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Episode 167: Playoff Preview: Toronto Raptors
52 Plays2 months ago
Alex and Corey give their thoughts about the Cavaliers regular season coming to an end that lands them in the 4 seed for the playoffs. We discuss the ups and downs of the long season but overall are satisfied with the teams play to wrap up the season and most importantly the team's health going into the playoffs. We break down the first round for the Cavs against the Toronto Raptors and what the team needs to do to make it a quick series. Then Alex does an unboxing of some Cavs gear he won during the Sherwin Williams Sure Shot contest!
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Transcript
Catching Up After a Break
00:00:13
Speaker
Hey Cavs fans, welcome to another episode of the Cavs Pick and Roll podcast, a podcast for diehard Cavs fans. I am Corey. I am joined as always by Alex.
00:00:26
Speaker
How's going, Alex? Hey, it's going good. It's, you know, we haven't recorded in about a month. A lot of ah lot of things have happened. i went to a Cavs game a while back, but, you know, so long ago, it's not worth talking about.
00:00:42
Speaker
And I feel like I've been sick since the last time we recorded. we both went on a vacation for spring break and now we're back. We did. i went to evil i went to enemy territory, Alex. I went to Indianapolis and a lot of Indiana Pacer fans out there.
00:00:58
Speaker
Oh, I was going to say, i don't even know if they really play basketball in Indianapolis. They don't got anything to be too excited about this year. what it would have been I don't think they have any fans at least anyway, right? No, actually, I i saw plenty of people wearing Pacers gear.
00:01:12
Speaker
bet. And what's funny is they have a minor league baseball team, and they're called the Indians, believe it or not.
00:01:22
Speaker
I forget what the city, like had something in front of it, but it was something Indians. And I was just like, huh. You know, minor league team can still have Indians, but, ah you know, our Cleveland baseball team can't be called that anymore, I guess.
00:01:35
Speaker
So that was that was interesting and shame. It's a shame, Corey. It
Cavs Regular Season Recap
00:01:40
Speaker
is. It is. but Yeah. um time Time has flown by and the regular season has finally come to an end, Alex.
00:01:49
Speaker
And i remember, ah you know, almost a year ago when the Cavs playoff hopes ended and all we wanted to do is get back to this point again.
00:02:01
Speaker
And it felt like it took forever to get here. And and we're finally here. The Cavs finished the regular season at 50 and 32, which landed them the four seed.
00:02:13
Speaker
And they're going be playing the Toronto Raptors, who got the fifth seed, which we'll talk about all that. But I want to kind of just do some justice with the regular season, Alex.
00:02:24
Speaker
Get your thoughts. How do we think this team looked, um especially towards the end of the season? And now that they're going into the playoffs, do do we feel confident?
00:02:35
Speaker
What do we see that we like? What do we see that we're still a little bit nervous on? The state of the team, health-wise. let's Let's kind of get into all that stuff before we talk about the the playoff matchup against the Raptors here.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's ah it's a long regular season, like you said. yeah ah Almost too long. It's kind of like a ah you know a baseball season where there's so many regular season games that it's almost like they don't matter for for most of the season until you start getting close to the end.
00:03:08
Speaker
But yeah, it it was a season with its ups and downs, right? Like, you know, we lost... um We lost some players. We gained some players. The roster is almost completely different.
00:03:22
Speaker
We went through so many different starting lineups throughout the season. Overall, thought it was a good season. It was an entertaining season.
00:03:34
Speaker
And I watched every every single game. And, yeah, yeah, it was, ah i you know, I couldn't ask for anything more. We had a little bit of drama.
00:03:45
Speaker
Sure. You know, it was good. Yeah, spice things up a little bit. Absolutely. And, yeah, there was points of the season, Alex, where, Really, this was before the trade happened and and things started clicking a a little bit better ah towards the end of the season.
00:04:02
Speaker
i didn't know if they were going to make it to 50 wins, the the way they were playing and just all the injuries and different lineups and all the issues this team had. So definitely a lot different than last year.
00:04:14
Speaker
Last year, they were what the Detroit Pistons are this year. Just winning games, 60-something wins, and it didn't matter last year at the end of the day. right The Cavs get eliminated, second round, Pacers, they're they're they're done.
00:04:29
Speaker
So they they had some... I guess we'll call it adversity in the regular season. It wasn't a cakewalk like last year because of everything we mentioned, players coming in, players going out, injuries, different starting lineups. i don't remember what that final number was. They had to be 30s or even low 40s as far as the amount of different starting lineups.
00:04:50
Speaker
And yet they got they they got to 50-something wins and and secured home court, at least in the first round of of the and NBA playoffs. So I still will deem the regular season as successful.
00:05:05
Speaker
Successful. Oh, yeah, yeah for sure. the the the other The other thing I would say is, granted, they had one of the easiest schedules in the and NBA, the second half of the season.
