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Episode 160: Searching for a Rotation
36 Plays21 days ago
Alex and Corey talk about the latest Cavs games and news. We discuss the revolving door that is the Cavs rotation due to injuries. Alex also talks about his trip to Finland and his experience attending the Cavs game against the Rockets.
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Transcript
Introduction and Thanksgiving Excitement
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey Cavs fans, welcome to the Cavs Pick and Roll Podcast, the podcast for diehard fans by diehard fans. I'm Alex and I'm here with Corey. How's it going, Corey? It is going good. Although we just witnessed a calves loss. We'll talk about that here in a few.
00:00:32
Speaker
It is the week of Thanksgiving. I am ready for some turkey, some stuffing, pumpkin pie. Cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce. My kids love that. And most importantly, most importantly, just a break from, from everything else outside of that.
Holiday Plans and Work Trip to Finland
00:00:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. little break from work that'll, uh, relaxation time, little watching ah basketball, football, Ohio State game on Saturday versus that team up north that we don't mention.
00:01:06
Speaker
Definitely, definitely. So it's been a little while, Alex. A lot of basketball has happened since the last time we recorded. um And also, Alex, you went on a little trip yesterday.
00:01:19
Speaker
out of the country. I want to start there. Yeah. Tell them where you went. And then I got some questions about it.
Cavs' Recent Games and Player Analysis
00:01:27
Speaker
I went to Finland for work with a couple of coworkers.
00:01:32
Speaker
i Yeah. And it was cool. It was cool. It's not, it's not, it's a really nice ah city. ah Traveled all around Helsinki and Vanta and Saw the sites, went to a couple, you know, historical chapels and walked around downtown and, you know, i rode the subway. And, you know, it's nice. little It's not really a tourist destination. There's not a whole lot to do.
00:01:57
Speaker
and think, ah you know, there's way more to do in downtown Cleveland than there is in Helsinki, Finland. Sang some karaoke. ah Don't ask for the video. Nice. Yeah. Yeah, it was cool.
00:02:09
Speaker
And first time there, right? Yeah, absolutely. up First time. So here's here'ss here's my questions. um I don't know how much I know when you go for work, you might be a little bit limited. i don't know how much free time they give you, right?
00:02:22
Speaker
Any signs of basketball anywhere in Finland? I did not see any signs of basketball. Like most of Europe, soccer or football is the most common sport.
00:02:38
Speaker
trying to remember we talked about sports quite a bit and even talked about lori markinen for a while and uh his six months of military required military service and i talked to them about that a bit which was interesting uh i did see a few burger kings burger king seems to be really popular over there okay uh i saw a taco bell at the train station all right felt like home then huh yeah i mean that was pretty much it though like everything else like I didn't, you know, went to the grocery store a few times, went to a couple of the malls there and walked around.
00:03:15
Speaker
Just not a whole lot of American brands, really. Mostly European brands, stuff made in Finland. It was neat. Very cool. Can you, okay,
Season Evaluation and Key Player Highlights
00:03:25
Speaker
so my second question, besides marketing, that's too easy.
00:03:30
Speaker
Can you name any other basketball player from Finland? Yeah.
00:03:37
Speaker
Oh, man, that's, you know, i was going to look that up, too. I was going to look it up and say, who who else is from Finland that I could ask about? But no, I didn't. I don't know who I i literally have a Google search up.
00:03:49
Speaker
And I don't know if I can pronounce respectively. i don't know if I can announce any of these people's names. So I'm not even going to try. There's no other names I recognize. Like who are current and NBA players?
00:04:01
Speaker
No, just, i well, i don't know if any of these are or not. I was just, I just Googled NBA players from Finland. Markkinen comes up first. He's hailed as the most prominent from Finland. There's a Pekka Markkinen. don't know if they're related or not. um Maybe not, but then everybody else, I don't recognize or i like or I'll butcher their names if I try to try to say it, but...
00:04:25
Speaker
um pretty cool that that marketing came from there um i know a lot of us still wish he was playing for the calves alex he's unfortunately rotting away in utah still along with uh with kevin love yeah yeah i miss that uh Back when we had Markanen, he was good. We had who who was the other a few tall people.
00:04:45
Speaker
We had Markanen, Mobley, and Allen. That was a huge lineup. And Dean Wade, of course. and yeah yeah and yeah yeah we had We had all the all the seven footers. Sexton and Garland. yeah Oh, I also had some really interesting food in Finland. um Had a Finnish traditional soup that was salmon soup.
00:05:10
Speaker
It's kind of like a cream-based a potato soup with chunks of salmon in it. Nice. that's okay ah I had a moose burger. Okay. a reindeer tenderloin reindeer heart.
00:05:30
Speaker
Oh, boy. Beaver salami. Yeah, I know. At least you at least you at least you experimented. oh yeah. i'm not I'll eat anything. I love food.
00:05:41
Speaker
I'm a total foodie. What about the drinks, though? um The drinks, yeah. I know you tried some beers. Oh, for sure. They had Karhu on tap just about everywhere. That was kind of the local beer.
