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Episode 85: Cavs and The 14th Pick
13 Plays3 years ago
Alex and Corey talk about the Cavs landing the 14th pick in the draft, Corey's initial thoughts on who they could take, and the history of the Cavs drafting 14th. We also talk about Evan Mobley's selection to the NBA All-Rookie First Team!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' Background
00:00:16
Speaker
Hey Cavs fans, welcome to the Cavs Pick and Roll Podcast. I'm Alex, and I'm here with Corey. How's it going, Corey? It is going good, Alex. I am excited to talk some Cavs basketball as always, but I wanted to check with you first. It's been roughly, I don't know, maybe close to two weeks since our last episode, and you are kind of on a
00:00:40
Speaker
a hockey and NHL playoff kick as you got to witness a playoff game in person. I wanted to follow up on that. Are you still in that NHL kick? I think you even went as far as ordering like a game off eBay. You still understand about that?
NHL Playoff Interests and Gaming Nostalgia
00:00:55
Speaker
Oh, man. Well, so the Leafs got eliminated
00:01:01
Speaker
in a game seven. The penguins got eliminated in a game seven, and now I feel like I have nobody to root for, so I haven't been watching as much. I still occasionally turn it on. I've been watching the Calgary versus the Oilers a little bit. They're playing tonight, actually, I think game two. Yeah, but yeah, I did order NHL 22, so I could play a little bit.
00:01:30
Speaker
That's funny. And that's impressive that you even know that those teams have been eliminated and you've committed some money out of your wallet to get a game. That's good though, man. There's nothing wrong with that. There's no Cavs basketball, so things are a little bit slow right now. I've been playing some more video games lately. I was playing a bunch of 2K16 lately just because I wanted to go back and replay with that amazing Cavs team during the championship year.
00:01:56
Speaker
Um, went up against the warriors and man, such a loaded team, such a great team to play with, but it was also fun. Of course, playing with like Kyrie Lebron and Kevin Love and like Schumpert and J.R. Smith, but big Moz, Mozgoth. Oh yeah. And I had fun. I had fun using him down low, just dunking on people, alley-oops, him grabbing rebounds, blocking people.
00:02:18
Speaker
Mo Williams coming in off the bench, flashing threes. Yeah, I just, I just been having fun, just playing some old 2K games with some old Cavs teams. Got to keep busy, Alex, right? I wonder what his overall is in that game. Ah, you know what? I'll have to go back and I'll have to look. I'll bet you it's at least in the high seventies, like 78, 79. I mean, it might even be a solid year. He was pretty decent when we had him.
00:02:43
Speaker
Oh yeah, yeah, no, definitely. He ate the Warriors up the first playoff series against them because, you know, they didn't have any size. So he did pretty good for the Cavs and benefited from, you know, defenses carrying about three or four other players on the team. Just Mosgoff would just run the lane and go for an alley-oop and there'd be nobody there to stop them. So it's been fun. It's been fun playing small 2K. So.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, I miss Mozzie now that you bring him up. He went to another team and then he kind of fell off a cliff, it seemed like. I don't remember where he went. Did he go to New York or something like that? But yeah, it felt like his NBA career ended after the Cavs. He wasn't in the league. I don't think too much longer. And now I'm going to have to look that up after we're done. Not going to go to bed until I know.
Cavs' Draft Strategy and Potential Picks
00:03:37
Speaker
So the draft lottery happened, Alex, and happened a little bit ago, about a week or so ago now. And the Cavs, you know, not too surprising. The lottery gods didn't bless us this time, Alex. They did not. Cavs will be drafting 14th. Yeah, we still got a decent pick. 14th is still pretty good. Lots of great players have gone number 14.
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah. Oh yeah. Even past 14. So there's that potential there. And I've been, we've said this year over year, neither one of us are huge college basketball fans or follow it too closely, but I've been trying to make an effort.
00:04:17
Speaker
more lately here kind of since the lottery draft happened to read up on players and watch some film and try to figure out who'd be some nice pieces and potential players that would be there hopefully around that time. And Alex, I wanted to give you my picks, my picks for the cast. Oh, all right. So there's two of them right now that I like. This can change, of course, but
00:04:46
Speaker
One thing that's hard about the draft is, or with those teams at, is you want to take best player available and not necessarily position.
