Speaker 1: This crowd rises to uspeing what Carl slammed it? Oh
Speaker 1: Carle left wing free ball perfectly? Podn helllipt block the
Speaker 1: shot at the rim?
Speaker 2: How with the left hand head of fowl.
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Chase Down Podcast. The Chase
Speaker 1: Down is presented by Fubo, the official streaming partner of
Speaker 1: the Calves. Watch over three hundred and fifty channels of
Speaker 1: live sports and TV, including FanDuel Sports Network without cable.
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Speaker 1: at FuboTV dot com Slash Calves. We got a special
Speaker 1: episode for you guys. No justin here today. It is
Speaker 1: a playoff preview podcast dropping on a Friday.
Speaker 2: How about that.
Speaker 1: We never post on Fridays, but we had to for
Speaker 1: a very special reason. I was able to sit down
Speaker 1: with both Sam Merril and Johnny Bryant, Caves assistant Johnny Bryant,
Speaker 1: Calves guard Sam Merril to kind of preview the playoffs,
Speaker 1: talk about the season that was, and it was just
Speaker 1: a it was a blast. We had about ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes with each of the guys, so figured we'd
Speaker 1: drop a little surprise episode in your feed. So without
Speaker 1: further ado enjoy. Sam Merrill. All right, I am joined
Speaker 1: by Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill as we head into the postseason. Sam,
Speaker 1: how you doing man?
Speaker 3: I'm doing great.
Speaker 1: How are you not too bad? Thank you for coming
Speaker 1: back on. You're officially a friend of the Pod, which
Speaker 1: I'm sure is quite the honor for you, probably going
Speaker 1: right up on the mantle.
Speaker 2: We'll send you a plaque.
Speaker 1: But you know, first off, thank you and congrats on
Speaker 1: an amazing season. I want to start with the really
Speaker 1: important gritty stuff, which is all the practice shenanigans you
Speaker 1: guys have had this year playing football, playing soccer. We
Speaker 1: had Dean on earlier in the year and I asked, like,
Speaker 1: who stands out and he mentioned your name as a
Speaker 1: standout performer. Are you willing to say you're the best
Speaker 1: multi sport athlete on the team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think it's debatable. I mean I played
Speaker 4: three sports in high school. I don't know how many
Speaker 4: guys played even too. I know Max played baseball. I
Speaker 4: will say a sneaky good because there's like there's athleticism
Speaker 4: like jumping running, which obviously on NBA level is not
Speaker 4: quite my strong shuit. And then there's athleticism of you know,
Speaker 4: being able to pick up things and player the sports
Speaker 4: and stuff. But it's a sneaky good athlete on our
Speaker 4: team is Craig. He could pick up things pretty quickly
Speaker 4: and he does a pretty good job as well. But yeah,
Speaker 4: me Max Craig being a little bits. It's crazy. You
Speaker 4: see some of these guys who are the best athletes
Speaker 4: in the world try and play pick a ball or
Speaker 4: swing a baseball bat or something like that, and it's
Speaker 4: it's not pretty well.
Speaker 2: Shouts to Craig, Shouts to you. Moving on.
Speaker 1: Ty Jerome was just recently on doing a little bit
Speaker 1: of an interview and he got asked you who the
Speaker 1: biggest trash talker on the team was, and he threw
Speaker 1: out your name as a sneaky like everyone thinks Sam
Speaker 1: is this nice guy, but he's got he's got an
Speaker 1: edge to him. Do you have any response to Tye
Speaker 1: throwing you under the bus like that.
Speaker 3: No, I appreciate him noticing.
Speaker 4: I'm not a trash talk You'll never see me say
Speaker 4: anything like sue another player on another team during a game.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I can see where he's coming from.
Speaker 4: I'll say some things on the bench to my teammates
Speaker 4: about other players, or make jokes in practice or whatnot,
Speaker 4: or in the locker room.
Speaker 3: So I do appreciate that he notices that I do
Speaker 3: have a little edge to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we're all nice when we want to be.