00:05:54
Speaker
Karhu is Finnish for bear. Another beer that was on tap that was a Finnish beer was called Sandals. And then the other third drink that was on tap everywhere was just called long drink, which was like a it kind of tasted like squirt mixed with gin.
00:06:14
Speaker
It was like a fruity, almost like a soda pop, but it was on tap everywhere. Cool. it was It was good. Very sweet. Nice.
00:06:25
Speaker
Hard to drink more than one of those. Yeah. yeah Well, it's cool that you got to go somewhere you've never been before out of the country and on the works dime. Not too bad you've gotten to do that over the years.
00:06:38
Speaker
um At least it it wasn't like, where'd you go? Where was it? China or Japan last year? where you kind of stuck out a little bit here, you probably blended in a little bit better. So that's good. Although they treated you like a celebrity over there in, uh, in Japan or whatever it was. remember you saying china's that's yeah China, China, China. Yeah. People taking pictures of you and stuff.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, it was, that was a bizarre experience. Right. So just, just think about that right now you're on someone's camera and in China. Yeah. from a picture that somebody took um as you probably on some youtube video in finland singing uh karaoke so and they they talk about how how how they met dylan windler the famous uh former nba player so pretty cool pretty cool Well, let's get back to the Cavs podcast. um Like we said, a lot of basketball has been played um tonight. The Cavs just finished their back-to-back game um against the Toronto Raptors. They played the night before against the Clippers. We'll get into that.
00:07:37
Speaker
Alex, this was a tough game on the road after just playing at home the night before, missing seven rotational players. That's right, seven from this game. It was like watching LeBron try to win ah during that first finals run with Sasha Pavlovich and Drew Gooden and Eric Snow and a whole bunch of you know ah players that aren't household names. That's what it felt like tonight watching this game with with Mitchell running around out there.
00:08:06
Speaker
Yeah, well, he... He still had Mobley, right? And Mobley is supposed to be, you know, defensive player of the year. He's supposed to be taking that next step. I don't know. He's just been struggling lately. Like he's fallen in love with taking mid range shots and three pointers. And when he could be in that paint dominating, you know, that's my,
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah, so we were talking about this a little bit before we started recording. I noticed sometimes, depending on where he's catching the ball, he's having hard time. um You know, he's getting out muscled by his defender.
00:08:40
Speaker
He's catching it 15, 16, 17 feet away from the hoop. He's, you know, he might be get around some players, but he's certainly not backing down a lot of players. um The other night against the Pacers, I swear he couldn't get around Siakam for the life him. Siakam was just a wall.
00:08:54
Speaker
He had a hard time tonight doing very much in inside. um and And both Mobley and Mitchell, to be fair, Didn't have great games tonight. I mean, between the two of them, they still didn't even add up to what Brandon Ingram scored it in this game. Ingram has been on fire as of late. Cavs had no answer for Ingram tonight. Dropped 37 points in 37 minutes.
00:09:22
Speaker
um And yeah, the Cavs just you know fell short on the offensive end. They had their chances. I mean, they definitely didn't get embarrassed in this game and they had opportunities. But every time they would get close, Alex, the the the Raptors just seem to go on another run.
00:09:37
Speaker
Yeah, we're we're just too underhanded. There's just too many. Just too many guys out. Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean, um you know, ah Tomlin plays 32 minutes. Alonzo Ball got the start, played 34 minutes. it's Probably the most he's played so far in a game. Tyson gets 34.
00:09:58
Speaker
Nance gets 18 minutes. Chris Livingston. ah made his Cavalier debut. He actually was pretty solid. He was, ah believe it or not, comes plus minus. He was the the highest on the plus or the at a plus 12, had seven points, and grabbed three rebounds and in 14 minutes.
00:10:18
Speaker
But yeah, just again, you you looked out there, and not a lot of household names out there. And and the Raptors have been an ascending team this year.
00:10:29
Speaker
They won 11 out of their last 12 leading up to this game. And, uh, just a team that's, that's hitting their stride right now and was going to be a hard team to, to win against, especially on the road, second night of a back-to-back and being an undermanned.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah. On the bright side, I've been, you know, we're getting a lot of these end of bench guys minutes that otherwise wouldn't be have minutes. So it, you know, it's a good thing to find out, like they started plugging Tomlin in and look at Tomlin, man. He's just, uh,
00:10:57
Speaker
He's an animal out there. He's a spark plug. Yeah. Yeah. Defensive animal. that Yeah. Tomlin like came out of nowhere, in my opinion, just to be like, get regular rotational minutes.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah. And he's still so raw, right? I mean, you could, you could definitely tell, tell that if he continues to work on his game, he has the size, he has the speed, he has the athleticism, right?
00:11:24
Speaker
to continue to make an an impact and get rotational minutes. Right. So yeah, that's been definitely a bright spot and he has a great story too. He didn't even start playing basketball till what was it?
