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Episode 102: Cavs Finally Healthy
16 Plays2 years ago
Alex and Corey talk about the return of Mitchell, Rubio, and Wade. We discuss the Cavs most recent 3 games, Kevin Love's slump, and the impending NBA trade dead-line. Oh and Corey's custom Cav's calendar!
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction by Alex and Corey
00:00:15
Speaker
Hey, chaos fans. Welcome to another episode of the chaos pick and roll podcast. The only podcast that you're listening to right now. I'm Alex and I'm here with Corey. How's it going, Corey? Alex.
Corey's Frustration with Knicks Loss
00:00:27
Speaker
There's four teams that I hate losing to. You ready? Detroit magic.
00:00:37
Speaker
Nix Toronto. I am always in a bad mood whenever we lose to any one of those teams and you and I had just watched the end of the Nix game which ended less than two minutes ago from us hitting the record button here. Did you did you say warriors in that list?
00:00:55
Speaker
I don't care about the Warriors anymore. What? Did you say Lakers in that list? Nah. No, I care about losing the bottom of the barrel teams. And unfortunately, the Knicks, we lost to them the last time. We played them too. And the Knicks were on a losing streak. And the Cavs were on the road. And you never know what you're going to get. And unfortunately,
00:01:22
Speaker
Entertaining end to the game, but not one that went in our favor, Alex. Yeah. Could have went a little better there. You want to break down kind of what happened? It's the very end of the game. Yeah.
00:01:37
Speaker
No, not really. Do you want to break it down? I didn't see most of it. I was like trying to get a stream to work for the past 10 minutes. Well, I guess let's rewind
Knicks' Dominance and Cavs' Comeback Attempt
00:01:50
Speaker
a little bit then. This game was not in the Cavs favor for most of the game. New York came out hot. They hit nine three pointers in the first quarter. Julius Randall hit five of them.
00:02:02
Speaker
I'm like, Oh my God, he's, he's a nice player, but he's not, I mean, he's shooting 33% for the season. It's like, how do you give up five, three pointers? And he probably finished with seven or eight of them, um, 30 plus points. And just the Knicks were, were kind of in control from the beginning and the calves managed to get down only by two at halftime.
00:02:25
Speaker
and went on a nice little run the start of the third quarter actually got up six eight points something like that but then the nicks finished the third quarter going on a run of their own um and also a run at the beginning of the fourth quarter and the calves got down double digits the calves clawed all the way back made it into a game and then just the last two minutes of the game kind of just did not go in their favor and i'm blaming it not on julius randal
Hartenstein's Plays and Referee Decisions
00:02:54
Speaker
I'm not blaming it on the lack of the Cavs defense. I'm just going to say it, Alex. It's the freaking Hartenstein curse. It's the Hartenstein curse. It does seem like that, doesn't it? When he played for the Cavs, I liked Hartenstein, but I never felt like he was...
00:03:11
Speaker
an overly skilled big man or a big presence. I liked him, he was good for 10 to 12 minutes, but why is it that when we play against him, he's all up in our grill?
00:03:26
Speaker
He saw his shot tonight because Mitchell Robinson didn't play for them So he got some extra minutes and Hartenstein made an impact towards the end of the game There was a couple layup a couple back-to-back attempts where Mitchell attempted to go to the rim Towards the end of the game wasn't able to convert and one time Hartenstein blocked him the other time Mitchell to kind of just lost it as he was going up for a layup and and it went the other way and
00:03:54
Speaker
And then at the very end of the game, Hartenstein had a nice put back dunk that gave them the lead, that got the crowd pumped up. And then on the very last play of the game, Hartenstein blocked Mitchell again, which we felt that he got fouled. Hartenstein was well within the restricted area. There was a lot of contact, not that it's gonna matter, but I'll be curious to see what the two minute report says tomorrow when the NBA releases that.
00:04:24
Speaker
But basically the cows were down to Mitchell, uh, drove to the hoop, drew a lot of contact, got blocked, managed to kick the ball out to Evan Mobley.
Cavs' Road Trip Challenges and Key Player Returns
00:04:35
Speaker
And who still had about two and a half seconds left on the clock, maybe didn't realize it took a turnaround fader. That was a very difficult shot to hit.
00:04:44
Speaker
He had garland and I think it was a curl or maybe a levert at the top that he could have kicked it out to for, for a last desperate three, but just not the way you wanted that, that ending the ending of that game. Um, I didn't even see anybody setting a pick for Mitchell or anything like that. So like, it was kind of not a very well drawn up last play of the game. It was just give it to Mitchell and he's going to make something happen. I mean, there was no ball movement. There was no pick, no motion, nothing.
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah, I so they just went was there anybody on Mowgli like in his face when he turned around to take that shot?