Speaker 1: But you know, when the competitive juices get blown, you
Speaker 1: can't you can't help it deep down, even if you're
Speaker 1: not externalizing it too much. I want to pivot to,
Speaker 1: you know, the macro season. Obviously it's been an unbelievable year.
Speaker 1: How much was the fact that this was basically a
Speaker 1: roster runback? You know, obviously adding tie to the rotation
Speaker 1: was a big change, and obviously DeAndre came in at
Speaker 1: the deadline, but you know, for the most part, like
Speaker 1: geames that like teams don't normally run back their top
Speaker 1: eleven twelve guys in the rotation. How much did that
Speaker 1: mean to this, to this roster coming in and and
Speaker 1: and how much did that kind of precipitate this banana
Speaker 1: season that you guys just had.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do think it's really important.
Speaker 4: It obviously speaks to the belief that the front office
Speaker 4: and the new coaching staff had in this roster and
Speaker 4: what the roster has been able to do up to
Speaker 4: this point, Like you said, you know, Tie coming in
Speaker 4: and having a great year.
Speaker 3: Has been big for us. But then like it's we
Speaker 3: live in such a you.
Speaker 4: Know, a twenty four hour news cycle world where everyone
Speaker 4: wants to change something if it doesn't work right. But
Speaker 4: like look at you look at the seasons that Darius
Speaker 4: and Evan had, the improvements that they made. Darius, you know,
Speaker 4: coming back from everything that he had to go through
Speaker 4: last season, then Evan just getting better and better, Like
Speaker 4: those are are big things. And then you know all
Speaker 4: of us roll guys finding ways to get better and
Speaker 4: finding ways to to help the team along with you know,
Speaker 4: everything that the new staff brought.
Speaker 3: I think I think that all played a part in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, I do want to dig a
Speaker 1: little further on that because we also have seen the
Speaker 1: other side of the coin. In NBA history, we've had
Speaker 1: a team where hey, we're gonna run it back one
Speaker 1: more year, and the vibes are just wrong, you know,
Speaker 1: like things did not you know, you could tell that
Speaker 1: a team had run its course, you know, after two
Speaker 1: three years together. Why wasn't that the case here?
Speaker 4: Uh, we just we don't have any bad nudes on
Speaker 4: our team, and that's seems pretty simple. But like there's
Speaker 4: when your stars have no ego, but obviously listen, they're superstars,
Speaker 4: like they got some alpha to them, right, But like
Speaker 4: Donovan is a great leader, Darius has been a great
Speaker 4: leader this year. You got Jay who's the most low
Speaker 4: maintenance guy in the league probably, and then you got
Speaker 4: Devin who's you know, trying to find his way obviously
Speaker 4: as like as like a star, but he's also super
Speaker 4: low key, super low maintenance, really quiet, Like that type
Speaker 4: of stuff isn't as common as I think people would
Speaker 4: would like. So I think that was a huge reason
Speaker 4: why we were able to run it back and have
Speaker 4: the success that we've had at this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a it's another another like feather in the
Speaker 1: cap for the front office, right that you know they've
Speaker 1: built a team of genuinely pretty good dudes, and you know,
Speaker 1: even from a very far away seat, it's pretty clear,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, and to your point, like everyone's going
Speaker 1: to have ego, like it's an occupational hazard, Like you
Speaker 1: probably need some of it if you're going if you're
Speaker 1: gonna make it in this league.
Speaker 2: But being.
Speaker 1: Genuinely kind and and friendly goes a long long way
Speaker 1: going from you know, the the mintal side to the
Speaker 1: physical side. And I'm furiously knocking on wood all over
Speaker 1: my office right now. The group's pretty darn healthy coming
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. How much does that mean in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, not just the ability to play well in
Speaker 1: round one, but you know, the ability to kind of
Speaker 1: extend across the grind of a postseason, Like you know,
Speaker 1: you've you've been all the way to the end, you know,
Speaker 1: and and won a title with Milwaukee, Like how important
Speaker 1: is it to have that starting point? B we're pretty healthy,
Speaker 1: knowing that some physical battles are to come.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's so important.