00:11:35
Speaker
Um, somewhere, somewhere in high school. I thought I, I remember hearing, I thought they were saying he didn't even play in high school. Maybe not. It might've even been later than that. They found him playing at Rutgers park and yeah recruited him to a community, local community college. And from there, he just kind of,
00:11:51
Speaker
Kept elevating and taking off. And yeah, what a story. Yeah, that's a great story, right? And tonight on the broadcast, which I i kind of had to do like, ah what? Did they really just say that? But then when I started thinking about the roster, i was like, well, yeah. 10 out of the 18 players on the roster are second round picks or undrafted players.
00:12:12
Speaker
So when you think of the Sam Merrills, the Dean Wades, the Craig Porters, but the Tomlins, the Luke Travers, um you know, and so on and so forth. It's like, man, this team is is deep, but also has a lot of underdogs on it as well. Right. And part of that, too, is the salary. Right. that You got some players making a lot of money on this team. You can't fill it all out with 18 players all making money.
00:12:38
Speaker
But the Cavs have been able to do a good job at kind of finding those quote unquote diamonds in the rough, right? Just, just over the years, especially as of late. And Tomlin's just another, another one of those fine Tyson has been great this year.
00:12:52
Speaker
He has stepped up. he He wasn't a second rounder, of course, but he's been another young guy. that has been given an opportunity and and taken advantage of it, playing a lot of start starter like minutes.
00:13:03
Speaker
um I guess, Alex, for me, what I really want to see, and I don't know when we're going to see it, if at all, is what this team looks like when when they're fully healthy.
Injuries and Team Dynamics Overview
00:13:14
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know that Garland's in and out. Merrill's in and out. Allen now. Allen. Craig Porter is still out. i mean, it's just one after the other.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Tonight, tonight, tonight was game what 19, I think it was. And this already haven't even reached 20 games yet. This was the 11th different starting lineup for Kenny Atkinson, which is tied for the second most in the NBA.
00:13:48
Speaker
think there was one other team that had 13 different starting lineups they were talking about before the game started. that's just insane. and Unfortunately, that's kind of been a trend with this team over over the years. It's just one of those trends that just doesn't seem to go away.
00:14:04
Speaker
and At the end of the day, they're still a good club. um they're they're they're They're still at the top of the East, top four team. They'll drop down to number four now with the loss. but mean This team is still solid. it's just It's hard to see or imagine what the full potential is when you can't go more than a game or two with a consistent lineup.
00:14:24
Speaker
I'll say, though, Kenny Atkinson and the coaching staff are doing a hell of a job because the record does not reflect all the roster changes at all. They still find ways to win.
00:14:36
Speaker
you know or be competitive at least. I mean, even tonight, I mean, they really went to the bottom of the bench, right? And Atkinson is still finding the right buttons to press. And the Cavs just needed a little bit more.
00:14:48
Speaker
Again, Mitchell and Mobley both had underwhelming games. Neither one of them, you know, Mitchell had 17, Mobley for 14. Both of those guys get 20, 20 plus. And this is, this is a different outcome, I think.
00:15:01
Speaker
But again, second night of a back-to-back and not a lot of support um from the rest of the guys around the team. But yeah, no, kudos to Atkinson and and the coaching staff for for working with what they have.
00:15:15
Speaker
The other thing before we kind of go back here over the last couple games, Alex, another bright spot is Donovan Mitchell for the sixth time in his career with the Cavaliers, named Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
00:15:30
Speaker
um To do that, he averaged 31.8 points, rebounds, steals over the last four games while shooting fifty six percent from the field and forty three percent from three-point range. And as a result, the Cavs won three out of those four matchups with Mitchell scoring at least 30 points in all of those victories. I will say, Alex, and it might be by necessity with Garland out early, with Strews out, and just the injuries in general, it feels like Mitchell has been more scoring-minded this year than what he did in previous years.
00:16:11
Speaker
um And man, he's still just... Top 10 score in the league. If he wants a bucket, he can go get a bucket in many different ways. He's very exciting to watch. Only only the sixth time.
00:16:22
Speaker
I'm surprised by that. in In during in a Cavaliers uniform. Okay. Yeah. I'm still surprised by that. I think I saw it was 11 times in his career and six as a Cavalier.
00:16:36
Speaker
Could be wrong, but I could have sworn that's what I heard tonight. Player of the week. Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Yeah. Yeah. We'll have to look that up again just to verify. but what do you think about Donovan Mitchell this year and what you're seeing out of him?
00:16:50
Speaker
um you like him being more aggressive? Yeah, Donovan's been great. I think that he's just been kind of spending It seems like he spends the you know first half of each game trying to get everybody else involved, and then he comes in in the second half and just lights it on fire is just kind of what I notice from him.
00:17:15
Speaker
Yeah, he's... he's a I also like... he he He's added some new moves, some new tricks to the bag, if you will. He's always had that first quick step. He's always had that step-back three.
00:17:28
Speaker
But this year, he has this move... where he does almost every game now where he's dribbling and he dribbles it up over his defender's head as he's basically going to the rim, which usually results in the defender, you know, him losing the defender and and a floater from Mitchell.