00:05:17
Speaker
No, but he was well past the, he was like at an 18 footer, 16 to 18 footer. There was nobody on him necessarily. Nobody that challenged the shot, I would say. And he's just so tall, no one's gonna challenge his jumper anyways. It's just a tough turnaround fader. I just don't think he realized that there was still a couple of seconds left on the clock. So I don't fault him for that. It's just, it's too bad because he had somebody that he could have kicked it to that would have had a clean three point look.
00:05:47
Speaker
And just, it didn't work out that way. Heartbreaker. Heartbreaker, man. And the Cavs have had a couple of those lately. And, you know, this is game one of a three game road trip and not off to a good start.
Victory Against Bucks and Mobley's Performance
00:06:02
Speaker
And, you know, just same old story kind of there's the Cavs tend to struggle on the road for whatever reason. Yeah, they do. I don't know what it is.
00:06:15
Speaker
don't
00:06:29
Speaker
Which was nice having him back. Obviously, this is actually The healthiest the Cavs roster has been all season Since the last time I recorded, you know, Ricky Rubio has made his comeback Dean Wade is back and everybody's back except for Dylan Windler at this point Alex
00:06:50
Speaker
So I don't even know who that is anymore, Corey. Yeah, I don't know. You know, a couple of cast players had had a nice game. Alan had a nice game. Twenty four and twelve. Garland was fine. Twenty two points six assists.
00:07:05
Speaker
I think what kind of hurt the Cavs here, along with their defense, is just not a lot of bench scoring. Another game where Kevin Love doesn't give you a ton, unfortunately. Lavert gives you nine, Akuro gives you, or Akuro's not off the bench, but Rubio gives you three. You know what I mean? Just not enough bench production. That probably would have helped a little bit.
00:07:28
Speaker
But I think at the end of the day, I don't know how many three pointers they ended up giving up, but they had to be at least around 15 three pointers they gave up to the next tonight. Yeah, that's way too many. It's hard to win a game in that kind of scenario. Just is.
00:07:45
Speaker
So not the way, not the way to start a road trip. Um, is there anything else you want to talk about this game? It's pretty fresh, but pretty frustrating as well. So, I mean, I didn't, I didn't see hardly any of it. I'm just looking at a box score.
Loss to Warriors and Key Performances
00:07:59
Speaker
Um, 36 and 13 for Randall. Yeah. And he just had a 30 point night against Toronto, the game before I heard so.
00:08:08
Speaker
You know, like I said, he's a nice player, but it's like I tweeted out. I'm like, why are we making Julius Randall look like Wesley person out there? Like guard the three ball. What are we doing, dude? He's a freaking power forward that, you know, he's like, what are we doing here? Um, man.
00:08:23
Speaker
just rough. And nobody else really did anything that great. I'm looking at their box score as well. 16 points from RJ Barrett, 14 from Brunson. So nothing special. If you don't let Randall have that kind of night, this is also an easy win. So just unfortunate. Yeah. I can only shake my head, Corey.
00:08:45
Speaker
Ah, and take a swig of that drink, right? Yeah. What you got tonight? I got a, um, this is called Seven Brothers. Uh, it's a weeded bourbon whiskey and it's from Ohio. Okay. So, uh, it's probably, it's probably my favorite, uh, of the Ohio bourbons. I've tried quite a few. I like it better than Red Eagle or, um,
00:09:13
Speaker
the Cleveland Whiskey Company, but it's a weighted bourbon, so if you like Weller, if you like Maker's Mark, you might like this one too. Very cool. And it's distilled in Geneva, Ohio, right around the corner. Very cool.
00:09:32
Speaker
Well, let's move off of the Knicks game. So the game prior to this, Alex, was at home against the Milwaukee Bucks. And this was a game where both Giannis
00:09:49
Speaker
Uh, Middleton, Chris Middleton and Mitchell all sat. Um, so it was an opportunity for the Cavs to take advantage, you know, basically don't let George Hill go off and you know, you should be able to win the game. Right. Uh, they did let
Ricky Rubio's Return and Potential Impact
00:10:03
Speaker
you holiday go off. He put up 28, but the Cavs were able to secure the win and Evan Mobley.
00:10:10
Speaker
had a career night, 38 points, nine rebounds. Uh, that's a career high for him, looked very dominant. And I thought the most impressive part Alex was that he did it without a single three pointer and without a single free throw. That's pretty, that's pretty impressive to do that without having like, he didn't get filed once and go to the free throw line and, and make it pretty impressive. Yeah. Wow.
00:10:38
Speaker
38 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah. And that's, and that's what you want to happen when, when a guy like Mitchell is out or Garland's out, like that's what you need for mobile. You don't need, you're not going to get 38 every night, but that's just, you know, you want him to step up, be more aggressive. Um, and, and a lot of Cavs fans would argue that they want him to be more aggressive every night, not just when one of those guys was out, but it was just kinda nice to finally see that, that like breakout game from an offensive perspective for Mobley. So happy for him.