Speaker 4: I remember at some point during the season because I'm
Speaker 4: Won's sorry abou Kenny and the staff have done such
Speaker 4: a good job of managing minutes and managing lows and
Speaker 4: whatnot and trying to get to this point healthy. And
Speaker 4: you know, Kenny, I think it might have been our
Speaker 4: first game back after all Star break, was like was
Speaker 4: asking us what's the biggest reason why teams don't win titles?
Speaker 4: And we were trying to say all all different types
Speaker 4: of things, and he just goes health like that's the
Speaker 4: number one thing you have to have. You have to
Speaker 4: be healthy. Like, if one of your best players gets hurt,
Speaker 4: are in real trouble. But if a couple of your
Speaker 4: rotation guys get hurt, you're in trouble.
Speaker 2: So, you know, I.
Speaker 4: Think the fact that we're healthy right now is like
Speaker 4: you said, it's a huge thing for us, and hopefully,
Speaker 4: you know, starting with this first round, which is obviously
Speaker 4: all we're worried about right now, we can continue to stay.
Speaker 1: Healthy moving into that minut's discussion. You know how important
Speaker 1: and like just kind of nice is it for you
Speaker 1: as a role player to have a coach that is
Speaker 1: so you know, I wouldn't say rigid, but like really
Speaker 1: does believe in his rot in his rotational philosophy. Like
Speaker 1: at one point early in the season, my coast like
Speaker 1: was looking at the check in time for certain guys
Speaker 1: in the first quarter and it's like six minute time out,
Speaker 1: these guys are gonna come in. Like how nice is
Speaker 1: it for you, especially as a shooter, to like know
Speaker 1: the routine even all the way into the end of
Speaker 1: the game rotationally.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's really nice. You generally have a pretty
Speaker 4: good idea of like you said, when you're gonna go
Speaker 4: in so I can start to get my leg's moving
Speaker 4: a little bit a couple of minutes before that, do
Speaker 4: whatever you need to do, Like that's really important. Obviously,
Speaker 4: playoffs all bits are off, like who knows how it's
Speaker 4: gonna go or and whatnot. But you know, Kenny has
Speaker 4: has a belief in this, in this whole roster. He's
Speaker 4: he said it all year and he's backed it up
Speaker 4: with the opportunities that he's given us. So and it's
Speaker 4: he keeps saying like it's it's for moments like this.
Speaker 4: You never know when you're gonna need someone uh to
Speaker 4: step up and knocked out a shot or get a
Speaker 4: rebound or make a player or whatever.
Speaker 1: How do you how do you kind of balance the
Speaker 1: playoff mentality? Obviously this team won you know, mid sixties
Speaker 1: games and we're really really great playing exactly the way
Speaker 1: you played. How do you balance maintaining your identity as
Speaker 1: a team versus the little tweaks that you do have
Speaker 1: to make in a seven game series when teams are
Speaker 1: scouting you a lot more thoroughly, they're making more active adjustments,
Speaker 1: Like how do you tell that line as a player
Speaker 1: and as a team and as an organization between here's
Speaker 1: who we are and here's the things we are willing
Speaker 1: to kind of adjust and change over the course of
Speaker 1: a series or a playoffs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like you said, obviously, scout reports are much more
Speaker 4: in depth, and you know, the good teams will take
Speaker 4: certain things away and you're gonna have to adjust to that.
Speaker 4: And the game does slow down to an extent, but
Speaker 4: I think it's you know, the teams that get themselves
Speaker 4: in trouble are the teams that try and play just
Speaker 4: playoff basketball right and walk the ball up the floor
Speaker 4: the whole time, and just try and mismatch hunt the
Speaker 4: whole game.
Speaker 3: Like there are only a few guys in the.