00:17:47
Speaker
um It's pretty, pretty awesome to see. And yeah, it is a cool move. You don't see, I don't, you really don't see a lot of people doing that. um And he's, he's already perfected that move and he makes some defenders like pretty foolish as a result.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah, Tyrese Proctor did it tonight. tried it. He tried it tonight. That was funny. Yeah, it's a good move. It's ah it's great. Yeah. yeah And ah Proctor also did use the, ah was it Tyrese? Was it Proctor or was it?
00:18:14
Speaker
Jalen that used the, uh, the Euro step down the lane. yes Yeah. It was Jalen. It was, yeah yeah, that was nice. Yeah. Yeah. So you can tell he's, he's, uh, teaching the young guys some tricks. Yes, definitely. Definitely.
00:18:27
Speaker
So the Cavs, uh, dropped the game to the Raptors. Let's talk about, uh, Sunday's game. The Los Angeles Clippers come to town. Pretty sure I saw that this was Kawhi's debut game of the season, or at least he missed the first 10 games. or i know he was coming off of an injury. And um and and and James Harden, the day before, put up, what, 50-plus points, I believe it was, on on Saturday.
00:18:55
Speaker
um Man, it's just crazy to me that James Harden is still... around still able to score like he plays below the rim for the most part he's not as old as lebron ah well still i i just don't know yeah i just don't know how james harden is still able to do everything he's able to do um and never been a fan of of his game not quite everything he couldn't make a three No, no. Luckily, he was a little bit off. um He was a little bit off this game.
00:19:27
Speaker
Only finished with 19 points. um But this game, you know, I haven't been paying attention to the Clippers, right? And didn't realize how much they were struggling. Only 5-12 on the season.
00:19:38
Speaker
And the Cavs took care of business. um Once the Cavs got ahead, Alex, they they never really looked back in this game, which is what you want to see happen when you're playing against a ah a struggling team. You know, when I was watching that Starting Five show, ah James Harden is one of the stars on it, and they covered that season.
00:20:00
Speaker
Was it was he the was he an mvp Was he MVP? Yeah, he was MVP of that season in 2017. And they covered that it was like the first time. I don't know if you remember this, but he like had perfected that step back three, that super yeah distant step jump back three pointer. And he was making it nonstop to the point that in the playoffs, one you know a couple of the teams started guarding behind him. do you remember that? Where they were
00:20:32
Speaker
behind Harden guarding him so that he couldn't do the step back. I don't remember You remember that? Oh, man. No, that's crazy, though. when they were covering it in that show, they were showing clips of it. I remember watching that and thinking how crazy that was. That is. it's just like kind of a far cry from that MVP season to where he is now. I mean, he's still a great player and a great shooter, but he's definitely...
00:20:55
Speaker
backed down a little bit from where he used to be. And that's, I mean, that comes with age. Comes with age. He's still a phenomenal player. But ah looking at this Clippers team and, you know, seeing that 5-12 record, I was a little surprised. You know, that team, there's a lot of great players on that team. That team is kind of stacked. You got Kawhi Leonard, Zubats, you know, in the in the center. He's a very good big. You got Harden.
00:21:20
Speaker
You got Nick Batum. Kawhi. Why? why Why? Why? Chris? got um
NBA Standings and Playoff Prospects
00:21:29
Speaker
you got some veterans that, you know, have been around like Chris Paul and Brooke Lopez. Yeah. Coming into this game, i was like, ah the Clippers, like, you know, they're probably still a competitive team.
00:21:38
Speaker
And then I looked at their record and then, you know, just kind of. All right. Well, the Cavs took care of business. um Again, that's that's not a game you want to drop to with the team struggling like that, especially at home, too.
00:21:52
Speaker
And, um you know, the Clippers, sure. I mean, it's it's a long game, right? A basketball game is a long game. So every team's going to go on their run. But it never felt like there was really a true threat.
00:22:05
Speaker
You know, like the Cavs felt like it felt like the Cavs were in control in this game, a little bit different than the Pacers game, which we'll talk about, which was back and forth. And Donovan Mitchell was just electric in this game.
00:22:16
Speaker
37 points um in 33 minutes, plus 26, was able to do whatever he wanted to do at at will. and And good support from from DeAndre Hunter, big fan of Hunter.
00:22:29
Speaker
Uh, mobile finishes with 18 and you had Proctor chip chip in with 11 off the bench for some, you know, even scoring there. Uh, this Garland did play in this game, not his best game, played 29 minutes, finished with eight points and, uh, and eight assists.
00:22:46
Speaker
But, uh, yeah, Garland kind of here and not here to be fair, Alex, we did get them back earlier than what I thought we were going to get them back in the season. But it feels like he's only been able to play a couple games and then he's he's not available, right? He re-aggravates the toe.
00:23:03
Speaker
um Then the team's being cautious. And I was talking about this before we started recording too. It's funny. because it felt like we were going to be worried about Ball, Lonzo Ball, right, who has actually been one of the most healthy guys so far.
00:23:18
Speaker
um And now it's kind of uncertain with Garland. Like, is he actually 100% or not? And what do the Cavs do, Alex? Do the Cavs kind of give him time to try to fully recover?