00:05:17
Speaker
So we'll keep that in mind. But I looked before we started recording, and their 20 games, 14-6. 14-6, okay? Yeah. fourteen and six fourteen in sixts okay definitely trending in the right direction.
00:05:30
Speaker
Right. And on top of it, they are, unless Jared Allen is still kind of, you know, i don't know, it was couple of weeks ago where he said he wasn't 100%. haven't really seen since then.
00:05:43
Speaker
But for the most part, the Cavs are are healthy. Jalen Tyson is back. Max Drews has been back for a couple weeks now. um Jared Allen's been playing.
00:05:54
Speaker
um yeah Sam Merrill's back. Dean Wade's back. like Everybody's back, right which which is great. So you're playing, I wouldn't say your best basketball this season, but you're playing very good basketball to close out the regular season.
00:06:09
Speaker
You are fully healthy, right? And you have a new dynamic weapon in James Harden on the offensive end. You have a defensive
Playoff Excitement and Team Strengths
00:06:20
Speaker
stopper in Keon Ellis.
00:06:22
Speaker
um And just, man, you look at this roster now, Alex. We got to talk about this. I don't know what that playoff rotation is going to be. But man, Kenny Atkinson has has a playing field here. like he did He could play with a lot of different lineups here.
00:06:38
Speaker
um which is not something that every NBA team has the luxury of being able to play so many different players that the Cavs can play. um And that's what I'm most excited about now is to see it all come together in meaningful basketball.
00:06:53
Speaker
And especially when some teams get a little bit more physical with you, try to get in your head. Will the Cavs elevate their play both physically and mentally? Because the last couple of years, that's been the bugaboo with them.
00:07:06
Speaker
And that's why their label has been soft, right? From a national and NBA standpoint. So I'm excited to see what's going to happen now.
00:07:16
Speaker
But if i recap the regular season, I would say, again, it was successful. And i hey, it gets to a point you were saying like the regular season is too long. it gets kind of not boring, but it's like the games don't matter. right that's the That's the benefit of of having a good basketball team.
00:07:35
Speaker
We have been fortunate for what this is year four now of a playoff appearances with, you know, ah a chance to to make some noise in it.
00:07:46
Speaker
Right. We're not we're not talking about what lottery pick are we going to get and are we going to get the right draft, you know, ping pong ball to go our way and stuff. So it's good, man. I'm excited. I'm really excited. You know, these last couple weeks watching the games, that's You know, that's always the weird thing about the and NBA as it gets down to the the end of the regular season, right? Like the last two weeks, you know, the teams that are at the bottom and have no chance at the playoffs, they're in full tank mode.
00:08:15
Speaker
And so they're they're tanking. The teams that are right above that are, you know, Just whatever, like maybe trying to get into the play in tournament to get into the playoffs. And then the teams right above that are the teams fighting, you know, in the play in the play in tournament. And maybe they have a young ah team or they're in some sort of rebuild And, you know, they're just trying to get their young guys some of some of that playoff experience. And then you got the next level of teams above that, which, you know, the Cavs are part of that. But they're they're the teams that are they were good all season. They they think they got a chance ah of winning it all. And they're they're it basically in win now mode. Right. so like.
00:09:00
Speaker
there's like different levels of of brackets of teams and where they fit strategy wise when they get to these last couple weeks of the season, either they're playing real hard and trying to win and maybe trying to figure out,
00:09:14
Speaker
you know what their seeding is going to be in the playoffs strategically, who do they want to play, who do they not want to play, where do they want to finish at. So there's just a lot of strategy of, okay, you know should we try to win this game? Should we try to should we try to lose this game?
00:09:30
Speaker
And in it's with just about every team in the NBA. So it it's it's so weird, right? it ah it is It is. It is nice to not be in that scenario, though, that we were a couple years back.
00:09:43
Speaker
With a young Darius Garland and and the younger version of some of those players that we had at that time where we were in a play in tournament and we lost. We lost both games. We lost both games. yeah So and you're kind of that in between team. You know, we didn't land a number one draft pick next year and and we got hit. We had to go home early.
00:10:03
Speaker
you know um and not be part of the playoff experience. so that's It's tough to be those middle-of-the-road teams. right and That's where I meet. like We've been fortunate the last three, four years now. We haven't been that right since Donovan has gotten here.
00:10:17
Speaker
um We've had disappointing playoff appearances, no doubt, but but we're getting to the playoffs. and Hopefully, this is another year where the Cavs can continue to to learn from past playoff appearances and and finally get over some humps here.
00:10:34
Speaker
um and A question I wanted to ask you, Alex, from the Cavaliers standpoint, you know kind of again, just trying to wrap up the whole regular season. if you had to look at it in a complete season perspective, is anybody who who would you say on the Cavs roster impressed you the most this year?