00:11:11
Speaker
Um, he also got the, uh, the junkyard chain after the game, which was a no brainer. And, uh, I thought that was, that was pretty cool. Yeah. With the Mitchell out. I mean, somebody's got to step up and take those shots and score some points. And usually it's Lavert. Sometimes it's Allen. Mm-hmm.
00:11:30
Speaker
Tonight, that night it was Mobley. So yeah, it's great to see. I mean, we all know that he can do that, that he has that potential. It's just a matter of him being aggressive and taking over, taking control.
00:11:44
Speaker
Absolutely. And there was some other Cavs players that snuffed up, gave you, this was some well-balanced scoring in the Cavs. You know, they held the Bucks to 102 points, but Ceti and Lavert both chipped in with 13 points. Jared Allen, you know, gives you double digits as he normally does.
00:12:03
Speaker
Um, so it was just a good game. Rubio played 19 minutes. Um, and we could talk
Grizzlies Loss and Late Game Errors
00:12:08
Speaker
about that real quick. So I don't know how much you've gotten a scene, like how much you've seen of Rubio back yet. And I guess my take on it is I'm glad that he's back. He hasn't done anything real significant yet, but he's only four or five games back and I'm just happy to see him out on the floor. And, uh, you know, out there just kind of running that second unit again. And I think it'll come.
00:12:31
Speaker
And, you know, it's a different team than it was a year ago. We don't need him to, you know, he had some big performances last year and, you know, he doesn't need that kind of pressure on him, I don't think, with like Mitchell here and stuff. But what's your take on Rubio kind of being back? Oh, it's great to see Rubio back. I think that was only like his second game back because his first game back was against the Grizzlies. He didn't play it all in the Warriors game.
00:12:59
Speaker
think he's sad. He played a game or two, then he's sad a game. And then he played... Yeah. Yeah. So maybe you're right. Maybe it's only his second or third game at this point, but I'm just glad that he's back out there. And again, he'll get into the flow of things and...
00:13:16
Speaker
You know, it's just good. It's just good to have a healthy roster. Dean Wade is back as well, like we said earlier. So it's just good to have a full healthy roster and to be able to see what this team can do here with that healthy roster. Right. Now, now, Rubio just needs to get some minutes with the team and
00:13:36
Speaker
Exactly. And get used to playing with these guys again. Get that run. The game before the Bucks was, man, this one, I'm still mad about this one. Even though I didn't put them on my list, I am still mad about this one. And that was the Warriors game, Alex.
00:13:55
Speaker
This was in Cleveland. Steph, Clay, and Draymond all sit this game, and the Cavs somehow managed to botch this and lose this game. Yeah, I don't get that. They also decided to sit Mitchell this game, probably thinking, you know, they're sitting, you know, they're three starters, so it's okay, let's give Mitchell another game off, which is fine. The Cavs still should have been able to win this game, and even though Garland chipped in with 31,
00:14:20
Speaker
And Laverg tipped in with 22. The Cavs end up losing this game 120 to 114. Jordan Poole for the Warriors had 32 points. It's like how do we let Jordan Poole score 32 points?
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and you know, Ty Jerome, I don't even know who that is, to be honest with you. He gives you 22. Both those players played 41 minutes. I mean, here's the thing.
Kevin Love's Performance and Injury Issues
00:14:47
Speaker
And I was talking to some people about this after this game had happened. And it's like these young guys in a scenario like this see an opportunity to get a little bit of shine. Because I'm willing to bet Ty Jerome doesn't get 41 minutes a game when Steph is playing.
00:15:05
Speaker
I'm guessing Jordan Poole, who I know is part of the rotation, but he's not going to be the go-to guy when the other three guys are playing out there. It's an opportunity for them to showcase their skills, get some extra minutes, and just show what they could do. They're pumped up and motivated to do that, and they gave them all they could handle, and it was too much for the Cavs to handle, and you lose this game. They had well-balanced scoring. They shot 53% from beyond the arc there.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah, the Cavs, the Cavs three point defense is not been stellar. I'm still, I'm still, I said this last time and I heard in the broadcast today, I was watching the Knicks broadcast, I'm sure you were too. They had mentioned that the Cavs were number two in the league in defense. And I'll say the same thing I said last week. I don't know how.
00:15:56
Speaker
You gave up with 120 points, you know, to the freaking warriors that don't even have stuff for clay playing, you know, and just every night you're giving up 100 plus. And I guess that just, again, just tells you where the league is at today, the scoring league. But yeah, their three point defense has has been pretty poor. And tonight against the Knicks was another example of that.
00:16:19
Speaker
Michael Green gives you 13, Kamunga gives you 10, like they just, they had four, they had one, two, three, four, six players in double digits. You can't do that. No. You can't do that. No. You know, so this is probably, I wanted to call this out too. Do you have any, I'll give you a chance because I know he's your boy. Any, any defense for Kevin Love?
