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Episode 139: Cavs Basketball is Back
53 Plays8 months ago
Alex and Corey discuss the Cavs preseason games and do a Q&A of our expectations for the upcoming season.
Twitter: @CavsPickandRoll
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Transcript
Cavs Basketball Returns
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey, Caps fans. Welcome to another episode of the Caps Pick and Roll Podcast. I'm Alex, and I'm here with Corey. What's up, Corey? I am so happy, Alex, to finally be back.
00:00:29
Speaker
The return of Cavs basketball is finally here. Cleveland fans need this. The Guardians season just came to an end, unfortunately. The Browns suck, and it's not even Halloween. So hey, Cavs basketball starting this week, Alex. I'm pretty pumped. And I feel like with the other two teams kind of done or and not being competitive, Cavs might get some love this year from the fan base. Oh, man. like You brought up the Guardians. Let's go back to the Guardians for a second. how Man, how awesome were those last couple of games? Did you watch any of that? I didn't, but know i'm I'm not a huge... like I'm like ah Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baierga, Albert Bell kind of.
00:01:12
Speaker
Same, same, right? Alamar, yeah. Yeah, yeah exactly. Yeah, Viskell, yeah. Eddie Murray, Murphy. Tomy, yeah, like that was our era. that was That was great. Boy, this is a pretty good era of Guardians baseball, too. I'll tell you, we've got some got some great players, man. It is it is frustrating, though. like The NBA and their salaries and the contracts that are going out are absolutely insane, right? We talked about that last episode.
00:01:41
Speaker
But if I had a reason to not like be crazy about about Major League Baseball, it's the salary cap situation. Because I saw, you know, naturally you see this almost every year after the season comes to an end is Yankee salary and so you know all these other teams salaries. And then you see ours and it's just like one third of, you know, these other teams. And it's it's easy to be frustrated by that as a fan. Right. Yeah. so Yeah. We're never big spenders, but The last several years, we've always seemed to do really well anyway. Yeah, yeah. Hey, they had it they had a great season. I mean, it was great watching the fan base, you know, rally behind them and everybody being excited and talking about it. It's just it's unfortunate it came to an end. We know how that feels as Cavs fans, and it feels like it's been forever. But we had that moment, you know, um a while back to when the Cavs season came to an end last year in round two yet again.
00:02:39
Speaker
And we are finally at the moment that Guardians fans will be clamoring for, for the next couple of months is the start of a new season. It's finally here, Alex. and I was on the edge of my seat during those Guardians playoff game. I mean, it was electric. I figured you'd be watching like the WNBA final. Like isn't the finals, didn't that just wrap up the playoffs? WNBA? Sure.
00:03:00
Speaker
ah me I mean, I don't know, i I guess. I heard they had like record ah breaking views and ticket sales and all this because of Caitlin Clark, but yeah, i didn't really i I didn't really follow it too much. Yeah. I'm just i'm just pulling your like, Alex.
TV Troubles and Recommendations
00:03:15
Speaker
I do need your opinion on something so I'm very very pumped for the start of the Cavs season but I learned also some bad news this morning the TV that I planned on watching a lot of Cavs games down in my basement where I'm recording right now has died on us it will not turn on and It is making some buzzing sound every two to three seconds. I haven't been able to fix it. As of right now, I don't have a way to watch a Cavs game in the basement on a large screen TV. So with that being said, I am in the market for a TV, Alex. I haven't bought a TV in seven, eight years now. Do you have any recommendations on what's a good TV these days?
00:03:59
Speaker
I don't know if you want to ask me because I love the i love the specs and the high-end stuff. I have ah i just got last year an LG C3 that's awesome. OLED, top of the line, whole bunch of bells and whistles that I don't need. 4K HDR, you know, all that. um Great for gaming. Yeah, yeah I need something that must be good for gaming too. And man, just spending like an hour just Googling One, i TVs are so cheap now. it's It's awesome. But there's just a rabbit hole, an endless scrolling pit of TV options out there. Well, I'll tell you a good place to start is a website called Artings. It's like ratings without the A. It's Artings.com. And they kind of benchmark, give you the lowdown, tell you the best. They got a list of the best budget TVs, the best middle tier, the best hopper. It's just a great place to go. Well, this is sounding like a commercial or an advertisement. but
00:04:57
Speaker
ah You know, that's where I I'm a I'm a research everything guy. I'm a technology guy. I work in it. t So yeah, yeah i I'm actually I'm actually kind of excited because the TV I had, you know, we bought probably 10 years ago down here now So it's it's it's it's out of date a little bit so any opportunity to upgrade to to the 4k and OLED and all that for 200 bucks or something like, heck yeah, I'm all over that. That's the thing, right? TVs, they last a long time and you want to get something that's going to last a while and you want to go big because you're going to have it for a long time and it's something you use almost every day, so why not? So it's worth the extra couple hundred bucks to get something nice, I think.
00:05:32
Speaker
absolutely so now it's this uh we'll figure we'll we'll see if i get a new tv down here before the first game of the season but yeah just very excited cast basketball starting potentially get a new toy down here to watch the games on and uh hey man fresh start fresh slate it's all good thank you so Since the last time we recorded Alex, um it was before the preseason had started.
Cavs Preseason Performance
00:05:59
Speaker
We had talked about kind of the roster additions and changes that they made. Isaac Ocuro finally re-signed and they they made some two-way contracts. and We were kind of just talking about what we were hoping to see in the preseason. and In a flash of an eye, you know preseason's done, Cavs unfortunately go 0-1-4.