00:10:54
Speaker
impressed me the most yeah like like you're just like man if you had one if you had one guy that was just like man he really went above and beyond or or or exceeded my what my expectations were or just man yeah just he was he was a great fit or or just a great player for the team this year I think there's there's at least two, right? Like, I don't know if I can choose one. That's tough. For sure, two immediately come to mind, and that's Jalen Tyson and Sam Merrill. I think both of them really stepped up this season. Jalen Tyson, he he actually just kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, due to injuries and, in you know, so many different lineups and injuries.
00:11:36
Speaker
He started getting minutes and and he really took advantage of those minutes and he became a ah force to be reckoned with on both defense and offense. You know, somewhere midseason when his usage was really high, he was he got really good.
00:11:51
Speaker
And then after we made the trade and brought in Harden and Keon Ellis and. You know, his usage wasn't as high. He he kind of fell back down and disappeared again a little bit in the lineup.
00:12:04
Speaker
But for sure, Jalen Tyson's probably my number one. And then number two, like I said, Sam Merrill, like he really like he he actually brought the defense. He had defense to his game this season, and that helped him a lot. He was always that three point sharpshooter.
00:12:20
Speaker
But I mean, now it wouldn't surprise me at all if he's in the starting lineup. That's how good he is this season. Yeah, definitely. And with Merrill, the last game against the Wizards, the Cavs sat you know half the roster, Merrill included, and they they had the headset on a lot of different players and and you know the crew was asking them questions and stuff.
00:12:44
Speaker
And I think it was Brad Doherty who brought that up, like, your defensive tenacity and just effort just seemed through the roof this year. He's like, you know where did where did that come from? He's always been known as a shooter, but where where did you get that mindset or how did you get in that mindset?
00:12:59
Speaker
and It was interesting because he said he felt like he always had that going back to his college days, and he just knows that he has to work on you know just as hard on the defensive end as on the offensive end.
00:13:11
Speaker
you know, to basically get minutes in this league right now. I'll admit I didn't see that same effort last year or however many years we've had them. It definitely felt different this year. and maybe that maybe that new contract, maybe that extra confidence from the organization to give him those minutes, because if remember in the beginning of the season, he he was starting.
00:13:33
Speaker
he was on fire from three point. I mean we didn't have Max Strews, right? ty Tyson hadn't done what he'd done yet. So, so Merrill got a lot of early time in the season before he had some kind of, you know, injuries throughout the year.
00:13:45
Speaker
So yeah, i I like what Sam brought a lot this year. I think his effort is through the roof. i As much as I love Sam, i still don't want him guarding. yeah I still don't want him getting switched out on Jalen Brown. I don't want him getting switched out on Jason Tatum. Oh, you know, when and if we get to those guys. Nobody can guard those guys. Come on. You could pick anybody on our team and I wouldn't want him guarding those guys. I know, but you know, they're just going to shoot right over the top of him and he's not that good of a defender. I'd rather have Tyson getting in there talking a little bit of trash and kind of pushing them around a little bit, right?
00:14:18
Speaker
And then, yeah, I'd like the i'd like the call of Jalen Tyson as well. I am interested to see what happens with him and in the playoffs because you're right, once Harden came in everything kind of changed.
00:14:29
Speaker
Before that, due to the injuries and really nobody else stepping off offensively, for a little while, Tyson was like the number two offensive option. It was Donovan and it was it was him. Garland was hurt or either not performing.
00:14:43
Speaker
Mobley, same thing, either hurt or not performing, and nobody else was really doing anything. But this second half of the season, last 20, 20 games or so, Tyson's kind of disappeared a bit in the rotation.
00:14:55
Speaker
He also was, you know, he missed a couple games. i don't know how many games it was, but it was it was more than a couple. I mean, he missed probably almost 10 games due to whatever injury, nagging injury he had. So I'll be interested to see how he gets used.
00:15:10
Speaker
In the playoff rotation, especially with Struess coming back and looking pretty pretty solid overall, I think Struess has been been pretty good. There's just a lot of competition
Playoff Matchup: Cavs vs Raptors
00:15:20
Speaker
there. You have Merrill, you have Struess, you have Donovan, you have Harden, you have Schroeder, you have Ellis, you have Tyson.
00:15:29
Speaker
That's a lot of bodies competing for some minutes there. But I do hope that Atkinson finds a way to get Tyson some some playoff experience because he needs to feel that to continue to evolve his game, for sure.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah. I like that you brought up Struis because the game that I went to was Struis' first game back. Man. And nobody knew you know what number he was going to be wearing. We didn't know what to expect as far as performance, like how many minutes he was going to play. Was he...
00:15:59
Speaker
was his shot going to be on or not? You know, just like, you know, was he going to be kind of sluggish or was he going be out of shape from not playing all season? And he came out and he was on fire and he was just lighting it up and hitting threes left and right.
