Speaker 1: This crowd rises to its being.
Speaker 2: What Carl slam it?
Speaker 1: Oh, Carl left wing free ball, perfect.
Speaker 3: Dar pop the hell block, the shot at the rim,
Speaker 3: pow in the left hand and of fowl.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Chase Down Podcast, part of the Caves
Speaker 4: Media family. I'm your host Justin Rohan. The Chase Down
Speaker 4: is presented by Fubo, the official streaming partner of the Calves.
Speaker 4: Watch over three hundred and fifty channels of live sports
Speaker 4: and TV, including FanDuel Sports Network without cable. There's no
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Speaker 4: Com Slash Calves. The Clived Cavaliers came away with not
Speaker 4: one but two signature wins over the weekend at three
Speaker 4: and oho starts since the All Star Breaks. Since we
Speaker 4: last recorded, Uh dominant went over the New York Knicks
Speaker 4: and in oppressive win over the Memphis Grizzlies. Joining me
Speaker 4: today to discuss it all is my co host Carter Rodriguez. Carter,
Speaker 4: how you doing, buddy?
Speaker 1: It's kind of nice to get, you know, two flavors
Speaker 1: of win.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, you have the absolute ass kicking against the
Speaker 1: Knicks on Friday and then you get where you kind
Speaker 1: of just show your class, and then you show your
Speaker 1: culture on Sunday in a game against the Grizzlies when
Speaker 1: you're down your point guard and you can't hit the
Speaker 1: broadside of a barn with your jump shots and you
Speaker 1: still put up one twenty nine and just process your
Speaker 1: way to a win. So, you know, I think like
Speaker 1: you kind of just get whatever you wanted to learn
Speaker 1: about the Calves, you know, in these two games. I
Speaker 1: do feel like you did kind of get to learn it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh, I totally agree with that. And I think the
Speaker 4: important thing is I believe both of these games were
Speaker 4: flexed into the national TV kind of spotlight, right Like,
Speaker 4: with how well the Calves have been playing, they are
Speaker 4: getting more and more of these showcase games in the
Speaker 4: second half of the season, in this closing stretch, and
Speaker 4: for people that may have not been following as closely
Speaker 4: that maybe the last time that they tuned into a
Speaker 4: Calvs game was the lost in OKC, or just checking
Speaker 4: out the NBA post All Star break for the first time,
Speaker 4: which you know a lot of casual fans do. This
Speaker 4: was like a showcase opportunity for them to show what
Speaker 4: they're made of. Maybe people have still been dealing with
Speaker 4: some of the scars of that playoff series two years
Speaker 4: ago with the Knicks. I thought it was really interesting
Speaker 4: that Donovan talked about that and how you know they
Speaker 4: almost appreciate that experience and benefited from it. But I
Speaker 4: think for the Calves to come out and show how
Speaker 4: good they've been all season against you know, the second
Speaker 4: best team in the Eastern Conference, or the second best
Speaker 4: team in the Western Conference and the third best team
Speaker 4: in the Eastern Conference, I thought it was really really impressive.
Speaker 4: I thought the Caves showed a lot of toughness. I
Speaker 4: thought there were elements within each of these games where
Speaker 4: the team of yesteryear probably would have lost some composure
Speaker 4: and maybe let go of a rope to some extent.
Speaker 4: I just think you're seeing more and more of the
Speaker 4: maturity of this team as the season has progressed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're just kind of the most reliable thing in
Speaker 1: sports right now. At the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean they're forty seven and ten, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: If you're on a franchise win record tracker, as I am,
Speaker 1: pretty much every game right now. The eighth nine Cavaliers
Speaker 1: were forty five and twelve at the fifty seven game mark,
Speaker 1: so the Cavs are now two losses ahead of that
Speaker 1: pace right now. And man, yeah, it's just again We've
Speaker 1: said it all year, but you just never know where
Speaker 1: it's going to come from. And this game, I think
Speaker 1: that Grizzlies game was kind of the best example of
Speaker 1: at least two of your stars are going to show
Speaker 1: up in an insane way, Mobley and Donovan, and at
Speaker 1: least one of your role players is going to have
Speaker 1: a killer game. In this case, it was Tied Jerome,
Speaker 1: who went bananas justin I mean, what do you have?
Speaker 1: Six fifteen, sixteen points in the fourth quarter, completely took
Speaker 1: over the game. Allowed Donovan to sit the first five
Speaker 1: to six minutes of the fourth quarter, which was important
Speaker 1: because he's still played thirty five last night, you know,
Speaker 1: and he would have if Ty wasn't going nuts and
Speaker 1: Kenny had to break rotations and get him back in early,
Speaker 1: then there would have been a world where he plays
Speaker 1: forty minutes for one of the only times that they've
Speaker 1: done that all year on a three and four night stretch.
Speaker 1: So I just thought it was really important for Ty
Speaker 1: to kind of go nuts the way he did, and
Speaker 1: he continues to be I think probably the most pleasant
Speaker 1: surprise maybe of my Calves fandom, Like, has there been
Speaker 1: a season from any Calves player that has been this good,
Speaker 1: this out of nowhere in your fandom?
Speaker 4: No, And there's been players that have been excited about
Speaker 4: that in and missed their first year, right, Like I
Speaker 4: think back to Dylan Windler, I think back to, you know,
Speaker 4: going all the way back to like guys like Sergei
Speaker 4: Carrasev who didn't miss his first year, but you know,
Speaker 4: had a lot of injuries. But I was excited. You know,
Speaker 4: it's a shooter for a team that needs shooting. Like
Speaker 4: I've talked myself into so many of these moves on
Speaker 4: the margins, and if he did this last year, it
Speaker 4: would be one of the most surprising things that I
Speaker 4: can recall within my cast fandom, even though we were
Speaker 4: both very high on him. But I think what makes
Speaker 4: it even more unique is the fact that he missed
Speaker 4: last season. Usually when something goes off the rails, it
Speaker 4: stays that way, Like there isn't the bounce back, there
Speaker 4: isn't the recovery, especially when you're talking about these little
Speaker 4: moves on the margins. So for Ti Jerome to step
Speaker 4: up and play as well as he has all season.
Speaker 4: I think has been, you know, one of the most
Speaker 4: pleasant surprises. But I think the most surprising aspect of
Speaker 4: this is not only is he, you know, on a
Speaker 4: night in, night out basis giving them consistent bents, you know,
Speaker 4: really stepping up and in essence replacing what we had
Speaker 4: in Karris Lavert. You know since his departure here, not
Speaker 4: only is he doing that, but if Donovan or Darius
Speaker 4: are out all of a sudden, we get this next gear.
Speaker 4: We give him every time.
Speaker 1: It's not like it's not like you get it every
Speaker 1: blue moon when those guys are Every single time one
Speaker 1: of those guards is out, he scores like twenty five points.
Speaker 3: It's nuts, dude.
Speaker 4: He's like that golden like fantasy handcuff backup running back
Speaker 4: that you know, as soon as one of them the
Speaker 4: starters out, you put him in. You don't even think
Speaker 4: about it because he's going to deliver in all those spots.
Speaker 4: And you know, I've done that in fantasy basketball a
Speaker 4: few times this year because I of course have Darius
Speaker 4: and Donovan on my team because I am that way,
Speaker 4: and you know, as soon as one of them's out,
Speaker 4: I pick him up off waivers. He's always sitting there.
Speaker 4: I pick him up and I throw him into my lineup,
Speaker 4: and you know, that saved me sometimes, but it's also
Speaker 4: helped save the calves. And he's he's been terrific. I
Speaker 4: think the confidence that he plays with, the edge that
Speaker 4: he plays with. That guy talks as much as anybody
Speaker 4: on the team. I think it's him and Max that
Speaker 4: probably lead the team in talking, especially now that George Niang.
Speaker 3: Isn't here anymore.
Speaker 4: I've just been so enamored with how he's played all season.
Speaker 4: And you know, we talked about it when it came
Speaker 4: to team building, when we talked about the core being
Speaker 4: expensive and all the kind of fine line that they
Speaker 4: have to walk as a front office, they needed to
Speaker 4: hit some home runs on the margins and Ty Jerome
Speaker 4: has absolutely been one of those home runs.
Speaker 3: Brother.
Speaker 1: We went into this year wondering if he could be
Speaker 1: the backup point guard on a team that might not
Speaker 1: play a backup point guard. That was where we were
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the years, like he might beat
Speaker 1: Craig out and he still might not get to be
Speaker 1: in the rotation. Like that's where we were, and he
Speaker 1: has I think been unquestionably their best non core four
Speaker 1: player this year. He is averaging twenty two, six five
Speaker 1: and two steals for thirty six while basically just about
Speaker 1: splashing a fifty to forty ninety from an efficiency perspective.
Speaker 1: And you know, Donovan, I think said it where it's
Speaker 1: like at the end of the year, you're kind of
Speaker 1: waiting for there to be the drop off, but it's like,
Speaker 1: this is just kind of who he's going to be,
Speaker 1: at least for this season, you know. And I think
Speaker 1: I'd be more surprised if he fell off than if
Speaker 1: he maintained this play at this point. And I think
Speaker 1: you hit the nail on the head. And part of
Speaker 1: what makes the DeAndre Hunter trade as good as it
Speaker 1: is is really what you traded was Carris and Niang
Speaker 1: for DeAndre Hunter and guaranteed rotational minutes for ty Jerome yep.