00:16:49
Speaker
Cause he has not been playing very well. Now he did give you 12 points this game. Yeah. I was going to say, it's probably his best shot. 75% from the three point line there. Probably his best performance in the last month or so. Um, but he has not been contributing consistently like he would like him to. I think that's impacting things as well. Hmm. I would say he's not getting a consistent minutes. I'd say that probably factors into it.
00:17:20
Speaker
He only had nine minutes in that Grizzly's game. And then you play him for 21 in the Warriors game.
00:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, there was some stuff that came out recently that his thumb is still bothering him. And remember when that injury happened, he like played the next day and we're like, what? Okay. I thought he fractured his thumb or whatever. And then he sat a game and then like, he's basically played since maybe he sat one other time, I don't know. But it feels like he's trying to play through the injury.
00:17:52
Speaker
um instead of just letting it heal and I can understand why they wanted to do that but at the same time he's not producing and it's almost like I'd rather he had sat for two weeks three weeks and fully heal uh because he just doesn't he just doesn't look like himself lately the last you know several weeks now and I think that's hurting our our bench production as a result
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah, probably. I mean, our Ben shouldn't be that dependent on Kevin Love, though. We've got to absolutely step up, man. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
00:18:28
Speaker
So yeah, Warriors game, that was a horrible loss. That was just a punch to the gut. And kind of just one of those games where it's like, man, where are the Cavs at? Where are they at? I saw a lot of, you know, make a trade now, kind of post after that game. And the Cavs have just been playing inconsistent. And I guess probably the last game we'll go back to is another heartbreaker, Alex, the Grizzlies game.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that one got me. That one pissed me off because we had that game in the bag. I mean, there was no reason we should have lost that game. Man, down by one point in Okoro, we have the ball. Okoro's inbounding it and he doesn't inbound it in time and gets called for the five second and turns it over.
00:19:16
Speaker
Just give him the game away. I mean, yeah, I it's like how often I'm like, I don't know. It feels like the five second call is not something you see very often. I feel like the refs give some leeway there, but that's just.
00:19:31
Speaker
I don't remember. We're like, were the cows at a timeout? Like, how does somebody not call a timeout? If you have, they were out of timeouts. They were out of timeouts. Okay. Yeah. It's just a horrible way for that game to end. And I was psyched for this game, man. I wanted to see Garland and Moran. I'm still no Mitchell in this game. So, you know, I wanted to see that, that showcase, right?
00:19:50
Speaker
And just a horrible way to lose the game and just another one that just it's it's it's it's it just kind of kills your confidence man when you lose games like that.
Criticism of Cavs' Coaching Strategies
00:20:00
Speaker
Not only from a player standpoint like from a fan base standpoint because it's like OK you know where the cows at right now like are they.
00:20:07
Speaker
They're kind of trending in the wrong direction at not a great time. There's still a lot of basketball left, right? But it's just, you want to see some consistency. You know what I mean? And I feel like we haven't really seen that all year long. Yeah. All right.
00:20:24
Speaker
You know, Okoro was pretty cool, pretty good this game. He went six for six, field goal. Yeah, four for four from three. His only miss was one free throw. That's pretty incredible for him. Okoro's been playing pretty solid lately. His shooting percentage, his three-point percentage has both been up, and he's been contributing more consistently.
00:20:50
Speaker
It's not every game he's putting up 17 points or anything like that, but he's played better lately, which he needed him to do, especially when Mitchell's out. You got to find someone else that can step up, and he definitely did this game. The Cavs had well-balanced scoring here, 18 from Mobley, 14 from Allen. Like you said, they had the game, and just the end of that game just
00:21:18
Speaker
like this next game just just kind of heartbreakers yeah and uh all you had to do is make a shot you had the ball you had the time yep all you had to do is score a basket yep and that's games yeah that's game that's so the next game that's the grizzlies game yep yep
00:21:38
Speaker
And just things sometimes won't go in your favor. And I get that. But a five second call, giving away the game. Again, the last play of the game, yeah, I feel Mitchell got filed. But that wasn't a well-drawn up play. There was no movement whatsoever. And then I've seen some chatter every once in a while. And this will happen more if this continues to happen. But it's like.
00:22:03
Speaker
You know, people start criticizing the coach when that kind of happens. Like how do you let that happen at the end? How is that the last play that you drew up? You know what I mean? So it gets to a point to where, you know, bigger staff starts to catch some heat from the fans and it just creates, you know, just chatter. Right. And, um, you know, you don't want that to get too negative and losing games like that or losing games to the warriors when they set their stars or losing to the Knicks. Again, like it just adds fuel to the fire.
00:22:33
Speaker
the back to the Bucks game quick.
Anderson Varejão's Role with the Cavs
00:22:36
Speaker
That was the Anderson-Verjow tribute night. Yeah, so what do you think about that? What do you think about Andy coming back? What is this? It's like eighth time with the organization now?