Speaker 4: League that can really really do that for an entire
Speaker 4: game and and get the right shots for their team.
Speaker 3: So like you look at I mean, the Warriors have
Speaker 3: done it for years.
Speaker 4: Like the game slows down a little bit, but they
Speaker 4: can still play with their pace and they're cutting and
Speaker 4: their screening. And we watched Indiana do it last year,
Speaker 4: Like they didn't slow down. They kept going, kept playing fast,
Speaker 4: kept playing with pace. So like you said, there's a
Speaker 4: line of you know, laying games. You got to make
Speaker 4: sure you're getting the right shots and getting the ball
Speaker 4: to the right people and maybe going after certain people.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, like, there's a reason we've
Speaker 4: been so good, so let's play that way. Let's keep
Speaker 4: sharing the ball, let's keep cutting, let's keep moving. I
Speaker 4: think if you do that, and if you do that
Speaker 4: with with pace obviously upping the level of physicality and
Speaker 4: pace and whatnot, you're going to still get the shots
Speaker 4: that you want.
Speaker 1: All right, last question, how is the team handling goal
Speaker 1: setting heading into this? You know, is it a is
Speaker 1: it a one game at a time kind of philosophy?
Speaker 1: Are you guys saying we, you know, let's go win
Speaker 1: a ring.
Speaker 4: It has to be a little of both, Like, sure,
Speaker 4: we know exactly where we want to go, if that's
Speaker 4: no secret, we believe we're capable of that, But you
Speaker 4: can't get there if you don't win game one. We
Speaker 4: don't even know who we're playing at this point, so
Speaker 4: this this week's mostly just been about macro playoff ideas
Speaker 4: and adjustments and just you know, practicing and competing and
Speaker 4: getting after it. So, uh, you know, once we know
Speaker 4: who we're playing, we'll scout them accordingly and try and
Speaker 4: go win game one and then hopefully try and go
Speaker 4: in Game two, but obviously with the idea that we
Speaker 4: want to do something special awesome.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much. Congratulations on my personal favorite
Speaker 1: Cavs season as a fan. It was just an absolute
Speaker 1: honor and joy to watch you. And you know, I
Speaker 1: always say that this is our hobby, you know, and
Speaker 1: you made our hobby super duper fun all year. So
Speaker 1: thank you very much personally and from Cavs fans everywhere.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we can make it fun for a couple more
Speaker 3: months here.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: That was Cleveland Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill doing his best work,
Speaker 1: and only you can do your best work. Zoom aia
Speaker 1: Companion can help you do the rest, like automatically taking notes,
Speaker 1: answering meeting questions, and helping you respond to your coworker.
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Speaker 1: thank you so much to Sam. But the party doesn't
Speaker 1: stop here. We've got Calves assistant Johnny Bryant talking about
Speaker 1: how his expectations changed over the course of the season,
Speaker 1: his relationship with Donovan Mitchell, and much more without further ado.
Speaker 2: Johnny Bryant.
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, I am joined by Cavs assistant coach Johnny Bryant.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Johnny, I'm doing well. How about you?
Speaker 2: Not too bad? I am.
Speaker 1: I'm Jonson. The playoffser here. It's like, it's my favorite
Speaker 1: time of year. I'm just I'm just going to be
Speaker 1: an absolute fiend watching hoops for the next several months
Speaker 1: and there's nothing better in the world.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is you know, which you do prepare for
Speaker 5: in the summer during the season to get opportunity to
Speaker 5: play postseason basketball, right, and you know, I've had experience
Speaker 5: being here in the playoffs previously, and now to have
Speaker 5: these fans rooting for us, I can't wait too experience it.
Speaker 1: So, you know, it's your first year with the Cavs, obviously,
Speaker 1: I mean this is like kind of an obvious question,
Speaker 1: but like, just how far did this season exceed your
Speaker 1: expectations coming in?