00:16:12
Speaker
And he was wearing a number two. yep And I happened to be wearing my Kyrie Irving number two Jersey at that game yeah to support him. So yeah, it was against the Mavericks by the way. I need some tape though, to put over the Irving and,
00:16:25
Speaker
and write Struis on it. yeah It could be my new Struis jersey. but There you go. Yeah, yeah i like the call out of Struis. He came right back onto the roster and he's been playing great and can't wait to see him in the playoffs.
00:16:39
Speaker
He's had a couple big games offensively.
00:16:43
Speaker
you know, he's not gonna do that every game, but man, you just, this team has so many weapons and Jalen had a great year as well. Shooting behind the three point line, right? at finish I feel like, I feel like I had kind of written Strues off though, just because yeah last season he was, he was so streaky.
00:17:01
Speaker
He was um in this season. He's been really, well, the few, few games we've seen him play and he's been really solid and really dialed in and,
00:17:11
Speaker
I guess I didn't really think that he would really be much of an impact even when he did come back because he wasn't with the team all season. It's like, okay, how's he going to fit? Is he going to still be inconsistent and streaky anyway? like But after seeing this small sample size, I feel like, okay, you know shoot, maybe he'll start. Yeah, there's definitely rotational minutes for him. and Yeah, i don't know if it'll be as a starter or not.
00:17:36
Speaker
I think another difference from from last year's team is um you know you you have James Harden here now as well. James Harden is, one, first and foremost, a scorer, and I would say he's a more prolific scorer than what Garland was.
00:17:54
Speaker
to where Struess maybe had to be a little bit higher in last year's roster as far as like what option he was offensively to where this year he he could be the fourth option out there, you know depending on who he's out there with potentially.
00:18:10
Speaker
And Harden's going to find him as well. If he's open or coming off ah a pick and roll or something like, you know, coming off a screen, Harden's going to find him and he's going to have, you know, lots of looks, lots of open looks as well. And same with Sam Merrill, same with other guys as well. So it'll be interesting to see how Strews gets used, but i definitely expect him to be part of of the rotation to where Tyson is a little bit more of a question mark still.
00:18:39
Speaker
So with that being said, that's the regular season, twenty twenty five twenty twenty six in the books. The Cavs now move on to the first round playoffs. They will have a home court advantage, which is great.
00:18:55
Speaker
They are playing against the Toronto Raptors. This will be the fourth time that the Cavs will be matched up against the Toronto Raptors. And guess what, Alex? The Raptors have never beaten the Cavs in a playoff series.
00:19:08
Speaker
That's why I don't get why you're calling them the Toronto Raptors. They're clearly still the LeBron-to-Raptors. We need a new nickname, though, for our current. We do yeah need a new nickname. But the Cavs got to prove it first. they gotta Yeah, we got to sweep them.
00:19:20
Speaker
We got to sweep them, right? um But in the series that we played so far, that the Raptors have only have only beaten i've only won two games out of the 12 that we've won. So hopefully the Cavs can continue that that good fortune. I mean, they should be ah heavily favorited in this series.
00:19:37
Speaker
um The Raptors did beat the Cavs. all three times during the regular season. we were talking about that a little bit at work. Yeah. um But that was before the trades.
00:19:48
Speaker
That was before Harden was here. It was back in October, November. It was like within the first 20 games of the season. Exactly. Lonzo Ball started two of those games for us. You know, if we got Lonzo Ball in the starting lineup, then we probably ain't winning that game. Actually, you know what? I'd like to see the stats of how many games did we win when we had Lonzo Ball in the starting lineup?
00:20:10
Speaker
Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I bet he didn't think he was going to catch any smoke in this Cavs episode, but he totally is. Right, right. For sure. For sure. Yeah. So, I mean, it's a much different Cavaliers team.
00:20:25
Speaker
We're healthy. At the same time, I mean, I want the Cavs to take every opponent seriously. They need to be dialed in. They need be laser focused. Yeah. no No messing around, but the Cavs really should be able to take care of this series and in five games or less, I would think.
00:20:43
Speaker
That would be my prediction, Alex. Yeah, I think Cavs in five. Yeah, i'll get I'll give the Raptors one game, you know. when we're on the road, at you know, maybe.
00:20:54
Speaker
But I would love to see the Cavs sweep them, send a message, and and get ready for the next round. um If we look at the Toronto Raptors roster, Alex, there's not a ton of household names here.
00:21:08
Speaker
You have Scotty Barnes, Brandon Ingram, probably the two best well-known players yeah on the Raptors. You have R.J. Barrett, Emmanuel Quickly. Who's hurt.
00:21:21
Speaker
Is he hurt? Okay. he Well, I saw he was going for an MRI the other day. i Interesting. I hadn't heard anything about What the results of that were or if he planned to return right away. But he does have a reek a week to rest.