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah, you don't want to ask me that. You know my feelings about Verigell. Yeah, yeah, we talked about that. You're a team Tristan. I'm not a Verigell fan like Team Tristan. Aw, man. Well, you know what? Hey, Tristan, I'll take Tristan over Verigell any day. Verigell, he was a big fan favorite. And I understand. I think it was all because of the hair, because the guy rarely actually suited up and played.
00:23:17
Speaker
I mean, go back and look at NBAreference.com and look at how many games he actually played for the Cavs. Yeah, he was with the Cavs for several seasons. They only played maybe 20, 30 games every one of those seasons. Kills me. He would be nine or 10 seasons, something like that. Yeah. With the Cavs. And played a total of 50 games or something stupid. It's, it kills me. Windler, are you talking about very... Well, he did play a little more than Windler, but just a little bit.
00:23:49
Speaker
I'm looking up his stats right now because I don't, I don't buy this. Yeah. Yeah. I got to see how many games he played. We should have traded. I wish we would have traded in like two, three seasons before we finally did. There was a time where his stock was pretty high and they probably could have got a nice piece back, but he was, I think he was a LeBron favorite and 596, 596 games.
00:24:16
Speaker
played over 13 seasons with the Cavs. I'm not good at math. I don't know what that average was out to.
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I see, you know, 25 games, 25 games, 2011, 2012, 31 games, 2010, you know, 31 games, 2015. Um, you know, even he got traded 20, 20, 20, 14, 26 games. So like, yeah, he didn't play 70 plus games every, every season. One season where he played 80 games in 2008. He had two seasons the season after. Yeah.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, but he's, he's back with the Cavs. It's still weird to me that he played for the Cavs what two years ago. Remember that? Remember that whole thing where he randomly was brought back for a little bit and he suited up and played and then he never kind of officially announced his retirement. Five games. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um, but he's back now as a player development coach. That's cool. I don't have any beef with that. No, that's fine. That's good.
00:25:21
Speaker
And he had a nice little ceremony during the Bucks game, like a 20, 25 minute long ceremony where he thanked the organization and the fans. And he's here to continue being in the city that he loves.
00:25:33
Speaker
Like it's kind of cool when there's somebody that comes along every once in a while and likes being here. And even after they're playing, they still wants to be here. So yeah, well, we, we do those to various, paying them for sitting on the bench and being hurt. So I'm sure no, no, he's probably making a decent, decent, he's probably making more than what he'd be sitting on the bench for anyway, these days, probably. So I wanted to talk about the trade deadline.
Trade Deadline Debates: To Trade or Not?
00:26:03
Speaker
It is rapidly approaching. I looked it up February 9th, Alex. It's like, what's today 20? It's like two weeks, dude. Yeah. What? What? It's like Christmas then that snuck up on me this year and the trade deadline. It's like, man, you know, I see, I see like the ridiculous little articles that pop up, you know, primarily from calves nation.
00:26:25
Speaker
Um, and it's like, okay, I don't even click on that crap. Um, but it's like, I don't know. It's like, it just doesn't feel like the trade deadline is that close. And I guess I'll ask you this question. Are the calves just got back to being fully healthy, right? Do, are you on the team of the calves need to make a move and bring in a new body or two, or the calves need to see what they have now that they're fully healthy?
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think the calves need to just stay pat and just get everybody that we have in sync and get the rotations down. Just work Rubio into the system. Just get everybody healthy. I don't see any point in making any trades. I keep seeing all these trades for
00:27:17
Speaker
Lavert for Alec Burks or Lavert for Oji Anubi or it's like I just I mean it's it's trading for what we already have or trading down in my opinion. It's like I don't know. I just haven't seen any trades that I think help us. It's like I think what we have is good. We just need to get consistent.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think maybe I'll put a poll up on our Twitter page. I'm willing to bet most fans, most Cavs fans would naturally say they need to make a move. Because you know what? It's always fun, right? The trade deadline is always boring when your team doesn't do anything.
00:28:01
Speaker
So naturally, you're always going to say, hey, make a move. And obviously, there's holes on this team. We've needed a small forward for three years now. It's great that Akaro is stepping in here and having a nice month.
00:28:14
Speaker
There was times when Cheddy had a nice month. Doesn't mean he's the long-term solution, right? And I'm with you. I think now that the Cavs are healthy, I think they need to see what they have. And I also agree that it's primarily because you don't have a first round draft pick for like eight years.
00:28:35
Speaker
You're not going to trade, you know, anybody from the core four. So anybody you're going to trade is not going to bring anything back really significant. And like you said, necessarily better than what you have. Everybody wants to trade Lavert because they don't like Lavert and don't think he's very good. What do you think you're going to get back? Right. You know what I mean? Dylan Windler, like, what do you, you're not going to get anything back for these guys. Chetty, I'm sorry, you're not, Chetty Osman does not have
00:29:02
Speaker
A high return rate just not and especially right now. He's not he's not getting solid consistent rotational minutes And he's not producing as a result consistently as well, you know You're you're just you're just going to get another cheddy back. You know what I mean? Another another lavert back and I like alex burks But I like lavert better You know what I mean? Like i'll be curious to see can the calves figure something out? you know, can they package some second rounders and
00:29:31
Speaker
You know, Windler and someone else and, you know, bring in a shooter, you know, that, you know, isn't going to be your sixth man by any means. But I would love to see a shooter added to this team like a Doug McDermott out in San Antonio. You know, I think I think that'd be a nice addition with the way the NBA is and, you know, high scoring volumes and shooting. You know, the Cavs aren't the greatest shooting team. You can always add a a sharp shooter to to the roster.