00:05:01
Speaker
because we have pretty good players at almost every position now it feels like. Like, yeah, you can upgrade, you know, your small forward and there's other things you want to upgrade. But at the end of the day, the Cavs are at a place now where it's take best player available. I'm out of the position and kind of figure it out later. So with that being said, one of the first players that I've been watching a lot more and like, and it feels like the Cavs seem to like them as well is Dyson Daniels.
00:05:31
Speaker
Alex sees a taller guard, would bring some size to the back court. He's 6'6", so he would tower over Garland or Sexton. Kid from Australia.
00:05:43
Speaker
He plays very smooth. I don't know if you watch any clips on him, Alex, yet. He's not quick or flashy, like a garland. He's not going to do all sorts of crazy handles or anything like that, but he plays very even-keeled, very smooth. He's got some size so he can get to the rim. He can back down defenders. He also can play some defense, can make the right passes, and just feels like he could potentially be a good fit. We obviously need a backup guard to garland.
00:06:13
Speaker
Um, of course I still want to see somebody like a Rubio or another veteran in there as well, but it feels like he could be a nice piece that can come in and, uh, you know, be part of, be part, be added to the core that we already have. All right. All right. Yeah. I don't know too much about Dyson Daniels. Uh, I was looking a little bit, um, I see he played for the G league. He played for the ignite.
00:06:39
Speaker
But I don't see anything about Stancer, how well he played.
00:06:44
Speaker
I saw, I saw some stats. He, you know, nothing, nothing crazy impressive. Um, you know, he's going 14, that number one overall. Right. But I think his, his numbers were like 11 and a half points. He had more rebounds than assists. I remember that. I think he had like, like close to six rebounds per game. And I want to say four and a half or five assists per game. So, um, you know, uh,
00:07:10
Speaker
Nothing too spectacular, but I don't think any stat line at that pick range is gonna be 2010 and 10 or something like that. And it's more about the potential for development, the fit with the team, and can it be a good piece? And I can see him potentially being a good piece and him falling into a scenario where it could be him and Sexton out there at the same time.
00:07:35
Speaker
him and Garland out there at the same time, potentially in the back court. And really it's because he's a little bit bigger of a guard plays a lot differently than Garland or Sexton does. And if, you know, for those listening, if you go watch any of his tape or if you've already watched him, you'll, you'll probably agree with that. He doesn't, you know, he doesn't play the way that our guards play. So he can bring a different element. And he also has, you know, some defense with him as well, which the team can always use.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, a tall, thin guard like that makes me think Sean Livingston a little bit.
00:08:06
Speaker
Yeah, a little bit of Sean Livingston. I grew up with Penny Hardaway being one of my favorite players growing up as a kid. I don't see Penny in him, but I see the bigger guards like that, and they're just able to do different things. He's not going to do what Garland can do, but again, he could do different things that this team doesn't currently have in that guard backcourt right now.
00:08:32
Speaker
And you think he'll slip down to 14? I don't know. When I look at his name, it kind of seems like he's trending a bit. I kind of wonder how high he'll go. His stock is starting to go up and I've seen some mock drafts having them go like in that 10-11 range.
00:08:48
Speaker
It feels like the Knicks potentially could be a landing spot. The Knicks are always looking for a new guard. Temple Walker didn't work out. They're going to try to steal Sexton away this summer. But for some insurance, they could definitely take Daniels if he's available there, which he should be for their pick.
00:09:07
Speaker
We'll see, we'll see. The second guy that I've been looking at, and I've seen a lot of chatter, you know, locally about him too, because he is a local kid. Grew up an Akron, played for Ohio State, and that's Malachi Branham. The thing about Malachi is that he kind of also, the problem with him is he does fit a little bit into the mold of the type of player that we have today, kind of a scoring guard,
00:09:35
Speaker
which that's what Sexton is, that's what Lavert is, right? But he's pretty athletic and gets to the rim pretty easily. Feels like he can shoot the ball a little bit, has a little bit of a mid-range game and just feels like a very nice guard that can develop nicely in this league. I do feel like Daniels though, that his stock is probably a little bit higher. I'd be surprised if he fell to 14.
00:10:04
Speaker
But if either one of those guys are there, I'd be ecstatic if the cows were able to grab either one of them.