00:23:30
Speaker
they kind of continue to play him, keeping him day-to-day status? What do they do with Garland from here? Man, that was... a That was rough to see him, you know, limp off the floor, you know, obviously nursing that toe again after he just had surgery. Yeah. It's it's it's the style of basketball he plays, though. he He goes to that hoop, I want to say recklessly, but without abandon, right? Like every time he goes to – that's his game. He goes to – he drives to the hoop and he kicks it or he lays it up, and every single time he ends up on the floor –
00:24:07
Speaker
you know, underneath the hoop. it's just It's always just crashing into the court every time he drives. um Yeah, and the court's always going to win. So i don't know. It's kind of, it sucks. It really does. Yeah, yeah, it it does.
00:24:26
Speaker
And I don't know. I don't know what the Cavs should do here. um Again, you got to you got to get to a point and it's still very early in the season. Right. But at some point, you got to find the rotation and you got to have some consistency. Another thing that they called out on on the Raptors up until today's game, R.J. Barrett didn't play in this game.
00:24:49
Speaker
But they're like four main guys, right, have played every single game this season. We can't say that about the core four, right? Garland has played less than half.
00:25:00
Speaker
Allen's now missed a couple games. um And it's hard to find your your rotation and and your chemistry as a result. So I want Garland to come back. I want to see him be at that all-star level. And i want I want to see this team start to be a little bit more consistent and start to ascend as other teams are doing that around us.
00:25:21
Speaker
But at the same time, it's hard to to say, well, these games really don't matter. And what really matters is is may is May. April, May, and June, right? Which feels like forever away. So... It puts the Cavs in a tough spot.
00:25:36
Speaker
um Thankfully, guys like Porter Jr., like Proctor, like Ball, um when given the opportunity, have been able to contribute on a somewhat consistent basis. But I think we all want to see our all-star point guard back that's making the most amount of money in Cavaliers franchise history playing on the floor as well.
00:25:54
Speaker
Yeah, i don't I don't know what the answer is. Yeah. Yeah. Do we rest him till January and then hope that he's 100% the rest of the season? Or will he just re-aggravate the toe and...
00:26:07
Speaker
march you know like or do you just keep playing them now and let them work through it yeah you know i i'm not a doctor i only play one on a different podcast but maybe they wrap the toe i don't you know or give him them a special shoe like i don't know but there's got to be some some answer here yeah it's just it's just you don't you don't hear very often about a toe injury that has an effect to this magnitude usually it's ah it's a knee it's an acl it's it's not very often you hear about a toe. Well, Gauss gets right. He had like a, was it a Was it the whole foot? I can't remember exactly, but it's like two feet taller than Garland. And i mean, yeah, he he had bad feet. Right.
00:26:49
Speaker
But um you just, in today's NBA, you just don't hear about it very often, I guess. So it's, it must be something really unique with, with Garland going on and just, yeah, just hopefully he can get healthy and and come back and and be consistent. and He's still so young. So i don't want to see, you know, injury woe start to happen with him or, or affect the title run. Man, it's always something though.
00:27:12
Speaker
Yeah. It's always something though. I mean, I swear ever since the broken jaw, the eye socket, now the toe, it's like, man, come on, dude. Just one season healthy. Give it right. It's all need, man.
00:27:24
Speaker
It's all we need. So yeah, the Cavs take care of the Clippers at home and in in pretty good fashion. um was a fun game to watch.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:27:33
Speaker
um The game before this, though, against the Pacers was a little bit more of a dogfight, Alex. The Pacers, obviously, a struggling team.
00:27:43
Speaker
um you know was in the finals last year. Halliburton goes down, lose some players in the offseason, and also had some injuries to the start of this season. But man, the Pacers gave the Cavs everything they had in this game. And it was definitely a dogfight.
00:28:01
Speaker
um But the Cavs did pull out and and were victorious in this game. But Alex, anything jump out from you from what you recall? ah Garland did play in this game, had 20 points um and and good scoring across some other players. But what what jumps out to you from from the Pacers game?
00:28:19
Speaker
You know, I'm just going to shout out Jalen Tyson again. I thought he absolutely killed it in this game, and he's been killing it the last few games. And he's just been playing so aggressive, and he plays both ends of the court, and he he plays very efficiently. like He does. He always has a very good field goal percentage, not a lot of turnovers, not ah not a lot of fouls, lots of rebounds, lots lots of assists.
00:28:45
Speaker
He's always helping... out in the little areas. He, you know, he's great on defense. He's a dog. He, he picks up guys full court. Uh, he plays the passing lanes. He's always in a spot.
00:28:56
Speaker
He's always rotating when he needs to man. Jalen Tyson, I think is, uh, he's, he's going to be a great player for, for the calves for several years. Dare I say, Jalen Tyson has been able to be so far in this season, which maybe it's it's it's it's less than 20 games, right?
00:29:17
Speaker
But so far, he seems to be what Isaac Okoro was never able to become during his time as as a Cavalier. And I like Okoro, right? And he was here for several years, and he never really kind of met that potential of what we wanted him to be able to to do on both ends of the floor, right? to where Tyson is rapidly developing on both ends of the floor. And like you said, he does a little bit of everything. He's willing to dive on the floor.