00:30:03
Speaker
So with that being said though, do you still feel that the small forward is the hole that needs filled right
Team Analysis and Areas for Improvement
00:30:12
Speaker
now? Do you think there's any others like Rubio's back? So, you know, now NATO moves to your third point guard. Like what do you think of our big rotation? Are you still good there, confident there? Is there any other holes that you see?
00:30:28
Speaker
No, I still think it's just small forward. I mean, you're shuffling in Okoro, Osman, Stevens, right? Those are three okay guys that are role players. They're not starting caliber guys, I don't think. So I think, yeah, that's our biggest hole.
00:30:54
Speaker
And like you said, who is out there that we could get that could be that starting small forward? And what do we have to give up to get for them? And I just don't think there's anything there.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah, you're not going to touch. Akuro's the only other potential flyer. If the Cavs wanted to make some sort of, I guess, splash, maybe they entertain Akuro in some deals and maybe you can get some interesting returns back.
00:31:35
Speaker
Unfortunately, all those players that you just listed, none of them are the long-term fit. They all have their ups and downs. I'm going back to that Bucks game. Stevens played 17 minutes, but he didn't score any points, grabbed a couple rebounds, had an assist. We like Stevens. We're fans of Stevens, but he has his moments and he has his moments where he doesn't give you a lot.
00:32:00
Speaker
And same thing with Chetty sometimes he looks brilliant and other times it's like, you know, why are you even playing this guy? You know and earlier in the season we were we were ready to be done with the Kuro So it's just yeah, it's it's that never-ending position that really you know, the Cavs haven't been able to fill for years now and It's just unfortunate
00:32:25
Speaker
that they're still searching. And they have to be delicate too on who they bring in because they're not gonna be the top three scoring option. So you need somebody that's kind of okay with that too. Like the one thing about Akuro, I think he's supposed to be a defensive player, right? Maybe at some point he could be your three and D guy, right? If his shooting continues to improve and all that stuff and he sticks around.
00:32:53
Speaker
That's everything to like alex berks you know i think he's more of a shooting guard he's not as well for but i'll just use them as an example alex berks wants to score the ball he doesn't want to be the fifth option on the team right so you have to you have to be mindful of what type of player you're bringing into on on top of it. Yeah yeah for sure it's it's nice to have dean wade back to i did kind of leave out dean wade but he plays power forward but.
00:33:16
Speaker
When you got Mobley at power forward, I want to see Mobley get lots of minutes. I want to see Mobley start stepping up more. I don't want to take too many minutes away from Mobley. And when I do take Mobley out, you're putting in Kevin Love, who, like you said, he's been kind of inconsistent and streaky lately compared to how he started off the season where he was
00:33:38
Speaker
always good for a three, right? But lately he has been up and down. So maybe you keep giving Mobley his 30 minutes or 30 plus minutes and
00:33:50
Speaker
If you find time to split time between Love and Wade, I'd love to see Wade start getting more minutes because he was really catching on at the end of last season. He was playing great defense and just spot up shooting threes. He was looking like a young Kevin Love out there late last season. So I'd love to see Wade work back into the rotation more.
00:34:12
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but it kind of felt like a poor man's Kevin Love, right? Just because of the contract. But he was basically filling the void of what you kind of expected Love to give you on a night and night basis. And Wade has a proven track record to be able to step up and play a role, especially when there's a
00:34:35
Speaker
injury on the team. And now that we're healthy, I want him to play that role without there necessarily needing to be an injury on the team. And I think it's like Rubio, you know, Wade, Wade has missed. I'll say significant time. I remember when that injury first happened.
00:34:51
Speaker
You know, it was projected to be a couple weeks that turned into at least a month and a half or so. So, you know, he's trying to work himself back into the rotation. And now that everybody's healthy, you know, there isn't as many minutes up for grab versus when, you know, Kevin loves out and he could slide right in there and there there's 20 minutes a game guaranteed for you, right?
00:35:11
Speaker
But I think I have confidence in in Wade and Rubio that both of them will will find their place again and be able to contribute to this team. And I think, you know, once that happens, you know, things will be will be clicking again for the whole team in general, just takes pressure off everybody else when you have players like that doing that for you. Yeah, yeah.