Speaker 1: And that's part of the depth play of the team
Speaker 1: where you like it was just going to be because
Speaker 1: Carris is a good ball handler and he is a
Speaker 1: good creator, he's a good positional defender, and he was
Speaker 1: going to earn minutes he deserved minutes, and naturally those
Speaker 1: two were just gonna be kind of at odds with
Speaker 1: each other in the rotation and kind of inherently be
Speaker 1: stealing minutes because, as we've said, a lot minutes is
Speaker 1: a zero sum game at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: And it's just cleared the.
Speaker 1: Runway, and it is such a game changer for this team.
Speaker 4: Dude, Like when you look at it, DeAndre Hunter is
Speaker 4: currently playing three minutes a game more than George Niang
Speaker 4: did when he was with the Cavs. Like, that's functionally
Speaker 4: what it's been. It's been tied Jerome that has replaced
Speaker 4: the charisl Avert role, right, and you know we've absorbed
Speaker 4: some of that too. I think you know Max is
Speaker 4: getting some minutes, or Kor is getting minutes, particularly now
Speaker 4: that we're fully healthy. Dean Wade is getting some time.
Speaker 4: So obviously George's minutes were inflated a bit because of availability.
Speaker 4: But it it just leaves you with this really rock
Speaker 4: solid rotation. Like even on a night where Darius was
Speaker 4: out of the lineup, you felt really good about the
Speaker 4: depth that the Cavs had, Right, You had Max Struz contributing,
Speaker 4: you had DeAndre Hunter stepping up, ty Jerome was stepping up.
Speaker 4: I thought Isaac Okorro gave them good minutes. Sam Marril
Speaker 4: and Dean Wade weren't shooting well, but they contributed in
Speaker 4: other ways. Dean had some fantastic defensive possessions, Like it's
Speaker 4: a rock solid deep rotation even after that trade. And
Speaker 4: I think when you can do a consolidation trade and
Speaker 4: don't lose any depth, and not lose any depth because
Speaker 4: you trust the guys that you've developed internally to step up,
Speaker 4: I think that's so so important.
Speaker 3: And I think it was important when we.
Speaker 4: Talked about, you know, the ability to move on from
Speaker 4: Karris Lavert after everything that he gave them and how
Speaker 4: important he was, particularly when the guards would go down.
Speaker 4: But I think part of that calculus was still, Hey,
Speaker 4: Craig Porter juniors looking really good, Like those minutes he
Speaker 4: played against the Nick That jump shot is coming along.
Speaker 4: He's looking better and better, and that's you know, that's
Speaker 4: one of those swing skill sets, right Like I think
Speaker 4: Craig in a lot of ways reminds me of what
Speaker 4: we love about Luke Travers, where, oh my god, the rebounding, like,
Speaker 4: the athleticism, the feel for the game, the intelligence, the maturity.
Speaker 4: He plays with just needs that three point shot to
Speaker 4: come along in order for it to all kind of
Speaker 4: get unlocked once again.
Speaker 3: It looks like one of.
Speaker 4: Those success stories where he's knocking those shots down with
Speaker 4: more consistency. So I think the confidence that they have
Speaker 4: in their player development has really empowered them. And you know,
Speaker 4: to bring it back to Tie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what he's said, I'm not done talking about Tie.
Speaker 1: It's so good and I think he needs like the
Speaker 1: first ten twelve minutes of this podcast, I won't.
Speaker 4: Go that far because I got someone I want to
Speaker 4: rant about on this podcast, so.
Speaker 1: We will get there. We had a lot to cover.
Speaker 4: But I do think an important thing has also been availability.
Speaker 4: That hasn't been a consistent thing with him throughout his career.
Speaker 4: If you look at the stats, what he's doing this
Speaker 4: season is not dis similar to his first year in
Speaker 4: Oklahoma City. The biggest difference is his efficiency on you
Speaker 4: know those two point shots, the little floaters that you
Speaker 4: know he is just absolutely mastered. But he was shooting
Speaker 4: just as well from three on. In fact, higher volume,
Speaker 4: he was scoring just as many points per game. I'm
Speaker 4: sure there weren't the same high watermarks. Forgive me, I
Speaker 4: don't remember a lot about Okac in that weird after
Speaker 4: the bubble season, but like he's done this before, but
Speaker 4: for him to do it now over fifty three games
Speaker 4: instead of the thirty three he played that year, for
Speaker 4: him to have these, you know, for him to be
Speaker 4: as reliable as he has been when they really need
Speaker 4: him to step up, it's just been an incredibly impressive
Speaker 4: season from them. Yeah, you mentioned the health, and he
Speaker 4: mentions the health like he got it. It's so funny
Speaker 4: because people want to kind of like tease out like
Speaker 4: the reason why, and he was He's been like so
Speaker 4: stead passed and be like I just didn't get to
Speaker 4: play this way and I wasn't healthy, Like I didn't
Speaker 4: get wasn't unlocked to play this kind of basketball, Like
Speaker 4: this isn't a dude who just needed someone to tell
Speaker 4: him he was great, and now he gets to be
Speaker 4: like he's just like, yeah, I was great the whole time,
Speaker 4: and my body wasn't cooperative and I was playing as
Speaker 4: a role player on some teams. I pulled up the
Speaker 4: numbers because he mentioned that he's already hit his career
Speaker 4: high for games played in the season in his post
Speaker 4: game availability last night. I pulled up he's played three
Speaker 4: seven hundred and sixty three minutes in his six year career, Oney,
Speaker 4: fifteen of those are just this year. So like he's
Speaker 4: just you know, and he's earning his way into the
Speaker 4: court obviously, but also his body's just been cooperative. And
Speaker 4: when you have that combination and you've got the size
Speaker 4: and you've got the complimentary skill set where he can
Speaker 4: run point guard for this team and he can play
Speaker 4: the two guard next to Darius, or he can play
Speaker 4: the one next to Donovan, or he can be the
Speaker 4: only ball hander on the floor.
Speaker 3: Like his positional.
Speaker 1: Versatility and ability to play in any lineup can he
Speaker 1: plays him in has just been so crucial and like
Speaker 1: you just can't help a root for the guy. I
Speaker 1: mean again, I really don't think I've been this floored
Speaker 1: by by, you know, in this This taken aback by
Speaker 1: a player like this just doesn't happen. Guys who are
Speaker 1: journeyman role players like this, who you know, are not
Speaker 1: like because's not like he was considered like this, this
Speaker 1: unpolished project coming out of the draft, like he was
Speaker 1: an old rookie. You know, he's a three four year
Speaker 1: player at Virginia and U and you know, was supposed
Speaker 1: to be a guy who's just a high floor role
Speaker 1: guy at best, Like he is raising the ceiling of
Speaker 1: this team on a game to game basis, and you
Speaker 1: just got to be so appreciative that, you know, one
Speaker 1: of Tie for doing the work, also of Kobe Altman
Speaker 1: in the front office for for finding the guy and
Speaker 1: locking him in, and also just we got to think
Speaker 1: our lucky stars that it's playing out this way.
Speaker 3: Brother.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not often that as two self admitted calvs
Speaker 4: homers are high on a player coming in and then
Speaker 4: blown away by what they actually produce, right, Like, that
Speaker 4: doesn't happen too too often. And he's just been phenomenal.
Speaker 4: I think one of the biggest things too, and one
Speaker 4: of the advantages of having him play at such a
Speaker 4: high level is we have seen over the last couple
Speaker 4: of years, even when you're playing lineups that are a
Speaker 4: spacing challenge right where you're playing too bigs and let's
Speaker 4: say back when you had Icycle Corra when he was
Speaker 4: in as established as a shooter or Lamar Stevens playing
Speaker 4: minutes there, you are able to still get a lot
Speaker 4: of functional offense off of the strength of having two
Speaker 4: dynamic guards that you had to account for. Now you
Speaker 4: have it so that when one of Darius or Donovan
Speaker 4: comes off the court, Ty Jerome comes in, he's a
Speaker 4: dynamic guard. And not only that, now you have two
Speaker 4: way wings. Now you have guys that can space the
Speaker 4: floor that are threats that have to be accounted for.
Speaker 4: Now you have more mature big men in both Evan
Speaker 4: Mobley and Jared Allen who are are really expanded their
Speaker 4: games as playmakers, their understanding of the game, their feel
Speaker 4: as playmakers. So when you have two guards that you
Speaker 4: have to account for on that level, it's going to
Speaker 4: lead to these breakdowns that drive opposing fan bases nuts.
Speaker 4: Like when you look at Nick Twitter during the last
Speaker 4: like that that game on Friday, They're losing their minds
Speaker 4: at what Tige Rome's doing. And when the Knicks try
Speaker 4: to scramble to account for them, open opportunity for Donovan,
Speaker 4: open dunks, right you cheat on the guards, and all
Speaker 4: of a sudden, Max Struce is running an incredibly effective
Speaker 4: side pick and roll with Evan Mobley or Jared Allen
Speaker 4: and hitting them on the numbers, right Like, there is
Speaker 4: just so much more dynamic play from this team, and
Speaker 4: I just they needed to hit on a lot of
Speaker 4: these role guys, and it seems like here, here's the
Speaker 4: most important thing. Let's let's summarize it all with this
Speaker 4: going into the playoffs, I feel one confident that we
Speaker 4: have enough to properly evaluate how the core is going
Speaker 4: to play in that setting. Supporting cast is not going
Speaker 4: to be an issue. They are going to be taken
Speaker 4: as far as Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, Donovan Mitchell, and
Speaker 4: Jared Allen take them. And I think that that's the
Speaker 4: most important thing. And that's been something that we haven't
Speaker 4: confidently been able to say the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's absolutely fair. And you know, I
Speaker 1: think after that, and we haven't talked about Javonte Green
Speaker 1: yet because he wasn't officially signed, so I think we'll
Speaker 1: have to sneak that in somewhere.
