfully changes
Speaker 1: the kind of possessions the defense is taking as a
Speaker 1: psychological effects that come with it, and you know, I
Speaker 1: do think it contributes to how much more work. It
Speaker 1: feels like the Caps offenses right now, where you know,
Speaker 1: they can still work their way to a few easy buckets,
Speaker 1: but when their actions are defended, well, their break class
Speaker 1: in case of emergency options just haven't been there. The
Speaker 1: backbreaker kickouts haven't been there. You know, the things that
Speaker 1: take a twelve point lead to fifteen or a fifteen
Speaker 1: point lead to eighteen. Those are going off the back
Speaker 1: rim and often I'm starting fast breaks for the other team.
Speaker 1: And like I it's not the best podcasting to talk
Speaker 1: about this because there's not much to be done other
Speaker 1: than hope both of them start shooting better. I do
Speaker 1: think earning your way to the one seed and having
Speaker 1: a long layoff for the play in is probably the
Speaker 1: best thing for these guys, just to get in the gym,
Speaker 1: get their rhythm under them again. Yeah, but which I mean?
Speaker 1: We saw Ty Jerome getting an extended time off. I
Speaker 1: thought he had a lot of juice, you know.
Speaker 2: Against the Kings, Chris Fiedor mentioned on his podcast that,
Speaker 2: you know, the decision to not play time Moore down
Speaker 2: the stretch was he's already you know, hit that kind
Speaker 2: of twenty three minute limit in terms of how much
Speaker 2: he had played in that game. And don't want to
Speaker 2: you know, lose track of what the long term goals
Speaker 2: are here of managing a guy that's had some injury history,
Speaker 2: just because you want to win a game here in.
Speaker 1: April right where speaking of that, that's the one storry
Speaker 1: to interrupt, But I did want to get this in earlier.
Speaker 1: There is a clear difference between what these coaches are coaching.
Speaker 1: For every single King starter played forty minutes, plus Malake
Speaker 1: Monk played twenty. Every other King's rotation player played seven
Speaker 1: or less. Yeah, so and then you look up and
Speaker 1: down the calves and no one tops thirty three minutes,
Speaker 1: and like that does matter, It doesn't not matter. Like
Speaker 1: Tom Tibodau has won a lot of regular season games
Speaker 1: by playing his best players more minutes in playing them
Speaker 1: against other teams second units.
Speaker 2: And that's something that we've seen, i'd say, over the
Speaker 2: last two weeks here, almost every single team we're playing
Speaker 2: is in that playing hunt, right, and they're playing basically
Speaker 2: a playoff rotation.
Speaker 1: So that's going to have some impact.
Speaker 2: But you know, you mentioned before how we've been talking
Speaker 2: recently about the Sam maryl at small forward minutes. Well,
Speaker 2: when the Cavs are struggling from three since the start
Speaker 2: of March and there's only two guys that are shooting
Speaker 2: above thirty nine percent and one is Sam Merril, that
Speaker 2: probably answers a bit of our question, right, like, hey,
Speaker 2: we need to have a shooting punch because the guards
Speaker 2: aren't bringing it. It's you know, Max Struce at thirty
Speaker 2: nine point six percent, which you know, thank you Max.
Speaker 1: He's been great. Max has been a real saving grace
Speaker 1: for us, I feel like in the last two months,
Speaker 1: and sam Merril at thirty nine point two percent, right, Like,
Speaker 1: those guys are giving them a lift at a time
Speaker 1: that they need it.
Speaker 2: So as we continue to you know, have two eyes
Speaker 2: on all right, this is what the president is and
Speaker 2: this is what the future is, and you know, maybe
Speaker 2: some rotation changes we'd make to almost have the playoffs
Speaker 2: in mind and experiment with some stuff. There's also the
Speaker 2: reality of hey are two highest volume shooters, one of
Speaker 2: whom just passed j R. Smith in terms of all
Speaker 2: time makes in a season. You know, those guys aren't
Speaker 2: aren't hitting their shots. We need to get guys that
Speaker 2: are going to give us a lyft from the three
Speaker 2: point range. It makes sense to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uh, it's tough, man. These are the the
Speaker 1: you know, the dog days the season are kind of passed.
Speaker 1: Now we're into playoff prep mode and yep, you know,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to like overly do them in gloom.
Speaker 1: The Cavs are one to three in a row for
Speaker 1: this loss, and like we're so spoiled that uh, you know,
Speaker 1: that feels not great. You know, the fact that they're
Speaker 1: six and six in their last twelve probably they're you know,
Speaker 1: there's probably something to be said that is probably their
Speaker 1: most extended stretch of the season. Like, you know, they
Speaker 1: had a few like lost you know, three or four
Speaker 1: out of seven or you know, like but a twelve
Speaker 1: game stretch where it kind of just kind of just
Speaker 1: feeling so up and down is something that we're just
Speaker 1: not used to this season. Yep. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, they also like just they really just
Speaker 1: don't have that much to play for, you know, they
Speaker 1: don't and that especially now that the wins record cannot
Speaker 1: be beaten, it can only be matched. I do wonder
Speaker 1: if that'll change the way they they they attack these
Speaker 1: these last five games or so. Yeah, and also you know,
Speaker 1: just the fact that Donn and Mitchell had that injury scare.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to take a very cautious approach here.
Speaker 1: And you know, if they're not playing on Fan Appreciation
Speaker 1: Day on Sunday, that means in all likelihood they're getting
Speaker 1: eight days of rest before Game one of the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and that's going to give them a chance to actually practice.
