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Episode 105: Back At It
14 Plays2 years ago
Alex and Corey talk about NBA All-Star weekend and the Cavs return for the 2nd half of the season. We also talk about Kevin Love, Cleveland Charge, NBA 2k23, and the latest episode of The Road Back.
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Transcript
Weather Woes: Florida to Cleveland
00:00:14
Speaker
Hey CAS fans, welcome to another episode of the CAS Pick and Roll Podcast. The podcast that our CAS fans Corey here with you, along with Alex. How the heck are you man? Hey, doing great. How are you doing?
00:00:29
Speaker
I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good. A week ago, I was in Florida, Alex, in 85-degree weather. And now, I'm back in Cleveland, Ohio, weather. And I think I'm starting to pay for that. Warm weather, cold weather, up and down. And yeah, just ugh. Yeah, we had a couple nice days, too. We had a couple warm days. Today was pretty warm. It was like 60 today. Was it? Yeah. Tomorrow, it's back to 40. Exactly. It's just that time of year. It's just that time of year.
00:00:58
Speaker
But some things have happened since the last time we recorded, which we'll talk through and then we'll get to kind of where we're at present day.
NBA All-Star Weekend Highlights
00:01:07
Speaker
But the biggest thing that kind of happened was the 2023 NBA All-Star Weekend. Did you watch any of that, Alex? I watched it all. I mean, of course. Well, I didn't watch the celebrity game or I think that was really the only thing I didn't watch.
00:01:26
Speaker
So I watched the three point contest, the dunk contest in the main Ulster game. It was all pretty good. Let me ask you about the dunk contest first. What was your thoughts on that?
00:01:39
Speaker
I thought it was good. I enjoyed it. I liked the rule changes that they made that they had so much time to get their dunk and they only had, I think it was three chances. And I mean, there weren't any big names in it, but Mack McClung that won it, I thought was awesome. I thought he's got some big ups and he was throwing it down with authority. And yeah, it was definitely worth watching.
00:02:07
Speaker
No lie. So I was out of town for work. So all-star weekend always falls on the weekend where we're out of town for work. And Alex, you know about that, because you used to go to these things. And I usually get to watch everything on the flight home. But I flew Frontier, which is a cheap flight. And I came to realize, shoot, they have no TVs. So I didn't get to do my normal plan. And I had to watch a lot of stuff on my phone and in between things.
00:02:33
Speaker
But man, yeah, I told you I think last episode, I just I'll scroll through Facebook and I'll see like highlight videos of him just come up in my feed and I probably continue to get them because I'll click on them. And I just had a feeling going into it. He was going to be kind of that underdog that everybody was kind of rooting for. And he had a great he had a great dunk contest. I mean, he he made his dunks. He didn't take three, four, five times to make them.
00:02:58
Speaker
right and uh i don't know how tall he is he can't he can't be that tall 5 10 maybe and uh he looks like harold miner out there man with some of those dunks oh man yeah he was he was really throwing it down yeah he was explosive like like and his dunks were like
00:03:17
Speaker
Uh, I mean, they were pretty different. They were different. They were different. Yeah. Yeah. They were different. Yeah. It's not stuff that you've kind of, you're used to seeing a lot, especially from a five, 10, you know, white kid. I'm trying to think of one in particular. I think he had like a double fully extended double pump full, full extension jam reverse jam. I think he had like a, uh,
00:03:40
Speaker
He did like a 540. He had some crazy, he had some crazy moves for being such a little short guy and just, he threw it down with so much power. It was like, wow, this kid is, he's something, man. It's a good story. And he got picked up by the Philadelphia 76ers right before that happened. I don't know. I don't know how much NBA time he's gotten since the All-Star game. I don't follow the Sixers because I hate James Harden.
00:04:07
Speaker
But, you know, hopefully he finds his his footing here in the NBA. Because, yeah, that was that was a pretty cool story. And now he's he's a household name now. So that was just kind of cool to see,
NBA All-Star Game Format Changes
00:04:19
Speaker
for sure. Mack McClung. Yeah. Watch out for him. What about the the three point contest?
00:04:26
Speaker
The three-point contest was pretty good. There were some big names in that. Yeah, I'm trying to think who's in it. Tyrese Halliburton, Buddy Hild, Damien Lillard, who was the winner. Yeah, Dame Dollar. It was good to see him get one. Kevin Herder, Tyler Herro was in it.
00:04:48
Speaker
Yeah. I was glad to see that Dame, that Dame won it. I've always been a fan of Dame. Um, kind of feel bad that he's routing, he's rotten rotting out there in Portland for, uh, for most of his career. But, uh, yeah, always liked Dame. And I, I, I remember years back when LeBron was around, I was like, man, if only they compare those two up somehow, you know, it would have been fun to watch. Yeah. Yeah. Was happy to see, see Dame win that three point contest.
00:05:16
Speaker
And I don't blame you for skipping the celebrity all-star game. It's usually pretty horrible. I mean, it wasn't even- I looked at the list of celebrities and- How many did you even know? How many did you even know? Be honest. I mean, I knew a few of them, and the only reason was because it were people that were in it last year. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known the names. So, I mean, nothing that really stood out. No Miles Garrett this year. No Miles Garrett this year, throwing down- No, right. Yeah, nope.
00:05:44
Speaker
So what about what about the all-star game itself? I'm curious to see what you think about that. I don't really like how they change the all-star game. I don't like that it's
00:05:57
Speaker
that they play a quarter, a quarter, a quarter, and then the score is almost kind of reset and it's whoever reaches, so 125 points, 130 points. I don't know, there's some total they have to reach to end the game to win it.
00:06:16
Speaker
I don't know. I just don't like the way they change the format. I'm kind of over the drafting of teams too, to be honest. I was going to say I kind of liked the drafting, like the live playground draft at the very beginning. I thought that was pretty funny to see them pick guys live and all the guys like standing, sitting behind them, you
Kevin Love's Move: Implications and Nostalgia
00:06:36
Speaker
know, ready to be picked. Yeah. I thought that was pretty good. I liked that.