00:10:12
Speaker
I don't know if you know anything about him or not, but again, local kid and played for Ohio State. So it'd kind of be cool to have a local guy drafted as well. He went to St. Vincent St. Mary as well, if I'm not mistaken. Oh boy. Oh yeah, there we go. There's that before. So both these guys are big guards. I mean, how do you think that would fit with the camps in our current roster structure?
00:10:38
Speaker
Well, it'd be interesting. I think, you know, you're kind of top heavy at the guard position right now. And I've said this before, and I'll say it again. I don't think everybody that's here today will be here a year from now. I still just have this weird feeling about Sexton.
00:10:56
Speaker
that yeah, he's gonna come back, but if they draft one of these guards, they can bring Sexton back, get his trade value up, and then ship him off somewhere to fill a gap somewhere else that they feel. Maybe they bring in another veteran piece, a sub-star type player where Sexton's part of the deal or something like that. And bringing in a Daniels or a Branham kind of fills the gap, the void of making a move like that.
00:11:25
Speaker
Now, if they don't do that and they keep all those guys, well, then they gotta figure out how all those guys are gonna play and get minutes. The good thing is that you don't need whoever you're drafting at that spot to play 20 plus minutes a game, right? So, it might be a little bit more difficult for that player to make
00:11:46
Speaker
as big as impacts as our rookies have the last several years, Garland, Sexton, Mobley, Akuro, because those guys were all basically asked to play starter minutes from the get-go to where I feel like it's going to be a little bit different for whoever they bring in. It's definitely going to be somebody coming off the bench and it's not going to be in the same type of role as our lottery picks have been for the last several years, which makes sense though.
Cavs' Draft History and Trivia
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm hoping we see a leap from Akuro this year.
00:12:14
Speaker
I really do too. We were kind of hoping for it last year, to be honest with you. And year three feels like the year that it needs to happen. And if it doesn't, then it feels like it's the year that the Cavs needed to figure something out. Akuro definitely deserves to be around. Like I like Akuro a lot. He'd be great off the bench as a backup to somebody else if they can somehow upgrade, right? But if Akuro, they got to get a little more out of him this year and a little more consistently.
00:12:44
Speaker
And if they can't, then it's going to be time to start looking for an upgrade. And that's where a Sexton comes in. You could probably get a pretty decent return for Sexton from a team that's looking to unload some players that might be able to help out the Cavs. So we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. Yeah. I mean, I don't expect him to come out and be a prolific scorer all of a sudden. But if he's going to be that defensive,
00:13:11
Speaker
stopper of the other team's superstar, then he needs to be that and he needs to do it. He needs to be ruthless about it and make a name for himself for it. So that's kind of what I expect.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah, totally. And, you know, it's the off season right now. So I'm sure he's working on things, you know, probably working on a shot and getting stronger in the weight room and things like that. And he's just, you know, he's going to continue to grow. He's going to continue to get better. The question will just be, you know, can he get to that kind of double digit scoring? You know, he doesn't need to be crazy. 10, 12 points a game and locking down the other, you know, the other team's best player.
00:13:56
Speaker
That'd be perfect. And that's exactly what we need him to be in that type of role for the team. And I think a lot of Cavs fans would be satisfied with that if he could get to that point. He's definitely shown sparks, Alex. Yeah, he is. He just needs to find his niche and to become prolific at it.
00:14:13
Speaker
Yes, exactly. So that's kind of the two players that I like. I always tend to gravitate to the guards. There's other names out there and who knows who the Cavs are high on. And every day you can read a different mock draft or whatever.
00:14:33
Speaker
So there'll be a lot of different names floated around but you know, I wasn't really too excited when the season ended and like just blah, but now I'm starting to get a little bit excited because we're as we're getting closer to the NBA playoffs getting to the finals and eventually that getting wrapped up.
00:14:50
Speaker
What that means from a Cavs fan standpoint is we can start to get to the off-season transaction mode. Who are they going to draft? Who's the young piece that they're going to bring in? The potential, are they going to trade that? Who are they going to sign? Are they going to bring back Sexton? Is Rubio coming back? Are they going to make some other signing or trade that's going to help this team? They just bring some excitement when you can get to that point and start to see your team in the news more than just a mock draft.
00:15:20
Speaker
Yeah. That changes daily where somebody is just spinning a wheel because they have to write daily articles. So here's a bit of trivia for you. The Cavs have never in the history of the franchise drafted number 14 before. That is interesting. So this is history we're making here drafted number 14. Yeah, don't blow it Mr. 14.