Speaker 5: You know, as the staff, we joke about it collectively
Speaker 5: a lot. Right then the preseason we go on for
Speaker 5: we're in Chicago and you know, we're trying to get
Speaker 5: everybody acclimated and we're like, okay, let's you know, we
Speaker 5: want to win the game.
Speaker 2: So we try to win the game.
Speaker 5: We didn't do that and go to overtime, we lose,
Speaker 5: and it was like okay, And then you start the
Speaker 5: season win five, then you nine in a row. Now
Speaker 5: Golden State comes to town, they're playing well, win ten
Speaker 5: and you know, get to fifteen, lose the Boston. Then
Speaker 5: you you know, you start putting these stretches together, double
Speaker 5: figure wins, and now you're like you're sitting on the
Speaker 5: bench and after games you're like, okay, are we really
Speaker 5: that good? And then now you look up it's thirty
Speaker 5: five games in and you know you're stealing single digits
Speaker 5: as far as losses, and you know, you just continue
Speaker 5: to ride the wave and you know, it's been a
Speaker 5: year that I didn't expect. It's been great, it's been fun,
Speaker 5: and you know that part of the season is over.
Speaker 5: Now we're looking forward to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: When did you know that, like, oh we might be
Speaker 1: something like a different kind of special then like maybe
Speaker 1: I've been.
Speaker 2: A part of.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't say it was a particular game, but you
Speaker 5: we you know, collectively, like I said, as a staff, we'll.
Speaker 2: Be on the bench like are we really that good?
Speaker 2: Or you know, it was a couple of.
Speaker 5: Games we were down and we come back and win
Speaker 5: the game, and you like, the ball just bounces our way,
Speaker 5: a shot goes in or you know will come out.
Speaker 5: It's supposed to be a big game, and then we
Speaker 5: have a crazy blowout win. So you start putting those
Speaker 5: things together and you're like, wow, Like there was one
Speaker 5: stretch we didn't lose for five weeks, Like that's unheard of, right,
Speaker 5: So when you're putting together those type of stretches throughout
Speaker 5: the season, you look up and it's like, Okay, I
Speaker 5: guess we are really good.
Speaker 1: Did anything, you know, going all the way back to Sarasota,
Speaker 1: did anything like really jump out at you, even at
Speaker 1: the camp level where you were like, oh, I wasn't
Speaker 1: expecting that to work the way it did, or I
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting this guy to be as good as he was, Like,
Speaker 1: did anything like really buck your expectations?
Speaker 2: Like at an individual level.
Speaker 5: You know, I was pretty familiar with the with the roster,
Speaker 5: but when you when you look at a team, you know,
Speaker 5: three four times a year, it's hard to really gauge
Speaker 5: who can do what right, And we had different things
Speaker 5: that we want to do from from previous years, and
Speaker 5: you know Tid Jerome, you know, obviously he stood out.
Speaker 5: I knew Darius was comfortable with Darius just watching on film,
Speaker 5: but to realize how fast he is, right you know, Evan,
Speaker 5: how talented he is, and you know how great Jaa
Speaker 5: is on the defense end. So it's when you see
Speaker 5: it every day, you're like, okay, this is different. So
Speaker 5: I wouldn't say Sarasota was was was glaring and was like, hey,
Speaker 5: you know, I got all that information, but it was
Speaker 5: just day in and day out. You start seeing things,
Speaker 5: and you start seeing things during the game, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 5: this is a different group than I expected.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, the one guy that you didn't
Speaker 1: mentioned there because this guy you probably know the best
Speaker 1: is Donovan, and your relationship with Donovan is like super
Speaker 1: well reported that, Like you guys have just been like this,
Speaker 1: you know, from from back in Utah. And did you
Speaker 1: ever expect to coach him again after you at that
Speaker 1: time together. I know it's a small world, but did
Speaker 1: you ever expect to coach him again?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 5: No, you know, but our relationship, you know, I never
Speaker 5: really stopped coaching him, to be honest, you know, I
Speaker 5: just wasn't with him, you know, day to day. But
Speaker 5: you know, we we built a great relationship as you
Speaker 5: mentioned as well document it, and you know, if he
Speaker 5: had any questions throughout our time away, I mean, some
Speaker 5: things are bigger than basketball, right, So saying hey, like
Speaker 5: what do you think here, he'll ask me and I'll
Speaker 5: kind of tell him. So I wasn't with him day
Speaker 5: to day, but you know, it was an opportunity where again,
Speaker 5: it's not like I'm with New York and he's with
Speaker 5: Cleveland and we can't talk like who's who's unity exactly exactly. So,
Speaker 5: but to come back around and coach him again is
Speaker 5: something special. And for us to put together a historic
Speaker 5: year together, that's something that you know, at the end
Speaker 5: of the day that we'll talk about for the rest
Speaker 5: of our lives, not just this moment in time now,
Speaker 5: but when he's retired, when I'm you know, later in
Speaker 5: my coaching career, and we'll sit back and be like,
Speaker 5: you know, we're able to accomplish some great things together.