00:06:19
Speaker
But I don't really care about that. I don't think you do either. um But let's talk some preseason. Kaz basketball kind of, yeah, all L's across the board. But, um you know, it's all good. and Kenny Atkinson, Newco, trying to figure out the rotations, trying to, you know, see what matches, what fits and all that stuff. You know, what what kind of stood out to you um from the preseason? You know, maybe we start with the positives and then then begin into any negatives that you saw.
00:06:46
Speaker
You know, a lot of it I think is, you know, what I saw being said during the ah kind of the the preseason ah where they interview the coaches and and Kobe and and the players and they they talked about, you know, what kind of like their plans are going into the regular season and one of those things that was frequently repeated was about how they were going to get Evan Mobley involved and have him be a focal point. And I saw a lot of that. You saw Mobley getting the ball a lot more in the paint. You saw him just being more way more active on the offensive end. You saw him taking several three-pointers throughout the preseason and actually hitting a few of them looked great. He has a nice shot. And, you know, upping his offensive game while still
00:07:31
Speaker
making sure that he was very active on the defensive end, getting blocks and offensive rebounds. So that was something that stood out to me was just how much they were going to use Evan Mobley.
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's been that's been the talk that we've been hearing, you know, all offseason since Atkinson arrived. And it's kind of funny because it's a complete opposite of what you heard with JB after the firing happened with all those, you know, kind of reports came out. And the one that is ingrained in my mind when it comes to JB and Mobley is the fact that we're in win mode now. We don't have the time to develop him in the way a traditional team would that had a number three overall pick.
00:08:12
Speaker
and a player as good as Mobley and you know a couple years down down the road from now when hopefully Mobley is a stud and ah and a reoccurring all-star and Atkinson really finds the way to use him man we're going to look back at that JB air and be like how did he screw that up he had Evan Mobley for for three years and how did he how did he not unlock him You know, but yeah, that that that's the biggest thing that I saw to the first play of the game against the Bulls. They go right to Mobley. He doesn't even hesitate, makes a spin move and finishes for an easy bucket over the defender.
00:08:45
Speaker
Um, yeah, so great to see Mobley kind of, you know, being used properly and, and there's going to be more of a focal point in the offense. Yeah, man. When you put it like that, are we, are we the thunder when they had Durant Westbrook and, uh, Harden? Who's Westbrook? Give me Westbrook. Give me Westbrook. He was MVP worthy. Did he win an MVP? He might've even won an MVP. I don't remember. Westbrook. Yeah.
00:09:13
Speaker
yeah He was in the talks at one time. I don't know if he did it. I mean he did he did go two years in a row of averaging a triple double, right? Technically. Yeah, so I I don't know. Yeah boy. What a huge falloff he had Huge he went from Westbrook the almost MVP or maybe MVP I can't remember to Westbrook and not being able to shoot it at all and he's still in the NBA making bank while you and me are still you know, I Talking about it. so yeah yeah At the same time, it's like, hey man, he's good. He's good. he but One day we'll have to do another episode. we'll off to fa We'll have to do that because you brought that Thunder team up and that is one of the most like big what if teams, right? They had Perk too, right? but yeah They had dad Jeff Green at some point. They had Perk. yeah a baca
00:09:58
Speaker
and bo We're going to we're gonna have to do the comparison, who which Cavs player would be each one of those OKC players from that from that team. Steven Adams? Or am I reaching? Yeah, yeah yeah he was there he was there. I don't know if they were all there together, though. I had to go back and do a little bit of research. Nick Collison might have been there, too.
00:10:14
Speaker
Oh yeah. But yeah, yeah Reggie Jackson maybe? Oh man, now I'm going down memory lane. We're going on a tangent. Tucking TVs and Oklahoma City Thunder. Welcome to the CAS Pick and Roll Podcast. hey It's going to be preseason. We can start wherever we want. That's right. that We're just practicing for the regular season.
00:10:33
Speaker
we were We were looking to Alex before we started recording. This is actually gonna be the fifth year of us doing this Cavs pick and roll podcast. Time is definitely flowing by very quickly, but we are excited to be back. We have fun doing this and hopefully Cavs fans, you you get a kick out of us listening and being fools and and talking some Cavs basketball. But five years, Alex, that's great. Looking forward to another season with you, bud. We should go on some sort of anniversary trip, Corey.
00:11:04
Speaker
aversary dinners one time You can come to my house one time and that'll be about the extent. Let's go downtown Cleveland to Margaritaville. There you go. There you go. and So Evan Mobley obviously was great to see kind of hopefully will be his coming out party this season, right? And hopefully Atkinson stays true to his word and and really uses him as as ah as a 1A or 1B option.
00:11:28
Speaker
um But besides Evan Mobley, from a positive standpoint, what else kind of stood out from you just kind of over the course of these four preseason games? What about their style of play? Did you notice anything different or anybody else in from an an individual contribution standpoint jump out at you or anything like that?
00:11:46
Speaker
um You know, it's cool. It's always cool to getting to see all the young guys play. I liked ah Thor had a good game. He played well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. His in that first game, he was I was pretty surprised. He's young. He's athletic. He's hungry. You know, I don't know where where his, you you know, places on this team when it's all said and done. It's probably most likely a lot on the charge because you got a two way contract.