00:15:49
Speaker
Didn't you say you found a pretty interesting Reddit article though? Yeah, yeah. So there's a, somebody made a post on Reddit and it's titled, The History of Cleveland Cavalier's 14th Overall Picks. And it starts out,
00:16:04
Speaker
There is none. I love that title. I love that title. They said there is none because there hasn't been any, but they got you in with the title. In five decades of drafting, the Cavs have somehow never drafted in the 14th slot in the first draft.
00:16:20
Speaker
So if the cams don't trade up or trade down, this will be the first for the franchise. And then they have three categories here, the good, the sad, and what might have been. And they picked a few players that fit underneath each category that drafted in that, not at 14, but in that 11th through about 18th range. And there's some interesting ones here. So under the- Hit me up with some names. This is gonna be fun.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah, so under the good, they have Mike Mitchell picked 15th in 1978. I was going to say, that's old school right there. Yeah, that is old school. He played six and a half years in the NBA and helped the team win two division titles with the Spurs, unfortunately. And then John Bagley picked 12th in 1982.
00:17:16
Speaker
Does that name ring any bells for you? Oh, yeah, totally. I still have some. I remember getting his cards and not the most well-known name, but he was kind of there right before things started to change for the Cavs.
00:17:34
Speaker
a couple years later that's when you know they they added all their you know Mark Price and Brad Doherty's and I think he was there for for the very beginning of that yeah it says he uh he uh spent 11 seasons in the NBA in his first five with the Cavs right and then uh solid he was solid
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's funny you say that because one of the sentences in here is most fans would probably attach the adjective serviceable to his bio. Yep, totally. All right, next up we have Trell Brandon. Pick 11. 1991.
00:18:12
Speaker
Great pick, great pick. And what was interesting about that, I've said this before, Terrell Brandon, one of my favorite Cavs players growing up, still have my jersey, Terrell hanging in the closet. The Cavs drafted him while Mark Price was still on the team. He was actually, I think Mark Price was starting to go through his injury phase and they drafted Terrell Brandon for some insurance.
00:18:36
Speaker
Sure enough, that paid off because Terrell blossomed into a very nice player for the Cavs. I believe it was back-to-back all-star appearances and eventually took over the role for Mark Price when the Cavs finally had the confidence and Terrell ran in to take over and they decided to trade Mark Price to the Washington Bullets, who he didn't get to play there because of injuries. Mark Price would have been fun with like Chris Webber and Dwan Howard and Calvert Cheney, George Marichon. That would have been kind of
00:19:06
Speaker
He would have been a good little fit there. Yeah, sure would. Terrell Brandon, great pick at 11. Blossom in a very nice player. Of course, turned into part of the deal for Sean Kemp. That brought Kemp to the Cavs. But yeah, always, always, always, always a big Terrell Brandon fan. And then we got Brevin Knight, 16th pick, 1997. Excellent. Excellent pick. He was very solid. Didn't have the greatest NBA career in the world.
00:19:36
Speaker
Um, but he was there around that time when, you know, we had a young team go to the playoffs with camp with big Z, you know, Derek Anderson, some other names like that. Andre Miller comes into the picture as well. And that was a fun young team. What, like 97, 98, somewhere around there, 96 even. Yep. Yep. Great. Great player at that, at that pick. Great, great pickup.
00:20:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely one of the players I remember listening to quite a bit on the radio when I used to listen to the Cavs in high school, you know, Brevin Knight, Big Z, that was a great team. Fun team to listen to. Yes. And moving on from the good, we have the sad. Oh boy. Steve Patterson, 18th pick, 1971. Yeah, not a name I'm too familiar with, obviously before my time. I don't know much about him, unfortunately, but
00:20:32
Speaker
What pic was he 18th 18th and all right. All right. I mean, I, I, we have high hopes at 18 and 1971, I guess. I don't know. I don't know. I'm kind of skimming through the, the, uh, comments they have under each of these names here. And it says Patterson is probably best remembered as the answer to a trivia question, the starting center in between Lou Elcindor, you know, Kareem.
00:20:58
Speaker
And Bill Walton, during UCLA's remarkable championship run. Unfortunately, his Marlboro man, Goodlooks, did not translate into a career full of highlights. But you know what, at least he has to live off of his, what do they say, his marvelous Goodlooks?