Speaker 3: And they very dim't not all like that.
Speaker 4: It wasn't even it wasn't even out there when we
Speaker 4: did the last mail Bag.
Speaker 1: Podcast, and uh, you know, but like I think after
Speaker 1: they after that went, you know, got reported. I think
Speaker 1: you said in either in a discord, a group chat
Speaker 1: or something like that, you were like, well, COVID did
Speaker 1: his job, Like they've got what they need, and I
Speaker 1: think you're one hundred percent right the the They've got
Speaker 1: high volume role players, they've got role players who can mesh,
Speaker 1: They've got role playlayers who can defend. They've got role
Speaker 1: players who can play in multiple styles. Like the roster
Speaker 1: just up and down is really really dynamic. And like
Speaker 1: when you, by the way, when you were talking about
Speaker 1: you know what Tie unlocks against in that Knicks matchup,
Speaker 1: I was thinking that, you know, the whole premise of
Speaker 1: this team is that you always have one you know,
Speaker 1: dynamic elite ball handler on the floor with one elite
Speaker 1: rim running you know, uh rim protecting big on the
Speaker 1: floor at all times. What Tie has really done at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, because he's made it so
Speaker 1: you have two dynamic ball handlers on the floor at
Speaker 1: all times, because you're always going to be playing with
Speaker 1: with a with a Darius, a Donovan or a Tie
Speaker 1: and most of the time you're gonna have at least
Speaker 1: two of those guys on the floor. You know, least
Speaker 1: got a step further, of course, because now we I
Speaker 1: think I'm comfortable saying that we have two dynamic front
Speaker 1: court players on the court at all times because you're
Speaker 1: likely playing. When you're staggering those bigs, you likely have
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter out there as well. And that's someone that
Speaker 1: was average nineteen points per game this season on great efficiency.
Speaker 1: This team is dope. Yeah, Like they are so good.
Speaker 4: You cannot ask more. You could not have asked more
Speaker 4: from the front office, like showing patients. But then not
Speaker 4: only do they get to, you know, kind of strut
Speaker 4: their stuff, probably like around All Star weekend. I don't
Speaker 4: know if Kobe even attended, but if he's walking around
Speaker 4: other general managers and whatnot, I think he can puff
Speaker 4: out his chest.
Speaker 3: A little bit.
Speaker 4: Like, not only was I right about being patient and
Speaker 4: keeping the core together through the summer, I didn't get
Speaker 4: complacent with that. I didn't rest on my laurels of oh,
Speaker 4: you know, my gamble paid off, we're the best team
Speaker 4: in the league, or we had the best record in
Speaker 4: the league, not being complacent with that, but still going
Speaker 4: out being aggressive, going and getting DeAndre Hunter and then
Speaker 4: having Tied Jerome step up in this way.
Speaker 3: I just think it's exactly what you need.
Speaker 4: It's exactly what you need going into this postseason, and
Speaker 4: I I just do not feel like that's going to
Speaker 4: be the storyline like this goes beyond pumpkin insurance, like
Speaker 4: this is yes, I don't know what you want to
Speaker 4: use for that analogy, but they've got the depth they need.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just at the end of the day, like
Speaker 1: the sandbox is there for these guys to play, and
Speaker 1: it's built. You've got all all the toys, all the tools,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's so encouraging to see. I think this
Speaker 1: front office just needs endless, endless credit because the balance
Speaker 1: between self confidence and humorous kind of sits at a
Speaker 1: razor's edge.
Speaker 3: And my ears are burning continue.
Speaker 1: And and sorry I wasn't ready for that one. And
Speaker 1: you know there were times where you worried almost where
Speaker 1: like okay this you know, this front office really really
Speaker 1: believes in what they've built, and they've had some some
Speaker 1: real hits to that on the journey. You know, that
Speaker 1: Knick series is a big hit. You know, the entirety
Speaker 1: of last regular season was the kind of was was
Speaker 1: a hit where things weren't meshing, things worth the some
Speaker 1: of their parts. So when you're that confident and then
Speaker 1: you start getting the good results in the wake of that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable that they didn't just go well, I was
Speaker 1: right last time, so why would I Why would I
Speaker 1: change it now?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: So like that ability to to to hang out on
Speaker 1: that knife sets, which is where the best executives and
Speaker 1: the best organizations live, uh, is such a testament. It's
Speaker 1: something I didn't know if we would ever have because
Speaker 1: most organizations don't get to have this. And uh again,
Speaker 1: you just have to give Kobe, Mike Gansey that front
Speaker 1: office their flowers. Clearly, it's it's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: an environment where an opinion matters, having a real point
Speaker 1: of view matters, but where that point of view can
Speaker 1: get challenged and you can and you can say, and
Speaker 1: you can really see how that filters all the way
Speaker 1: down to the coaching staff, the kind of team that
Speaker 1: Kenny's running, where he's where he's telling stories about how
Speaker 1: he didn't want to start Jalen Tyson and Damari Carroll
Speaker 1: goes and talks him into it.
Speaker 3: Like all these little.
Speaker 1: Pieces of evidence that show, hey, we believe in something,
Speaker 1: but we're not getting getting too high on our own opinions.
Speaker 1: We are ready to be challenged and we in everything
Speaker 1: that we believe has to be deeply defended and deeply
Speaker 1: validated or or or it's not going to work. And
Speaker 1: like again, just what a masterclass on the road to
Speaker 1: building a team.
Speaker 3: This good?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's so important and it really goes
Speaker 4: to show, right, Like we see what we see in
Speaker 4: forty eight minutes, right, what's on the court, What the
Speaker 4: kind of relationships are, the body chemistry, all that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff that's a parent Like we can see that
Speaker 4: on a consistent basis.
Speaker 3: But I think those types.
Speaker 4: Of relationships, right, having your finger on the pulse with
Speaker 4: the locker room, knowing what types of shake ups the
Speaker 4: locker room can handle, what shakeups are going to be
Speaker 4: a positive for the locker room, right, Like when you
Speaker 4: look back at the coaching change, JB did a great job,
Speaker 4: but it was clearly time to make an adjustment there.
Speaker 4: Caros LeVert had really contributed, had really brought a lot
Speaker 4: to the locker room, but it was the right time
Speaker 4: and they had the trust in the locker room to
Speaker 4: be able to kind of step up and address that.
Speaker 4: I think, and you know that did Mark Carroll example.
Speaker 4: I think that's another great example. Like it's all these
Speaker 4: kind of relationships and things you don't see that aren't
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Speaker 4: I can Carter. You took me on a Ti Jerome
Speaker 4: ride here. I think he absolutely deserved it. I am
Speaker 4: enamored with Ti Jerome. But I want to talk about
Speaker 4: Evan Mobley because that man looked like one of the
Speaker 4: best players on the planet these last two games. He
Speaker 4: put up twenty five thirteen and eight versus Memphis with
Speaker 4: three blocks, twenty one, eight and four versus New York,
Speaker 4: which is impressive, more impressive when you realize he did
Speaker 4: in twenty four minutes. This guy is one of the
Speaker 4: best two way players in basketball. Is off the dribble
Speaker 4: game has expanded. He is looking so confident he was
Speaker 4: taking it too. One of the best defenders on the
Speaker 4: planet in Jaron Jackson Junior. And I think when you
Speaker 4: we talk about the differences between two years ago against
Speaker 4: the Knicks and where the team is at now. Mentioning
Speaker 4: the changes in the supporting cast, coaching, all that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff is so important. I think the b a
Speaker 4: swing factor, which we said at the time was going
Speaker 4: to be the growth of Evan Mobley and is no.
Speaker 4: This is no longer what we saw post All Star
Speaker 4: break of that season where he was more productive. He
Speaker 4: was getting around eighteen and ten. This is someone that
Speaker 4: can bend defenses that people panic because he is so
Speaker 4: dominant on both ends of the court.
Speaker 3: Holy hell, it was fun to watch he is.
Speaker 1: He is really I feel like even taking another leap
Speaker 1: as a creator midseason from what he was at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year. I mean, we talk about how
Speaker 1: at the front end of the year he's taken it
Speaker 1: to the Charlottes of the world and you know, the
Speaker 1: Washingtons of the world, and you wait to see like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's good, I'm glad to see it, but like he
Speaker 1: can't turtle up against the best defenses in the league
Speaker 1: when he goes up against other elite personnel. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, that's what elite offense is is
Speaker 1: when you can beat elite defense with it, and you
Speaker 1: know he has that first possession against Jaron where they're
Speaker 1: down Darius, So he's gonna need to initiate That's just
Speaker 1: the way, especially with that starting lineup with Okuoro in there,
Speaker 1: You're gonna need mobilely to initiate offense. So it's just
Speaker 1: not the Donovan Mitchell show, which by the way, it was,
Speaker 1: but just the Donovan Mitchell show. So you need it.