00:12:11
Speaker
But yeah, it's kind of fun seeing maybe a little glimpse of, you know, potentially someone in a future fit, you know, when the fit is right and potentially get some love on this team. Yeah, another guy, another young guy that came in that I saw that I didn't even know about was Bernard. Jules Bernard, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Preseason's always fun because you get to see a bunch of players that you you know you didn't even know existed before they put on your team's jersey. And yeah, he he he was a shooter. I mean, he he made some shots and and he was aggressive. yeah and for He did get waved. The Cavs did wave four players this week to
00:12:49
Speaker
to trim down their roster and he was one of them. Oh no, I didn't hear it. Yeah, that did get waved. I forgot who the other three were. Uh, but he was one of them and I remembered him because you had texted me saying you liked him. So I wanted to call that out. Yeah. He had a rough first preseason game, but I think the second preseason game he was in, he was like knocking down everything. Yeah. Yeah. Now now I got to look up and see who else got waived unless if I said that you would know it. Yeah. Well, while you're doing that, one thing that I like to see out there was Ty Jerome earning a paycheck.
00:13:23
Speaker
um Playing some minutes for us in a Cavaliers jersey. um But in all seriousness, you know, we like Ty Jerome a lot this time last year during the preseason and just watching what he could do. He has a little bit of size. He's crafty, um you know, can make the right passes, can run an offense, can shoot the ball a little bit as well.
00:13:43
Speaker
And then unfortunately he was injured, what, game two and missed the entire season and kind of became the butt of a lot of jokes for Cavs fans. But you know what? I think he's going to be a very valuable asset this year, ah probably playing behind you know Garland a lot in that backup, you know running running the second unit. um But it was nice to see him out there and and hopefully you know he'll be a a key contributor this year in that second rotation.
00:14:11
Speaker
um Can't forget about Craig Porter Jr. though. Craig Porter Jr. is still on the team and a lot of Cavs fans you know fell in love with him last year when he kind of had those those breakout stretches during ah many of our health riddled sections of the season. Craig Porter Jr. is still young, still hungry, you know and it'll be interesting to see where he kind of falls in place now with Ty Jerome back as well.
00:14:37
Speaker
But I saw some moments, Alex, where the two of them were playing together in that second rotation.
Cavs Roster Changes
00:14:42
Speaker
And I didn't hate it, to be honest with you. Ty Jerome and Porter? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think i mean i think about when when Rubio was here, there were times where Rubio was out there running around with you know with another guard. And it worked at times. So we'll have to see. We'll have to see. Yeah, that's cool. So I found the four players. OK.
00:15:04
Speaker
Jules Bernard, as you said, Zaire Smith, yeah yeah Jacob Gileard, which I don't really remember seeing him play. Yeah, me either. And your boy Pete Nance. Pete Nance. Pete Nance. Okay. I wonder if Pete went down. I think he's probably going to play for the charge again, is my guess. I would bet. Some of those guys might be. Maybe all four of them are, I don't know. but Every year this happens, right? I mean, the Cavs can't bring 20-something players onto the roster. Every NBA team's doing this right now. But um you know another another but um player I wanted to ask you about was, what do you think of the Rook? Jalen Tyson. Oh, absolutely. I thought he played great. um Yeah, he's coming along good. I'm excited. I hope he gets keeps getting some more minutes and they keep working him into the rotation because I think he's got a ton of potential.
00:15:56
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I liked what I saw to him too. you know Young, hungry, athletic. um I felt like he was aggressive. He played with confidence. um you know Wasn't afraid of the moment. you know So on and so forth. And just kind of looking at his his averages, he averaged seven points per game on 52%. Field goal percentage.
00:16:16
Speaker
You know, grabbed a couple rebounds for us. Um, you know, just was out there doing his thing, you know, learning, learning how to play at at at a different speed. I'm sure it's going to be a very interesting to see, you know, what his place will be on this team. And we'll we'll get into it here in a couple of minutes, I'm sure, but he might have an opportunity early on in this season to be a part of this rotation, Alex.
00:16:41
Speaker
Yeah, I hope so. um You know, like you said, I think he did really well. Lots of energy. ah He shot the ball really well. The only thing I'd like to see him shore up some is kind of ball handling and just taking care of the ball. He had some turnovers. He had, you know, some sloppy passes. That's the only kind of thing that, you know, that'll that'll come with game time.
00:17:05
Speaker
Just some rookie mistakes. Sure, sure. And then of course it's always fun watching the the regular guys, right? Watching watching Donovan Mitchell is is always fun. Jared Allen running around out there doing his thing.
00:17:20
Speaker
And even garland, you know what? I was I was pretty satisfied with what I saw out of garland I knew a lot of you know garland and and alan Um, there's a lot of cast fans that are going to need a lot of convincing Um, you know based on things that happened last year But I I was pretty satisfied with what garland was able to do in the preseason again. It's just preseason But man, he made some nice zip passes um I want to see him average 10 assists this year. That'd be awesome. I was going to say the exact same thing. I'd like to see him setting guys up more, making more zip passes, and just just using his playmaking ability to get other players involved instead of attacking all the time.
00:18:05
Speaker
yeah i hope i continue Yeah, and I just want to see his confidence be there and I don't I'm trying to go off memory now I probably should have had it up I don't remember the exact quote but I'm ever seeing something within the last week or so a quote of his that came out that was something along the lines of Like, man, one injured season, you know, you know, gets everybody to turn on and gets everybody talking or whatever. And he's like, I just want to, you know, come out this year, be aggressive and shut everybody up, basically. So, you know, um it's gonna be pretty hard for him to not have a better season than last year, right? All he has to do is stay healthy and just play his game.