Speaker 1: It's going to give them a chance to rest up,
Speaker 1: deal with whatever nagging injuries that they have. And I
Speaker 1: think the hope is all right, you know, they're going
Speaker 1: to have an opportunity to get this thing going, and
Speaker 1: you would hope that they take care of business in
Speaker 1: the first round, and that gives them even more chance
Speaker 1: to rest up and to prepare for another round of
Speaker 1: the playoffs, to find a little bit of a rhythm
Speaker 1: if they need. Some of those games, you'll almost get
Speaker 1: a little bit of a warm up round. And for
Speaker 1: that reason, I really hope it's not the Orlando Magic.
Speaker 1: Not because I'm scared of the Magic. Honestly, if I
Speaker 1: had my brothers scared of them in the way you're
Speaker 1: scared of a school yard bully. No, I'm not even
Speaker 1: scared of one of that.
Speaker 2: Honestly, if I had the ability to, I'd like to
Speaker 2: play the Orlando Magic, I'd like to play the Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 2: I'd like to play the New York Knicks, and before
Speaker 2: I play the Boston Celtics. Because I'm just sick of
Speaker 2: the narratives and I'm not scared of a single damn
Speaker 2: team in this Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying from a practical standpoint of finding a rhythm.
Speaker 2: You know, that's not a team that allows you to
Speaker 2: really find a rhythm. So if you're talking about ideal
Speaker 2: scenarios as we're trying to get the offense back on track,
Speaker 2: they're probably not.
Speaker 1: The the ideal scenario.
Speaker 2: But you know, even with the Cavs not playing their
Speaker 2: best and pretty much not shooting their bestie is what
Speaker 2: you could kind of put this all down to, because
Speaker 2: I think when you're missing shots, it's going to lead
Speaker 2: to fast break opportunities for the other team. It's you know,
Speaker 2: it's not as demoralizing as when you're hitting absolutely everything
Speaker 2: and you're just a death machine out there. Like basketball
Speaker 2: is a very psychological game, and when the shots aren't
Speaker 2: aren't falling, you're giving the other team hope. But even
Speaker 2: with them not shooting well, there's seventh in net rating
Speaker 2: since the All Star break, right, Like, the floor of
Speaker 2: this team still remains incredibly damn high. It's just you know,
Speaker 2: trying to give us a little bit more confidence as
Speaker 2: we're heading over.
Speaker 1: To the playoffs. Yeah, I'm not down, but I am monitoring,
Speaker 1: you know, I am monitoring. I think that's kind of
Speaker 1: where we are where we just want to see the
Speaker 1: bounce back. We want to see this team fine, you know,
Speaker 1: with showing a few more of these positive signs, you know,
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, you know more, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to see two three lockdown quarters in a row.
Speaker 1: I want to see more forty eight minute efforts. I
Speaker 1: want to see execution. I want to see you know,
Speaker 1: at the end of I want to see shots going. Brother,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the name of the game. You know.
Speaker 1: We can talk about shop profile, we can talk about
Speaker 1: you know, openness ratings. All we want. They either go
Speaker 1: in or they don't. If they don't, you have to
Speaker 1: go home. And that sucks. What that to happen?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely not what you want to happen. And
Speaker 2: looking at the standings right now, I think the third
Speaker 2: best team in the Eastern Conference for the last month
Speaker 2: or so here has been the Indiana Pacers, and I
Speaker 2: think that that's going to be a really interesting matchup
Speaker 2: if that's ultimately what the Cavs play in the second round.
Speaker 2: And Darius and Donovan are still in this range where
Speaker 2: you know, Darius is shooting forty thirty three from the
Speaker 2: field and Donovan' shooting thirty nine to twenty five from
Speaker 2: the field. That's a series that goes from hey, this
Speaker 2: is a test, to hey, this is something that you
Speaker 2: know could actually knock us out right, And I don't
Speaker 2: think that's going to be the case. I have confidence
Speaker 2: that they're going to be a little turned around. I
Speaker 2: have Donovan's got a track record of, you know, not
Speaker 2: finishing a season particularly strong, but stepping up in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: We thought he was cooked. We were really worried he
Speaker 1: was cooked going into the playoffs like that. Knees just
Speaker 1: he's not right. He's has in top twenty games in
Speaker 1: two weeks or twenty points in a game and like
Speaker 1: two three weeks and then all of a sudden. I
Speaker 1: mean you just started hard carrying. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2: You know, Darius doesn't have the same track record, so
Speaker 2: that's something we're going to need to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2: It's always tricky to talk about his playoffs when the
Speaker 2: bulk of those games came last year, which was just
Speaker 2: kind of a lost season. But he's got to get
Speaker 2: that shot the fall man, Like.
Speaker 1: It's crazy to think we only have two playoff runs
Speaker 1: of data to analyze. We have three series. We've drawn
Speaker 1: so many big conclusions and so many we've tried to
Speaker 1: extrapolate every possible take in data out of this unbelievably
Speaker 1: limited group of games. Yeah, it's what, seventeen games, Yep,
Speaker 1: seventeen games. Not a tremendous amount.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's not a lot of data to keep
Speaker 2: track of, but sometimes you do have a lot of
Speaker 2: data to keep track of Carter. And that's why tools
Speaker 2: like zoom Ai Companion are so important. Because only you
Speaker 2: can do your best work, zoom Mai Companion can help
Speaker 2: you do the rest, like automatically taking notes, answer meeting questions,
Speaker 2: and helping you respond to your coworker. Available at no
Speaker 2: additional cost with eligibly eligible paid plans were happy with
Speaker 2: zoom Ai companion, Carter other Let's.