Speaker 1: And he gets ripped on that first possession, and you
Speaker 1: go and I won't lie. I go, this could be
Speaker 1: a hard game, you know, this could be a hard
Speaker 1: game to get easy buckets, and then he just proceeds
Speaker 1: to decimate him the rest of the game. I mean,
Speaker 1: the the euro step, the inverted pick and rolls, the
Speaker 1: Duccans right when he needs them, so much self created offense,
Speaker 1: so much playmaking for others where he is getting he's
Speaker 1: beating Jaren to the point, like the whole feast of
Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson Junior for the Grizzlies is they don't have
Speaker 1: to help when he's guarding someone. Yeah, so if the
Speaker 1: fact that Evan is just spraying passes out, I know
Speaker 1: you have an unbelievable stat I wouldn't dare take from
Speaker 1: you from this one with regardless of his playming. But the
Speaker 1: fact that he's able to destabilize Memphis defense with you know,
Speaker 1: the current odds front runner for Defensive Player of the
Speaker 1: Year guarding him, hopefully not for long, is really special.
Speaker 3: It is really special.
Speaker 4: And that's that you're referring to fifteen assist opportunities created
Speaker 4: by Mobile in that game. Second on the team was
Speaker 4: Donovan with eight, So you know, he is not only
Speaker 4: generating for himself against one of the best defenders in
Speaker 4: the league. He is generating for others. He was creating
Speaker 4: opportunities all over the board.
Speaker 3: And I think I'm.
Speaker 4: Really happy that you pointed out that turnover because I
Speaker 4: didn't get to watch that game live. I had to
Speaker 4: watch it after, and I knew that he had a
Speaker 4: great game, and I smiled when I saw that turnover
Speaker 4: because I'm like, this is great because I already knew
Speaker 4: what his box score was. I watched the fourth quarter live.
Speaker 4: I was like, this is awesome. He is going to
Speaker 4: stick with it. And I think you even saw within
Speaker 4: this game he took a lot of open threes. One
Speaker 4: of them he had his foot on the line. Unfortunately
Speaker 4: he missed a bunch of them, but he didn't let
Speaker 4: that determ. He's not being polite where oh you know,
Speaker 4: excuse me, I'm going to try to expand my game
Speaker 4: here for a possession or two. Let me, let me
Speaker 4: experiment with a dribble, let me experiment with a three.
Speaker 4: He's confident with what he's doing on the court, and
Speaker 4: he believes in the process. He is sticking to it
Speaker 4: and he is playing his game. And I think we
Speaker 4: still need to see it against Boston. I want to
Speaker 4: see him have one of these games against Kristaps Porzingis
Speaker 4: and now Horford. We saw it against Horford in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: Porzingis has given him trouble, but I think it's encouraging
Speaker 4: that since he struggled there. We've seen him do it
Speaker 4: against I, Rudy Gobert, We've seen him do it against
Speaker 4: Jaron Jackson Jr. Who Christaph Porzingis is a phenomenal defender.
Speaker 4: He is not as good as those two guys, Like
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, he's maybe a little larger, but he is
Speaker 4: not a better defender than those two guys. Whether he
Speaker 4: can get that to translate, whether he can keep himself,
Speaker 4: keep maintain that composure, attack and assert his will on
Speaker 4: the game, that's going to be really really important to see.
Speaker 4: But what did we say. We only have one game
Speaker 4: left against Boston, but we do have a lot of
Speaker 4: these matchups where you're playing very very good defensive teams
Speaker 4: and very very good defensive players at that position. So
Speaker 4: for Evan Mobiley to excel and to not just have
Speaker 4: a solid game against a good defender, but have an
Speaker 4: argument for being the best player on the court with
Speaker 4: his performance, I think is significant. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 4: I think you mentioning the three point volume, I'll just
Speaker 4: actually take it a step further and say the field
Speaker 4: goal it's him volume. He took twenty shots, and how
Speaker 4: many times in the last two years would the Cavs
Speaker 4: be like down one of their core guys, especially one
Speaker 4: of their guards. And then you look at the end
Speaker 4: of the night and Evan has sixteen seventeen points on
Speaker 4: nine or ten field goal attempts, and it's like, Okay,
Speaker 4: that's cool that you were efficient, But like brother, we
Speaker 4: need we need to take shots. We need you to
Speaker 4: have high attempt, high volume. We need to feel you
Speaker 4: in the offense on especially on nights like this where
Speaker 4: Darius is out and you know, the engine to your
Speaker 4: offense isn't playing. You need to self create offense, And
Speaker 4: like what is better self creation for a seven foot
Speaker 4: power forward than you know, twenty field goal attempts, eight assists,
Speaker 4: fifteen potential assists and like an eight three point attempts,
Speaker 4: Like that is self creation in a way that I
Speaker 4: just don't know we would have seen a year or
Speaker 4: two ago. It's what needs to happen for this offense
Speaker 4: to be playoff proof, because we have talked about this
Speaker 4: time and time again. You need to have counters for
Speaker 4: when teams hedge blitz and put pressure on your guards.
Speaker 4: You need to have that frontcourt creation and Evan Mobley
Speaker 4: stepping up in that way is important. I think having
Speaker 4: DeAndre Hunter is important. He is able to generate offense.
Speaker 4: I've been really impressed with his touchoff of drives, some
Speaker 4: of the self created buckets, the way he's able to
Speaker 4: rise up over defenders, and abounding game for him. By
Speaker 4: the way, I know it is that what we're talking about,
Speaker 4: But no, I see it's You're absolutely correct.
Speaker 3: Like I thought.
Speaker 4: You know, he stepped up in a big, big way
Speaker 4: and was a star in his role, and that's exactly
Speaker 4: what you need. So I just feel more confident about
Speaker 4: the ability of this offense to translate.
Speaker 3: To the playoffs.
Speaker 4: But man Evan Mobley, especially in a showcase game National
Speaker 4: TV against Jaron Jackson Junior, who is going to be
Speaker 4: competing with for Defensive Player of the Year, I thought
Speaker 4: it was really, really significant. And I made this argument
Speaker 4: two years ago when I personally thought Evan Mobley should
Speaker 4: have won Defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 3: But I think when you look at.
Speaker 4: These two games from over the weekend where Evan Mobley,
Speaker 4: you know, massive performance in twenty four minutes against the Knicks,
Speaker 4: Jaron Jackson Junior twenty two points in his twenty five
Speaker 4: minutes against the Cavs, very similar production. Know what the
Speaker 4: difference is. Carter Jaren played twenty five minutes because he
Speaker 4: had five fouls. Evan played twenty four minutes because they
Speaker 4: blew the Micks out. This is the thing Evan Mobley's
Speaker 4: minutes like when you look at their per thirty six stats.
Speaker 4: Jaren really expanded his offensive game last year, did him
Speaker 4: a lot of good. He is an improved player, He's
Speaker 4: a phenomenal player. But Evan Mobley can scale up his
Speaker 4: minutes and actually achieve those per thirty six stats. Because
Speaker 4: he's not picking up fouls all the time. Not only that,
Speaker 4: when they have very similar kind of impact on opponents
Speaker 4: shooting when it comes to what they do defensively. Know
Speaker 4: what Evan does better ending those possessions after the shot
Speaker 4: has gone up because he is a dramatically better rebounder
Speaker 4: than Jaron Jackson Jr. The Grizzlies are one of the
Speaker 4: worst rebounding teams in the league, and his rebound rate
Speaker 4: is not that dissimilar to someone like DeAndre Hunter, who
Speaker 4: we've talked about is rebounding at the small forward position.
Speaker 4: Like I just think that Evan Moley is a more
Speaker 4: complete defensive player. I think the ability to defend without
Speaker 4: fouling is so important, particularly when you're talking about can
Speaker 4: the success of the regular season translate to the playoffs
Speaker 4: where we need our best players to potentially play thirty
Speaker 4: six thirty eight minutes a game. If you can't play
Speaker 4: that many minutes because you are taking yourself off the
Speaker 4: court with those fouls, that to me has to work
Speaker 4: against you. If you cannot end those possessions and the
Speaker 4: Cavs outrebound you by ten, that has to count in
Speaker 4: these Defensive Player of the Year conversations. I think Jaron
Speaker 4: Jackson has as I said, I think he's taken a
Speaker 4: step forward. I think he's a phenomenal player. I think
Speaker 4: he is a much much more dynamic offensive player than
Speaker 4: what we saw two years ago. I think Evan Mobley
Speaker 4: is just a flat out better player at this point.
Speaker 3: He is.
Speaker 1: And I think there is a little bit of of
Speaker 1: JJJ getting credit for his growth as a player as
Speaker 1: in this like it's and you see that happen the
Speaker 1: other way too, you know, Like I was listening to
Speaker 1: the Dunker spots, I was hanging out in their playback
Speaker 1: room and someone asked about BAM. Why why he's not
Speaker 1: in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation, and you know,
Speaker 1: and you know, and Nikai has kind of mentioned like,
Speaker 1: I mean, he's been good there, but also like he's
Speaker 1: just having a bad year overall. And it does drag
Speaker 1: you down narratively, it just does. And like so even
Speaker 1: though most of bam struggles this year have been on offense, like,
Speaker 1: it does just kind of change the perception of you
Speaker 1: a little bit. And I do feel like that's happening
Speaker 1: with JJJ in the opposite way. By the way, just
Speaker 1: pulled up ban duel, just a just a check, and
Speaker 1: guess who is now tied for the best odds for
Speaker 1: defensive Player of the Year, Your boy, Evan Mobley. They're
Speaker 1: both plus one twenty five. And by the way, I'm
Speaker 1: going to use this as aside to say, this is
Speaker 1: why taking advantage of getting put on national TV really matters.