00:21:39
Speaker
Okay. Okay. And then, yeah, it kind of drops off from there. You have Markel Foltz, you have Garrett Temple, and a couple other guys
The Importance of Aggression in Playoffs
00:21:48
Speaker
here. So just looking at depth alone. Pirtle's a pretty good center.
00:21:53
Speaker
Yeah, he's all right. I mean, i i don't think this team, like I was gonna talk about that, both Evan Mobley and Jared Allen should should eat pretty well in this series.
00:22:03
Speaker
I totally expect Harden to just force feed the ball down to either one of them, whoever whoever's in the game, because i don't think the Toronto Raptors have anybody that can really stop them. I mean, Scotty Barnes will will match up with Mobley probably, and we'll see if Mobley, you know,
00:22:21
Speaker
decides that scotty barnes can become a brick wall and can't get past him but he should be able to with his quickness or or that's where he can use his shooting ability and and same with jared allen jared allen should be able to fly around out there catch alley-oops and and just cause havoc out there right and if that happens then everything becomes so much easier because then the three ball opens up for harden mitchell merrill streus tyson el mean Thomas Bryan even should be out there, you know, knocking down three. Like everything just falls in line if the bigs can get going early in this series for the Cavs, I feel like.
00:22:56
Speaker
I feel like that's the key to this one. You know what, Corey, I just don't like that team. I don't like that team at all. I still see Kyle Lowry's face. Yeah, Kyle Lowry. I still see his face every time I see him. I don't know if I could watch him. like That's how much I don't like this ross this team. like scotty bar Scotty Barnes can't stand him. Never liked him.
00:23:17
Speaker
Hey, at the same time, man, they they they climbed up to the five seed. Brandon Ingram just makes me think Lakers. RJ Barrett makes me think New York Knicks. like Yes, yes.
00:23:27
Speaker
Garrett Temple makes me think, how are you still in the league? mc around forever um Yeah, it's it's it's one of those things where, again, this should be a pretty lopsided um series, but you never know. And that's where the Cavs have to approach this you know with with ah an intention of
00:23:51
Speaker
Leading, leading. be Be the aggressive one for once. Be the one to to to come out first, swing in. Don't wait for them to swing at you first and then try to figure out how to react. And really, i want the Cavs to have that mentality this entire playoff run. i think they've been, we've we've been fooled the last couple of years.
00:24:12
Speaker
So I could understand the fans, especially the bandwagon fans that are like, well, the Cavs aren't going to win a championship. What's the point? Or last couple years, they they they they can't even make it past the second round. Donovan Mitchell's never made a past the second round in his career, blah, blah, blah.
00:24:29
Speaker
I think if you look at things and if you understand what's going on with both the team The path that the Cavs have this year in the playoffs with with Toronto and then most likely Detroit in the second round, the Cavs have a very good shot to make it past the second round into the Eastern Conference Finals this year. You just can't mess around. They just got to freaking just be the dog in every series and just take care of business and just and just make it happen.
00:24:55
Speaker
Celtics are the Celtics. We'll deal with that when and if we get there, right? Yeah. um But man, it starts with it starts this Saturday, 1 o'clock against the Toronto Raptors, and I'm i'm freaking pumped.
00:25:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be great. I can't wait.
Broadcast Challenges for Playoff Games
00:25:11
Speaker
Postseason is so exciting. It is. It is. And um ah i last year I got real big into the playoffs and just like watching other teams and stuff like that.
00:25:21
Speaker
um I don't always do that every year. and I'm just excited for playoff basketball just to be on like every night of the week here for the next couple of weeks, all the first rounds going on. It'll be fun to check out some of their series and and just see how some teams look. Yeah.
00:25:37
Speaker
um One thing, Alex, on this game on Saturday, it's actually the first game in in the entire playoff slate, 1 o'clock on Saturday. It's on Amazon Prime.
00:25:49
Speaker
It's not going to be on FanDuel. FanDuel isn't carrying the first round of the playoffs this year, and I also heard... that the game will not be on cable television anywhere either for the folks that just have cable.
00:26:03
Speaker
So I don't know, Alex, we were talking about this before we started recording. We both have prime. So we're covered for this first game. Don't know where game two is going to be. Game three. Don't know where the next series is going to be. They haven't released all that information yet.
00:26:16
Speaker
um But what's your thoughts on that? Do you, you kind of like, Oh, that sucks that it's only on prime and it's not on anything else local or what's your, what's your thoughts there? Yeah, I mean, i i think it I think it does suck. i think I think the whole broadcast rights for professional sports teams in general really sucks. Like, yeah you know, we live in the in the Cleveland area. We should be able to watch our team easily. Like it shouldn't be a challenge. We shouldn't have to subscribe to all these different things just to be able to watch our local team.