00:35:35
Speaker
So the, uh, the trade deadline, we'll have to keep an eye on that. Uh, February 9th is the day. We'll see if the calves make any moves or if they stand pat and, uh, we'll see what ends up happening here over the next couple of weeks.
Upcoming Games Preview and Reflections
00:35:52
Speaker
Yep. We got, uh, who we got up next. We got Houston on Thursday in Oklahoma city on Friday, both away games.
00:36:02
Speaker
Uh-huh. I was, speaking of Houston, so I've been doing the posting of daily calves card.
00:36:15
Speaker
Right. I've been doing that all month. I plan on doing it, you know, until I can't do it anymore. Um, but I, you know, I'm, I'm, it's also been kind of fun because it's allowed me to kind of, you know, go search to try to pick up some cards every once in a while, you know, find them on eBay for cheap things like that, just to keep the inventory up to date and all that stuff. And speaking of Houston, I was like, you know what? I'm going to look up Kevin Porter cards. And then it got me thinking about Kevin Porter. And I was like, remember?
00:36:45
Speaker
Remember how that was a big thing when the whole Kevin Porter thing went down and the Cavs moved on from him?
00:36:53
Speaker
And the fan base was very divided, all that stuff. I don't mean this in any kind of disrespectful way, but the Houston Rockets are like the worst team in the league. Good. Good. You know what I mean? And like, I don't know specifically what Porter's doing, and I hope he plays this game. I hope he's not injured or anything like that. And I'll be watching him closely if he is playing.
00:37:19
Speaker
But yeah, man, it just it just made me think of Kevin Porter Jr. because I was looking to see if I can find some cheap Cavs cards for him. Yeah. And yeah, now you got me curious. I have no idea how he's been playing. I did hate to give him up because I thought he was going to be a really good player. It's too bad we couldn't make it work.
00:37:40
Speaker
And we gave him up for he's played, he's played, he's played 40 games. So he's played most of the season and he's averaging 19 points a game. He's a score, man. It doesn't look like five rebounds. Yeah. Solid. I just know what I was like, I was looking at the standings. I think, I think the Rockets were, um, not only the worst team in the West, but the worst team in the league. Um, and that was a week or so ago, week and a half ago, maybe.
00:38:08
Speaker
But yeah, we're going to see Kevin Porter Jr. We're going to see what we're, what we're missing out on. Maybe he's the missing, the missing piece. Well, he didn't play in their last game. Did he play in the game before that? I wonder if he's out injured or who knows. Yeah.
00:38:26
Speaker
And like the Rockets, that's another team that makes me nervous because they're not a good team, right? They're a team that the Cavs should be able to, you know, go in there and handle pretty easily. But it's a game on the road. It's a young team and it's just, you know, you catch them on the wrong night and you can lose to anybody in the NBA.
00:38:47
Speaker
Um, same thing with the thunder. Thunder's not a great team. Obviously, you know, they have like 35 first round draft picks over the next three years. So that's what they're banking on, but just another young team that, you know, has some pieces that can go off. And, um, the calves, you know, gotta find a way to, to not go 0 1 3 or something crazy, like one and two on this road trip, because the Knicks rockets thunder. Not a single one of them is a playoff team this year.
00:39:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, you can't you can't have that happen houston has eric gordon I don't know. You're still out there man. Gordon was still in nba. He's got to be like 100 years old
00:39:27
Speaker
He's still around, man. I remember him being in trade rumors last year. Maybe this year he finally gets moved. I think there were some Cavs fans that wanted him. I remember. Who's the other young guy that they drafted? Was it Jalen? Yeah, Jalen Green. Jalen Green. Yeah, that's the guy that I- It's been playing pretty good. That's the guy I idiotically said I wanted over Mobley way back when. Once upon a time. No, I mean, he's a good player. He's still a good player. He is. He is. It's just they're a young team. They need some veterans and stuff like that. I guess I'm just trying to point out, like,
00:39:57
Speaker
Yeah, it sucked to move on from Porter, but it's not like he's taken over the league, you know or anything like that. So Until the Rockets turn into a good team he's not gonna get a lot of a lot of spotlight on him I don't think boy he would have been a good Yeah, good to next to Mitchell or Garland though, you know Well what it could have shoulda what it could have shoulda so Alex it's 2023 and
Corey's Custom Cavs Calendar Project
00:40:26
Speaker
And I was thinking, um, I need a new calendar for like my, my home office. And I was searching online for some calendars and sometimes I'll get like a gaming one. And I was like, well, I had that last year, so I don't want that. And I was like, Oh, I'll get a calves calendar. So I find one on Amazon. It's horrible.
00:40:52
Speaker
It's horrible. Did you say that? Did it have players on it or just logos or what is it? No, no, no, no. It had players on it, but like Mitchell's not even on it. Markitin's still on it. Oh, wow. Yeah, like it's it's it's very outdated is what it is. And they just repeat several players like I think Chetty's on there twice. You know, it's like why? You know what I mean? So I was like, I'm not buying this crap. You don't even have Donovan Mitchell on there. Get out of here.