00:18:45
Speaker
which we all know he's very capable of being a very solid you know point guard and a player for the Cavs this year so we'll be keeping our eye on him ah Jared Allen as well you know Jared Allen I think is gonna do his thing um he's a double double machine making 20 million a year which is a steal I know some Cavs fans are salty at him for for sitting out the playoffs, man, but you're going to you're going to love what Jay brings this season into this team and you're really going to sit there. It'd be hard to imagine not having him on this roster. It really would. Yeah, you know, another player that I was looking forward to seeing this preseason, Luke luke Travers.
00:19:24
Speaker
We got to see him. We did. He got a few minutes here and there. I like Luke because he is just a crafty player. He is, I mean, we talked about this from the first time we saw him. He does not look like a basketball player at all. So that throws you off right then and there. And then on top of it, he can play.
00:19:43
Speaker
He has some size, he's just smart with his decision making and he just catches you off guard in ah in a lot of places. Now he didn't do anything spectacular. you know He didn't have any big scoring games or or anything like that. but man i mean it just there was this one play i forget what game it was it might have been the pacer's game he gets a steal he like gets a steal as he's going out of bounds he keeps running he hustles he gets the ball back from whoever had whoever he passed it to and he finishes you know for for a tough layup he might even have got the and one and he's just got that hustle mentality to him as well
00:20:23
Speaker
So cool to see Luke Travers, you know, kind of kind of on the roster, don't know how much playing time he'll get on the actual Cavs. Cool to see that he's here. And Alex, I'm still mad and I check every NBA 2K update that comes out. I can report, sadly, no Luke Travers in 2K 25 yet, but he will be in the game and I will be announcing that when that happens.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's disappointing. I can't believe they haven't added them. Yeah, I want to play with them, man. I want i want to play. JT Thor's in the game, um but no no Luke Travers. How is that even possible? Thor's in the game, but not Travers. Yep, yep. The disrespect.
00:21:03
Speaker
Travers, did he sign a two-way contract? Two-way. I think he did. Yeah, a two-way contract. Yeah, so he'll end up with the charge more than likely. He'll end up with the charge, and if there's some injuries or something like that, he might get called up in certain scenarios. Do you know who we didn't get to see play that I'm a little disappointed about?
00:21:23
Speaker
Imoni Bates. Is he hurt? Well, I wonder if he's hurt. I don't know if he's hurt. And that is kind of disappointing. And I saw something a couple of weeks back that I was like, No, did you see that he supposedly put on 35 pounds?
00:21:40
Speaker
No. This off-season. Tell me it was on muscle. like is he like like like TT wasn't doing you know like you know the last year. I forget exactly what it was caught for is enhancement drug. How do you put on 35 pounds in an off-season? I'm just going to say it. How do you do that, Alex? yeah and I saw the before and after picture. I'm like, someone photoshopped that. That can't be real. Oh, no.
00:22:06
Speaker
oh no you look at it i'm I'm looking it up. All right. All right. Yeah, but I don't know if he's injured or not. But yeah, you bring up a good point. I didn't even think about that. We didn't see Bates play at all. And I kind of wonder where cash fans are are at with Bates at this point, because you always have a fan, a certain point of the fan base that is always going to clamor for the rookie, no matter who they are. Oh, the guys overseas playing in Turkey. I want them here. That was Teddy Osman at one point, believe it or not.
00:22:36
Speaker
Right, because he didn't come over right away. He was over in Turkey. And then you get him and then you hate him and then you you want him out of here. Right. That's just the way it works. But I wonder where Kaz fans are with Bates this year, this season. Are they still going to be clamoring for him to play now that you have Tyson here, now that you have hopefully a healthy season? I don't know, man, it's going to be tougher for Bates to ah carve out rotational time on this team. I think, Alex, I'm just being honest.
00:23:02
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree with you. Um, you know, our fans clamoring for him probably a little bit because he had a lot of potential. He's just not, uh, he's not quite there. He's still very raw. Very raw. Um, I see on Twitter, he had posted on Twitter that he had a slight tear in his meniscus got surgery today. Everything went good. Makes sense. Yeah. And that was two, that post was two weeks ago.
00:23:29
Speaker
twenty one going to be back in stronger ceo soon well there you go that's why i didn't play and uh... hey i mean he if you if you wear a wine and gold jersey i wanna see you be successful and hopefully baits can be i mean think about it he was what the fifty fifth pick or something like that he was he was a late second rounder for for him to turn into something and for your favorite team, that's always a great story. And it does occasionally happen. And he's only in year two and in his NBA career. So lots of time for for Bates. It's just this team is in a win now situation. It is kind of tough. um But we'll see what the future holds for him.
00:24:11
Speaker
let's talk Let's talk some negatives, Alex. Was there any negatives that you saw or just wanted to call out during the stretch of these four preseason games? The four game losing streak? Absolutely. Absolutely. Negatives. ah Well, Noah Modi-Bates.
00:24:30
Speaker
and
00:24:33
Speaker
uh i don't don't know how about because preseason doesn't really matter no it doesn't it doesn't so the four losses it's like that's kind of crappy because you know a lot of those games the calves were up and then you you know you take out the starters and then just the game falls apart sure you know whatever but how about and i don't know if this is a negative it was kind of like a what Like it was kind of hard, like my eyes, it was just, I couldn't adjust, but watching JB and Lamar Stephens rocking the Detroit Pistons colors at that second game was was kind of tough. And I believe that's who we opened up the season against if I'm not mistaken is Detroit as well. think you're right And then on top of it to lose to JB, it's funny because I couldn't tell you, it was unbelievable how many articles there were.