00:06:43
Speaker
Yannis, who did he pick? He tried to pick somebody early that was a starter and that was really funny. Did you see that at all? I didn't see that part at all like the actual drafting of the teams because they don't put that in highlight videos, which is what I basically got to watch because I wasn't able to catch the game live. I did see that it was one of the lowest rated NBA All-Star games.
00:07:11
Speaker
And you know, a lot of people online will have opinions about that. And I'm certainly not trying to sit here and be that guy that says, oh yeah, you know, the NBA today, All-Star Game, it sucks and all that stuff. But it just, I don't know, man, it's just, it's missing something. It's missing. I kind of wish it was still East versus West. Yeah, I think that'd be a good starting point. I wish they wore their team jerseys.
00:07:35
Speaker
I like that too. I do like that. I will say this though, I do miss like, I remember like the 90s, like just crazy looking jerseys. Like it was fun when they wore their own team jerseys too, but you had some doozies back in the early 90s. Those were kind of fun to go back and watch. I actually went back and watched
00:07:56
Speaker
the 1993 NBA All-Star game this past weekend, Alex, since I didn't get to watch this game live. And I watched it for a couple reasons. One, it was in Utah, which is where this one was at this year. Cleveland had three representatives in that All-Star game. They had Mark Price, Larry Nance, Brad Doherty, had a great squad in 1993.
00:08:19
Speaker
That's a team. That's a year that I wish I've always said I wish like the NBA would open up the vault and we can just watch any game from any season like I would love to just rewatch that whole season even though it didn't end very well. Yeah. But another couple cool things was Mike Fratello was one of the commentators. I've always liked Mike Fratello glad he's back with the Cavs now and the Cavs players did great. I mean Mark Price was the second leading scorer for the East team. He nailed six threes.
00:08:49
Speaker
was a big part of the comeback at the end of that game. And Magic Johnson was one of the other announcers, and he even made a couple comments that, you know, Mark Price should maybe get some consideration for MVP for that game. So it was a fun game to watch. And yeah, I mean, it's on YouTube. And I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to sit here and watch this. And it was a blast to watch. Jack was a rookie that year. There was just a lot of good
00:09:15
Speaker
A lot of good storylines. Jordan, of course, is in there doing his thing. Yeah. Um, you know, Carl Malone and John Stockton, the home crowd and all that stuff. So it was, it was a fun all-star game to watch. Yeah. Speaking of Brad Doherty, he became the first, uh, black NASCAR owner to win the Daytona 500. That's crazy. He's been in, he's been in NASCAR for a while now, but that's pretty cool that that, yeah, I saw that and I was like, wow, that's, that's pretty awesome.
00:09:44
Speaker
doing things, man. And he's back with the Cavs. I mean, he's been around for like last year or so now on the broadcast team too, along with Mike Fratello. And I think he does a good job. I mean, I miss AC, I miss
Experiencing the Cleveland Charge
00:09:57
Speaker
some of the other guys, but I think Brad and Mike would do a good job. I think I was telling you, I was watching one of the Cavs games, the game that they blew somebody out, not the game before last.
00:10:11
Speaker
Oh, who did they play? Was it Atlanta? No. No, Atlanta blew them out. Yeah, Atlanta smoked us. If it was after the all-star break, the only game they won and blew out was Toronto, which thank God, if they would have lost that game, I would have lost my shit. Yeah, that's what it was. It was Toronto.
00:10:27
Speaker
I had quite a bit to drink and I was watching that Toronto game. And I was like, man, you know, I should write down some notes. So when we talk about this, I'll have something to say. I was like, way too plastered to even like... We're gonna make this a new segment. Alex, drunken notes. I'm like, hey, Suri, make a note.
00:10:50
Speaker
And I start talking to Siri. I just heard Siri in the background. Yeah, now she's going off. But one of the things was, because Brad Doherty was the, he was the play-by-play, yeah, he was a commentary. And he said they were showing the bobbleheads on TV and it was for Mayor Bibb, the mayor of Cleveland. And it was called like the Bibblehead, or they had some weird name for it.
00:11:20
Speaker
And Brad Doherty didn't know who it was. He was like, he was like, bib, is that some sort of rapper? Is that a new rapper or something?
00:11:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It was so funny. I missed that. That was one of my drunken jokes. That feels like an AC thing. You know what I mean? It's like, hey, make a note. Brad Doherty doesn't know who Mayor Bibb is, the mayor of Cleveland. That's funny. That's a good note, Alex. I expect one of those a game from you now. It's going to be Alex's job. He thinks Mayor Bibb is a rapper. That's what I have in my notes here. The other random note I have here is Uncle Jeff Green plays for the Nuggets.
00:12:04
Speaker
Dude, this is not much. You gotta start doing this, then you gotta get me scouting reports. Just scouting notes. And then randomly I have here Ron Harper Jr. Plays for the Raptors.
00:12:18
Speaker
top notch. I mean, guys, I don't know. I don't know where this is not invaluable information right here, dude. It's the things that I need to remember. Did you take any notes, though, during the All-Star game? Did you were you impressed by Mitchell going off for 40? He did try to show out. Yeah. Yeah. Mitchell played really well. And I think he got that 40. And I feel like he did it like mostly in the flow of the game. Yeah.
00:12:45
Speaker
Just Tatum was too much. Tatum was too much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was leading to was like Tatum just like, he was trying way too hard. Like Tatum was like, yeah, he wanted it. And even the commentary, the announcers were talking about how he was such a big Kobe Bryant fan. And the trophy this year was Kobe Bryant, uh, you know, themed or whatever. And that that's why Tatum wanted it so bad. They were just kind of giving it to him. So. Yeah.