Speaker 1: Talk awards, let's get let's get away from this regular season.
Speaker 1: April early April Angst.
Speaker 2: All right, I have one thing I want to bring up,
Speaker 2: and I don't really want to discuss it much in depth,
Speaker 2: But Evan Mobley's first quarter gainst the Spurs rocked, and
Speaker 2: we don't need to have those Kevin Love quarters for
Speaker 2: Evan Mobley where he doesn't continue to get fed quat,
Speaker 2: you know, touches after that. So the annual Kevin Love
Speaker 2: Award goes to Avin Mobley for big first quarter and
Speaker 2: not enough touches the rest of the game, because I
Speaker 2: would have liked to see ev.
Speaker 1: Go for fifty. Yeah, I was. I'm rarely frustrated with
Speaker 1: the fellas him him finishing the night with thirteen field
Speaker 1: goal attempts after eighteen in the first quarter, and the
Speaker 1: game you almost lost because their offense fell apart. Not great, Bob, No.
Speaker 2: That one was not fun. I think, you know, I
Speaker 2: think they were up ten with two minutes to go,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was over. They obviously thought it
Speaker 2: was over, and it was not in fact over. So
Speaker 2: they were lucky to get that one. Now, let's Transition Awards.
Speaker 2: I just had to get that off of my chest
Speaker 2: because that quarter was so damn fun from Evan Mobley.
Speaker 2: I want to start things off with Kenny Atkinson Coach
Speaker 2: of the Year. You know, this was one of those
Speaker 2: awards that it's kind of spoken for itself all season.
Speaker 2: You know, the Cavs did not make significant changes in
Speaker 2: terms of their rotation, were really banking on internal development
Speaker 2: and wanted to bring in a coach that was going
Speaker 2: to help foster that internal development. And Kenny Atkinson has
Speaker 2: absolutely done that. You look at where they're at now,
Speaker 2: They've already you know, exceeded their Vegas over on their
Speaker 2: win total by fifteen games. Evan Mobley has taken that
Speaker 2: step forward. You look at the sacrifice that Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 2: has made this season. Everybody you know, having really really
Speaker 2: terrific seasons, even despite this slump. When you look at
Speaker 2: the season long numbers, they have been terrific. They have
Speaker 2: exceeded all expectations. They're on the verge of clinching the
Speaker 2: number one seed in the Eastern Conference, and I think,
Speaker 2: you know, it's something that we've talked about for years.
Speaker 2: The most difficult spot, and the most difficult thing to
Speaker 2: do is go from being a fifty win team to
Speaker 2: a sixty plus win team. That is the hardest thing
Speaker 2: to do, particularly when you're just relying on internal development
Speaker 2: rather than bringing in some large piece to help shorten
Speaker 2: that jump.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what a We know, it's really hard
Speaker 1: to evaluate coaching. You know, we're not in the room.
Speaker 1: We don't get to see this stuff. So what are
Speaker 1: the things you look to to evaluate with what limited
Speaker 1: information you have. Is a coach imprinting his style onto
Speaker 1: the team. This went from a very predictable, moribund offense
Speaker 1: to the best offense in the league, perhaps and almost
Speaker 1: one of the best offenses in the history of the sport.
Speaker 1: They went from a slow team that really struggled to
Speaker 1: play with tempo and pace and went from twenty fourth
Speaker 1: in pace up to twelve. They are one of the
Speaker 1: best teams off cuts in the league. They are a
Speaker 1: team that kills you in five or six different ways.
Speaker 1: They have the ability for you know, Kenny has gotten
Speaker 1: them to play his style of offense in terms of pace,
Speaker 1: in terms of selflessness, in terms of the three point volume.
Speaker 1: How many years do we beg for that three point
Speaker 1: volume to go up. You know, they're up top five
Speaker 1: and three point rate this year. So that's one thing
Speaker 1: you look for. You look for the ability to imprint
Speaker 1: your style. What's the next thing you look for? You
Speaker 1: look for the ability to inspire your the players to
Speaker 1: play the way you want them to play to generate
Speaker 1: buy in. Donovan Mitchell playing less minutes than he's ever played,
Speaker 1: less volume than less, you know, less shot volume than
Speaker 1: he's ever had, less control of the offense than he's
Speaker 1: ever had, and done it with a smile on his face.
Speaker 1: And that's a testament to Donovan. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: feel any valor here, but it's also a testament to
Speaker 1: Kenney for coming to his player with a plan. You
Speaker 1: know that that that that lunch meeting several several months
Speaker 1: ago with assault shakers at the table and diagramming plays
Speaker 1: with Donovan and showing him I have a point of
Speaker 1: view on what this team should be. Here's exactly what
Speaker 1: it is, here's exactly why you should buy in, and
Speaker 1: then Donovan does it. So so that's thing too that
Speaker 1: you're looking for. Thing three is are players the best
Speaker 1: versions of themselves when they're playing for you? Look at
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley. I don't even think I have to say
Speaker 1: more than that, Like every player, every role player has been,
Speaker 1: you know, the best version of themselves With this team,
Speaker 1: Guys like Ty Jerome, who you know, we're into rotation
Speaker 1: guys for much of their career have blossomed in the
Speaker 1: sixth Man of the Year considers.