00:25:23
Speaker
after that game, you know, Detroit media articles, basically. JB gets revenge, you know, against his former team and, you know, like just like making it a huge big deal. And they had a pretty good preseason. I guess they finished three and two and they're, you know, a relatively young team yet. So whatever. But it was kind of it was kind of weird and it was kind of tough watching JB. And and then when Lamar came in, I was like, no, not Lamar. I forgot you picked him up.
00:25:53
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I thought we were kicking their butt when we had our starters in. Yeah, we were. We weren't doing pretty good, but whatever. I'm not concerned about it at all. Yeah. It'll just be, it'll be interesting because we'll see Detroit, you know, several times throughout the year. So we'll see JB a bunch of times, but you know, we're excited about, you know, here and now and Atkinson in the future.
00:26:13
Speaker
But another negative that I got to call out. Also, I was going to say JB also took some of his assistant coaches with him. Yeah. So I saw a few of the others on the sideline and I was like, oh shoot, he went with JB. Yeah. Shoot. What's his name? That was with the Lakers.
00:26:35
Speaker
no Luke Walton. Luke Walton. Yeah, Luke Walton was on the sideline there. Yeah, yeah. Stuff. Is what it is, man. But another another negative from this preseason, gotta call it out, and probably the biggest negative, in my opinion, is Maxtre's injury.
Injuries Impacting Cavs Strategy
00:26:53
Speaker
And do you know how that injury happened, Alex? No, I don't remember.
00:26:59
Speaker
While he was doing shooting drills, he landed on the coach's foot. That was helping him with his shooting drills. Come on. And now he's going to miss the first six weeks of the season.
00:27:15
Speaker
and We're really trying to go into this season. You know, hey clean slate positive vibes all that stuff But I sent you an article the other day and that was before it was known how the injury had happened and your response to me was It's it begins or something like that, right? and Because we've had nothing but injury riddled seasons now for the last several years and here we are starting off the season first six weeks of the season without one of your starters in max truce, so
00:27:45
Speaker
to me that was the biggest negative and for it to happen in that way ah man that's just the that's kind of gut wrenching to be honest with you but the cows are not to figure it out ah figure out a way and just get through it it's as simple as that
00:28:05
Speaker
So with that, Alex, preseason's done. It was fun watching some wining goal basketball again, but now it starts for real this week. Kaz basketball first game and kind of a little bit of a tradition. we We do this every year that we've been doing the podcast is some predictions, right?
00:28:24
Speaker
And this year I came up with a couple extra questions than what I typically do. And I don't know, are you ready? Well, can I just say one more thing about a cab negative? Sure. I missed and it's like glaring. It's the elephant in the room, right? George Nyang is still on the roster. Come on. He is. He is still here.
00:28:49
Speaker
but should we You know, I noticed the dad body wasn't as bad as it was last season. It's definitely still there. It's still there. It didn't seem quite as tankish. um But yeah, like tank controls. Right, yeah. Like playing Resident Evil in your George and Yang, like turning like, but whatever. Yeah, George and Yang still on the roster. some He's still here. but man If you get on the Cavs Reddit, there's like people that love George and Yang. Really?
00:29:17
Speaker
Yeah, I don't get it. like I guess every player has a fan base. He's gonna lock some people out occasionally, I guess. He's been one of those guys, Alex, that finishes his career here. I don't know how old he is, but he'll like be done with the NBA by like 34, 35, and he'll just the last four years of his NBA career will be you know with the Cavs somehow. he' goingnna be he'll He'll be here beyond Mitchell.
00:29:41
Speaker
The Cavs legend like Verzow. Right, right. Shout out, I gotta do it. Shout out to Verzow, who recently just got inducted to the Cleveland, Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. He spent 13 years as the wild thing on the wining gold.
00:30:00
Speaker
And the quote here is is he will make a lasting impact on our organization as well. The city of Cleveland will be will be felt for years to come. So congrats to Andy. It is kind of crazy to think, man, 13 years at name one player on this Cavs team today that when it's all said and done, we'll have spent 13 years with this organization.
00:30:23
Speaker
I don't know if that exists. Well, Tristan Thompson. Tristan Thompson. There you go. He'll be the next one to do it. It's it's a rarity these days. It really is. So um congrats to Andy to be an inducted. And I need to look into that, Alex. I need to look into what other Cavs players and just Cleveland athletes in general are inducted into that. It's not really something I know a lot about us. so I think it'd be kind of cool to do some research about that. And maybe we talk about it on a future episode, at least the Cavs players.
00:30:55
Speaker
All right, Alex, let's get into it. Twenty twenty four twenty twenty five calves season predictions. The first one is always the number one question that's got to be asked is how many games will the calves win? I wish that I remembered what I said last season. I know. I know. We got to start keeping a tally of this stuff to compare notes. Yeah, shoot. Yeah, I wish I I wish I would i knew.
00:31:22
Speaker
um
00:31:25
Speaker
I think they'll win 49 games. 49. I'm going 52 games. 52. fifty two i'm gonna get them over that 50 hump this year. I think we both predicted right around that last year too. um But 52 and 49. Okay. Who will be the Cavs most improved player on this team this year? Most improved player.
00:31:51
Speaker
It's going to be Mobley. It's the year of the Mobley. It's got to be. It's got to be Mobley. Otherwise, this the season will not be the success that it needs to be. So I was going with Mobley as well, especially with all the talk of Mobley going to be used more, be the more focal point. He's going to have the most increased opportunity for growth as a result.
00:32:15
Speaker
Love Sam Merrill, but Sam Merrill isn't gonna get 35 minutes and 15 touches in a game. You know what I mean? Mobley's gonna get that kind of opportunity this year. And hopefully he he takes advantage of that. So I'm going with that. Yeah, I could easily say George and Yang because he can't get any worse, right?