00:13:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's all good. Another year in the books as far as the all-star game. I forget where next year's at. I thought I heard maybe Charlotte's trying to put a bid in. I don't know. It'll be somewhere else. All I know is it's going to be a while again until it's in Cleveland since we just had it a couple years ago. You have to wait probably not 20 years, Alex. Yeah. LeBron played a little bit.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yea, he tweaked something, right? Did he? I thought he did, and then he really tweaked something after that. He's gonna be out for a couple weeks. Janus played like the first couple possessions and that was it because he had that wrist injury. Yea, yea. I didn't know Lebron tweaked anything. I thought he tweaked like his like...
00:13:58
Speaker
ring finger or pinky, something with his hand, I thought. But then just a couple nights ago, he did something, something happened to his leg or his foot or whatever, and now they're saying he's gonna be out for a couple weeks, so.
00:14:10
Speaker
It's crazy, man. Father time. I like that they had different players mic'd up during the game and were interviewing them, talking to them while they were out on the court playing. That was really cool. Yeah, that's always good when they do that. I wish they would do that. They usually only have one player mic'd up from each team.
00:14:29
Speaker
And it's like, Mike up three or four of them. What the heck? Why not? They were talking to Luca quite a bit and that was, that was pretty funny. That was entertaining. Cause they were like kind of making a mess up. Like he was not paying attention. Nice.
00:14:45
Speaker
Well, yeah, all-star game in the books. The other kind of event that happened after we got done recording the last time, Alex, which was almost two weeks ago now. Man, I know you were holding out hope, praying at night, you know, everything, you know, take me, don't take him. But the Kevin Love buyout became official.
00:15:07
Speaker
He texts me and you're like, he wants to go to the heat, but he's going to talk to the 76ers first and he just had like a puke emoji. I was like, yeah, neither one of those just sounded great. Can you send them out west somewhere or something like that? Sure enough, he ends up with the Miami Heat.
00:15:27
Speaker
I'm still having a hard time adjusting to it, Alex. Just doesn't look great. I was having flashbacks of the decision, Corey. Kevin Love's taking his talents to South Beach. I was like, of all the cities he could have went to, Miami, why?
00:15:44
Speaker
I don't know. We would've said that about any city. If he would've went to New York, we would've been bashing that. If he went to the 76ers, you'd be like, you're an idiot. If he went anywhere in the East, we would've bashed it. If he went with someone in the West, I could swallow a little bit easier because we're not going to see him in the playoffs or whatever.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah, man, it's still just hard to, like, it still just feels surreal. I don't know. I've seen a lot of memes with the whole guy walking with Kevin Love walking with the Cavs looking back at the Miami Heat or whatever. It's like they had him queued up and ready to go and they were finally able to hit send. It's like seeing your ex with a new man or something and he's wearing the Heat jersey.
00:16:29
Speaker
I'll have to look at the schedule. I wonder when we play the Heat again next. That'd be interesting if that's sooner than later. I got to assume we play him at least one more time this year. It makes you feel any better. He hasn't been playing well with the Heat. No, I saw that. The first game, he did nothing, and 20 minutes. The second game, he had eight points and five rebounds.
Cavs' Roster Decisions Post-Kevin Love
00:16:48
Speaker
Yeah. But they're playing him around 20 minutes a game, and that's
00:16:52
Speaker
really what you can use them for. You know what I mean? Like that's perfect amount of time. I don't know if they're bringing them off the bench. I'm assuming they are. I'm not really trying to pay attention to Miami basketball, but man, it's just a cringe worthy to see him in that, in that Jersey. Yeah. It doesn't look right at all. No, but it was going to be so bizarre. Yeah, it is just the timing of all this, like, huh?
00:17:15
Speaker
What do you think about the Cavs? I felt like this was a smart PR move to come out right away and basically say his number will be hanging in the rafters. They're going to retire his number. I thought that was a smart way to handle that. What's your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think we pretty much saw that coming. I mean, that's kind of written to hear them actually talk about it. It was surprising.
00:17:45
Speaker
But I thought it was good. Instead of leaving it open and it's like, oh, where the Cavs do it, where they want to do it. And it's like, no, we're just going to do this. This guy was here for what, eight, eight and a half years, was part of the title team in the record books, you know, and he's in top 10 in a lot of different categories. You know, he was a big part of the Cavs history, man, over the last almost decade, you know, when you look back at it. So.
00:18:08
Speaker
It's not too surprising, but I just thought it was a good move for them doing that. And I'm willing to bet if the Miami Heat come to Cleveland again before the end of the season, they'll, they'll have a, they'll have a tribute video line. That's what I was just going to say. There's going to be some sort of tribute. That'll be cool. That'd be good to see. I wonder when that game is. I should see if I can get tickets to that. Yeah. Yeah, totally. You think the Toronto, the passing to himself and Toronto, you think that'll make it or no?
00:18:43
Speaker
Yeah, so the calves now have an open roster spot. Of course, they brought in Danny Green. We talked about that. He's kind of had minimal impact, I would say, and really hasn't gotten a lot of opportunities either, which is kind of disappointing in my opinion. I get he's a little bit older. He's coming off a major injury, but if you're going to bring somebody in, I wanted him to kind of
00:19:07
Speaker
you know, get a crack at being a part of the rotation, not playing, you know, 12 minutes over three games. Garbage minutes, yeah. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. And maybe they're trying to see what he could do. Maybe they're trying to see what he could do and things like that.
00:19:19
Speaker
But the Cavs do have an open roster spot now and it was kind of like, what are they going to do with that? And I would have been fine with them bringing in another veteran. It sounds like for right now, at least they're going to go a little bit of a different direction and they're going to bring in a name that probably isn't the household name. They're going to sign Sam Merle to attend a contract, it sounds like, who of course played for the charge. Cleveland charge, yeah.
00:19:47
Speaker
actually just saw him play this last weekend. Well, let's talk about that, man, because you really haven't like historically, Alex, you get to, I feel a decent amount of Cavs games in a year, right? And like this year, I think you've only gone to like one or two, right? Yeah, not very many. Not very many, right? And ticket prices have gone up, you know, there's more people going on the games with Mitchell coming in. So it's a harder, it's a harder, it's a harder ticket to get.