00:21:18
Speaker
Marlboro, man. Let's make kind of rugged looking, I guess. I don't know. I'll have to look up a picture of now. Yeah, that's something to hold on to, I guess. I don't think that'll be in our bios when we leave our careers on. Probably not. Who else is on that list? I aspire to that now. Next up is John Lambert, 15th pick, 1975. Okay.
00:21:42
Speaker
That doesn't... I think backup center, I think maybe, I don't know. It feels like he's a big guy. It says he played bench minutes in five and a half seasons with the Cavs. Oh, wow. All right. Yeah, I feel like he was a backup big. I don't know, I could be wrong. Yep. And then we got Bob Sura, 17th pick in 1995. Dumb contest. Oh, man, that was bad.
00:22:11
Speaker
Um, why is he under the sand? Because people thought he was going to be able to do more. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I remember watching Sura grown up and you know, I didn't think he was great. I didn't think he was horrible. Um, just.
00:22:33
Speaker
Didn't have that great of an NBA career and not, not with the Cavs. We talked about Bobby before he went on to Houston and kind of bounced around a little bit after that and had some, some nagging injuries, but, um,
00:22:44
Speaker
I don't know, I'd be curious to see, it's been a while since I looked at Bobby Sura stats, I'd be curious to see what his stats were with the Cavs. I'm willing to bet it was nothing too impressive. It says in his five seasons with the Cavaliers, he never regularly cracked the starting five. In his career, 41% shooting percentage tells you there was some masonry involved in on the offensive end. Oh boy.
00:23:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually surprised. Five years. I didn't realize it was that long. Didn't feel like it was that long, but I don't know if he played full seasons. I don't know. I remember bits and pieces, but I don't remember, like, did he have nagging injuries when he was on the Cavs? And the Cavs just said, finally, after five years, screw it. We're moving on. Yeah. You know, at least he didn't let Jordan sink a jumper over him when it mattered.
00:23:41
Speaker
Yeah, he just got annihilated by Kobe Bryant when the contest was in Cleveland and like missed half of his dunk attempts that he even tried to do. God, that was bad. Next up, we got Vitali Padopenko, 12th pick, 1996.
00:24:00
Speaker
And that's on the sad list, you said? Yeah. Yeah, we're still on the sad list. Ukrainian train, Ukraine train. Oh man, funny story. So I said this before when we did, man, I don't know if it was last year or two years ago. I don't know if you remember the episode where we did the best and worst draft picks in CAB's history in like the last 20 years and Vitaliy was on there. That was a fun episode. And I told the story of them, but I'll tell it again. Vitaliy Patapiko was actually somewhat of a neighbor of mine at one point.
00:24:28
Speaker
He lived about four houses down from where I grew up for when he was on the calves. And I just remember he lived in a house, kind of on a main road, wasn't the nicest house in the world. And he'd be out there without like not wearing a shirt and like weed whacking. You know what I mean?
00:24:50
Speaker
Like, it's just kind of random. That's my claim to fame as far as living, you know, the closest person I've lived to that was famous or whatever. But yeah, not a very impressive career. And the knock on him, the biggest knock on him is Kobe was drafted after him. And
00:25:14
Speaker
Big Z was drafted after him as well and had, you know, obviously a much better and more memorable career in a Cavs uniform than Vitaly did, so. Yeah, for sure. I remember he was back as a, like a, like a Cavs big man coach a couple of seasons ago. I want to say it was like two, three years ago now, but he was, he was actually a Cavs organization sitting on the bench. I think he was a big man coach for a while there. So that was kind of interesting.
00:25:40
Speaker
But yeah, definitely to be on the sad list. Not because he was a horrible player, it's just the placement the other players taken after him. And yeah. Next up we have Trajan Langdon, 11th pick, 1999, the Alaskan assassin at Duke. Yeah, he was quite the shooter. Langdon reminds me of Dylan Windler because
00:26:07
Speaker
Like when I grew up playing video games with the Cavs at that era, or when I still go back because I still play them, you know, with old Cavs teams and stuff like that. I always liked using Langdon because he's a shooter, you know, not quite a Wesley person type player, but he was always fun to kind of play with and watch. And he could shoot in real life, but he just, you know, had things preventing him from really
00:26:30
Speaker
creating rotational minutes, consistent minutes, and ultimately, not only a spot on the CAS roster, but ultimately a career in the NBA. If I recall, his NBA career wasn't too long. I don't know if it was injuries or anything like that, but yeah, at that high of a pick, you would have liked it to see it pan out a little bit better than what it did.