Speaker 2: Sam Merril's been terrific, you know, really developed into a
Speaker 2: solid rotation player this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So up and down the rosters, everyone the best
Speaker 1: versions of themselves. Yes, and then like the fourth thing
Speaker 1: that you look for is kind of what the Cavs
Speaker 1: didn't do, which is you're always trying to figure out
Speaker 1: are they better because they change the roster? Are they
Speaker 1: better because they got better? Yep? You know, and this
Speaker 1: team there's no where to look really, I mean, Hi Jerome,
Speaker 1: a mid season acquisition of DeAndre Hunter when you know
Speaker 1: they were already great before they got DeAndre Hunter. You know,
Speaker 1: I just think for the data that we have, for
Speaker 1: the information we have, there is no clearer choice than
Speaker 1: Kenny Atkinson. Yeah. I agree.
Speaker 2: And you know the tricky thing about discussing awards is
Speaker 2: you know, when you look at usually the top five candidates,
Speaker 2: everyone's very deserving, Like I think that there's a lot
Speaker 2: of very deserving coaches this year. I think when you
Speaker 2: look at Defensive Player of the Year, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of deserving candidates MVP, there's a lot of deserving candidates.
Speaker 2: So anytime you start doing in comparison, it always comes
Speaker 2: across as a little negative. So I just want to
Speaker 2: say on the front end when we do those comparisons,
Speaker 2: I don't mean for it to be negative. Maybe a
Speaker 2: little bit with Draymond Green, but you know there's a
Speaker 2: there's love and history there right when it comes to Draymond.
Speaker 2: But you know, listening to the Hoop Collective today and
Speaker 2: they were discussing the leap that Detroit has made and JB. Bickerstaff,
Speaker 2: as you know, kind of that second leading candidate there,
Speaker 2: and you know, very similar to the Calves have exceeded
Speaker 2: there over under Vegas over under by fifteen wins. Detroit
Speaker 2: has exceeded theirs by seventeen, so a couple games more.
Speaker 2: As I said before, I think going from a New
Speaker 2: York fifty win team to a mid sixty win team
Speaker 2: is a little bit more difficult. And if you want
Speaker 2: to look at the history of the Ward That's exactly
Speaker 2: how this has played out, because I want to know
Speaker 2: a very very comparable situation.
Speaker 1: When JB.
Speaker 2: Bickerstaff took the Calves from nineteen wins to forty four wins,
Speaker 2: which there right now Detroit's had thirty forty three wins
Speaker 2: with four games left. They're currently down to Sacramento, so
Speaker 2: finishing at forty four might finish with the exact same
Speaker 2: number of wins. He did not win Coach of the Year.
Speaker 2: He lost Coach of the Year to Monty Williams, who
Speaker 2: took a fifty one win Phoenix Suns team two sixty
Speaker 2: four wins, because the argument at the time was that
Speaker 2: is the more difficult thing to do. It's we're talking
Speaker 2: about almost an identical leap and identical coach. It is
Speaker 2: very funny the parallels here where we're talking about Monty
Speaker 2: Williams who was replaced by J. B. Bickerstaff, we're talking
Speaker 2: Kenny Atkinson who replaced JB.
Speaker 1: Bickerstaff.
Speaker 2: JB is absolutely deserving, But when you're talking about teams
Speaker 2: that have exceeded their Vegas over under by almost the
Speaker 2: exact same number of games, and we are conceding that
Speaker 2: is so much harder to do that at the high
Speaker 2: end versus a Detroit team that was not trying to
Speaker 2: win games last year and was artificially deflating their win total.
Speaker 2: You know, I just think that that Kenny Atkinson deserves
Speaker 2: the nod here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, JB is a great coach. I think
Speaker 1: it's been a vindicating year for those of us that
Speaker 1: were like, hey, like whether or not the JB experience
Speaker 1: has run its course in Cleveland. I can't pretend like
Speaker 1: he didn't do good stuff here in a.
Speaker 2: Great job late, a terrific foundation. Kenny credits it all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: And uh, and so very validating. But like, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, someone one person's got to win.
Speaker 1: And I just think in all the ways that we
Speaker 1: can evaluate this stuff other than just I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like the only thing JB really has going compared
Speaker 1: to Kenny right now was the element of surprise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the starting point of last year, right, And that's
Speaker 1: not a good reason about for awards.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, there were a lot of other
Speaker 2: elements brought in there, right, Like Detroit spent a lot
Speaker 2: of money the saw season. They brought into bias He Harris,
Speaker 2: they brought in Tim Hardaway, junior who's been terrific for them.
Speaker 1: That's that's the one. You know, they both have, I
Speaker 1: mean both have been very good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I just mixed up the shooters that they
Speaker 2: brought in. But you know, Tobias Harris has been better
Speaker 2: than Paul George with the sixers, Like you know, you know,
Speaker 2: it was not just a coaching change that resulted in
Speaker 2: overachieving by seventeen wins, whereas with the Calves DII Jerome
Speaker 2: getting healthy is certainly part of it, but you know,
Speaker 2: it wasn't like there was major shakeups. It's not like
Speaker 2: there was a big investment in the off season here
Speaker 2: that helped result in that. Next to WARLD, I want
Speaker 2: to discuss Clutch Player of the Year. Obviously, Darius Garland
Speaker 2: is our candidate for this one. I think this one
Speaker 2: you're kind of leaning a little bit on team success
Speaker 2: just because the Calves haven't been in as many clutch
Speaker 2: games as other teams. The Calves have the best clutch
Speaker 2: net rating in the league. They have the best winning
Speaker 2: percentage in the clutch this season. It's funny to do
Speaker 2: this coming in off of clutch loss, but guess what
Speaker 2: that feeling of losing a clutch game. Almost every team
Speaker 2: is felt that way way more than the Caves. That sucky,
Speaker 2: sucky feelings, you know, has not been felt because of
Speaker 2: how good they've been in those situations. Only one team
Speaker 2: in the league has more clutch wins than the Calves.