00:29:44
Speaker
three-point shot, I hated his three-point shot last year. I'm still not crazy about it, but he's like his his his his form of it or whatever. But You could tell he's worked on his release. It is faster than last year, and he's consistently knocking them down.
00:29:59
Speaker
um So Tyson, yeah, just been a great addition. i was a little bit nervous when um you know we lost Ty Jerome, we ship out Isaac Okoro, and there was talks about Tyson kind of getting getting in the green light this year, getting his number called, if you will.
00:30:16
Speaker
And so far, he's he's he's proven that he's he's he deserves those minutes that he's getting. um So he's just a very nice complementary player that, for the time being at least, will go under the radar for most defensive of opposing teams.
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah, I like that mention of Okoro because they they do play kind of similar. I think like Tyson is probably just as good on defense as Okoro, except Okoro was always kind of...
00:30:46
Speaker
sit back, ah kind of passive, um just kind of try to fit into the the scheme or the rotation, whereas Tyson is much more aggressive. yeah like He's not ah afraid to take that ball and drive to the hoop or you know shoot a three. s He's got a lot a lot more confidence, I think.
00:31:06
Speaker
Maybe that's what it is than Okoro had. But yeah, I already like how far he's come along yeah and what we had hoped Okoro would eventually do and become.
00:31:19
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. But yeah, this was a dogfight of a game back and forth. A lot of lead changes, you know, the Pacers probably, you know, even though they're a struggling team, you know, yeah they remember what they did to the Cavs last year. Right. So they had some confidence and, and they're hungry to try to figure out a way to win some games. Right.
00:31:39
Speaker
um But again, the Cavs playing at home. um This was a six game home home stretch, by the way, which was going to be their longest of the season. And they were able take advantage of that and and eke out the win against a team that was just searching for anything they could to try to get a win on the road.
00:31:57
Speaker
So that was a solid win ah by the Cavs. And probably the last game, well we'll go back to Alex, only because you went to this game, was the Houston Rockets came to town, um Kevin Durant and company.
00:32:13
Speaker
um Unfortunately, the Cavs lose this game, but Alex, tell them why and and how the officials suck. Because of the officiating, Corey. Yeah. You just answered your own question. I want to hear you say that. don't even want to talk about this game because it was so frustrating to watch. Like, it's got to be the worst game I've seen in person from an officiating standpoint. Like, it just seemed like every call that went against the Cavs, they'd slow it show it in slow motion on the Jumbotron. And every, like,
00:32:46
Speaker
20,000 people would see the call was wrong, and except for the officials. It's like, oh my God. i I'm getting... pissed just thinking about it.
00:32:58
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, other than that, it was it was a decent game. Cavs got down big early in this game, I think. The Cavs could not make a shot. yeah They could not score the whole first half of the game. Not just the first quarter, like even the second quarter, they could just not make a shot and the Rockets were hitting everything. Everything was going down. It was almost like they had home court advantage in this game.
00:33:25
Speaker
Right. It was, it was ridiculous. Yeah. And the calves came out firing in the third quarter made the game interesting again, but it was just, they couldn't get over the hump. Right. And, uh, unfortunately resulted in a loss.
00:33:38
Speaker
Um, but anything to call out, like just being there, how was the experience, anything cool or different, uh, in the arena from the last time you were there or kind of just the the norm.
00:33:50
Speaker
It was the classic jersey night. So I got to see the, yeah, yeah the, was it 07 jerseys? And the court was the, ah had the old logo on it too, which was pretty neat. It felt like a a flashback. And I wore my old, you know, 2006, 2007, the red jersey. they had the same Cleveland a script on the front of it. So that was fun. There was a lot of other people wearing the old style jerseys too.
00:34:20
Speaker
And I was walking through the, through the, ah what's it called? Like the gateway area. and where the tunnel where the screen is at and some guy shouted out, LeBron's going to leave. That's awesome. Yeah, just just like it was back then, you know. so that was that was funny.
00:34:39
Speaker
But yeah, yeah, it was it was cool. um Those jerseys still pop pretty nice on TV. The Cavs wore them again tonight. Yeah, they look nice. Yeah, I like the look.
00:34:50
Speaker
They're still a good jersey, you know, so... um And I think it was during that game they they showed a flashback of like LeBron and Andy and someone else. I forget who like wearing it before they were checking in. to Oh, man. ever That's the other thing. The intro video that they do, you know, right before the player introduction was a throwback video that they like mixtaped with the new intro video. So it started out with the old. i don't know if you remember this, but early two thousand s they had.
00:35:24
Speaker
Or no, it would have been, trying remember what season that was. But anyway, it you know, they took like a bunch of classic ah intro videos and mixed them together. And it started out with Shaquille O'Neal walking up, rising up out of the lake.
00:35:40
Speaker
And then it showed Anderson Vergeau and, oh man, I i can't even remember who it was. But it showed them like standing, you know, on the bridge where the the guardians of transportation statues are.