00:26:53
Speaker
So, i mean, yeah, the whole thing, the whole situation is horrible. Garbage dumpster fire. The other thing that's kind of crazy is... You can subscribe to a subscription service like Prime.
00:27:07
Speaker
A peacock was carrying games during the regular season, right? Yeah. And you could watch your local team, but you can't subscribe to NBA TV and watch your local team because they're blacked out.
00:27:19
Speaker
Blackout rules, yeah. Explain that logic to me, right? I have no idea. Yeah, I don't understand why we we're trying to minimize the different ways that you can watch games But that's the deal that was made. That's the deal that Adam Silver made with these networks, these streaming services. And I don't know. I don't know. It's going to be not going to be happy, Alex, if we fall into a scenario where we no longer have a way to watch one of these games legally because I don't have the streaming service. You don't have the streaming service. Like, man, these are not games you want to watch on some crappy you know streaming site.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah. You know, so. We'll see what happens, but I did want to call that out for folks that maybe weren't aware that it will only be on Prime at least this Saturday. We'll see what the rest of the schedule looks like.
00:28:08
Speaker
So, Alex, anything else on the Cavs Raptors series from your perspective? um No, I'm pretty confident that the Cavs will take this series. I don't know how many.
00:28:20
Speaker
I think it'll probably be in five. You know, we'll see. you just hope that they don't overlook them like you said. Right. Are you... Man, play play play playoff rotation.
00:28:34
Speaker
um i have no idea. no No idea. what kenny Kenny could roll out so many different lineups. I feel like I've said this the last couple years, and it feels like every and NBA team does the same thing, where they trim it down to to nine guys, right?
00:28:52
Speaker
Man, Kenny kenny has 12 guys that could play easily, right? And you're at an advantage, in my opinion, if you have that many fresh bodies that you can just keep throwing, right?
00:29:08
Speaker
at the other team, especially their best player. While Brandon Ingram is playing 30 plus minutes, throw different throw three different defenders at him. Yeah. You know? Put Jalen Tyson on him. Put Naquan Tomlin on him. let yeah Let these guys beat him up for 30 minutes. But Thomas Bryant, push him around out there. Yeah. Ingram's big. like You know what I mean like Use your bodies.
00:29:28
Speaker
Do not shrink down to to nine guys and have someone like a Jalen Tyson not not playing at all in a series. for you know Or a Max Drews. There's so many good players that could potentially not play at all, right?
00:29:43
Speaker
And and it's also it also you know helps your guys have keep fresh legs. Exactly. And hopefully prevent injury throughout these series. Once you start shrinking the roster like that, rotation and upping players' usage, you know that's when you start... Running into, you know, guys getting tired. They need IVs, ah you know, after games. and yeah Yeah. Back to those days. Deli.
00:30:10
Speaker
Deli slamming a ah mug of coffee before the games. Right. In an IV bag just to play. Yeah. So we'll be paying attention to that. We'll see what the the rotation looks like, right? And it's a little bit of a chess match, right?
00:30:23
Speaker
You don't want to show your first card in that first game. I mean, he he could do different things each game by by by all means, but I just hope that he doesn't resort to the the standard of of shrinking that roster down and just living and dying on that hill and then deciding to make a change when the series is tied up 2-2.
00:30:42
Speaker
Not Toronto, just any playoff series, right? Again, you you have one of the deepest teams, especially now that you're healthy in the NBA. Use that to your advantage. Let Timeland run around out there for seven minutes in a game and just cause havoc. What's that going to hurt while you give you know one of your actual rotational players a few more extra minutes to to rest, right? um So it'll be interesting. It'll be interesting to see for sure.
00:31:08
Speaker
Yeah. So Alex, you... um
00:31:12
Speaker
I mentioned you went to a game a little while back. ah We're not really going to get into that. The Cavs got slaughtered by the Mavericks. You wore your Kyrie Irving jersey, yeah all that all that stuff.
00:31:25
Speaker
it was It was actually a close game up until the end. It it it it was. it was a good game. um Better than my style against the Celtics. Celtics slaughtered us. yeah um And, you know, you... um But why don't you talk about this? Because you got some some of the contest. Yeah, you got you got some Cavs gear from some of the contests that the Cavs run. And yeah I wanted to ask you real quick just to kick it off.
00:31:51
Speaker
So we both went to a game and one of the contests that they do is the half court shot. for $10,000. You have to sign up for that. It's free to sign up and it's just a random drawing and you get picked to shoot a half court shot at halftime in front of 20,000 people.
00:32:10
Speaker
right um The game that I went to, not a single person hit the hoop, the net, the rim, the backboard, et cetera. Was it the same for you?
00:32:23
Speaker
Uh, we had one person that hit, I don't know if they hit the rim. They for sure hit the backboard. It was actually somewhat close. But yeah, the two others like didn't even get it even close to the hoop. They were close. Yeah. i know I know this isn't the contest that Alex, um I don't know if I want to say won, but got to be a part of.