00:26:51
Speaker
Yeah, it says he played a non-starter role for three seasons for the Cavs before departing to play hoops in Italy, Turkey, and Russia. In the front office's defense, it was not a strong draft, although the Cavs snagged Andre Miller three picks earlier with only Ron Artest and Andre Kirilenko lurking down the board.
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah. And going back to Windler real quick, I certainly hope Windler doesn't take the same path, but his chances of cracking a rotation are just shrinking even more and more, especially if the Cavs do draft one of those guard players. But Windler's going into year three, and this will be a pivotal year for him. And I definitely hope that Windler doesn't turn into, you know, he has to go play overseas or his NBA career, you know.
00:27:37
Speaker
ends with the Cavs. I do feel like he can play in the league. It's just his time's running out, unfortunately. And yeah, we'll see what happens there. But yeah, Langdon worthy of being on the sad list for sure. The sad list. I feel like this could be much longer, but it is what it is. And we'll move on to the next section here. Yep.
00:28:03
Speaker
And then the next section is the what might have been. And we have Chucky Williams with the 16th pick in 1976. Not ringing a bell on that name. It says he played just 22 games for the Cavs before back injury ended his NBA career. Oh man, that's horrible. That's like life changing when that happens because it's like,
00:28:32
Speaker
That don't get me wrong, contracts weren't what they were back in the 70s than what they are today, but, you know.
00:28:39
Speaker
you all your life grow up playing basketball, you get to the elite level of the NBA and you suffer some sort of injury to where now you gotta go have a normal life and work a normal job and that's horrible. Or you're a Cavs fan and you suffer through a horribly long season just to draft at 16th and then the guy you pick
00:29:03
Speaker
Hertz is back 22 games into the season and never plays for you again. Oh, man. Jesus. That's rough. That's rough. That's rough for the fans too. Tim McCormick, 12th pick, 1984.
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's the name I feel like I've heard. There's got to be some history with that name. Is there any norms there or anything? Michigan Center, immediately part of a multiplayer multi-team trade that saw McCormick land in Seattle and the Cavs wind up with Dinner Bell Mel Turpin. Wow, that's a name. I've heard the name Mel Turpin, but the Dinner Bell.
00:29:42
Speaker
dinner bell mel turpin had he stayed he would have ranked above patterson and lambert and probably pata panko as well in the big white guy sweepstakes all right nice what might have been okay uh and last up we have derrick anderson 13th pick 1997
00:30:05
Speaker
That one hurts a little bit every time we talk about Derek Anderson. It's rubbing salt on the wound there. Yeah, yeah, he was man. He was a player. I still have a lot of his basketball cards. I got on a Derek Anderson kick man who was a fan of him. He was athletic. He was guard. He had some size to him. He can get to the brim. Just a fun player.
00:30:29
Speaker
cool looking kid, like, you know what I mean? Like, he looked like one of the cool guys on the team, just, man, it was able to do some nice things, just didn't think, I think it was due to injuries, didn't stick around too long, maybe what, two, three years with the Cavs before he kind of got shipped off to Houston.
00:30:46
Speaker
you know, didn't have the worst MBA career. I think he stuck around nine, 10 years, maybe even 11 years or so. So it's not like he had a 22 game long MBA career or a three year long career like Lang, like Landon. I just wish he would have been able to stick around a little bit longer on the Cavs because he was a fun player to watch. Yeah, that's too bad. He would have been, he would have been great if he could have stayed injury free. Yes. Yes, for sure. For sure.
00:31:14
Speaker
That was a good find though, Alex. That was fun. It's always fun. It's always fun going back, at least for like us, mainly because of our age group and we're not our Cavs fans. So it's always fun going back and talking about the players we watched growing up or just going back and rereading a little bit about Cavs history. So definitely a good find on that article. Yeah, that was a fun article that was posted on Reddit and shout out to onion on belt credit where credit is due for that post.
Reflections on Past Cavs Players and Kyrie's Regret
00:31:42
Speaker
For sure, for sure.
00:31:45
Speaker
All right, so another thing that I wanted to bring up and spend a little bit of time talking about, again, this happened a little bit ago now, you know, things always happen in between recording episodes, but I wanted to bring this one up and it's our Opel Carrier Irving.
