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Episode 97: Cavs West Coast Slide
15 Plays2 years ago
Alex and Corey discuss the Cavalier's recent struggles on their west coast trip and the latest episode of The Road Back.
Twitter: @CavsPickandRoll
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Transcript
Cavs' Recent Struggles
00:00:15
Speaker
Hey, Cavs fans. Welcome to another episode of the Cavs Pick and Roll Podcast, the podcast for diehard fans. I'm Alex, and I'm here with Corey. What's up, Corey? Five game losing streak. I don't want to talk about that. I haven't even watched most of these games, unfortunately. You kind of have to, though, because
00:00:37
Speaker
That's what's going on right now. What a difference a couple of weeks makes, Alex. Last time we recorded roughly two weeks or so ago, we were on cloud nine, man. The team was what, eight and one or something like that. Six game win streak going. Six game win streak, man. I was telling my friends, this team is a juggernaut. They're going to win 60 games.
00:01:01
Speaker
Man, it's been kind of downhill since that Lakers game and it's not a very good road trip. And yeah, the Cavs are sliding right now, trending in the wrong direction.
Impact of Injuries and Lineup Changes
00:01:12
Speaker
And we got to talk about it. We got to talk about it. Unfortunately. I don't know if I want to talk about a bunch of losses.
00:01:21
Speaker
Let's talk about something happy. Jared Allen was wearing some sweet shoes, but then he got hurt. Well, this isn't very happy. Windler got hurt, hurt his ankle, tie in his shoes, I heard. He's out four to six weeks.
00:01:38
Speaker
Jesus. Jesus is going downhill fast. We should just start over. Right, right. I mean, yeah, and really, this is what I'm going to chalk it up as. If you want to summarize it all up, I'm going to say this. The Cavs have been without Jared Allen for a couple games.
00:01:57
Speaker
Mitchell misses the Minnesota game. Garland was under the weather, quote unquote, for a game or two played like crap. So the Cavs had some, I guess, and Dean Wade's out too. Dean Wade's been out the last couple games now.
00:02:12
Speaker
So the Cavs have had some adversity, I guess, as far as not having their full roster. And as a result, some of these games have slipped. Is that an excuse for those games to slip? Absolutely not, because this team is pretty good. But it does show you the importance of not having Jared Allen around from just a defensive effort, I feel. He's a beast out there, and not having him there is obviously going to impact things, Alex. Yeah, and I think it's just probably
00:02:41
Speaker
that I don't know. I want to make excuses for them about the lineup changing so frequently because Derry's Garland's in, Derry's Garland's out, Mitchell's in, Mitchell's out, Allen's in, Allen's out, Wade's in, Wade's out. But I mean, when it comes down to it, they were rolling while Garland was out.
00:03:02
Speaker
with just Mitchell. And yeah, I mean, we got some really great wins. We took the Celtics toe to toe into overtime and beat them. You know, we followed that up with a win over
Controversial Losses and Missed Opportunities
00:03:15
Speaker
the Pistons. And then we walked into Laker land, handed them another L. So, I mean, we were playing really well. And then we got to that Clipper game, man. And we were playing them tough. And I feel like we should have won that game, man. I feel like we got cheated.
00:03:32
Speaker
The end of that game, there was a couple of bad calls and it was even confirmed in the two-minute report the next day. I think I saw there was two calls that were against the Cavs that shouldn't have gone against the Cavs. Pivotal calls. Yeah, and that could have been the game right there, right? And then that started the downward spiral.
00:03:52
Speaker
you know they've lost every game since unfortunately and it feels like you know some of these games like that Clippers game was tough and then they just had some bad calls go go their way right and then there's some of these other games were like
00:04:07
Speaker
like Sacramento, you let Sacramento beat you, that pisses me off. I told my wife, I was like, Mike Brown beat us today, and I was just in a bad mood, you know? And she started laughing, of course. I'm like, Mike Brown beat us. She's like, really? I'm like, yeah. Should not have lost to Sacramento. We should have not lost to the Timberwolves.
00:04:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I mean. There was a couple losses where it feels like they didn't even play deli. Sacramento didn't even have to play deli and they still beat us. How is this happening? They didn't even play deli because that was the nail on the coffin, man. But then you get to the Warriors game and you let staff go off for 40 points.
00:04:46
Speaker
And I felt like that was a missed opportunity because Clay Thompson had a really bad night. He only put up nine points. You know, Jeremiah Green doesn't really do much these days. Jordan Poole, whatever, yawn. I'm not worried about the other guys. All you had to do was not let stuff off of 40 points and you win that game. And then you just brought the Minnesota game.
00:05:04
Speaker
you let the Angelo Russell go off for 35 points. It's like, I never hear any, I mean, it's Minnesota, that's probably part of it, but it's like, I rarely ever hear the Angelo Russell's name mentioned anymore. Is that a normal night for him or did he just happen to go off on us? I'm thinking it's, he just happened to go off on us. And again, all you gotta do is not let that happen. And most likely, that game goes a little bit more in your favor.