Speaker 5: And that's ultimately what it's about, is is creating those memories,
Speaker 5: creating those bonds through the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: Was there anything you know, obviously you mentioned you never stopped,
Speaker 1: you know, being in contact with them, talking to them,
Speaker 1: talking through things. But getting back into the day to day.
Speaker 1: Was there anything that jumped out at you, ors like, oh,
Speaker 1: that this is different about him, whether it's approach the game,
Speaker 1: the way he understood the game, leadership, maturity, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: anything jump out at you.
Speaker 5: You know that this is being as transparent as possible. Well,
Speaker 5: I told him probably a month and I was like,
Speaker 5: I forgot how frustrating it is the coaching, you know,
Speaker 5: and and I'm hard on him and he.
Speaker 2: Knows that and he likes to be pushed that way.
Speaker 5: But it's sometimes like Donovan Night, you okay, this guy
Speaker 5: is trapping you, Like why were you trying to split this?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 5: So, but it's it's more and in fun, right, But
Speaker 5: you know, just his growth, his his leadership, how vocal
Speaker 5: he is. Clearly I seen it in Utah as he
Speaker 5: continued to progress, he was very vocal with the group
Speaker 5: and he found himself. He's very comfortable in who he is.
Speaker 5: So to be honest, nothing really surprised me as far
Speaker 5: as who he shows on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1: That that makes perfect sense. And you probably wouldn't have
Speaker 1: a good relationship with him if you never got frustrated.
Speaker 1: Like no coach ever doesn't get grumpy, especially with their
Speaker 1: best player.
Speaker 2: That's yeah, but it's important.
Speaker 5: But the reality is like, even when I'm mad at him,
Speaker 5: I'm not really mad at him. It's more like I'm
Speaker 5: pushing his buttons just to get him to respond and
Speaker 5: he you know, it's more of a mental part of
Speaker 5: it than anything else. Like, you know, there's he told
Speaker 5: the story about being in Washington, you know, a couple
Speaker 5: of weeks ago, and that got out that you know,
Speaker 5: I you know, had some choice words for him. But
Speaker 5: literally before I did it, I told George Nang and
Speaker 5: Tristan I said, watch this and.
Speaker 2: So so up exactly exactly.
Speaker 5: And then George is like, oh, t t watch this,
Speaker 5: watch this, and then you know, but it caught everybody
Speaker 5: by surprise just because of my personality. But you know,
Speaker 5: he knows at the end of the day, I care
Speaker 5: about him, you know. And then again, our relationship is
Speaker 5: bigger than basketball, and he knows that I want the
Speaker 5: best for him and I want to be successful in
Speaker 5: every situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the best relationships always have that, uh, that that
Speaker 1: you have to be honest, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to be transpared with some absolutely absolutely, so that makes
Speaker 1: perfect sense. I wanted to take it kind of back
Speaker 1: to the macro. You know, obviously you joined Kenny's staff
Speaker 1: pretty much. I mean not a one turnover for the
Speaker 1: coaching staff, but a lot of new faces this year,
Speaker 1: but with a very very similar roster year over year.