Speaker 2: That's Houston, one more, but they also have eight more losses.
Speaker 2: There are ten players in the NBA this season that
Speaker 2: have scored at least one hundred points in the clutch
Speaker 2: this season. Darius Garland is one of them, and he
Speaker 2: is the most efficient. He has a true shooting percentage
Speaker 2: of sixty eight point nine percent in clutch situations. Jalen
Speaker 2: Brunson is the next closest at sixty four point seven
Speaker 2: so over four percent worse. And Jalen Brunson has been
Speaker 2: phenomenal in those situations. So you want to reward the
Speaker 2: best clutch performer, the most efficient clutch performer on the
Speaker 2: best clutch team. I think that, you know, the award
Speaker 2: would go to Darius. But again, it's a little bit
Speaker 2: of an uphill battle just because they do not have
Speaker 2: the same volume as some of these other teams.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I do think it's an uphill battle.
Speaker 1: But the other thing you're looking for outside of the
Speaker 1: statistical profile, is do you have a well established history
Speaker 1: of slamming the door on teams, because you know, the
Speaker 1: clutch staff can be a little they can be a
Speaker 1: little misleading, Like you can be up five with four
Speaker 1: minutes left or whatever it is, and you know that's
Speaker 1: technically clubch time, right, and like, so being up five
Speaker 1: and hitting a three is a lot different than being
Speaker 1: tied in the last minute, and so like, while his
Speaker 1: clutch debts are unassailable, they're great, I think you also
Speaker 1: need on the other side of the coin is some
Speaker 1: iconic moments, and Darius says a lot of those. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got the Vucevich layup, he's got the
Speaker 1: Detroit game winner, He's had all these moments where he's
Speaker 1: slammed the door on teams. Then the Thunder game he
Speaker 1: helped slam the door.
Speaker 2: And the game at Madison Square Garden early in the
Speaker 2: season against the Knicks, shortly after the second matchup against
Speaker 2: the Bucks where you know, he had back to back
Speaker 2: clutch threes to basically while the Cavs were down to
Speaker 2: ultimately help them win that game. And then I think
Speaker 2: it was an assist to Allan or Mobile, Like you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's both the scoring as well as the playmaking
Speaker 2: where he's been so good in those situations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think it's I think like it's all
Speaker 1: those factors together that really really come down to it,
Speaker 1: and that is why Darius really does deserve it. It's
Speaker 1: it's going to be a narrative award. I think it's
Speaker 1: always going to be a narrative award because we know
Speaker 1: Clutch is noisy. We know like Darius misses two extra
Speaker 1: threes and those numbers look way different because the samples
Speaker 1: are just comically small and our team as good as
Speaker 1: the Caves, we haven't played as much lunchtime as other
Speaker 1: teams they're even smaller.
Speaker 2: So and also what happens you know on a national game, right,
Speaker 2: Like some of these national games that the Caves have
Speaker 2: just had blowouts and you don't really get a showcase that, right,
Speaker 2: So it makes it tougher. It's a Vibees award, but
Speaker 2: like Darius has matched numbers and the Vibes have matched
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally agree. Now, the final one I want to discuss.
Speaker 2: Big Kahuna, is a little more clear cut in my
Speaker 2: eyes because Evan Mobley I think has been ridiculously dominant
Speaker 2: defensively this season. I think he is taking as step
Speaker 2: forward on the defensive end, even though so much of
Speaker 2: the focus has been on the offensive side of the
Speaker 2: floor and what he's done. And I think that's a
Speaker 2: good place to start this off because the fact that
Speaker 2: his defense has not suffered by him taking on a
Speaker 2: larger offensive load is impressive. The fact that it's taking
Speaker 2: a step forward is even more impressive, because this is
Speaker 2: a guy that really does do everything on both ends
Speaker 2: of the court. Some second spectrum rankings here from Nick
Speaker 2: Guy's Duncan our good friend who has access to a spectrum,
Speaker 2: I certainly do not. You know, this is one of
Speaker 2: those spots where we're going to have to do some
Speaker 2: comparisons because it really does seem when you look at
Speaker 2: the odds that it's a two man race between Evan
Speaker 2: Mobley and Draymond Green. So we're going to do some
Speaker 2: head to heads here. When you look at it, Mobley
Speaker 2: has the edge in drives, drives, defender ISOs, defended, rim
Speaker 2: field goal percentage, on court defensive rating, and on off differential.
Speaker 2: Draymond has an edge and pick and roll defense and
Speaker 2: post up defense as well as defensive EPM. You know,
Speaker 2: if a single person wants to, I like, I know,
Speaker 2: defensive EPM is the one that I kind of use
Speaker 2: a little bit as a catch all, just because there
Speaker 2: are no good defensive metrics. But if anyone can tell
Speaker 2: me how it's actually calculated here and why that, you know,
Speaker 2: you're going to put a lot of faith in it.
Speaker 2: You have to make that as part of your part
Speaker 2: of your argument. If you're going to say that, hey,
Speaker 2: that that helps override a lot of things for me
Speaker 2: when when we're talking about these two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know a lot of those metrics do
Speaker 1: like kind of weight on off stuff and yeah of
Speaker 1: the day, which is weird because Mobiley's got the better
Speaker 1: on off Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just I think the
Speaker 1: fact that Evan is asked to carry some of the
Speaker 1: most difficult to carry defense of lineups. He is the
Speaker 1: full crumb of the defense. He is the scheme wrecker.