00:20:11
Speaker
So Alex said, screw this. I want to see basketball live. I want to see if Dylan Wundler actually exists in real life. And you went a different route. Where did you go, Alex? Yeah. So I went to a Cleveland charge game, and they played the Magic.
00:20:30
Speaker
The Lake Lakeland magic, I think was the team they played. I don't know who that is, but you know, and I was kind of looking, I was looking at Cleveland charged, like box scores from the last few games, just to see the names of the players on the roster and kind of what their typical output is. And, uh, you know, just seeing if, if there was anybody from the Cavs like Daikide, Windler.
00:20:54
Speaker
you know, who all might be there or who all might get minutes. And I wasn't seeing Windler getting minutes. I was seeing Daikide getting some minutes. Who else was there? There was someone, there was one more player. What about Merle? The guy that we, that we're signing. Did you get to see? Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Like, so when I was looking at box scores, I was seeing Merle's name at the top constantly for
00:21:19
Speaker
being the leading scorer. And, uh, I think they said at the game that we were at that the previous game, Merle set the record for the Cleveland charge, uh, three pointers in a game. He had seven three pointers in a game or something like that. And, uh, yeah, that kid man.
00:21:35
Speaker
I'll tell you what, going to a Cleveland charge game, those guys go to war, man. That was a physical game. That's the most physical basketball I've ever seen. There's just bodies littering the court. Reps were letting it go. It's not a stop call every 30 seconds. The officiating wasn't great. I'll tell you that. The officiating, there was some...
00:21:59
Speaker
like the other team's bench got a technical there were people in the crowd like like shouting at the officials like and it's like clearly audible right because because like it's it was a real small it was at the Wolstein Center so it was Cleveland State University's uh where they play basketball at and it's it's not very big it's it's a high school gym man really they got bleachers on both sides and that's it and uh so our seats were like 10 rows from the court
00:22:28
Speaker
right behind the bench perfect view of everything going on i could see i could reach out and smack windler in the back of the head and ask him why he's missing three pointers and uh yeah yeah that was funny because i was text i was texting you you're texting me and you were like get get pictures or video of windler and i'm like all right windler's on the court right now i'll record the next possession in the very next possession that bring the ball up court sam merrill brings the ball up court and he passes it
00:22:57
Speaker
The Windler in the corner, Windler shoots a three and and clanks it off the rim. So I send you the video wide open. He was wide open. And it's just. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Just got. Yeah, he didn't play very well that night. When there was he was off.
00:23:12
Speaker
I heard the next game, though, he had a good game. I think he had like 20 points, nailed some three pointers and stuff. So it's he's nice. It's tricky at night. Yeah. And he doesn't start. No, those guys start like Merrill didn't start. I don't I don't think Daikide started. He might have. But what's the other guy? The other guy was Isaiah. Oh, Mobley. Isaiah Mobley. Yeah. He played really well. Like he was pulling down every board.
00:23:42
Speaker
making shots left and right. He was dominating the paint. He was the biggest guy in the court by far. And he was using his size and length to just...
00:23:51
Speaker
I mean, no, but he couldn't be stopped. He was, it was awesome. But I really want to know though, do you have any Alex drunken notes from the charge game or were the beers, because the beers get the beers got to be a little bit cheaper there than at a calves game. Oh, they were. Oh yeah. Yeah. So, so, so also let me, let me mention this Cleveland charge games every Friday is dollar dog night. Oh, I got like eight hot dogs.
00:24:19
Speaker
You'd be feeling great the next morning, weren't you? Oh, God, I felt so bad. I think I ate six hot dogs. I gave two to the kids, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I felt terrible. But I didn't get any beers. Yeah, beers were like $4, right? That's not that bad. Which is unheard of at a game. Yeah, that's right. I didn't get any beers because I was driving. Just the hot dogs. I had both my kids and then one of the neighbor's kids, so I didn't drink anything. Got it. Being the DD.
00:24:47
Speaker
How many people would you say were there at that game? Oh, man. A couple hundred? A couple hundred at most. Yeah.
00:24:57
Speaker
All right. But yeah, yeah, the atmosphere was cool. Um, seats are great. The action was very physical. It was some good basketball. Can't go wrong, man. Tickets are cheap. Like they started like $8. That's awesome. Yeah. Like that's awesome. Like Alex, like if you have, or if you're like concerned about like driving downtown Cleveland and
00:25:21
Speaker
and paying 20, $30 for parking, like going to a Cavs game. It's not like that at all. It was like 10 bucks. Yeah. And that was parking in the parking garage right next to the Wolfstein Center. It was 10 bucks. It feels like for under a hundred bucks, you can have a pretty good time at one of those games. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Easy. It gets parking, food, all that stuff. I will say it seemed like the game was a lot shorter. Like it went really quick.
00:25:45
Speaker
Yeah, there weren't like any TV timeouts or any of all that kind of stuff. There wasn't, you know, no halftime entertainment. They did do like a ball toss and a T-shirt toss. No kiss cam or any of that crazy stuff. You know, it's like it's it's it's like going to a high school basketball game, except you're getting to see all these all these
00:26:07
Speaker
you know, guys on two way contracts or guys trying to make it into the pros. So it's right. Yeah, it's cool. It's crazy. I'd be, that'd be fun to do with the, I don't know, more games they got left, but that might be something fun to try to do before the end of their season.
00:26:22
Speaker
Because I don't know, getting to a Cavs game feels, man, it's going to be expensive and it's just going to be tough to do to take a whole family to those things. Yeah, it's hard. There's so many people dealing with the traffic, the parking, the prices. Alex, you need to turn into a scout for the charge, man.
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, I would do that. Call me up, church. Right, right. But Sam Murrow, man, 10-day contract. We'll see where that goes. I saw that he's averaging like 17 points per game, shooting 44% from three. So I can see the appeal there. He is only 6-4. And I'm like, well, then why did you just sign Danny Green? So I'm not really sure where that's going to go.