Speaker 1: There's a ton of continuity there. And something I've said
Speaker 1: a lot about what I've appreciated the most about this
Speaker 1: coaching staff from AFAR is that it really seems like
Speaker 1: everyone in this staff wanted to coach the roster they
Speaker 1: signed up to coach, like this was a roster that
Speaker 1: you know, going into last summer, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of like, oh it is the two big thing going
Speaker 1: to work? Is the two guard thing going to work.
Speaker 1: It does seem, at least from my seat, that this
Speaker 1: staff really did believe in that group, in the way
Speaker 1: this team was structured. Can you talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about that about you know, believing in the core that
Speaker 1: this team had already put together.
Speaker 5: You know, if you look at the group the last
Speaker 5: few years playoff experience, you know, Kobe and his staff
Speaker 5: has done an unbelievable job, you know, drafting and keeping
Speaker 5: guys here, making trade. So the group that they put together,
Speaker 5: you know, he believed in it. We believed in it, right,
Speaker 5: And it's our job as coaches to figure out what
Speaker 5: work what doesn't work. Hey, this was this was great previously,
Speaker 5: this wasn't great previously. So how can we change it?
Speaker 5: How can we manipulate space? And can we change lineups?
Speaker 5: Can we change combinations? And you know we did that right.
Speaker 5: You know, last year it was a lot of you know,
Speaker 5: Ja and and Donovan together, you know that pairing exactly.
Speaker 5: Then this year was like, hey, let's we know that's good,
Speaker 5: but let's take a look at.
Speaker 2: Evan and Donovan right. So now d G and J together, right.
Speaker 5: So, you know, it's our job to try to put
Speaker 5: the pieces to the puzzle together, and once you have
Speaker 5: an idea, you look at the end and see if
Speaker 5: it supports it, and then that kind of drives the
Speaker 5: process of development and growth as a group.
Speaker 2: And you know, we were able to put some things together.
Speaker 1: This is maybe a silly question, but something my co
Speaker 1: hosts and I were talking about recently is it almost
Speaker 1: hard to look at the analytics for your group right
Speaker 1: now because you just don't have any lineups that don't work.
Speaker 3: Like no, like how do you figure out who to play?
Speaker 2: More of? It's good, it's not hard. You know. We
Speaker 2: believe in analytics. We believe in what they show us.
Speaker 5: And sometimes we're sitting and coaching me and hey, what
Speaker 5: about this and we look at it, Oh, that's not
Speaker 5: a good idea. And sometimes you know, we'll make a
Speaker 5: decision and like why didn't we get to this lineup?
Speaker 5: Or we should have did this differently? And you know,
Speaker 5: every game as a staff, who do you want to
Speaker 5: finish with? You know, so you know we we have
Speaker 5: finished different ways, whether too Bigs or Ja or Evan
Speaker 5: or you know, Max Dean.
Speaker 2: It's dray.
Speaker 5: I like, it's one of those things where you know
Speaker 5: you have the information, but then you also have to
Speaker 5: go on field, right and we try to do the
Speaker 5: best that we can. And this group has done a
Speaker 5: great job sacrifice and coach he's done a great job
Speaker 5: of hammering at home with the group. And you know,
Speaker 5: I think it's a little easier to sacrifice when you
Speaker 5: win sixty four games, right, so now it's gonna be
Speaker 5: another you know, element and level of sacrifice on our
Speaker 5: guys part in the playoffs because again, playoffs matchups that
Speaker 5: dictate who plays and lineups, combinations, you know, all those things.
Speaker 2: So now it's like.
Speaker 5: We need everybody on board to achieve the common goal
Speaker 5: that we have.