00:35:55
Speaker
And yeah, it was just, it was just super cool. It showed like, that is cool ill yeah a bunch of classic players yeah, I wonder if it's online somewhere. It's gotta be on YouTube somewhere. Somebody had to, somebody had to record that. and i wish I had recorded it. Usually I do record the the intro, but I didn't this time.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah. Well, that's pretty cool. um Unfortunately, Cavs lose that game, right? But, you know, overall, Alex, the team now sits at 12 and 7.
00:36:23
Speaker
If you had to give your assessment up until this point in the season, um you know, what what what would you say?
00:36:32
Speaker
i don't know because, i you know, they've been so shorthanded and the rotation is changing so often. I think they're doing well for... what they've been given.
00:36:44
Speaker
don't know. You know, they also got fined $100,000 for sitting, for resting guys. It's like, we're already shorthanded now you're going to like rest all the rest of the starters for no reason.
00:36:57
Speaker
I wonder if they'll get fined. wasn't even a back-to-back. They had a... They didn't play the day before it was a rest day. So what are you doing? Like, I don't understand that. I wonder if they'll get fined for, for sitting Hunter tonight because Hunter sat out due to rest.
00:37:12
Speaker
Um, but I did see that they got fined for, for sitting. Who was it? Mobley and Mitchell. I want to say Mobley and somebody, um But yeah, I mean, it is it is kind of tough. um hey Again, the Cavs are still in a good spot considering where they're at, right? Sam sam Merrill, Money Merrill, man, he's he's off to a great start. You want to see get him get healthy and back. He's just such a weapon off of the bench that that it's hard for for many teams to find an answer for. He was on a hell of hot streak, Merrill. Yeah.
00:37:45
Speaker
Like now I'm afraid he's not going to be the same when he comes back. Like, don't let that guy sit too many games. Right. Like, I don't want him to lose it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:56
Speaker
But again, I think this this team is just still trying to find their way, trying to find their rotation. i mean, I think they know what they want the rotation to be. But what's going to be that rotation that's going to stick?
00:38:07
Speaker
Um, cause it's a long NBA season, you know, we're still in the very early stages of this, know, it'd be interesting to see what happens as we get pieces back, what other pieces stick, or we'll be continuing to play the shuffle game throughout the season.
00:38:21
Speaker
um and, and as a result, have some inconsistencies along the way. I think that's the thing right now is it doesn't feel like the calves overall are, are very consistent due to the inconsistent roster rotations.
00:38:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely some guys that are going to lose their minutes. Uh, you know, when, when everybody comes back, Craig Porter, Merrill Garland, Struis, Struis, man. Um, yeah. Where even fit in? What do you, where where do you even fit in Struis? I know. So that's why I'm saying like guys that, you know, like Proctor, I think is going to be a fantastic player. That dude is fast.
00:38:59
Speaker
He's got crazy skill getting to the He can make plays. He had some sweet-and-a-look passes for dimes. mean I hate to see Proctor lose minutes. I hate to see Tomlin lose minutes because he's such a dog on the defensive end.
00:39:15
Speaker
It'll be a good process a good problem to have, though. Yeah, but these are the guys that are going to lose minutes. Because if you have some injuries that happen you know closer to when it actually matters, you have some players that you're able to build some confidence with, right?
00:39:30
Speaker
Versus, oh, all of a sudden Tomlin's got to play in game six of the second round. yeah you know what i mean like we we're starting to see what tomlin can do now what tyson can do now what porter's doing what merrill's doing and and so on and so forth so it's ultimately a good problem to have as long as you get those other players back so the other thing i wanted to run by you and and maybe we ended here unless you got anything else alex but you know I'm looking at the the standings. Again, it's so early in the season yet, right barely 20 games in.
00:40:04
Speaker
But man, these standings are not what I would have guessed if I had to guess a couple weeks ago. JB's got the Pistons sitting at the top of the East at fifteen and two um Pistons, and one of those losses came against the Cavs, by the way, pretty pretty convincing loss.
00:40:24
Speaker
Then you have um the Raptors, who we we just played the night at number three. The Heat have kind of risen out of nowhere, sitting in the three spot, and Tyler Hero hasn't even played, or he might have just played his first game.
00:40:39
Speaker
And then you have the Cavs, the Knicks, the Hawks, the Bulls, the Magic to round out the top eight, nine teams, 76ers, I'm sorry, than the Magic. um So when you look at these these standings, Alex, is there is every every year we talk about this, how there's some teams that make that jump and there's some teams that seem to go that in the the wrong direction.
00:41:01
Speaker
um But is there anything that jumps out to you in in these standings so far? Do you think you think teams like the Pistons and Raptors, do think they're going to be able to stick? At the top of the ah the standings and and be a top four team?
00:41:13
Speaker
um Well, we know what JB can do firsthand. So that, you know, 15 and two, that is surprising. But I knew the Pistons would be good. I didn't think they'd be 15 too good.