00:32:31
Speaker
yeah but roased Mobley was also kind of an easy pick. So would you have a second pick? Because I think that'll make it a little bit more interesting.
00:32:42
Speaker
All right, Mobley was the easy pick. um but um' I'm going to go with... Man, should I pick the rook? Should I pick Jaylen Tyson? Because yeah' seen a no if I just don't know if he'll get the minutes now to make that jump. can't like you dont know you don't know you don't know what the bait You don't know what the foundation is for Tyson yet.
00:33:05
Speaker
I can't say he's the most improved player if you haven't seen him play yet outside of- No, that's that's true. That's true. But I just mean from rookie not getting any minutes to there's going to be injuries. he's gonna He could end up in the could end up getting some minutes. Maybe this was a bad idea. I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think. ah
00:33:26
Speaker
Who else could it be, really? It's easy. You think it's easy? I think it's easy. I'm going to cheat. Here's the cheat code. All right. Darius Carlin. Because Darius Carlin had such a horrible season last year, I just said it a couple of minutes ago. Yeah, but. It'd possibly be that bad again. He's going to make a joke. That's because he was hurt. He wasn't hurt.
00:33:46
Speaker
He got his jaw broken. ah What are you talking about? He missed like a huge chunk of the season with a broken jaw. It was wired shut. He came back. He was never the same. He was afraid to get hit in the face. ah And in the season before that, he had an excellent season. He was almost an All-Star. He was almost an All-Star. That goes to the next question. All right. who we make the all What cast players will be in the All-Star game this year, if any?
00:34:15
Speaker
Mitchell Mobley.
00:34:21
Speaker
I think I might stop there. I'm stopping there too. It's kind of easy. That's my picks as well. I could have went Garland Allen, but I don't know. That doesn't happen unless the Cavs have some sort of unicorn season where they are just crushing it, somehow number one to seed um and blowing away all expectations from a national media perspective. Four players don't make an all-star game anymore unless you're just having a heck of a season.
00:34:53
Speaker
Um, would love to see that, but yeah, I think, I think it most likely stops at Mitchell and Mobley and only if only Mobley has that season that we're all clamoring for. Yeah, exactly. I think those are the two players that have the most, the best odds at it. Uh, I think Alan and Garland.
00:35:12
Speaker
could potentially put up the stats for it and be right there. But I don't think they're like popular enough to get yeah the votes. They don't have that yeah marketing push or X factor. I don't know what it is, but Nope. They'll get there. They're the snub factor players, right? There'll be, so there'll be three injuries. And even those statistically, this happened last year. I think Alan was statistically better than whoever was thrown in there. I forget who it was.
00:35:41
Speaker
Um, there was several injuries and Alan didn't get in and, uh, his stats were better, you know, but a marketing is part of that as well. So yeah, I think it's going to be small market team. It's not going to get the votes. Right. Yeah. So here's a good one. Who will start in place of max truce while he was out to begin the season with this injury? Okoro. I think Okoro. Okoro.
00:36:11
Speaker
You don't think so. Caps tried that. Caps tried that once upon a time. Did it work? I don't know. Coro with three. I think he's a candidate. I think your candidates are Akuro, Lavert, and Dean Wade. And I'm going to go check live right now because I put a poll up.
00:36:29
Speaker
earlier today, so not a ton of time, asking Cows fans, who should start in place of Max Droos to begin the season? All right. 57% of the voters said Dean Wade. What? They want D Wade to start. Really? I was surprised as well. Interesting. I won't hate it if Dean Wade starts.
00:36:56
Speaker
Not really on the Kuro train starting. I wouldn't hate it if Lavert starts either. Although, Lavert almost feels like too many cooks in the kitchen. I feel like- Between Garland, Mitchell, and and and Lavert. It's too many ball handlers, ISO, one-on-one, and- Yeah. So I don't know. Dean Wade might be the lucky one that that gets it. We'll see.
00:37:20
Speaker
Atkinson said, when Atkinson was asked about it, this is just him playing the poker hand, Alex. He's like, we'll have to see. It'll depend on the matchup. But he did call out Wade and Lavert specifically would be candidates. So we'll see. We will see. All right. well I was a little disappointed what I saw from Lavert in preseason.
00:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, lavert Lavert didn't have a great preseason. he I forget what game it was. Again, it might've been the Pacers game. um he just I was texting with my buddies on our on our text chain and I was just like, he just looks like he's going a step too fast. He was throwing bad passes, losing the ball, not really just finishing or scoring like he would. and you know I like Lavert. I think when it's all said and done, I'm gonna think mostly positively of him.
00:38:10
Speaker
He has his moments, but yeah, he did not have a great preseason. No, he struggled shooting the three. Yeah, I don't know. He seemed to, yeah, he just seemed to struggle a little bit, but maybe he's just got to shake the rest off. Yeah, we'll see.
Key Players and Predictions
00:38:27
Speaker
So next question, who will be the Cavs most important player this year? Most important player. We talked about most improved. Who will be most important to this Cavs team this year?
00:38:40
Speaker
I think it's always Mitchell. He's clearly the the the face of the team and the ah the captain, the leader. he's He's the most important player on the team.