Speaker 1: All right, last question and I'll let you get out
Speaker 1: of here. How do you balance as you head into
Speaker 1: that postseason, the the push and pull of a long
Speaker 1: playoff series, of multiple playoff series where the scouts are better,
Speaker 1: the you know, the intensity is higher and you're gonna
Speaker 1: you know, and figuring out how many adjustments to make
Speaker 1: versus maintaining your core identity. You know, how do you
Speaker 1: kind of toe that line between hey, we won sixty
Speaker 1: four games, we're super good the way we are, and
Speaker 1: we have to tweak X, Y and Z.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean it's funny you ask that question because we
Speaker 5: literally just talked about that as a staff. You know,
Speaker 5: you definitely want to double down on your habits, right,
Speaker 5: but to your point, with the game planning and all
Speaker 5: the adjustments you have to be able to adjust on
Speaker 5: the fly. You're not going to be able to you know,
Speaker 5: always call a timeout. So that's where the communication piece
Speaker 5: comes in with the group. And then in the timeout
Speaker 5: you make those adjustments. But you know, we've worked on
Speaker 5: certain situations throughout the year, you know, whether it's in
Speaker 5: game or in practice, to where we're prepared to make
Speaker 5: any adjustments that we need. And again that that that's
Speaker 5: one of those things where we do utilize analytics to
Speaker 5: put together a game plan and be like, okay, like
Speaker 5: this information is good for us, now we should do
Speaker 5: this in this type of action. Right, and then once
Speaker 5: we had that primary coverage in place, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 5: that's what our adjustment will be, right, and then we
Speaker 5: may have another adjustment. But you know, at the end
Speaker 5: of the day, if we can go in with our
Speaker 5: primary coverages and our primary offensive scheme and we can
Speaker 5: win two three games without making a huge adjustment, why not. Right,
Speaker 5: So we're just we're prepared for those situations.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, we have to
Speaker 2: be who we are. We have to be a you know,
Speaker 2: a competitive group.
Speaker 5: We got to play together and at the same time
Speaker 5: understand that you know it's gonna be a little tougher.
Speaker 5: But you know, we've had physical games before. You know,
Speaker 5: we had games where we shot it well and won.
Speaker 5: We had a games when we didn't shoot it well
Speaker 5: in one. So we just got to go in and
Speaker 5: understand each day is gonna be dif friend and find
Speaker 5: a way to come out victorious in each each game
Speaker 5: we play awesome.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much, Johnny. You know I just
Speaker 1: said this to Sam, but I just wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you so much for the season. I mean, more than anything,
Speaker 1: I'm a Cavaliers fan. I love this team and it's
Speaker 1: it's my favorite hobby and you guys made my favorite
Speaker 1: hobby super duper fun all year. And like you know,
Speaker 1: it's definitely my favorite Cavs regular season of my life.
Speaker 1: And so thank you for helping lead the team on
Speaker 1: the way there because it was, uh, it was just
Speaker 1: a dope, dope six months many.
Speaker 5: No thanks for having me, and you know it's this
Speaker 5: is a special you know, fan base community, and you
Speaker 5: know to to you know, I have been talking to
Speaker 5: T T and and and everybody just kind of around
Speaker 5: the city that I wait to see you experienced Cleveland
Speaker 5: in the playoffs and and we're here now and I
Speaker 5: can't wait to see uh the fans rooting and cheering
Speaker 5: us on.
Speaker 1: I'll be one of those fans on Sunday. So can't
Speaker 1: wait Johnny, thank you so much for coming on and
Speaker 1: good luck.
Speaker 2: In the playfuts. Appreciate it. Thank you all right.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to both Caves assistant coach Johnny
Speaker 1: Bryant and Cavs guard Samuel for joining the podcast and
Speaker 1: give us a little glimpse into what it's been like
Speaker 1: to be a part of this absolutely historic season for
Speaker 1: the Cavaliers. Thank you so much for listening to the
Speaker 1: Chasetown Podcast. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and
Speaker 1: like to subscribe to the Cavaliers YouTube page. If you
Speaker 1: are listening, subscribe, unsubscribe, or you subscribe, help cook those books.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening, and as always, go Cavs.