00:27:03
Speaker
Personally, I feel that a big is needed on this team. We just going back to Kevin Love. So you lost Kevin Love. You have Mobley. You have Alan. You have Dean Wade, who Dean Wade doesn't, in my opinion, really play like a big. And I just feel like another big body would be would be useful on this team right now. So Sam Merrill definitely kind of seemed like he was the anchor of that team or the captain. Like he was the one that was communicating with the coach and like
00:27:33
Speaker
bringing the ball up the court and communicating to the players and calling out defensive assignments. And he was hitting a lot of shots and making a lot of plays, diving for balls. He just, he just brought the energy, the hustle. He brought a lot of grit. Um, he was always there on defense rotating, you know, uh,
00:27:54
Speaker
fighting through the pick and roll. He was like, wow, it's like this kid is really good. I'm surprised he hasn't found a team yet. So it kind of makes sense that they would bring him up, even though we're already kind of guard heavy, I would say. Like you said, we kind of need a big, but like this is the kid on the charge that really stood out. And it looks like he's been standing out for a while.
00:28:16
Speaker
That's my fear is, how's he going to sniff any minutes? Maybe there's some garbage minutes somewhere. But we'll see. I am curious to see will the Cavs go kind of a young guy for that last roster spot, kind of just at the end of the bench versus another veteran versus another Danny Green type player.
00:28:37
Speaker
I don't know. I could see that potentially happen. New Orleans, Noel just got bought out. I think Serge Ibaka is still out there. I haven't heard that he got picked up. So that's a couple of that bigs that are still available. Do you have a preference between those two?
00:28:53
Speaker
Um, I don't know. I haven't really seen either one of them play to know if they can still play. New Orleans Noel always felt more like a defensive specialist. Like Sir Jabaka, he could score. He was able to score a little bit back in his day. But again, I'm sure his game is much different now.
00:29:11
Speaker
I don't know. I'd be interested to see, um, Nerlon is in a well. I'd be interested to see what he's got left in the tank. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, oh, well he's still, he's still kind of young, isn't he? I don't think he's been around that long, but like Abaka, he's, he's older and he was always kind of a, I feel like he was always more of a defensive specialist.
00:29:30
Speaker
Kind of like Rudy, Rudy Gobert almost. Yeah. He's Toronto. So he kind of has that working against himself when it comes to me, at least, you know, I mean, Andy's older now. And when you're a defensive specialist, you kind of lean more on your athletic ability and quickness. And as you get older, you, you know, you lose that, right? So a lot of these guys that hang around way late into their twilight years of their MBA career, they become more shooting specialists. I mean, if your specialty is defense, then
00:30:00
Speaker
Yeah, you're probably not going to last a whole lot as long as some of these other guys. No, exactly. So we'll see what happens there. I mean, we do have, I will say this, um, and I almost forgot about him, um, really because he hasn't been getting a lot of run lately. But remember Robin Lopez is sitting at the end of that bench too, on this Cavs team.
00:30:18
Speaker
And he's supposed to be your fourth big. And I don't know, I'm kind of disappointed that he hasn't been able to make more of an impact this year. I did think that was a great signing when we picked him up. I still feel he can be valuable come playoff time. But JP's or GB's rotations are starting to get shorter already. And I don't know. I don't know if Lopez is going to be part of that, you know, nine man playoff rotation.
00:30:43
Speaker
Probably not. When that time comes. Exactly. Exactly. So neither will Noel, neither will Baca, neither will this guy we signed. There's going to be a lot of players that don't get to play. It's more they're there for insurance purposes, right? I don't feel like Robin Lopez has been playing poorly. I just think that he only gets garbage minutes and he's not really going to get consistent rotational minutes, I guess. He's not going to get a lot of minutes unless somebody gets injured.
00:31:11
Speaker
Yeah, but you lost Kevin Love. Again, there's kind of a slot there that he could have filled, I guess. I don't know, man. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens with this kid and if they keep him around or maybe they keep him around on a 10-day contract or two and then maybe they decide to go a different direction.
00:31:29
Speaker
it's crazy that we're in March already Alex like dude there's only like a month there's only like six weeks left of the MD like the regular season because you usually go to like mid April right and then playoffs will be right around the corner so looking forward to that this team has been
Cavs' Post-All-Star Break Struggles
00:31:47
Speaker
Helter Skelter, it feels like, all year long. And now that the All-Star break is done, we've had a couple games happen. And I remember saying on the last episode, my concern was looking at who were playing, Denver, Hawks, Toronto, Boston, and then Boston again. I was worried. The Cavs had a seven game win streak. They lost that last game to Philly before running the All-Star break. Don't come out flat after the All-Star break.
00:32:17
Speaker
Well, what's happened, Alex? They came out flat. They've gone one for four, one for four. The Boston game just ended. We'll get into that. But they they they've only won one game out of four games since the All-Star break. And I don't know, man, is that like I'm starting to get numb to it a little bit, to be honest with you, because again, all year long, they've kind of been this inconsistent roller coaster ride. And I just think
00:32:42
Speaker
I just think that's what they're going to be this year. It's their first year together. It's their first year together. I think the thing is that they've been really good at home and they've been really terrible away. Yes. They're getting smoked on these away games and they're dominating on these home games. The thing that concerns me is that when you see
00:33:01
Speaker
a quote from, uh, no, Rubio, even like Rubio said that it doesn't seem like they're playing with a sense of urgency. And that's, that's kind of, that's concerning. Like to hear that coming from somebody on the team to say, to make a quote like that. I mean, he's clearly trying to light a fire under the rest of the guys, uh, going into the end of the season, but it's not the thing you want to hear.
00:33:30
Speaker
No, it's not. It's the second half of the season now. You know, playoff seating, you start to pay attention to that a little bit more. A team that's now behind you in the seating, the New York Knicks, are moving up the seating there. They've won six games in a row now.
00:33:50
Speaker
Um, since adding Josh Hart to that roster, remember the guy that we didn't want here in Cleveland or at least you and I didn't want. And, uh, I just, I don't want to see a scenario where the calves move out of that four spot. I don't think they can move up.