00:32:45
Speaker
But I know you signed up for it. I did sign up for it. If you would have got chosen for the half court shot at some point, man, how do you think you would have done it? would for sure practice. Yeah.
00:32:59
Speaker
Where you going to to practice? Where are you going to to hoop in my in my front in my driveway? going to measure out. Are going to measure out? You can go stand in the neighbor's driveway and shoot from there. But like I would definitely like make sure that I would least get the distance like, you know, I would I would hit the backboard.
00:33:15
Speaker
But in the heat of the moment with all those people watching and the lights are kind of dim. I think you think you'd be sweating bullets. and Oh, man. Drenched in sweat. Hands are probably so slick. Yeah. Shaking, you know, shaking uncontrollably with the ball.
00:33:30
Speaker
Oh, my God. Maybe I would come up short. I don't know. It's too bad that's not the contest you get to talk about today. Here's hoping that in the future someday, Alex, you get to do that.
Fan Contests and Experiences
00:33:39
Speaker
so You know, when i when I first got the email, I thought it was that contest. And I was like, oh, no, why did I sign up for this? Right. Because it was called, it was the contest that I actually got into was the Sherwin-Williams SureShot contest, which...
00:33:57
Speaker
I wish I had pulled up the rules in front of me, but I can I could spit some some rules real quick. it's It's basically um the Cavs have to make a shot, the last shot before a halftime for you to win.
00:34:13
Speaker
If they make a two pointer, then you get two tickets to an upcoming Cavs game. If they make a three pointer, you get a thousand dollars. That's it. And if if they don't make a basket at all, you get some some gear, shirt, hat, whatever.
00:34:30
Speaker
And and then, Alex, I'll kick it back to you. Yeah. Yeah. So I can't remember which game it was, but the Cavs like, you know, I'm trying to find I wasn't home, so I couldn't even watch the game. But I was like, kept checking my phone and looking at like, OK, what was the last play before halftime? And I saw like the Cavs had the ball. They're getting down court.
00:34:50
Speaker
Cavs turn it over. And I'm like, well, what the hell is that? You know, that sucks. Like they're not even going to take a shot before halftime. And i don't know. I was like, I don't know what you get for a turnover. I probably got nothing. And then like a week goes, but a week goes by and I figured, oh, I probably got nothing. And then I get an email saying, you know, thanks for playing the Sherwin-Williams Sure Shot contest. We're going to send you a box of merchandise, right?
00:35:18
Speaker
um So I got that box here with me. I have not opened it yet. Unboxing time. I did cut him I am going to do an unboxing from the Sherwin-Williams Shure Shot Contest. It's a good-sized box there. That's definitely just more than like a shirt. It's a solid-sized box. I'm curious to see what else is thrown in there. All right, take a look. I'm expecting like some stuff with Sherwin-Williams printed all over it.
00:35:43
Speaker
Yeah. ah So I got hat. that yellow or orange? it's the It's the orange. It's that tangerine that are the city edition jerseys.
00:35:55
Speaker
Okay. What does it say? It's just got a big Cav C on it. Oh, it's got a Sherwin-Williams logo. There's the Sherwin-Williams logo. Yeah. Okay. Okay. right. What else we Off to a good start, though. Got a hat.
00:36:07
Speaker
And a shirt. So we got a hat and a shirt here. It's a big box for just those two. Dang. Let's see.
00:36:16
Speaker
Big C, big Cav C, and a Sherman Williams logo on the sleeve. What? so it's so so it' So for those listening, it's a white tee with just the Cavs logo on it, Sherman Williams on the sleeve. What size did they send you? That's always interesting. It's an XL.
00:36:33
Speaker
Can you rock that or is it too big? um Maybe around the house? Probably not out. Yeah, it does seem a little big. Yeah. Maybe it'll shrink when you wash it. Yeah.
00:36:44
Speaker
You know, it'll work as a, like an undershirt or something too, since it's white. Yeah. I could probably wear it like, I don't know, maybe I could wear it under a Jersey or under a polo to work or something. Who knows? Right. Right. Yeah.
00:36:57
Speaker
I got this tangerine pat and a and Like a big Cavs C shirt. that That tangerine hat will be good to do yard work in, Alex. I'm sure you'll get some looks as you're blinding your neighbors with your hat.
00:37:11
Speaker
They'll be like, why is your Cavs jersey tangerine? I'll be like, didn't you see the City Edition jerseys this year? Exactly. Exactly.
00:37:22
Speaker
But pretty cool that that, Alex, you signed up for that and got chosen for that. And the Cavs do that all through the regular season, right?
00:37:33
Speaker
But you said before recording, you noticed that they now have a different set of contests. Yeah. So if you go to NBA.com backslash Cavaliers backslash...