00:41:27
Speaker
Still really early in the season. I mean, Cavs were... that almost the same record last season. Right. So Raptors. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I watching them tonight. It's just like, okay, they have some nice pieces, but I'm just, I'm not convinced on the Raptors. Like if we were healthy and, and you know, core four plays, Hunter plays, I, yeah, I'm not worried about the Raptors. Right.
00:41:54
Speaker
But obviously they're, they're, they're winning some games and, and even the heat, even the heat kind of coming out of nowhere, Um, you know, they, they, they lose Rozier, uh, due to the, the, what was it? The gambling stuff there.
00:42:08
Speaker
I don't really, did they make any big off season acquisitions? I don't remember. you know, Wiggins is out there. You got bam out there. Um, so some nice pieces, but they're kind of coming out of nowhere. Well, they got, uh, is it,
00:42:24
Speaker
Hawkins? Yeah, Jamie Hawkins has been playing out of his shoes. Yeah, he is. he is they They have some solid pieces. um The Knicks are kind of right there with the Cavs, right?
00:42:35
Speaker
And it even seems like the Hawks and the Bulls are kind of, the Bulls got off real hot, and then they lost a bunch of games, but they're still top-8 team right now. a top eight team right now so There are a lot of new faces up there in the East, um and it'll be interesting to see who who kind of sticks around while teams like the Magic, the Bucs, the Celtics, of course, with the Tatum injury are kind of going the opposite direction.
00:43:02
Speaker
um Again, very early, but if the playoffs started today, those teams would be fighting for for for a spot for sure. i think they'll I think they'll stick. like The teams that are that have kind of sunken down, you know the Pacers with the Hallie injury, the Celtics with the Tatum injury, the Bucs, I don't know why they're underperforming.
00:43:25
Speaker
they you know They should be doing a lot better than they are, and maybe they will. But other than that, you know, I don't see a whole lot of movement. Like I don't see anybody that's towards the bottom that I think is going to shoot upward as the season goes on.
00:43:44
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. The only team that maybe has that potential is the Magic. I don't know what's going on with them. Are they healthy or not? um They were a team that I thought was going to take that jump this year, and there's still time for it. They're 10-8. All they have to do is go on a little win streak and and have a couple teams lose, and they're they're in the top four you know but a week from now. i mean The standings are still so close that there could be a lot of movement here within a span of a week or two.
00:44:12
Speaker
ah feel like everybody saw what Indiana did last season where they just kind of coasted all the way until, you know, the second half of the season. And then they started turning it on and putting it all together.
00:44:27
Speaker
and how well they did into the finals. So i don't I don't know that teams are necessarily taking the regular at least the first half of the regular season very seriously, and that's you know one of the reasons why they started doing these cup games to try to motivate players.
00:44:47
Speaker
so are you Are you motivated as a fan, Alex? You know, Honestly, a little bit just because it's kind of bragging rights and I want to see the Cavs win.
00:45:00
Speaker
And I think it's kind of cool to see the cup standings and to see the point differential that they go by. And to see the Cavs are winning. that Last I saw, they had 33 point differential.
00:45:17
Speaker
so yeah i mean I was like totally against it before, but now I'm like, you know, it's fine, right? There's just regular season games to begin with that they added this extra incentive to. So what's the harm?
00:45:30
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, there's no there's no harm in it. I wish it didn't start like week two of the season or whatever it was. And it feels kind of spaced out. Right. um Well, I wish they would get rid of the preseason, but that's probably a whole nother.
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah. and Worms. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. and NBA will continue to tweak and experiment. I know you're telling about a bunch of stuff that they're, they're trying to do with the all-star game. And so yeah we'll talk about that as we get closer to it. Right.
00:45:59
Speaker
um But Hey, you know, got to innovate. Right. So Alex, anything else that you want to bring up? Mention basketball wise, Cavs wise, Finland wise,
00:46:15
Speaker
I don't think so. i got some questions for you, but, ah you know, save them for the next episode.
00:46:23
Speaker
Well, upcoming games for the Cavs. They do have some, these next few games, hopefully they they could take advantage of. They they do have The next game is a cup game actually against the Hawks.
00:46:35
Speaker
That's on the road. Then they come back home against the Celtics, who so far this year has had our number both in preseason and regular season. it'd be nice to get a victory against them.
00:46:47
Speaker
and then they have the Pacers again and then the Trailblazers. So the next four games are are winnable games. And hopefully the Cavs can take advantage there before they face some tougher opponents after that.
00:47:00
Speaker
and and had in mid-December there. So ah we will ah keep our eye on the Cavs. Hopefully we'll get some players back by then, Alex, and we're talking about you know some more wins next time we jump on here.
00:47:14
Speaker
Absolutely. But with that, Cavs fans, we want to thank you as always for tuning in and listening. And Alex, let them know where they can follow us and connect with us. Follow us on Twitter at Cavs Pick and Roll. Shoot us an email, CavsPickAndRoll at gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr. Watch this episode on YouTube.
00:47:34
Speaker
Wherever you're listening, watching, click like, subscribe. Leave us a rating or a review. We'd appreciate it. All right, Cavs fans, there it is. we will talk to you again soon. Peace out, Cavs fans.