00:34:04
Speaker
I just don't want them to move back because of what you just said. If they have to start round one on the road, do I think they can beat the Knicks in a playoff series? Yes. But I'm going to feel a lot better about it if they're playing against the Knicks and they have home court advantage or whoever they play against. You know, maybe Miami figures their crap out.
00:34:24
Speaker
Whatever. You know what I mean? Don't lose that home court advantage. You've got to figure out a way to not go 1 and 4. Or win a game, lose a game. Win a game, lose a game. You've got to figure out a way to get some separation again. String some wins together. Build some confidence, not only with the team, but within the fan base. Because everybody's losing their minds every time we lose a game. And yeah, unfortunately, they're not off to a great start.
00:34:53
Speaker
The Denver game was close Alex. They just they just couldn't pull it off Denver is a good team I mean Denver I think is the number one seed in the West so that was gonna be a tough game No matter what the game that bothered me more was the Hawks game. They gave up 81 points By halftime. Yeah in the first half Yeah, that that pissed me off like again I've kind of criticized like how is this team the number one defensive rated team and like that right there was kind of another example like I just
00:35:22
Speaker
I don't know, it just speaks to how the NBA is today, but it's like, how do you give up 81 points at halftime? And then you never really had a chance after that. Yeah, and I think that's what sparked that Rubio comment. I mean, they clearly just kind of took the night off, really. I mean, I don't know what else to say about it other than that's the only way giving up 81 points in the first half happens, right? I mean, Geyser just checked out her coasting.
00:35:44
Speaker
You can't do that though, I guess is the point I'm trying to make, especially at this point in the season because those games, they matter now, they matter more because again, you only got so long until the end of the year and the playoffs start. I think we all know we're going to go to the playoffs this year, which is a great feeling.
00:36:06
Speaker
But that expectation should be we want home court advantage in the playoffs. And that's very doable. That's very something that they can achieve. They just got to focus and they can't take nights off. They can't give up 81 at halftime. They can't have kind of these embarrassing losses. They're too good of a team to have those embarrassing losses. And that's what probably gets at me the most. Like that's just how do you let that happen? You know what I mean? Yeah.
00:36:30
Speaker
Well, did you watch much of that game at all? It was hard to watch very much of it because once they gave up 81 at halftime, I'm checking out this one, I think. I didn't see it. I was just looking at box scores, but I had people texting me, of course, and one of the things that
00:36:50
Speaker
is obvious is you've got Garland, he's scoring 33 points, but only two assists. Mitchell, 19 points, three assists. And my buddy's texting me, he's like, oh man, the Cavs are just chucking, they're just chucking, they're just chucking up bad shots.
00:37:09
Speaker
Yeah man, they need to spread that ball around. Yeah, they're just not playing. When they got five or six players in double digits, they're unstoppable. I'm willing to bet there aren't many games they've lost this year when they have at least four or more players in double digits. But when you only got two guys and again, Mitchell Garland, they're going to be ball heavy. We all know that.
00:37:33
Speaker
We saw a lot of that, in my opinion, in this Boston game tonight, which we'll get to. But yeah, you got to move that ball around and you got to get other people involved. And I'll go back to that kind of short rotation that JP kind of has right now. There's not a ton of opportunity for those other guys to score if you're only playing, you know, nine guys at the end of the day. So we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. Luckily, the next game, Alex, this is where I was like, OK.
00:38:03
Speaker
You know me and the Raptors. I hate the Raptors. And I'm like, if they lose this game, I'm going to start to start to get worried. I'm going to be a little bit worried, a little bit in a bad mood, things like that. Toronto, you know, last year they kind of made it to the playoffs. Scottie Barnes beats Evan Mobley for the rookie of the year. This year, they're not doing so great. The best they're probably going to do is a play in game, if that.
00:38:25
Speaker
And I was like, okay, this is a team that is below you. It's not Denver. It's not the Hawks who are lethal enough because they have Trey Young. This is a team that's a lesser opponent of you. Take care of business, will you? And luckily the Cavs did that game. They were in control the entire time. They were having fun. Things were clicking and they secured that win, Alex.
00:38:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I actually watch this game. The Drunken Notes, Ron Harper Jr. is on. Yeah, right. Exactly. See? See you listen. Brad Doran doesn't know who Bibb is. I have all these people that listen to my Drunken Ramblings now that we record this podcast.
00:39:04
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, they take care of Toronto, which is great. And then I'm like, Ooh, Boston's up next this, you know, this could be a statement game, right? The Cavs have won the first two meetings against Boston kind of got to remind myself of that. Like, they're two and oh against Boston this year. Man, this game is in Boston. It's on national TV.
00:39:28
Speaker
What if the Cavs found a way to win this game on the road? How big of a statement would that be? Cavs can't win any game on the road, apparently. Well, the playoffs is going to be rough then, Alex. It is. I hope we have home court advantage. Yeah, exactly. But you still got to go on the road, man. Round two, you're not going to have home court advantage. And you might even play Boston in round two with the way the seating is kind of sitting right now. You never know. And this game was close at first.
00:39:57
Speaker
The calves kind of shot themselves in the foot in a couple different areas I felt. In the second quarter, the calves got real cold. They managed to get into the bonus with about nine and a half minutes left.
00:40:12
Speaker
But they really couldn't take advantage of it from the free throw lines. Mobley missed a pair of free throws, and then Garland missed three more free throws after that. Kind of unheard of. The Cavs were cold. But luckily, we're only down three at halftime, Alex. I'm like, all right, they're in this game. All they got to do is come out the second half and kind of keep it close, and they have a shot.
00:40:35
Speaker
But Boston came out and they just jumped out early. They got up 10 early and kind of just never really looked back. The lead ballooned up to 20 plus a couple times. And I did see, because that game ended just a little bit ago while we're recording, the Cavs must have went on one heck of a run because they end up only losing by four points, Alex. I think it was 117 to 113 if I'm not mistaken.