00:38:51
Speaker
Absolutely agree 110 percent need Mitchell to have first and foremost a healthy season And would love to see him in the runnings for MVP. I think he totally can do it um And he's not going to have that window forever right as far as being like an MVP candidate And we didn't talk about this last episode um So i'm taking the opportunity now to bring it up. And again, um I don't have the quote in front of me But he was he had a quote um a little while back, um probably right before camp started or right around that time, where he said he felt like he was a top 10 to 15 player in the league and he he intends on, you know, playing like one. And if he does that and, you know, is healthy and does that for an entire season, this Cavs team is going to be very fun to watch. And he will be a MVP candidate if he plays as a top, you know, like a top 10 player in the league. So
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah, kind of an easy one, but I wanted to see, I was curious if like, well, will he say Mobley because we're talking about how he's, you know, we really need to unleash him this year, but I'm with you on Mitchell, don't disagree on that. yeah um Will the Cavs make a trade this season? Any trade, big, small, medium, will the Cavs make a trade this season? I don't think so.
00:40:15
Speaker
I don't think so. I would probably say not. It feels like they just locked up pretty much everybody to some long-term contracts.
00:40:28
Speaker
Everybody except tell me Corey. kneeing
00:40:34
Speaker
no i think Nobody wants them. I think i don't i know. I think the Cavs will absolutely make a trade at some point this season. Do I think it'll be a big trade? Do I think it's a trade that's going to affect the core four? Probably not. um Probably not. and last you know and And this applies at all times. One, they get their socks knocked off with some sort of offer right or if it's just not working.
00:41:00
Speaker
Right if you know garland is horrible and the garland mitchell duo like we talked about that various times last year Of course the calves will consider all options, but i'm thinking outside of that i'm thinking the calves season is going good They're meeting expectations. They're playing as a top caliber team in the east And my thinking is the trade is made more from the perspective of going for it. Like they're having a great season. They're healthy. They're competing. They're right there. They just need one or, you know, one small tweak or something like bring it another shooter or some sort of specialist, some big man, you know, I don't know, some enforcer or something like that. Yeah, some some brawny James. Some brawny James, man, you know.
00:41:49
Speaker
ah Let's just take a minute to pause and laugh. I don't know i don't know where to go from there. um but yeah yeah but that's That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking they'll make some sort of trade because they're going to go all in and try to get something to get them over that hump. We'll see. so so You think if the if the the season's going bad, like let's say the record is, you know let's say they've fallen out of the top eight.
00:42:14
Speaker
You think it you think it's is it time to make a big trade or is it fine to if there would they make a coaching change? No, they wouldn't make a coaching change. And the only reason the only way you're going to be playing that bad is if, you know, ah two of your, you know, a couple of your core four have like season ending injuries or something like that. Right. If if people are relatively helpful healthy, healthy,
00:42:39
Speaker
And you're playing around 500 ball. Oh, yeah, we're going to have some problems. There's going to be, you know, some some major shake ups, I would imagine. But again, start of a new season, clean slate, positive thoughts, Alex. We're going to be making trades because we're going to bring in that last missing link to push us to the promised land um during our playoff run. That's that's where I'm thinking. Yeah. Ask me in a month. Ask me to bring in Katie.
00:43:09
Speaker
yeah bring in katie i saw for katie I talked about this a couple episodes back and I don't know why but I googled just I just did calves and news just to see what kind of is being written about and That same stupid article that came up a couple months ago from some Phoenix media outlet ah Brought up the proposal of a Kevin Durant Evan Mobley trade But it was like updated or or something because it was you could look at the date and it was from this week. It wasn't like a three month old article that came up in my search feed.
00:43:42
Speaker
It was bringing up articles that are most relevant based on date. And it came up as like a this week article. And I was like, where does this Kevin Durant, Evan Mobley trade idea keep coming from? It's not going to happen. No. The Cavs would never do that. No. i don't yeah Kevin Durant wouldn't do that. Not a chance. Not a chance. Mobley is like KD, but 20 years younger. So yeah why? Yeah. And Mobley is your future. So Cavs wouldn't do that. OK, so here's here's another one.
00:44:12
Speaker
And I guess it kind of gets you thinking a little bit more. Name a player who is on the team today, but will not be on the team by the time the season concludes, comes to an end, comes to a finish. Here's my one rule. You can't pick a two way player. You can't pick JT Thor or someone like that. Someone that's actually on the roster today. That's not going to be on it by the end of the season. Yep.
00:44:41
Speaker
Man, who drives fast and reckless, I guess.
00:44:50
Speaker
um Tristan Thompson? Does that count? Yeah, that counts. I don't know. They brought him back for a full year. That's a tough one. They like his leadership and his toughness. and you know I mean, he he had he had good stretches. I mean, he we talked about this. He went above our expectations. Maybe he gets popped again.
00:45:11
Speaker
We were going to get another. We're going to get a bear jowl return or a Danny Green return. Tristan Thompson. if If I had to think of recent times of where a former Cavs player came back, Tristan Thompson so far has had one of the better ones.
00:45:26
Speaker
Mo Williams came back for 2016 championship team and you know, didn't do it right, didn't do it like TT contributed more than Mo Williams I would say on that roster. So just thinking in the last five to seven years, TT's had one of the best returns so far that I can think of.
00:45:43
Speaker
um I'm having a hard time choosing. Yeah, who are you going with? I'm gonna go with going back to my answer for the trade. You can't bring in that missing link without moving something out of some sort of value, right? So I'm gonna go Karis Lavert because Lavert has a big enough contract. He's not making crazy money, but he has a big enough contract to where you're not gonna get some some vet minimum player back.
00:46:16
Speaker
right? You know, Dean Wade, for example, doesn't make a lot of money, right? You ship him out. He's only making a couple million a year, I think, right? I mean, you're not going to get something crazy back that's going to make a huge impact. Carrot Lavert is making double digits salary, which, you know, I don't know what he's making, 12 million, 15 million. It's not a ton of money, but it's enough to to get you something back. And he's still young enough.