Speaker 1: You've got four national or sorry, five straight national TV games,
Speaker 1: six out of seven and like, and a lot of
Speaker 1: those were flexed games where you know, the leagues saw
Speaker 1: how good the Caves are playing and put them in
Speaker 1: the spot. That's why it matters. And you cannot tell
Speaker 1: me that if that, if that was, if that Memphis
Speaker 1: game is only on the regional networks, that that line
Speaker 1: shifts that fast.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: But when you when you put when you when these
Speaker 1: guys are getting in this national showcase and showing out
Speaker 1: the way they have been these last couple of games,
Speaker 1: it just starts to push these narratives in their favor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, I thought that this was a big
Speaker 1: weekend for changing narratives overall for the Caves. I thought
Speaker 1: what they did against the Knicks was significant. It would
Speaker 1: be a huge week by Friday.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and you know Bullet's dodge.
Speaker 4: You know, I will confess I panicked when I saw
Speaker 4: Darius land on his face, when I saw you know,
Speaker 4: Jared Allen going for an MRI. All of that freaked
Speaker 4: me out because it brought me right back to after
Speaker 4: All Star break. In the past, like people have always
Speaker 4: talked about, oh, you know, the cass fall off after
Speaker 4: the All Star break, like that, the play has fallen off.
Speaker 4: It has always been injuries. Like when we were coming
Speaker 4: off the All Star Game in Cleveland, we lost Darius,
Speaker 4: we lost Caris, we lost Lowry, we lost Jared, we
Speaker 4: lost Evan, we lost Dean. All those guys were out
Speaker 4: and that's why the tail spin happened. For Jared Allen
Speaker 4: to you know, bang his finger on the rim and
Speaker 4: then miss the rest of the regular season and be
Speaker 4: impacted in the play in game. Like, all of that
Speaker 4: was fresh in my memory. So for Jared to come
Speaker 4: back to not have it be anything too serious, I
Speaker 4: think he saw maybe a little bit with his free
Speaker 4: throw shooting, but I thought he had a big impact
Speaker 4: on the game.
Speaker 3: I thought he.
Speaker 4: Played really really well for Varius. You know, well, we'll
Speaker 4: see how long he's out. If he's not one hundred
Speaker 4: percent for Boston. I'm going to find that interesting because
Speaker 4: you're likely going to be banged up in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: You're going to need to find ways to be productive
Speaker 4: in those spots. I think that we have more than
Speaker 4: enough to win. I think we've seen that in past
Speaker 4: games against Boston where someone's had a really, really bad game.
Speaker 4: We just might need a like a It's funny to
Speaker 4: say this against the team as good as Boston, but
Speaker 4: you know, we might just need a be game from
Speaker 4: Darius if we get a strong Evan and Darius or
Speaker 4: and Donnie and Hunter steps up right, Like.
Speaker 3: Is Donovan in a good form right now? Oh my,
Speaker 3: it's been phenomenal.
Speaker 4: So I'm I'm I'm really you know, I'm hopeful that
Speaker 4: he doesn't miss too much time. I know the Caves
Speaker 4: have been very cautious with how they've managed injuries and
Speaker 4: made sure that that guys were one hundred percent. It
Speaker 4: was nice to see him on the bench having some
Speaker 4: fun in the last game. I like the track suit look,
Speaker 4: but yeah, hopefully it's available for Boston. It's nice to
Speaker 4: get two days off prior to that as well. But
Speaker 4: you know, the Cavs did a phenomenal job managing you know,
Speaker 4: a three and four as well. Sure, those last two
Speaker 4: games were at home, but I think, particularly coming off
Speaker 4: some time off, I'm not surprised that they shot twenty
Speaker 4: seven percent from three and had some tire legs. I'm
Speaker 4: not surprised that Isaac o Coro and Dean Wade are
Speaker 4: are a little tired, particularly old Cora who played all
Speaker 4: those games. You're going to have some tired legs in
Speaker 4: those spots. But to go up against one of the
Speaker 4: best offensive teams in the league in Memphis and a
Speaker 4: very good defensive team as well, and to still put
Speaker 4: up that many points when you shoot twenty seven percent
Speaker 4: from three and sixty eight percent from the free throw line.
Speaker 4: If you're Memphis, you can't feel too good about what
Speaker 4: the Cavs did to your defense.
Speaker 1: No, absolutely not, man, And like, what's so nice again,
Speaker 1: And We've talked about it a lot, but Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: just being the break the like the best break glass
Speaker 1: in case of emergency option in the league, that a
Speaker 1: team that rarely has to break that glass, like he
Speaker 1: was so crucial in this game. Like they don't score
Speaker 1: sixty plus in the first half shooting the way they shot.
Speaker 1: If Donovan isn't just carrying the offense and playing like
Speaker 1: a super duper star, yeah, he has just been on
Speaker 1: a tear dude. I mean the explosion has been top notched.
Speaker 1: Yet another monster dunk. The jumper looks really really pure.
Speaker 1: His catch and shoot just it just feels like he
Speaker 1: never misses when he gets to catch and shoot. At
Speaker 1: this point, the connectiveness has been really really great, not
Speaker 1: just the passes leading to assists, but the hockey assists,
Speaker 1: the hit aheads. You know, man, that lobb to Mobili
Speaker 1: against the Knicks in the first quarter, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that was beautiful. Like for a guy who says he's
Speaker 1: not that good at throwing lobs, that's one of the
Speaker 1: best trap lobs I've seen in a long time.
Speaker 4: That was remind me because I can't remember if we've
Speaker 4: discussed this on the podcast. I've done a lot of
Speaker 4: damage from my brain over the years. Have we talked
Speaker 4: about kind of the variety of his playmaking this season,
Speaker 4: because I really feel like, even though last year was
Speaker 4: you know, that big kind of playmaking leap from him.
Speaker 4: I feel like his understanding of what the Cavs are
Speaker 4: running offensively and the Tights and the variety of passes
Speaker 4: that he's making are at the highest level. And I
Speaker 4: just think we are seeing the absolute best version of
Speaker 4: Donovan Mitchell, even if it's not readily apparent when you
Speaker 4: look at his season long stats.
Speaker 1: I think he's passing guys open. I think he is
Speaker 1: finding and he's making passes I didn't see, you know,
Speaker 1: so much of what I thought last year was kind
Speaker 1: of a brute force thing where, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: like Westbrook playmaking, if I could find finding the open man, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: being a little reductive where he you know, had would have,
Speaker 1: you know, intense gravitational pull. Everyone would just kind of
Speaker 1: suck in towards basket and he would be able to
Speaker 1: kick it or make an interior pass that was there
Speaker 1: with an angle that he could see.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: He is making passes this year where I'm like, I
Speaker 1: didn't know you were gonna throw it there, and and
Speaker 1: that is really really special, and you're right, it is
Speaker 1: not you know, And we did talk about this a
Speaker 1: little bit, how it's not gonna It hasn't really shown
Speaker 1: up in the Playmatrix playmaking metrics, but I just don't
Speaker 1: really care. And it's part of why I think the
Speaker 1: Cabs have just been so freaking elite with him and
Speaker 1: Evan on the floor because both of their playmaking has
Speaker 1: been so good all year that those, you know, those
Speaker 1: lineups are just kind of impossible at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. I mean, in the month of February, justin
Speaker 1: he's averaging thirty points, five rebounds, six assists per thirty six,
Speaker 1: I mean, and on very good efficiency forty nine from
Speaker 1: the field, thirty eight from three on ten to three
Speaker 1: point attempts per thirty six as well. Like the he
Speaker 1: is playing like a super duper star.
Speaker 4: And I think what stands out to me too is
Speaker 4: I feel like he has good chemistry with everybody on
Speaker 4: the roster, whereas in the past I felt like sometimes
Speaker 4: there was almost like a learning curve for playing with guys,
Speaker 4: and some of that's probably a result of continuity, but
Speaker 4: I also just think everyone's being put in really good positions,
Speaker 4: like I honestly think Isaac Okorral since coming back. I
Speaker 4: know he's two of eight from three, but I felt
Speaker 4: his impact in these games. I'm really enjoying the minutes
Speaker 4: of him role attacks really you know, generating some assist
Speaker 4: opportunities there. He's been attacking the glass at the type
Speaker 4: of rate that we want to see. The rebound percentages
Speaker 4: up three percent since he's come back from the injury.
Speaker 4: I thought he had some really really impactful defensive possessions
Speaker 4: and possessions where he didn't get the rebound but he's
Speaker 4: tipping at it and generates a second chance opportunity. The
Speaker 4: block he had on Desmond Baine and I thought was phenomenal.
Speaker 4: I believe that was with his left hand, Like he's
Speaker 4: just looked really good out there. And it's it's funny
Speaker 4: because I think in how he was used in the past,
Speaker 4: when you're sitting in the corner, you whether or not
Speaker 4: you are playing well is based solely on whether or
Speaker 4: not you hit those shots. And I just feel like
Speaker 4: he's being used in more ways and he's impacting the
Speaker 4: game and it's not just about Okay, did the shots
Speaker 4: go down? And there were so many possessions where you know,
Speaker 4: little dribble handoffs with him and Donovan where he's setting
Speaker 4: just these incredible screens that are really blowing guys up.