00:40:59
Speaker
So I'll have to go back and watch kind of the end of that to see what happened. But the Cavs did fall short and they dropped one on the road to Boston, who's a very good team. Number one seed, a team went to the finals last year. And to be honest with you, I'm not going to be shocked if they go back to the finals this year. Yeah. It seems like the cats have been doing that a lot lately. Like they'll get down and then try to come back in the last few minutes. I don't know.
00:41:25
Speaker
The thing, like I can't, so there's my thoughts on this. I'm not gonna get too upset about this game because again, okay, you beat them the first two times of the year and guess what? You got another crack at Boston here in like within a week because they play Detroit next, which again, you need to go win that game. Do not lose the Detroit, all right? Can't let that happen. But then you got Boston again and you got them at home.
00:41:50
Speaker
You know, if you can win that game and you kind of split those two games this week, I'm cool. I'm good. What bothers me with this game, though, is watching Al freaking Horford hit five threes, go five for five threes, and he might even hit more. I don't know, because again, we started recording mid third quarter.
00:42:07
Speaker
But Al Horford's on my crapless too. I just, I still picture him in that Hawks uniform. How do you let Horford do that? He's the softest big in the league. It's amazing. Like it's amazing that he's still able to make the contributions that he is. So I will give him props to that. And I mean, listen, Boston, they're a good team, man. They're a deep team. They play together now for a couple years and they're going to be a force in the playoffs. And again, that could potentially be your second round matchup.
00:42:33
Speaker
If the Cavs make it out of the first round and it's not going to be easy. You're going to be on the road and you're playing against a team that's, you know, easily 10, 11, 12 deep, you know, from anybody that they could put out on that court and letting Al Horford torch you from three is just, I knew the game was over. I knew it was over. No way. Freaking Al Horford, man. So.
00:42:58
Speaker
Yeah, man, we'll see. We'll see what happens next. They got Detroit and then they got Boston. So to find a way to win those two games somehow, I think, you know, we'll start to feel a little bit better again. They somehow lose those two games then and they go one for what? They'll be one for five or one for six after the All-Star break. You know, it's going to be Meltdown City on on Caps Twitter. Yeah.
00:43:25
Speaker
But there was a new episode of calves, the red home, right? I haven't seen it. The road back, Alex. The road back. The road back. The road home, whatever. They can only win at home, so that's what I'm changing the name to. Okay. Yeah. Did you watch it? I did. I watched it just a day or so ago. It actually came out the day that our last podcast episode came out, of course.
00:43:49
Speaker
And I finally got a chance to watch it. And I thought it was good. Again, we say they're all good. But what was, man, I was like, wow. The start of that episode was talking, was covering Chetty and how he moved up the three-point, all-time three-point list for the Cavaliers. Remember when he passed up JR?
00:44:10
Speaker
He had a really good game. He had like twenty nine points. He had like seven or eight three pointers. And he's now in the number five spot for all time. Three pointers made in Cleveland Cavaliers history. And I had to sit there and I'm like. Well, like I had to remind myself like, wow, Chetty's in the top five right now. Like that's crazy to me. That's surprising. Yeah, it just and that just happened like a month ago. But we've already all obviously forgot that because you just had the same reaction I did.
00:44:38
Speaker
I mean, he doesn't get consistent minutes, really. No, no. He only played five minutes in that Boston game. Exactly, exactly. He played, geez, he didn't play at all in the Toronto game. Yeah, yeah. It's impressive. Kudos to him for doing that. And I beat him up for years on this podcast. And I don't know how much time he has left on his contract, maybe another year or two.
00:45:01
Speaker
Um, but who knows, man, what if, what about the end of the day? Chetty, Chetty leaves here and he's like top three or something like that. Wouldn't that be crazy? That'd be pretty wild. Like you see Mark price, you see Kyrie Irving like 10, 15 years from now, like names that everybody knows. And then you.
00:45:17
Speaker
Who? That teenager, 15 years from now, who is that? Jetty's going to get his name in the rafters and nobody will know who it was. Will he make the wall of fame? Remember that? We haven't talked about that in a while. The Cavs haven't ... I don't know. Wall of Honor. Yeah, the Wall of Honor. There you go. I don't know how often they add people to that. Probably once a year or something like that, but man.
00:45:44
Speaker
He's not going to get his name hung up in the rafters, but does he make the wall of honor someday if he sticks around here a couple more years yet and continues to move up the record books? I don't know. That'd be wild. I just saw the wall of honor last week too. I was at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse for, not for a Cavs game, but for the monster jam, the monster trucks. Oh yeah. Took the kids to that. Yeah.
00:46:09
Speaker
Very good. Very cool. Played some NBA All World. Nice. Got some nice pickups while I was there. So the rest of that episode was then talking about how Mitchell made the All-Star team.
Cavs' Pre-All-Star Break Success
00:46:24
Speaker
They didn't show any highlights from that.
00:46:26
Speaker
But then, and this was the part of the episode that kind of got me amped up and pumped up and all that stuff because the Cavs do a pretty good job of putting this together. But it was basically like highlights of that seven game win streak leading up to the All-Star break. And what was cool about that was it's like, that feels like forever ago now, right? We're just, you know, seven games in where everything was clicking or we feel real good about everything.
00:46:50
Speaker
But after each game, they also showed the junkyard chain ceremony where they give the player the chain. It looks like it's always whoever won it last is the guy giving the new guy the chain like they pass it on. And you could just see the fun that the team has in the locker room behind the scenes after we're done watching them on TV.
00:47:13
Speaker
And even like Kevin Love makes a couple appearances kind of just in the background. And it's like this at this point, he wasn't playing, right? He didn't play at all during that seven game win streak, even games before that. But he was still there with a smile on his face. So putting his hand in at the very end, you know, when they're breaking and just still having generally a good time with his guys. And it's kind of surreal to see that like, yeah, that's the last time Kevin was part of this franchise.