00:37:44
Speaker
contests you can see all the contests the calves are running throughout the season there's a dozen uh right now it looks like i i just saw three or four but you could win playoff tickets uh what else is there half court shot the nba finals defend the land sweeps for a chance to win two tickets to the next home playoff game ah chance to win two playoff tickets to round one game two um free Cavs rewards, blah, blah, blah. Win a trip for two an away playoffs game.
00:38:21
Speaker
And yeah, the 10,000 half court contest. Oh, so they're still doing that. All right. And a key bank calves, pick them thousand dollars in cash.
00:38:32
Speaker
I've seen that done. I've seen that during there in halftime shows. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So Alex, we got it. We got to get you on there, man. We got to sign you up. um Start making fake email accounts.
00:38:45
Speaker
I want a hundred, hundred signups for the, for the half court shot. Yeah. We're going to it happen. I'll have to sign up for these, ah come back to this page and sign up for these contests. You know, I never really did it before. Like, yeah I always see it advertised, like, during the games, they'll say, you know, yeah scan this QR code and enter this contest, but I never really pay much attention to it. But yeah, I'm glad I do this one.
00:39:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's really cool. You got me to sign up for them after you told me about it. even Even free gear, even if it's got some logo, some company logo on it's pretty cool to get, so... Yeah, definitely. Thank you, Sherman Williams. Thank you, Kev's.
00:39:21
Speaker
There you go. All right. Well, Alex, anything else before we wrap up? I did think one more thing to bring up. What you got?
Donovan Mitchell's Undercover Appearance
00:39:31
Speaker
Is it Netflix?
00:39:32
Speaker
Is it Hulu? once Some streaming service, they do the undercover. The undercover, you know what i'm talking about? Where they had... They just had a a previous episode with Baker Mayfield where he goes undercover as like an old guy. And they did like a tour through like the Brown Stadium. And Johnny Manziel would have been a better pick. It would have been more natural if it was Johnny Manziel going undercover. But with Johnny Money Manziel. Go on. Yeah. But anyway, they just did an episode with Donovan Mitchell.
00:40:00
Speaker
Oh. And it was where he, you know, they put him in like a fat suit and made him look old and gave him a gray beard. Mm-hmm. he He basically acted like he was some old inner city coach that was going to this coaching workshop in Lakewood.
00:40:19
Speaker
And so he sat through like all this, like learn how to coach youth, youth athletic athletes. basketball teams and it it was really good it was funny like he was being such a ah like crazy character and he chose the name uh peanut waterloo coach coach waterloo it was it was this it was hilarious it was really entertaining episode so look up undercover Yeah, I can see Donovan pulling that off. He's just got such charisma. and Yeah, he really does. It was really funny. He was being real, like, kind of boisterous and and getting comments. He worked out this whole backstory about how he was ah a basketball player when he was a little kid and he had a coach that really, he really hated that coach and it made him not want to play basketball anymore. So he became a boxer. And, you know, this whole backstory is like telling these people.
00:41:11
Speaker
Everybody's buying it. It was so funny. That's awesome. And then at the end, you know, they're doing drills and they're watching kids like shoot baskets and they started doing a coaches verse, ah you know, youth youth players and the kids are shooting the threes and then the coaches are shooting the threes and I think the kids are winning.
00:41:29
Speaker
And then Donovan Mitchell goes out there and just starts nailing threes. He's doing like crossover step back jacking threes and everybody's like watching like what the hell is this peanut old peanut Waterloo doing? Yeah. That's hilarious. Yeah, it was so funny.
00:41:46
Speaker
Yeah, you got to look it up. Undercover? I think it's called Undercover. All right. I bet you if you if you Google Undercover Donovan Mitchell. maybe yeah Maybe I should Google it before, you know, before we tell everybody the wrong thing here. Right.
00:41:59
Speaker
Donovan Mitchell. Under. Hopefully my typing doesn't come through the audio real loud. Donovan. Yeah, it's it's hosted by Eli Manning. It's called The Undercovers.
00:42:11
Speaker
It looks like it's on Amazon Prime. Back to Prime again. All right. There you go. Well. During halftime on Saturday, you can check out Donovan Mitchell as a as an undercover fan coach. Peanut Waterloo. Peanut Waterloo. That's a great name. that's a great name That's awesome. that's That's all I got. that's That's a great way to end the episode. So let's let's go ahead and wrap it up. Thank you, Cass fans, as always, for tuning in and listening.
00:42:39
Speaker
And Alex, let them know they can follow us and connect with us. Follow us on X at Cavs Pick and Roll. Shoot us an email, CavsPickAndRoll at gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr. Watch this episode on YouTube to see my unboxing.
00:42:55
Speaker
And that is All right, Cavs fans, there it is. and let's go, Cavs. Peace out, Cavs fans.