Speaker 1: And just he had that great two man game in
Speaker 1: the corner with Mobley last night where he ends up
Speaker 1: helping them force a switch, Mobley gets it, is able
Speaker 1: to attack Jaw on that switch and feeds Jared who's
Speaker 1: cutting baseline, Like he's part of these connected plays to.
Speaker 4: Your point, Yeah, and you know for him to come
Speaker 4: back into the lineup. And I think it really illustrates.
Speaker 3: Just how high level the feel.
Speaker 4: Is for Donovan right now. But like him and Isaaca
Speaker 4: Coral have an effective two man game against a top
Speaker 4: ten defense and one of the best teams in the
Speaker 4: league in Memphis. Like I just think you're seeing it
Speaker 4: up and down the lineup where he has a perfect
Speaker 4: feel for where Dean wants the ball. He has immediately
Speaker 4: has great chemistry with DeAndre Hunter, like you've had really
Speaker 4: nice possessions with those two. His chemistry with Mobley is great.
Speaker 4: His chemistry with Jared Allen has been so much better
Speaker 4: than it was in the past. Like I just or
Speaker 4: actually the other way around, the chemistry with Mobley's better
Speaker 4: than it was in the past. Like I just think
Speaker 4: that up and down the lineup, he just has such
Speaker 4: a high level understanding of where he needs to be
Speaker 4: when he can be aggressive, of how to get guys open,
Speaker 4: how guys are going to cut, how they're going to move,
Speaker 4: and I think this is what This is what I
Speaker 4: was hoping for earlier in the season, where we were
Speaker 4: talking about, hey, there's a few possessions where Donovan is
Speaker 4: very clearly saying it's my turn. Where the feel wasn't
Speaker 4: necessarily there, like it felt like everybody else was flown,
Speaker 4: and then sometimes like Donovan was playing such unselfish team basketball,
Speaker 4: He's like, I gotta get mine here. I got to
Speaker 4: get it once or twice. The reason why I felt
Speaker 4: it was so important to point out is because what
Speaker 4: we have seen from Donovan throughout his cast tenure is
Speaker 4: that he has grown, he has improved, he has done
Speaker 4: all the things to become a better team player.
Speaker 1: Like Tony Stark, he's always learning justin.
Speaker 4: And I just had that high level of confidence that
Speaker 4: was going to come at some point. And not that
Speaker 4: we wouldn't have pointed it out if we didn't think
Speaker 4: it was going to turn around, but I think pointing
Speaker 4: out where there's opportunity for growth is so so important,
Speaker 4: particularly when you're talking about a team who's path to
Speaker 4: a championship is largely going to be coming through internal development,
Speaker 4: or at least it has been to this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like your star player who's you know, in
Speaker 1: his late twenties at this point, like is the guy
Speaker 1: who you want, like who you're not counting on at
Speaker 1: development from comparatively, and the fact that you're still getting
Speaker 1: that growth again just speaks to what I love so
Speaker 1: much about the game of basketball that you know, it's
Speaker 1: not about the bag, It's just not. It's about how
Speaker 1: you how you read the flow of the game, and
Speaker 1: how uh and how you connect with your teammates and
Speaker 1: when you decide to take over, when you decide to
Speaker 1: get your guys going, when you decide to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: to to muster the strength, that extra burst on the rim,
Speaker 1: attack that you know, on a night where your legs
Speaker 1: maybe don't all the way have it. Like, that's all
Speaker 1: the stuff I think Donovan's just getting better and better at.
Speaker 1: And you know, there were.
Speaker 4: I would like to see him attack the rim a
Speaker 4: little bit more that That's my one critique is sometimes
Speaker 4: I feel like in some of these matchups and there's
Speaker 4: just so many good things that happen when he attacks
Speaker 4: the rim, I'd like to see it just a little
Speaker 4: bit more. But he's been so damn good.
Speaker 1: And you know, here's the thing I trust that he'll
Speaker 1: do it in the playoffs because I do too. I
Speaker 1: like that Boston series before he got hurt. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was just a parade to the rim. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I really do trust that he is going to muster
Speaker 1: the energy to get there, especially when they're closed out
Speaker 1: hard on that jumper. He's just been He's been phenomenal man,
Speaker 1: an absolute tone setter. And you know the fact that
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who's been better between him and Evan
Speaker 1: in this month kind of tells you what kind of
Speaker 1: month the Cavs have had.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they've been really, really damn good. And you know,
Speaker 4: his growth and his continuous improvement even into kind of
Speaker 4: his late twenties here, it just gets me excited about
Speaker 4: what twenty three year old Evan Mobley and newly twenty
Speaker 4: five year old Darrius Garland are going to do. Is
Speaker 4: they continue to get better and.
Speaker 3: Fan me off.
Speaker 4: Can I just a little brief rant about some of
Speaker 4: the cap dorcs here that are worried about all the
Speaker 4: accolades that Evan Mobley is going to get one. We've
Speaker 4: always said we are rooting for it, guys to get
Speaker 4: those accolades. We trust the front office to be creative
Speaker 4: we've also put the team together. I'm very content with
Speaker 4: this team staying together. But when it comes to you know,
Speaker 4: Evan Mobley potentially getting all NBA those kind of kickers
Speaker 4: in the contract and all that kind of stuff. We
Speaker 4: have two guys twenty five and under that are probably
Speaker 4: deserving of all NBA spots, and the fact that only
Speaker 4: one of them has a chance to get that designative
Speaker 4: rookie Max, We're already probably ahead of the game there.
Speaker 4: I'm very, very much rooting for Evan Mobley to get
Speaker 4: all the accolades he deserves. And I love that he's
Speaker 4: speaking out for himself too, Like he's he's puffing out
Speaker 4: his chest a little bit. He's talking, you know, saying, Hey,
Speaker 4: who do I think is going to be the best
Speaker 4: player in five years?
Speaker 3: Me or Wemby?
Speaker 4: Like I love that from him. I love the asserted ritually.
Speaker 1: Not for Wendy, by the way, what a horrible or Wemby,
Speaker 1: Sorry not Wendy. Yeah yeah, what a terrible uh thing
Speaker 1: and scary thing. And hope for the best for him
Speaker 1: because that was a that was a real gut punch
Speaker 1: as a hoops fan.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you were one of the first people I thought
Speaker 4: about because the last podcast we had done was you saying, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the matchup I'm most looking forward to is the two
Speaker 4: against Wemby, and then that immediately came out. I felt
Speaker 4: for you, and I also felt for that guy.
Speaker 3: That tweeted out an hour before that.
Speaker 4: He had just put ten thousand on to win Defensive
Speaker 4: Player of the Year just an hour before that news broke,
Speaker 4: so shouts out to him. But yeah, Evan Mobley taking
Speaker 4: the step forward that he has, I think is the
Speaker 4: most important thing. And No, it was really really fun
Speaker 4: to see Knicks fans kind of reacting to, oh, this
Speaker 4: is Evan Mobley now, because I think that that, more
Speaker 4: than anything, is the biggest difference when you talk about
Speaker 4: what they're going to be able to do in a
Speaker 4: playoff series. Well, I should say, at least from a
Speaker 4: cast perspective, I think the biggest difference in that matchup
Speaker 4: is they took all their identity and traded away into
Speaker 4: Michale Bridges and Karl Anthony Townsend. I just don't think
Speaker 4: as good as Josh Hart is and he's been having
Speaker 4: the best season of his career, and as good as
Speaker 4: Mitchell Robinson can be, I don't think that they alone
Speaker 4: can carry kind of that physicality mantle for the Knicks. Like,
Speaker 4: my goodness, man, Like that felt great. That was so
Speaker 4: much fun because I messaged you before the game where
Speaker 4: I'm like, I really feel like the Cavs should get
Speaker 4: this one. I feel like this should be a comfortable win.
Speaker 4: Even though the Knicks are really good, they haven't been
Speaker 4: good against the best teams of the league. They haven't
Speaker 4: been good against winning teams. And I really felt like
Speaker 4: if they went out and struggled, you know, to score
Speaker 4: against a defense anchored by Kat, I was gonna say
Speaker 4: it was a mental hurdle that they have to come
Speaker 4: over overcome rather than a roster issue.
Speaker 3: So for them to.
Speaker 4: Just be as surgical as they were, that just felt great.
Speaker 1: It was It was really rewarding, and it was really fun.
Speaker 1: Hate listening to a bunch of Knicks podcasts after words,
Speaker 1: and you know, you can.
Speaker 3: Play a fun game.
Speaker 4: What what is your favorite comment that you heard from
Speaker 4: a Knicks podcast.
Speaker 3: After the game?
Speaker 1: My favorite one was one It was I was listening
Speaker 1: to the next film school Q and a Okay, it's
Speaker 1: going to come from that too, And they asked if
Speaker 1: they asked him who was better Hunter or Michel Bridges,
Speaker 1: it took mine.
Speaker 3: That was like, and he had to.
Speaker 1: Earnestly be like, you know, it's close, like they gave
Speaker 1: up five first roup.
Speaker 3: Picks, yeah versus three seconds. Yeah.
Speaker 4: The comment of probably closer than we are comfortable admitting.
Speaker 1: Was just that was yeah. I mean, you know I
Speaker 1: said it. Uh, you know, I whatever, We're fifty five
Speaker 1: minutes and we can do a Knicks Uh. We can
Speaker 1: make fun of the Knicks for a minute, you know.