Speaker 1: He is the one who allows them to keep their
Speaker 1: shell by being such an excellent switch defender, he has
Speaker 1: been even better as a help defender. I feel like
Speaker 1: this was the first year to me where he was
Speaker 1: by far the best rim protector on the team through
Speaker 1: no fault of Jared Allen. And I do think he
Speaker 1: holds the Calves identity on that end of the floor.
Speaker 1: He is the thing that makes them special. I think
Speaker 1: he's flexible. I think he's gotten much better as a
Speaker 1: post up defender. You know, I think he's still not perfect.
Speaker 1: It's probably like you know, in terms of going up
Speaker 1: against these bulky dudes, is still like a thing that
Speaker 1: he has to work on, you know, in terms of
Speaker 1: getting strength, fighting for that position early and stuff. But
Speaker 1: also like the switch heavy Calves team has really asked
Speaker 1: him to cover a lot of.
Speaker 2: It really has, and you know, they've actually switched more
Speaker 2: this season than the Golden State Warriors, and the Warriors
Speaker 2: have always been a very switch heavy team. And you know,
Speaker 2: to talk about how special both of these guys are defensively,
Speaker 2: both Evan Mobley and Draymond Green lead their team in
Speaker 2: two point field goals contested as well as three point
Speaker 2: field goals. Can test it like when you have one
Speaker 2: player that does both of that, that's that's really really
Speaker 2: damn impressive. And I think that goes to show you
Speaker 2: just how switch heavy both of these defenses are. But
Speaker 2: if we're going to take a look at it. Evan
Speaker 2: Mobley defends twelve point two two point field goals per
Speaker 2: game and opponents shoot five point nine percent worse on
Speaker 2: those shots versus when Evan Mobley's not guarding them. Draymond
Speaker 2: eight point seven shots two point field goals per game,
Speaker 2: so almost four shots a game less from two point range.
Speaker 2: To Draymond's credit, opponents shoot just a little bit worse
Speaker 2: on those six point eight percent. But you got to say,
Speaker 2: all right, Mobley can test more two point field goals.
Speaker 2: That's probably because the East defending a lot of shots
Speaker 2: of the rim is what it is, even though Mobile,
Speaker 2: you know, is defending the rim better than Draymond Green
Speaker 2: natural part of being a center. Well, let's take a
Speaker 2: look at three point field goals defended. Mobily can test
Speaker 2: five three point field goals a game and opponent shoot
Speaker 2: three percent worse on those shots. Not easy to take
Speaker 2: a three pointer with a seven footer on you. Draymond
Speaker 2: Green five points seven threes per game, so not even
Speaker 2: a full three point attempt more than Evan Mobley can
Speaker 2: test per game and opponents shoot zero point two percent worse.
Speaker 2: So big, big difference in terms of the effectiveness of
Speaker 2: Mobley's five threes contested a game versus Draymond's five point seven.
Speaker 2: So when you look at both of these guys leading
Speaker 2: their team in you know, two point shots contested and
Speaker 2: three point shots contested, but Mobily doing it at such
Speaker 2: a higher volume. To me like that, that's something that
Speaker 2: speaks in his favor absolutely. And I think the other
Speaker 2: two things that really go in favor of Evan is
Speaker 2: the consistent since over the course of the year, Like
Speaker 2: even as the Calves defense wax and waxed and waned
Speaker 2: over the year, I don't think Evan's did. I think
Speaker 2: Evan has been excellent all year. And I think the
Speaker 2: other impact is how much of the player's success is
Speaker 2: because of the context around them versus how much of
Speaker 2: their success on that end of the floor is because
Speaker 2: of them. Are they generating of their own just on
Speaker 2: their own two feet, you know, where it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: who you put out, Like I feel like the Calves
Speaker 2: have more lineups where with four bad defenders that still
Speaker 2: defend well just because of Evan's presence, Whereas I do
Speaker 2: feel like Jarrett or Draymond, just because he's not as big,
Speaker 2: can't cover ground the way Evan can is a little
Speaker 2: bit more dependent on the personnel. Like, I don't think
Speaker 2: it's any surprise that the Warriors defense took the huge
Speaker 2: leap that is facilitating this Draymond Green run. Uh, after
Speaker 2: they picked up Jimmy Butler. I don't think it's any
Speaker 2: surprise that Jimmy Butler in a lot of ways the
Speaker 2: impetus for this defense to take a leap.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And it's funny because you look since the All Star Break,
Speaker 2: the Warriors defense is five point seven points better with
Speaker 2: Jimmy Butler on the cord versus off and one point
Speaker 2: one points better when Draymond on versus off. And you're right, like,
Speaker 2: it really does seem like their success since adding Jimmy
Speaker 2: Butler is getting attributed to Draymond Green taking this leap defensively.
Speaker 2: And one, it's a full season award even if that
Speaker 2: were in fact true, that you know, there's another level
Speaker 2: of the effort. And two, like, it really does seem
Speaker 2: that Jimmy has been driving that because you look at
Speaker 2: the Warriors defense with Draymond on the court this season
Speaker 2: and no Jimmy Butler, it's a defensive rating a one
Speaker 2: to twelve point six with Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green
Speaker 2: out there, it's one oh seven point eight. So that's
Speaker 2: a significant difference when you talk about that. And now
Speaker 2: the presence of Jerry Allen has always kind of been
Speaker 2: used to discredit Mobiley just a little bit, like, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, he's playing power forward next to someone that
Speaker 2: deserves all defense recognition as well, in Jared Allen. It
Speaker 2: is true the defense is a little bit better with
Speaker 2: Jared Allen out there. With Evan Mobley, they have a
Speaker 2: one to ten point six. It should be they have
Speaker 2: a one ten point six defensive rating with both of
Speaker 2: them out there, But when it's just Evan Mobley, And
Speaker 2: as you said, Carter, some of those lineups that Mobiley's
Speaker 2: asked to cover for are really asking a lot of them.