00:47:42
Speaker
But they did a good job with like those highlight videos and seeing the junkyard chain stuff is always cool and I did find out that we're not the only team that does that Alex.
00:48:14
Speaker
and then like the Sacramento Kings I think is the other one it's a really big oversized chain just I don't know it just doesn't look as good as the calves and then the calves obviously tie it in with the Browns with the junkyard theme thing
00:48:19
Speaker
I know of two other teams that do this.
00:48:29
Speaker
I think ours look the best, sounds the best, so on and so forth. But you'll have to look those up, Alex, because they're pretty horrible. The very end of that episode, like the last 60 seconds, is just talking about how Danny Green is rejoining the Cavaliers. They show a couple clips of his rookie year, some highlights there.
00:48:50
Speaker
He didn't play a ton as a rookie, but they had a couple clips up. Yeah, that was the episode. It was like a 17-minute long episode, another good one, and I highly recommend CAS fans to go
Cavs' Series 'The Road Back': Highlights
00:49:02
Speaker
watch it. Alex, you need to go watch it because I know you didn't check it out yet, but yeah, you'll have to watch it. I wonder if they'll have a Kay Love episode. Well, that next episode of The Road Back,
00:49:15
Speaker
be about K love and like his like kind of his journey with the calves and kind of like, like, I don't know, man, like, can you see them doing that? I don't know if they would do that or not. Like he did ask to leave. You know, I don't know stuff.
00:49:33
Speaker
I definitely see a tribute video to the next time he's in Cleveland, but I don't know if he'll do a road, you know, a road back. Like remember, like remembering Kevin Love road back, like not the whole episode, but maybe they give him a five, seven minute segment. I don't know. I could see it. Maybe, maybe. Sure.
00:49:53
Speaker
The last thing I want to tell you, Alex, and if you've got nothing else, we'll wrap this up. So I'm still playing 2K. I don't know. You're probably done with that. You're playing NBA All World. You're chasing. This is Alex with his cell phone, a rocket work at Field House. Come here. Come here. Who's your guy? Come here. Dylan Brooks, stay away. Stay away. Yeah. Dylan Brooks, Kelly Oubre. All you guys, man. I let you guys. I release you guys. I don't want you on my roster.
00:50:20
Speaker
I did get a Jimmy Butler, man. He's really good in the game. I got a Jimmy Butler and Chris Paul. That was my top guys right now. I couldn't pick him up just because I'm not digging the hairstyle lately. I don't know. He needs to go back to the clean cut. Jimmy Butler? Unless he already shaved it, but you haven't seen the... Maybe I haven't seen it lately.
00:50:40
Speaker
Yeah, your job is to look up Jimmy Butler's hair. All right, and then go look up Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings chains that they give out. Because you want to laugh if you want to laugh before you go to bed. I'll take I'll take away those action items.
00:50:56
Speaker
So I'm still playing NBA 2K23 and I've talked about this a couple times really the reason I usually don't stick with a 2k game this long but I'm really digging the my NBA eras mode that they have and Alex I know I feel so bad because you have the switch version so you don't get to experience this you need to pick up the ps5 version it's gotta be cheap by now you can experience this mode yeah
00:51:19
Speaker
Because it's basically, you start in one of, I think, three or four eras. You can start in the 1980s era, the 1990s era, the 2000s, or current day. I started in 1983 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, World Be Free, Phil Hubbard, those guys, John Bagley.
Gaming Insights: NBA 2K23 Strategies
00:51:37
Speaker
And I'm all the way up to 1990 now, playing through games, doing the offseason, drafting guys, signing free agents, making trades. And I try to always add former Cavs players to my roster. OK, the 1989 season, I won the championship. And now, Alex, I'm going back to the finals. I just knocked out Michael Jordan and the Philadelphia 76ers, because that's what happens in my NBA eras, is they don't
00:52:06
Speaker
Players don't end up where they did in real life. Jordan got drafted by the 76ers. Carl Malone got traded there in the offseason. Moses Malone is still there. I was like, man, this is going to be a tough team. But I took him out, and now I'm heading back to the finals. Still got Thunder Dan Marley on my team. Kevin Johnson, Michael Cage, Mark West, Reggie Lewis, who is one of the only players on my roster that's never played for the Cavs.
00:52:34
Speaker
John Bagley is still there. It's been a really fun team to play with, really fun era. If you like playing 2K or you stop playing 2K and you're looking to pick it back up until the next one comes out and you like kind of just historical players, I would definitely check out the My NBA eras mode. And Alex, I'm telling you, that's the fourth thing you need to do. Go look up how much 2K is now. It's got to be like only 30 bucks. Just download it and start it, man. You'll have fun with it. You will.
00:53:03
Speaker
I can't wait. I can't wait till I can draft guys, man. I'm already thinking like, man, I'm going to draft Harold Miner. I want to draft Alonzo G, man. Alonzo G back in a day in 2K, man. He was, I don't know what, he was a beast though for some reason, like in 2K 12 and 13. He just had mad hops. And I can already think of guys that I want to add to this roster as you continue moving on all former Cavs players. Just having a blast with that, having a blast. Draft Anton Jameson.
00:53:33
Speaker
There you go. Ed Kuda. Bob Sur, I can get Bobby. All right, Alex, let's wrap this thing up. Yeah, we better. We're starting to ramble here. Yeah, we are. All right, cast fans. Well, thank you as always for tuning in and listening. We always appreciate it. And Alex, you want to let them know where they can go ahead and follow us, connect with us. It might just be easier to say everywhere, but at this point, I'll leave it up to you.
00:54:02
Speaker
Follow us on Twitter, at Cavs Pick and Roll. Gmail, Cavs Pick and Roll at gmail.com. We got a Facebook page, Cavs Pick and Roll podcast, Instagram, Tumblr. Look for us where all your social media platforms were there. Yep, yep. And don't forget about the YouTube channel, where you can go ahead and not only listen to this episode, but also watch us as well. That's right. All right. Well, there it is, Cavs fans. We will talk to you again soon. Peace out, Cavs fans.