00:32:03
Speaker
What's kind of interesting about this is it feels like he's always like anti-media, anti, you know, talking, communicating. And then it just felt like for a little moment of time that has already passed, by the way, he just kind of opened up to the world and decided to talk.
00:32:19
Speaker
on podcasts, on Twitch streams, stuff like that. And I wanted to bring up one of the comments he made here, or actually you had something that he said before this about regarding to how he kind of felt after winning the 2016 championship. And I think that kind of leads up to the next comments he made in a different platform. But do you have that or kind of just a summary of what he basically said he kind of felt after
00:32:49
Speaker
winning the championship i don't think it was good are you talking about his uh his comments on the on he was on some podcast or you know i saw some sort of twitch stream uh yes that he was on where he was talking about
00:33:06
Speaker
uh, how he felt after right after the 2016 championship. Um, I, you know, it was like an hour and a half long Twitch stream of him playing NBA 2k, where he was like taking or responding to comments in the chat. And, uh, you know, I only watched a little bit of it, so I didn't catch all of it, but it was pretty interesting. I'm going to have to find it again and, uh, and actually see what, you know, pick it apart, but.
00:33:37
Speaker
I don't know, I didn't glean too much from it.
00:33:41
Speaker
Yeah, the only thing that I saw that came out of it, and sorry to put you on the spot, I saw an article that I think Wendy wrote up when Horst, who we all hate, but anyways, is that he felt empty, like unsatisfied, like it felt like he didn't get, like obviously, like, yeah, there's that initial high, but it kind of ended very drastically, and he just felt empty and like,
00:34:10
Speaker
And the reason why I wanted to bring that up is because it not justifies, but makes a little more sense of some other comments he made on a podcast recently. And I'm just going to read a blurb or two from an article kind of quoting him here.
00:34:30
Speaker
It says here, it was painted as Irving not wanting to play in the shadow of LeBron anymore, but on the most recent episode of a podcast called I Am Athlete, Irving said it was more about his own issues at the time, personally more than basketball, and now knowing exactly how to deal with what he was, and not knowing how to exactly deal with what he was feeling at the time. And this is where his quotes come in.
00:34:55
Speaker
If I was in the same maturity line and understanding of who I am now, and I look back, we definitely, definitely would have won more championships. Because there would have been a better man-to-man understanding with LeBron about what I'm going through. I didn't know how to share my emotions. I didn't know how to do that. So instead of sharing, I isolated myself.
00:35:18
Speaker
And then one more quick thing, let me kind of break this down. Irving added that he also regrets not reaching out to LeBron during the period where he asked for trade. He says we didn't talk during this time.
00:35:31
Speaker
When I look back on what I was going through at the time, I wish I did talk to LeBron because it would have been a good understanding of what the future will hold for both of us. And we know how much power we both had together. Me and him in the lead together running Cleveland and then being able to put a better team together every single year would have definitely been worth it.
00:35:51
Speaker
What I think he means there is, and I do believe this, LeBron would have potentially been able to reel him back in, in the sense of, no, we can continue to be a dynasty and win championships and be relevant every year and own the league. That could have potentially opened up his eyes. Yeah, in hindsight, but
00:36:18
Speaker
I mean, him saying that now after what he did, I mean, clearly that could have never been with the way that he was and the way that he felt at the time. No, I mean, and he was a kid at the time. What was he in his mid-20s at most? I mean, you don't know what the hell you're doing then. And you get to a point where you're like, okay, there's an ego and
00:36:40
Speaker
I want my own team and I want to be the man and all that stuff, right? And when I saw this come out, I retweeted it, like somebody, some Twitter page tweeted the comments, like the quotes or whatever, and I immediately retweeted it and I said, this is both refreshing
00:37:04
Speaker
and very frustrating at the same time. I think I use the word infuriating. Refreshing because it's like, and we've talked about this many times, every time we talk about Kyrie, I always bring up where I feel like the cows got the best version of Kyrie. And to be honest with you, I think what Kyrie is starting to realize, he got the best version
00:37:26
Speaker
fan base and treatment in Cleveland as well. Things didn't go very well in Boston and with the Nets, it's been kind of drama, mainly because of the decisions he made and him not being able to gel with the team because he didn't get to really play with the team this year. But there's just always a lot of noise around Kyrie now. And it was probably just simpler times for him when he was in Cleveland. And
00:37:54
Speaker
Man, it's infuriating because it's like, yeah, he's right. We could have continued to make title runs and have legitimate shots. Oh, yeah. Potentially having more than one ring right now. 100%.