Speaker 2: It's not even a full point worse. It's zero point
Speaker 2: eight points worse per hundred possessions eleven point four. One
Speaker 2: eleven point four eleven point four would be nuts, But like,
Speaker 2: that's not a massive, massive gap here. So it just
Speaker 2: it's funny to me that, you know, the Warrior success
Speaker 2: post All Star break is really you know, pumping up
Speaker 2: this Draymond case, even though the number suggests Jimmy Butler
Speaker 2: is the one that is driving that change. You know,
Speaker 2: it's helped the Warriors get eighteen wins since the All
Speaker 2: Star break. Meanwhile, the Calves are slumping since the All
Speaker 2: Star break with their eighteen wins season award. What are
Speaker 2: we doing here, buddy?
Speaker 1: I mean even yeah, it's just really really frustrating, and
Speaker 1: it just kind of feels like it just feels like
Speaker 1: to me, sometimes this is such a you know, such
Speaker 1: a whiner take. So I'm sure some pockets of the
Speaker 1: listener basically going to roll their eyes, but it's like,
Speaker 1: just sometimes it feels like teams are like the media
Speaker 1: is just looking for reasons to to have a wandering eye.
Speaker 1: You know. JB loses like Kobe hasn't won Executive of
Speaker 1: the Year despite building this great team. Evan loses out
Speaker 1: on Rookie of the Year and might lose out on
Speaker 1: this defensive Player of the Year. You know, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm hearing all this noise about JB for
Speaker 1: Coach of the Year. Peyton Pritchard, despite you know, not
Speaker 1: being meaningfully better than DeAndre or Tie statistically, is just
Speaker 1: the lock. It don't even think about it, lock to
Speaker 1: win six Man of the Year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, go look at the per thirty six numbers for
Speaker 2: Tie and Peyton Pritchard's side by side.
Speaker 1: It's very very clear.
Speaker 2: Who's having the better season when like the big difference
Speaker 2: is minutes. But that's really what comes down to.
Speaker 1: So like I just I just feel up and down,
Speaker 1: you know, the Calves just it feels like they have
Speaker 1: to make it so without doubt in order to get
Speaker 1: this kind of love, and it's a little frustrating and
Speaker 1: we'll lie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean to me, the Coach of the Year
Speaker 2: parallel was just so funny where it's okay, you know
Speaker 2: Monty Williams got it over JB because fifty one to
Speaker 2: sixty four. Meanwhile, you know, if we go two and
Speaker 2: two the rest of the way, we'll get to that
Speaker 2: sixty four wins, So that'd be forty nine to sixty four,
Speaker 2: Whereas you know, again JB took the Calves from the
Speaker 2: teens to forty four wins. Currently looks like the Pistons
Speaker 2: might lose to the Sacramento Kings here, so there's a
Speaker 2: very good chance that the Pistons end up with that
Speaker 2: exact forty four win number. They're just going to be
Speaker 2: outside of the plan because the East is worse this
Speaker 2: year than it was back then in twenty one twenty two,
Speaker 2: where you know, you had the playing game against Kyrie
Speaker 2: Durant and Harden right like, it's that was a more
Speaker 2: difficult Eastern Conference And the only reason they felt, the
Speaker 2: only reason it was only forty four wins was because
Speaker 2: Evan Mobley missed two weeks, Jared Allen missed basically the
Speaker 2: last half of the season. Like, there was a lot
Speaker 2: more injury adversity with that team. So getting to forty
Speaker 2: four wins in that situation, with all of that injury adversity,
Speaker 2: I thought JB absolutely deserved to be Coach of the Year.
Speaker 2: But at the time we were told no, getting to
Speaker 2: you know, sixty wins from where the Suns were, that
Speaker 2: is more difficult to do.
Speaker 1: That is what needs to be rewarded here.
Speaker 2: So it just seems like the goalpost move whenever it's uh,
Speaker 2: you know a Calves, you know, a coach or player
Speaker 2: that's in the running for the award. And I understand
Speaker 2: that this is being a whiny fan. I understand my
Speaker 2: bias here, but I'm also just presenting facts here.
Speaker 1: Man. It's very clear it's very very rare. You get
Speaker 1: this clean of a parallel in terms of scenario. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you did your homework, brother, And that's all
Speaker 1: you can ask when when you're a biased fan like us,
Speaker 1: is that where at least you know, come and correct
Speaker 1: with some gives me a little bit of a shield.
Speaker 1: It gives me a little bit of a shield. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, here's the thing. I'll continue to say this
Speaker 1: stuff even though I absolutely want the Calves to be
Speaker 1: recognized up and down the organization for this unbelievable year.
Speaker 1: The thing that all keep going back to his fans
Speaker 1: is we can't really lose because if the Calves do
Speaker 1: get jobbed out of any of these three, and you know,
Speaker 1: I would throw six man in their six man in
Speaker 1: there as well, like talk about fuel, talk about something
Speaker 1: to like, oh, oh, we do you think Tigerome is
Speaker 1: going to take something personally? Oh? I might suspect he
Speaker 1: would do that. You know, these guys are you know,
Speaker 1: if they're not going to get the credit they deserve
Speaker 1: from the media, that they'll have no choice but to
Speaker 1: let them know. Hey, I'm always on my way to
Speaker 1: let him know, Carter, It's just what I'm here for.