Speaker 3: I we love it. We love Next Film School. They
Speaker 3: do great work. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Shout shouts shouts Claudio and John McCray.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: I remember when they made that cat trade. I text
Speaker 1: my buddy and I was like, that looks like the
Speaker 1: team I make in two K when I get bored
Speaker 1: and do five consecutive suggested trades and then then I
Speaker 1: like load up.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what am I supposed to do with this?
Speaker 1: You know, like like you just like you kind of
Speaker 1: like accidentally just like nuke the identity of whatever team
Speaker 1: you were looking to play with in the first place,
Speaker 1: and you just kind.
Speaker 3: Of have like you trade for a bunch of guys.
Speaker 1: Oh, there's a three D guy who'd be great, and
Speaker 1: then you just have like a bunch of guys who
Speaker 1: just don't play with a tremendous amount of force. Uh,
Speaker 1: And I mean Josh Hart is the second best playmaker
Speaker 1: on that team, like by a lot.
Speaker 3: It doesn't have to work so hard like that.
Speaker 4: That was one that was honestly one of the main
Speaker 4: things that jumped out, Like I expected us to be
Speaker 4: able to feast at the rim, and I expected our
Speaker 4: offense to be good. I was very impressed with how
Speaker 4: we played defensively. I thought the Cavs had a terrific
Speaker 4: effort on that end of the floor. And man like
Speaker 4: when the Knicks kept a close ish in the first quarter,
Speaker 4: it was Brunson working his butt off to get those shots,
Speaker 4: hitting tough shots, hit one over Evan Mobley, like he
Speaker 4: was seeing bodies all over the place, And I just
Speaker 4: you need playmaking that How many times have I said
Speaker 4: it this season? That was my lesson from the Celtics
Speaker 4: is they had five guys that could create, and cap
Speaker 4: to his credit, has been very good this year. Like
Speaker 4: he's taken a step up as a creator and a playmaker.
Speaker 1: He's still more of a play finisher, you know, at
Speaker 1: the end, and if.
Speaker 4: He dribbles a second time. He is not going to
Speaker 4: give the ball up if he dribbles once. If he
Speaker 4: dribbles once and help comes, he will make the right pass.
Speaker 4: If he has dribbled the second time, he is going
Speaker 4: to take it to the basket.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's after that Calves game, before the Boston game.
Speaker 1: You know that same podcast time about how they were
Speaker 1: against the Calves Celtics and in thunder they their average
Speaker 1: scores one of five and their average opposing score is
Speaker 1: one twenty six. And I'm just sitting here going the
Speaker 1: one oh five is the problem. The whole thesis of
Speaker 1: the team is that they got to be able to score,
Speaker 1: and like they just don't they They they don't have
Speaker 1: the ability to get easy looks against great teams.
Speaker 3: They have to work too hard for it.
Speaker 1: So anyway, there's there's the there's Nick Shotenfreud, a corner
Speaker 1: of the Chase Down podcast which probably get back on
Speaker 1: the Calves. And by the way, for what it's worth,
Speaker 1: I have this concern with the Caves against Boston because
Speaker 1: I do feel like no one even even okay see,
Speaker 1: like no one has consistently gotten the Calves out of
Speaker 1: their offense like Boston has yep. The biggest question with
Speaker 1: the Calves is still can this offense translate to the playoffs?
Speaker 1: The defense has held up. I think we have enough
Speaker 1: data points to indicate, yes, they are capable of doing this,
Speaker 1: But can you do it four times in the seven
Speaker 1: game series against the team as good as Boston?
Speaker 3: That's going to be the question. The answer very well
Speaker 3: might be no.
Speaker 4: But if we get like a competitive seven game series
Speaker 4: where we do it sometimes but you know there was
Speaker 4: just that one run that went the wrong way or
Speaker 4: whatever the case may be, that's something actionable. That's something
Speaker 4: that you can build off of, right, But how this
Speaker 4: offense translates to the playoff is still the biggest question.
Speaker 4: That's still something that I really really want to see,
Speaker 4: and I keep coming back to Evin Mobley. I think
Speaker 4: that that's where it needs to come. I think he
Speaker 4: needs to be consistent, and that's a lot to ask
Speaker 4: of a twenty three year old, but I think we
Speaker 4: are seeing more and more that he is capable of
Speaker 4: doing that. And you know, one thing that we have
Speaker 4: seen as cav fans is sometimes a twenty three year
Speaker 4: old is able to step up and do things that
Speaker 4: you can't always expect of players, right, like, we have
Speaker 4: had some generational talent. We have been really, really damn lucky.
Speaker 4: Obviously Lebron was phenomenal at twenty three years old, but
Speaker 4: there were those questions with Kyrie. There were questions, you know,
Speaker 4: early in the first round of the playoffs against Detroit.
Speaker 4: I remember ded hear from you know, the Warriors beat
Speaker 4: that was talking about the lack of assists between Kyrie
Speaker 4: and Lebron. Sometimes he had those off games, but when
Speaker 4: it really counted, he found that consistency. He struggled games
Speaker 4: one and two against the Warriors big in the comeback
Speaker 4: twenty three years old. Evan Mobley, same damn age, and
Speaker 4: I would love to see this season end the same
Speaker 4: damn way.
Speaker 1: You mentioned it's a lot to ask of Evan Mobley. Well,
Speaker 1: when the title means we're gonna have to ask a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of guys, Yeah, and everyone. The
Speaker 1: way this team is built, everyone's going to have to
Speaker 1: step up to the plate for two to three games
Speaker 1: at a time and some and like that is the
Speaker 1: rope is having enough guys playing great, just like Boston
Speaker 1: last year, having enough guys playing at a B plus
Speaker 1: a minus level that you can take a c minus
Speaker 1: game for one of your guys here and there, but
Speaker 1: like he needs to be eighty percent of the roster
Speaker 1: playing well most of the way through. Yep, And I
Speaker 1: think this team can do it.
Speaker 4: And some of it might be you know, tied your home,
Speaker 4: playing like Jason Terry in the in the finals and
Speaker 4: having one of those explosive quarters, or you know, we
Speaker 4: saw j R. Smith the Mon Shumpert four point play,
Speaker 4: right Like, those type of stuff matters so much, and
Speaker 4: I just have a high, high level of confidence that
Speaker 4: these guys are capable of doing it.
Speaker 3: Now. I still I agree with.
Speaker 4: What we said on the last podcast where I don't
Speaker 4: think there is any set of circumstances where you could
Speaker 4: say that the Cavs are going to be a favorite
Speaker 4: against Boston. And I do feel like this team has
Speaker 4: at least like the way I think about things, it's
Speaker 4: a three year window, right, Like that's the length that
Speaker 4: we have at least Donovan under contract. Let's think within
Speaker 4: that window. But just because it's a three year window
Speaker 4: doesn't mean you're guaranteed to be in this position, doesn't
Speaker 4: mean you're guaranteed to be healthy next year, doesn't mean
Speaker 4: you can take this year for granted, if there is
Speaker 4: even an opportunity to go out and shock the world
Speaker 4: this year, he got to do everything in your power
Speaker 4: to maximize and capitalize on every single opportunity that you have.
Speaker 1: Which good thing this team is picking up more useful players.
Speaker 1: On that note, they signed Javonte Green after he agreed
Speaker 1: to a buy out with the Pelicans, And what did
Speaker 1: you think of this move? You know, I think both
Speaker 1: of us were kind of pining for a big man.
Speaker 1: We're looking for a four or five, but also we
Speaker 1: weren't expecting a guy like Green to hit the market.
Speaker 3: What do you think.
Speaker 4: I'm happy with it like this. This falls onto your
Speaker 4: pumpkin insurance category. And you know, he is a little
Speaker 4: undersized six four sixty five, but he's got a massive
Speaker 4: seven foot wingspan. He is someone that plays much much
Speaker 4: bigger than his size. And Chris Fiedor on the Wine
Speaker 4: and Gold Talk podcast mentioned from his understanding when he
Speaker 4: was talking to the Cavs, it was indicated to him, hey,
Speaker 4: it's not going to be guaranteed. We have a lot
Speaker 4: of depth, but you may have opportunities to get minutes.
Speaker 4: And I think the reason for that positional versatility, I
Speaker 4: think that this is someone that can competently play with
Speaker 4: from two to four, like he can play as an
Speaker 4: undersized power forward.
Speaker 3: He's done it a good amount in.
Speaker 4: His career because he is so physical and he is
Speaker 4: so long and plays so much bigger than his size.
Speaker 4: His defensive metrics are phenomenal.
Speaker 3: Go check out.
Speaker 4: Dan Devine had a great post on that where he
Speaker 4: is one of the best kind of perimeter defenders in
Speaker 4: the league from a metrics standpoint. Having a guy like
Speaker 4: that that can fill in, like if you are having
Speaker 4: an issue where Isaac gets banged up or Dean gets
Speaker 4: banged up or foul trouble with one of the role guys.
Speaker 4: The fact that you have some positional versatility coming in
Speaker 4: off the bench, someone that can fill in at a
Speaker 4: variety of those spots, I think is the most important thing.