00:46:41
Speaker
and has offensive capability to where another team could look past the flaws and see, well, wait a second, that guy can go get me, you know, 12 to 15 points ah a night if I ask him to and connect you something like a enforcer or a specialist shooter or something like that.
00:47:01
Speaker
So I like Harris Lavert. um He's been here for several years, and I think this is year three for him, if I'm not mistaken. I just feel like if the Cavs want to improve, they're going to have to move something of value. And when you think outside of the core four, Lavert's an easy one to to pick because you have Max Drews, because you have Akuro. You just drafted Tyson. You have Bates. You have Ty Jerome. You have kind of have a log jam at that position.
Speculation on Cavs Trade Moves
00:47:29
Speaker
Um, and he probably brings You know probably the most value I would argue him and streus maybe your neck and neck You're not going to touch garlin. You're not going to touch mitchill at this point Um, probably don't want to touch kirk porter jr. Yet The vert the vert to me is the guy Yeah, I like that pic. Yeah, it makes sense. It's possible. Um What playoff seed will the calves finish in Ooh
00:48:00
Speaker
Probably fourth. Three years in a row, number four. Yeah. That'd be crazy. That would be crazy. I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm gonna bump them up one spot to the third seed. I'm gonna give them the third seed. That means, okay.
00:48:24
Speaker
So here's your top two. Okay, so you got- I'll go Boston. I'll go Milwaukee. All right, Boston Bucks. Calves. Calves. 76ers will be there. You think we're going to top the Knicks? However, nah, well, that's going to be tough. Because that's why I said four. Let me switch that out. Let me go Boston, New York, Cleveland.
00:48:55
Speaker
Bucks, 76ers, Magic. That'd be my top six. And I know i know both the 76ers and the Magic made additions, right, this year. But you got Joel and B coming out saying I'm not gonna play back to backs. Yeah, Paul George, who's already injured during the preseason.
00:49:14
Speaker
um you know Orlando, sure they added a great one in call and ah KCP. right That's a great addition, but they're still a young team. right um Am I ready just to crown them a you know top three seeded team now? um Miami, you know I don't know. I think it's their time to to fade down in the standings.
00:49:36
Speaker
um Atlanta, I'm not worried about them. Toronto, I'm not worried about them. you know i think I think if the Cavs have some luck health-wise, why couldn't they? Why couldn't they is what I would argue because the advantage the Cavs have, in my opinion, is something that the Celtics had for the last year or two and it finally paid off for them this past season is a roster, a core roster that have played together for several years.
00:50:05
Speaker
right Jalen brown and and tatum have been together their entire careers al horford's been there for several years now and I hate al horford But you know, I mean like they have that the core guys our core four This will be the what the third year of them playing together, right? Um, and some of those guys have been playing longer together because they were here before mitchell and so on and so forth So they have that chemistry that bond Um, and if health goes their way That could pay off dividends come playoff time
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I agree. The last question, and this is the toughest one of them all, Alex.
Can Cavs Win the Championship?
00:50:45
Speaker
Yeah. So get ready. All right. How will the Cavs season end? Championship, baby. With a ring, we're going all the way. We're going all the way. Finally. I think so. Oh, yeah, hell yeah. I mean, I look at it as we finished second last season.
00:51:07
Speaker
I mean, who, the only team we lost to was Boston who went on to win it all. So we can, we can top Boston. If we're, if we're healthy, we'll get them. We're going all the way. Yeah. I wish we could have seen a healthy matchup there. Um, cause the Cavs played him tough. The Cavs did play him tough early on in that series. Um, I'm optimistic. I'm not that optimistic.
00:51:32
Speaker
I think the Cavs will fall short of making it to the NBA Finals. I will say they get out of the second round, but they lose in the Eastern Conference Finals. Bullshit. um like I don't know to who, though. I don't know to who. I don't want to say to who, I guess, maybe. I don't know, because it's going to be gut round. I don't want to see. I don't want Boston to win again. I don't want to lose New York. I don't want to see Joel, indeed, and I don't want to see none of that.
00:52:01
Speaker
Yeah. But I'm trying to, hey, it's another stepping stone. Sure, I would love them to go all the way, but I'm trying to keep realistic expectations as well. But we'll see. I'm also being realistic, and I think Kenny is going to get us over the top. Kenny is? Kenny. All right. It's coaching. We'll see. I hope you're right. I hope you're right. He's going to fix all that JB nonsense. Yeah.
00:52:27
Speaker
So that was my quick prediction questions for you. That was a good amount. That was at least 10 questions or so. And those are some good responses. Well, definitely. I'll have to go back and listen to this and kind of write down our answers so that we can compare notes come the end of the season, whenever it does. end And we can kind of see how off we were. That'd be a fun, fun segment on a, on a future episode. Yeah, that would be good. We should do that. Definitely.
00:52:54
Speaker
With that Alex, hey man, I don't got anything else from my end. You got anything else that you want to bring up? Nope, I think we can wrap it. Let's wrap it up. Cavs basketball is finally here. Hope your pump Cavs fans want to thank you as always for tuning in and listening. And Alex, you want to let them know where they can follow us and connect with us.
00:53:14
Speaker
Follow us on Twitter, at castpickandroll. Shoot us an email, castpickandroll at gmail dot.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube. Wherever you're listening, click like, subscribe. Leave us a rating or or or review, and we'd appreciate it. All right, cast fans, there it is. We will talk to you again soon. Peace out, cast fans.