Speaker 2: It's you know a little bit of fuel, particularly after
Speaker 2: you know, the first half of the season and you know,
Speaker 2: really the first seventy five percent of the season, and
Speaker 2: it's such a good job that we've been sitting here
Speaker 2: for a month being like I kind of would like
Speaker 2: to get to the playoffs here. They're really not playing
Speaker 2: for a whole lot. They have a ten game lead
Speaker 2: up on Boston. You know, they just need to basically
Speaker 2: go through the motions here and clinch that number one seed.
Speaker 2: You know, That's kind of where I'm at, by the way,
Speaker 2: I just at this point get a win and then
Speaker 2: go one hundred two hundred percent into playoff prep mode.
Speaker 2: I do not care how they decide to handle the
Speaker 2: rest this season. If they decide that they're going to
Speaker 2: play it out and everyone's gonna ramp up to forty
Speaker 2: minutes and try to test that out, great if they
Speaker 2: If they shut everyone down and say, hey, we're gonna
Speaker 2: do two weeks off and we're going to practice really
Speaker 2: hard between games with our top eight guys, cool, I
Speaker 2: don't care. I do trust Kenny on this, and I
Speaker 2: trust the front office, I trust the training staff, and
Speaker 2: it's just going to be a matter of like, you know,
Speaker 2: like I don't think once they get that final win,
Speaker 2: no matter what approach they take, I'm going to have
Speaker 2: any quibbles with it, because I think there's too many
Speaker 2: roads up the mountain for me to actually have a problem. Yep,
Speaker 2: you know me, I always compartmentalize the regular season in
Speaker 2: the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I basically already tucked this.
Speaker 2: Regular season away, and I'm interested to see what this
Speaker 2: the team does in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Right, it's you No, I've I've had my way too long, brother,
Speaker 1: Like thirteen days away. It is right around the corner.
Speaker 1: I could not be more excited. You know.
Speaker 2: I think the time off's going to do these guys
Speaker 2: a lot of good. And if it doesn't, you know
Speaker 2: they're going to have to fight through some adversity, right,
Speaker 2: you know, thinking back to that Celtics team that won
Speaker 2: with KG Pierce and all them right, basically going seven
Speaker 2: every single round along the way, and you know.
Speaker 1: Hawks series was that saw Hawk series will be burned
Speaker 1: into my brain.
Speaker 2: I just remember the PTI discourse for some reason, you
Speaker 2: know that that was my time of life or that
Speaker 2: time of life life.
Speaker 1: Coin Heiser and Wilbon, Oh, they were're my favorite the
Speaker 1: best yellers in the game.
Speaker 2: I would come home from high school and you know,
Speaker 2: I would watch that right after and then just reacting
Speaker 2: to every single game being a twenty point win by
Speaker 2: the home team.
Speaker 1: It was so much fun in that series, The rain Breaker.
Speaker 2: You know, I really, really, you know, hope that the
Speaker 2: cast take care business. I think it would be good
Speaker 2: for our collective, you know, our psyche here to to
Speaker 2: see them have a dominant playoff series.
Speaker 1: And you know, maybe it doesn't matter. I do think
Speaker 1: that's important to say. It matters for the story we
Speaker 1: tell ourselves. But there has been so many teams that
Speaker 1: struggle in round one and then catch a heater. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I I'll have to be fact checked on this.
Speaker 1: I may be wrong. But the year the MAVs won
Speaker 1: the title, they played the Blazers in the first round
Speaker 1: and that was a hard series. I remember that, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I want to say it went six and then
Speaker 1: they just blew the defending champion Lakers off the floor
Speaker 1: in four games. Is that the Brandon Roy game winner?
Speaker 1: It was? It was the Brandon Roy his last Hurrah game.
Speaker 1: My favorite favorite games favorite moments as a fan that
Speaker 1: that's not kas related Brandon Roy team was all that
Speaker 1: that Mavericks playoff run might be the best playoff run
Speaker 1: in the history of the sport. They played a loaded
Speaker 1: Blazer's team in the first round. Then they played the
Speaker 1: defending champion Lakers and swept them off the floor. They
Speaker 1: beat a on fire Katie russ Harden Thunder team, and
Speaker 1: then beat uh and then and then knocked off the
Speaker 1: Heatles with Lebron and Wade. What a run, What a
Speaker 1: fun team?
Speaker 2: You know, I'm You're right, it doesn't matter. But to
Speaker 2: me it does matter because the stories I tell myself
Speaker 2: are are very very important to me.
Speaker 1: They are near and dear to my heart. I am
Speaker 1: a narrative fan. I know what I am.
Speaker 2: I'm self aware. But we'll see, man, it's just around
Speaker 2: the corner. I couldn't be more excited to see how,
Speaker 2: you know, the Calves, how they do in the postseason.
Speaker 2: I want to say how they finish off the season,
Speaker 2: but at this point, just finish healthy and you know,
Speaker 2: let's let's clinch that number one seed. Tomorrow agains Chicago
Speaker 2: Calves have a chance to improve to aight and oero
Speaker 2: without Donna Mitchell this season too, which once again just
Speaker 2: goes to show the depth that they have and the
Speaker 2: job that Kenny Atkinson has done. Big thanks to everyone
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Speaker 2: Until next time, Joky