Speaker 4: And that's what I wanted more than anything, Right, I
Speaker 4: want a skill set more than I want an archetype,
Speaker 4: and I think that he fills that need.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1: He he has a couple of things that are really
Speaker 1: going for him.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I do think he is insulation in matchups where maybe
Speaker 1: Sam Merrill isn't a great matchup, you know, like We've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about how we don't love Sam against Boston.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just not it's not our favorite, and
Speaker 1: you know, who knows, maybe it'll it'll be Kenny's favorite,
Speaker 1: and that's all that really matters. But you know, I
Speaker 1: think like that's a guy where you can go, hey,
Speaker 1: if you still want to play eight, nine, ten guys
Speaker 1: that you can do that. You can just you can
Speaker 1: basically play him at the three or the four and
Speaker 1: down shift more Struce minutes at the two, yep, or
Speaker 1: or you know, more more Jerome minutes at the two
Speaker 1: because you got you got a big wing defender there.
Speaker 1: I think there is a you know, it's you. You
Speaker 1: made the pumpkin insurance joke earlier and and then brought
Speaker 1: it up here. What's nice is what you really want
Speaker 1: is pumpkin insurance for your role players in case and
Speaker 1: have another option behind them. Knowing that your starters, your
Speaker 1: top five to six guys you can really count on,
Speaker 1: you want like layers of insurance, and like he does
Speaker 1: provide that. You know, like you mentioned, Isaac's jumper hasn't
Speaker 1: looked great since the shoulder injury. You know, if you
Speaker 1: get into a playoff series and it's just not going well.
Speaker 1: But you need a stopper. Maybe throw him in for
Speaker 1: a shift and see how it goes. I think he'll
Speaker 1: be a great innings eater for this team as they
Speaker 1: go through the rest of their regular season, where you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about how we're super confident they're going to
Speaker 1: be the one seed at this point, at least I am.
Speaker 3: I think you are. You can safely say that, yes,
Speaker 3: you know, they're.
Speaker 1: Up six games on Boston as we speak right now,
Speaker 1: and but we've talked about how okay See is in
Speaker 1: the middle of thumping Minnesota for the second straight game
Speaker 1: and they're gonna have the same record. If the Cavs
Speaker 1: went home court through the they're gonna have to probably
Speaker 1: play out the season try to win as many games
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to throw into the finals. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: to play out the season. They're gonna have to win
Speaker 1: as many games as possible, and they're going to have
Speaker 1: to decide whether they want to balance you know, rest,
Speaker 1: recovery and all that stuff with chasing those wins. So
Speaker 1: adding another, like no doubt NBA player to your rotation
Speaker 1: makes it easier for you to do that, where you're
Speaker 1: not playing guys that you don't think can help you
Speaker 1: win in any game. Yeah, even when you're down two
Speaker 1: or three rotation players.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And you know, the great thing about this season is
Speaker 4: they've been chasing wins without you know, really stacking.
Speaker 3: Up those minutes.
Speaker 4: And once again, to give credit to Chris Fiedor, because
Speaker 4: again we are just fans with the podcast, We don't
Speaker 4: do the.
Speaker 3: Work of a b reporter.
Speaker 4: So we're very grateful for people like Chris, people like
Speaker 4: Danny that that are putting in, you know, the the
Speaker 4: actual work and we just get the benefit off it.
Speaker 4: But he did mention that one of the things that
Speaker 4: he expects Kenny to do, and one of the things
Speaker 4: Kenny has mentioned is he's going to want to play
Speaker 4: them more minutes. He's going to want to give Donovan
Speaker 4: and Darius, you know, thirty six minutes in some of
Speaker 4: these games so that they can ramp up and get
Speaker 4: the conditioning to where it needs to be come playoffs.
Speaker 4: But if you're going to be doing that, my expectation is, hey,
Speaker 4: you're probably going to be doing that in the games
Speaker 4: against New York, against Boston and all that, and that's
Speaker 4: going to necessitate Hey, with that understanding, if we're playing
Speaker 4: it back to back, one of these games, we're going deep,
Speaker 4: and if we lose that game because we're going deep,
Speaker 4: that's fine. But we trust our depth to step up.
Speaker 4: We trust Tijerome, we trust you know, going all the
Speaker 4: way down to Sam, maryl Javonte Green, whomever coming in
Speaker 4: off the bench. They're going to need to do their
Speaker 4: part in order for us to get this wins record.
Speaker 4: And I think that's absolutely.
Speaker 3: The right approach. But I do pretty really like what
Speaker 3: it can bring.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty confident in saying that Sam Merrill or Javonte
Speaker 1: Green would be the best eleventh man in the league,
Speaker 1: Like no one else gets to play guys that deep
Speaker 1: and uh maybe okay, see, yes that's fair. Okay, See
Speaker 1: is bananas, dude. I went, I spent this entire season
Speaker 1: being a hat and ass hater, and I'm running out
Speaker 1: of things to hate. They kill everyone, They kill everyone, dude. Anyway,
Speaker 1: They're They're point differential is thirteen points a game and
Speaker 1: it keeps growing. Like they haven't had really any one
Speaker 1: singular bad stretch of play this season.
Speaker 3: They've been nuts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, you know you got to be to be
Speaker 1: markedly better, like by the metrics than this Calves team
Speaker 1: right now, Like you're not good, you have to be
Speaker 1: to have to be missing, like you're the second or
Speaker 1: third most important player for pretty much half the year
Speaker 1: and still be keeping paces with the Calves. Like I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, I don't know, man.
Speaker 4: So well, you know, some of some of that is,
Speaker 4: you know, when when you're playing in a conference where
Speaker 4: a team like Memphis is the two seed, it's going
Speaker 4: to make things just a little bit easier.
Speaker 3: But you know, that's that's just my opinion.
Speaker 4: But you know, to strengthen my point, looking at minutes
Speaker 4: per game for for the Thunder, uh, their eleventh is
Speaker 4: aj Mitchell and twelve is ken Rich Williams. Those guys
Speaker 4: are absolutely NBA players. So but hey, Sam Merril, he's
Speaker 4: been playing great this year. I've been really happy with them,
Speaker 4: really rounded out his game. So no, no slight there.
Speaker 4: But you know, that's probably why kasin Thunder at the
Speaker 4: top of the league because they have the depth. They
Speaker 4: have all of these guys that can contribute. So it's
Speaker 4: been awesome, you know, going into the playoffs, I feel
Speaker 4: really really comfortable, and I'm someone that's always been you know,
Speaker 4: I prefer eight.
Speaker 3: I like eight. I think you have to go at
Speaker 3: least nine.
Speaker 1: Like I think it's I think you got your core.
Speaker 3: You got your core. Four.
Speaker 4: The next two, Max Strews and DeAndre Hunter, I think
Speaker 4: that they're kind of that that cut above. You know,
Speaker 4: Max continue to start the starting lineup with Max Drews
Speaker 4: has a plus thirty four net rating so far.
Speaker 3: Killing everyone. They are smoking everyone.
Speaker 1: It's like Max was just like, yeah, no, I would
Speaker 1: like to stay the starter. Yeah, and they are killing everyone.
Speaker 1: By the way. I know we're going along in this podcast,
Speaker 1: but whatever, we didn't pod for like eleven days. Max
Speaker 1: playmaking against the Knicks punishing them for trying to hide
Speaker 1: Bronson on him was so nice to see.
Speaker 4: Yep, and we talked about how, you know it's gonna
Speaker 4: be really tough for the Knicks to hide Brunson on
Speaker 4: the small forward, whether that's de Andandre Hunter in his
Speaker 4: ability to post him up, which you saw Brunton switching
Speaker 4: on and getting some larger players and getting attacked in
Speaker 4: that way. But also Max drus the connective playmaking, the
Speaker 4: feel he has with the starters has been phenomenal, So
Speaker 4: you know you are correct to bring that up. I
Speaker 4: thought Max was awesome against the next I thought it
Speaker 4: was good against the Grizzlies as well. But yeah, like
Speaker 4: I think him and DeAndre Hunter, that's five and six
Speaker 4: they have to play, you know, a tier above more
Speaker 4: minutes than the rest of the group. But the next three, man, like,
Speaker 4: I think you are going to need Isaac Ocor in
Speaker 4: the playoffs. I think ty Jerome absolutely deserves those minutes.
Speaker 4: And I think Dean Wade has made a big, big impact.
Speaker 4: So I think those are my nine that I feel
Speaker 4: super super confident in. Then everybody else in my mind,
Speaker 4: like that's a little bit of a specialist, like let's
Speaker 4: get a shooting punch, let's get some defense from Javonte Green,
Speaker 4: Let's let's try to mix things up in that way.
Speaker 4: But I just feel really good about the depth of
Speaker 4: this team. And I feel really good about the depth
Speaker 4: of this team. And we haven't even talked about, you know,
Speaker 4: kind of future projects in Jalen Tyson and Craig Porter Junior.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that at this point Kenny is gonna
Speaker 1: play nine. But I think what it'll be is if
Speaker 1: nine doesn't.
Speaker 3: Work, Yeah, that ain't nine.
Speaker 1: You just pear down or if a guy gets hurt
Speaker 1: or whatever it may be, you don't just replace you,
Speaker 1: you pair and you start adding to the minutes load
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you play, you play nine because the top.
Speaker 1: Nine are that strong in my opinion, exactly, And I
Speaker 1: think that's what Kenny'll do.
Speaker 3: But man, what does he have options?
Speaker 4: I love options and I love the calves playing this.
Speaker 4: Damn well. We will be podcasting Wednesday, uh after well
Speaker 4: not after the Magic game because they play tomorrow, but
Speaker 4: we'll be recapping that and previewing the game against the
Speaker 4: Boston Celtics.
Speaker 3: Big thanks to.
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Speaker 2: Go calves, sat name Santa