00:38:07
Speaker
And that's, that's kind of one of the things he talked about on his Twitch stream too. You're kind of jogging my memory here was him talking about, you know, when, you know, when he went to Boston and you know, all the Boston fans were basically hating on him and he's, he's kind of roasting the Boston fans, calling him cockroaches on this Twitch stream. Yeah. Well, remember, I mean, he just gave the Boston fans the middle finger and, and, you know, and one of the playoff games here. So.
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Cleveland will love you and will embrace you until you do us wrong, right? And, you know, there's still a lot of Cavs fans that are salty towards Kyrie because, you know, we had a very good thing going and could have still even potentially been going. I totally could have seen a future to where, you know, potentially Kyrie and
00:39:03
Speaker
maybe LeBron, if not LeBron, at least Kyrie could have still been here in Cleveland with a team centered around him. And there's still be some sort of a big three or whatever. And I know people roll their eyes now and say, well, we don't want that anyways. And it's easy to say that because now we have a young, upcoming, exciting team. But I definitely could have seen a scenario where Kyrie could have still been here along with Kevin Love. Maybe LeBron have moved on after a couple more years or whatever.
00:39:33
Speaker
He still could have been here. He could have been a lifer if he wanted to. Yeah, absolutely. I thought that was interesting bringing it up again. It is refreshing to hear him admit that. It's not something I would have ever expected, especially to come from Kyrie because of how he has acted the last several years. It feels very rare that you hear a player of that caliber
00:40:00
Speaker
you know, kind of publicly share regret like that. So I thought it was kind of odd, kind of just, you know, not the norm and definitely wanted to mention it on the podcast episode. Cool. Yeah.
Evan Mobley's Achievements and Future Prospects
00:40:15
Speaker
So the very last thing, Alex, then I think we'll wrap it up is I don't think it's too surprising, but Evan Mobley.
00:40:22
Speaker
got snubbed for rookie of the year, but he did not get snubbed for the all rookie team first team, made it unanimously. And really no shocker there, no surprise there. We would have burned down stuff if you wouldn't have made it. But yeah, he's just gonna continue to be a great piece for this Cavs team. I'm excited to see what he's gonna do in year two, Alex. Oh yeah, absolutely. Can't wait.
00:40:49
Speaker
I mean, he was a monster's rookie here. I can't imagine a sophomore here. I think it's gonna be a big step forward for him.
00:40:57
Speaker
For sure, for sure. He's just gonna continue to be a household name in the NBA. I'm looking forward to one more thing, then we'll wrap it up. I'm expecting the Cavs to get some more nationally televised games next year. Maybe nothing crazy, maybe like eight games, 10 games, somewhere, that'd be nice. And Garland and Mobley and this team can get some more national exposure to other fans outside of Cleveland.
00:41:24
Speaker
And I think Mobley's stock, Garland's stock, Jared Allen's stock, this team's stock when that happens too, will just raise and definitely be even more on the radar of at least other fan bases from other teams as hopefully the Cavs start to get some more national exposure. And Mobley is a big reason and will be part of that for sure.
00:41:48
Speaker
Oh yeah. Mowgli, Garlin. I think even Sexton's name carries a little bit of weight for being such an offensive spark plug that he is.
00:41:58
Speaker
Yeah. And Kevin Love, if he balls out again and you got Lavert, you know, you got a market in, I mean, it's a squad, man. It's a squad. They just need to do little tweaks, little things, need to play healthy, need the gel. Um, and they should be another fun team to watch next year and definitely deserve to be televised at a national level. So. Yeah.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:42:20
Speaker
All right, well, with that, Alex, we will go ahead and wrap up this episode of the CAS Pick and Roll Podcast. I want to thank you CAS fans, as always, for tuning in and listening. And Alex, you want to let them know where they can go ahead and follow us and connect with us.
00:42:35
Speaker
Follow us on Twitter at calves pick and roll. We have a shoot us an email, uh, calves pick and roll at gmail.com. We have a Facebook page calves pick and roll podcast wherever you're listening. We click, like, click subscribe, leave us a rating or error review. We'd appreciate that. We would. And there it is cast fans. We will talk to you again soon. Peace out guys.