00:41:21
Speaker
And I thought to myself, I was like, well, for like the last six years, I want to say I always make a calendar, like a custom calendar for like my family and stuff like that, like kids pictures, vacations, kind of that crap. And I'm like, why don't I just make my own calves calendar?
00:41:38
Speaker
And when I get an idea, I got to always spice it up. And not only did I make a custom calves calendar, which I'll put some pictures on social media. Sounds like you're breaking me a copyright laws and the Interpol is going to come after you here, but continue. Right.
00:41:56
Speaker
Right, right, right. But what I decided to do was for the first like five or six months of the year, I decided to have it a different theme, like a different era of Cavs basketball. So like the month of January is like that 19, you know, when the Cavs first existed, 1971 to like 1981.
00:42:19
Speaker
You know, that true, that true winding goal, the years, the Austin cars, the campy Russell's, the Lenny Wilkins, Nate Thurman. And like, I have it set up so that the color scheme, the logo from that timeframe is there and the players from that timeframe is there.
00:42:36
Speaker
And then the next month, it moves into the 80s. We'll be free. Phil Hubbard, you know, the orange and blue and so on and so forth. And I do that all the way up till like the championship championship year. And it just looks really cool. And I've showed a couple of people it and they seem to really like it. And I wish I could order more calendars or just everything is just so expensive these days. I'm not paying like 40 bucks for a calendar.
00:43:04
Speaker
But I'll get you one, Alex. Next time they come down in price a little bit. And I wanted to share that because I thought it was pretty cool. That sounds awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And with like the later months, like after I ran out of eras, like when we get to June, well, obviously the Cavs once upon a time won a championship back in June and back in 2016. So it's all like the championship stuff.
00:43:28
Speaker
Um, I have one of like, you know, like the future like the team now You know with garland and mobly and just kind of different themes for each month and um another reason why I really did it too though was And this is what probably took the longest Was I put every single calves game?
00:43:50
Speaker
On the calendar like the schedule on there. Oh, wow. So I can so I can look up and say oh The cast play the nicks tonight at 7 30 It's in new york Okay, like I don't have to go look up the schedule on my phone or or you know I used to print out the schedule put it on my fridge or whatever. I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna go that extra mile. Damn, dude took a long took took a long time I think the whole thing took me almost four hours to do the whole thing
00:44:14
Speaker
You need to wait until they have some sort of promotion and then buy these things in bulk and open your own Amazon store. You'll sell these things. Yep. There you go. It's just genius. I just, I can't believe how piss poor of a calendar there is for the calves.
Quality of Cavs Merchandise
00:44:28
Speaker
And I'm just like, what the hell, man? I can make something better than that.
00:44:32
Speaker
And go even a little step further here and put the promo nights on there. Like what nights are the. Yeah. I was I was trying to get like because like on the real calendar it'll have what is it like in red if it's a home game and gold if it's a way or maybe it's vice versa. I tried to do all that. There was some limitations on what I was able to do with the company I used. But like I started this like in the middle of January. So I was kind of rushing to get something done. But I'll definitely do some more research and
00:45:02
Speaker
Next year, I'll have to come up with some different ideas of what we do. I think this is going to be a yearly thing now, Alex. I had too much fun doing that, getting all the pictures forward and the color schemes and the logos. And yeah, it was fun putting all that together. That's awesome.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah good stuff so uh alex is there anything else you wanna you wanna mention you wanna you wanna flash the card just just a flash flash my shirt here this is the uh the cab shirt yeah this is the one my wife got me for christmas it's uh every time i see the smoke it looks like like a smoky background on it almost like every time i see this uh this font reminds me of the nirvana font
Podcast Conclusion and Social Media Reminders
00:45:44
Speaker
I think that's a pretty cool shirt. Yeah. Oh, flash the card. Yeah. Let's flash the card. Yeah. Yeah. Got to show Bill. Boom. There it is. Don't dunk that ball. All right. Dunk that ball. That's all I got. All right. Well, there it is, Cavs fans. Thanks for tuning in. As always, we appreciate you listening and checking out the pod. Alex, you want to let them know where they can go ahead and follow us and connect with us. Follow us on Twitter at Cavs pick and roll. You can see Corey's daily
00:46:14
Speaker
Cav's NBA card, shoot us an email. Cav's picking a roll at gmail.com. Instagram, you still doing Instagram? I'm still posting there, the cards are there too. You're posting on Instagram too? All right, we got a Facebook page, we got Tumblr. What am I missing here? Did we say YouTube? I like the YouTube channel, of course. Yeah, video podcasts, you can watch us while you listen to us now, check us out.
00:46:40
Speaker
Yeah, we're everywhere. That's it. Wherever you listen, click like, click subscribe, leave us a rating, a review, we'd appreciate it. All right, CAS fans, there it is. We will talk to you again soon. Peace out, CAS fans.