Individual Performances Amid Losses
00:05:27
Speaker
And they just had some bad losses out on the road. And Sacramento and Minnesota are the two,
00:05:32
Speaker
And I feel like that Warriors game could have very easily shifted our way if just there was a little bit better defense. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I said, I didn't get to see very many of these games because I was on the road, but D'Angelo Russell going off. It wasn't just that D'Angelo Russell scored 30. He did it shooting 11 for 13. Yeah. I mean that. Yeah. Super efficient. I mean.
00:05:55
Speaker
Very efficient, very efficient. And Russell's a good, I mean, he's a good player, don't get me wrong. Oh, yeah. He's more of an under the raider player. You still got Carlton's Anthony out there. Anthony Edwards, who didn't really do much that game, kind of had a quiet game, but they have some pieces, right? And it's the NBA, so any team can beat you on any given night. But it's just you have to find a way to overcome in those type of games.
00:06:18
Speaker
And unfortunately, the Cavs weren't able to do it. That was the game Mitchell was out. Garland tried. Garland went for 51 points, which is amazing, right? That's great. He put up 27 in the fourth quarter, which I heard was a new Cavalier franchise record, beating LeBron's 26 point previous held record.
00:06:37
Speaker
But it's hard to even celebrate those things when, you know, when you lose the game at the end of the day, especially on social media, you'll get eaten alive. Well, they were they were down by so much. They were down. I can remember what they were down by 21, maybe more. It was up there. It was up there. Yeah. Yeah. And Garland just went video game. He hit 10 three pointers. That's insane.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, very insane. And it was a great effort. And again, I feel like unfortunately Mitchell wasn't there. Maybe that would have played a factor too. But just unfortunate that you battle all the way back, but you can't get over the hump. That's gotta be a little bit deflating.
00:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, especially since you already lost a couple other games and and you know, the cows are still losing They come back home finally to face the bucks, you know, that wasn't going to be an easy game by any means And and they dropped that one as well. So five game losing streak and I
00:07:35
Speaker
I never would have imagined this year that we would have had a five game losing streak. I pictured this year being like maybe one or two instances of a three game losing streak and that's it. Nothing else passed two games. Yeah. Yeah. I still I still wonder like what happened or or what is the cause of this? You know, is it is it getting cheated out of that Clippers win has stuck with them? Is it
00:08:02
Speaker
losing Mitchell and Allen for a few games that hasn't messed up. Is it the West Coast trip? You know, they started that West Coast trip good with a win at the Lakers. And ever since then, they couldn't get a win. You know, maybe it was those 10 p.m.
Emerging Players and Inconsistencies
00:08:16
Speaker
games. I don't know. Maybe they partied too hard in L.A. You know, it's hard to say. Right. Right. And it's tough, too. I mean, I'm looking at the box scores and you kind of have some
00:08:28
Speaker
You know, one of the good things we talk about this team is that it can be anybody on any given night. In the last episode, we were raving about, you know, Lavert and Mitchell who go off for 40, 42, 45 each or whatever against that Boston game. And I'm looking at the box score for the Bucks. You know, he had two points in 20 minutes. You know what I mean? And yeah, Garland and Mitchell and Mobley all had 20 plus, but it's like, you know, you can't get two points out of your starting small. You need more than two points out of your starting small forward, right? Otherwise it's going to be pretty tough.
00:08:59
Speaker
Akuro still hasn't given us anything. He's continued, in my opinion, the trend in the wrong direction. So red flags are kind of starting to go off there. Kevin Love wasn't able to give you a lot in that Bucks game, five points, some rebounds. Really the only player that has kind of gotten a little bit of an opportunity last couple games and been able to contribute a little bit is Lamar Stephens.
00:09:22
Speaker
with Dean Wade. Dean Wade, Jesus. Dean Wade being out of the rotational last couple of games and Bickerstaff had a quote. I don't have a word for word, but basically he said Lamar Stephens is a rotational player and I need to find a way to get him minutes. And that's probably what he's been able to do here at the last couple of games is probably, you know, warranting that because he is able to come in and give you production off the bench.
00:09:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, what I saw of that last game, Lamar Stephens was diving for loose balls. He was making plays. He was getting steals, getting blocks, grabbing rebounds. It was great to see Lamar Stephens out there. I know he didn't win the game, but he was bringing some energy late in the game, man.
00:10:06
Speaker
He knows what time it is. He knows that if he's going to carve out minutes in this rotation, he has to go all out when he's out there and doing little things like that plays a part. And just going to game back in the Minnesota game, he played 30 minutes that game, gave him 15 points, six rebounds. So, I mean, he's proven much like Dean Wade, I feel like.
Game Recaps and Future Prospects
00:10:27
Speaker
When given the opportunity, he has proven that for the most part, he can contribute on a pretty consistent basis.
00:10:34
Speaker
and you know you have carlin go off for 51 you have steven's chip-in for an unexpected 15 But then you have evan mobley put up four points, you know, and it's just like again, it's just Unfortunately when you don't have a garland there you needs you need that kind of Consistent expected scoring from someone like a mobley someone like a kevin love Etc. Otherwise it becomes difficult to win to win games and this was just I mean you gave up 129 points to minnesota. So that's just
00:11:04
Speaker
It's just a bad defensive effort all around to give up to give up that many points in the first place. Yeah, I mean, I think that was the shift from Mobley who's been playing power forward all season. They moved him to center because Allen's out and I think that is part of the problem there.
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah, and don't get me wrong. I mean, mobile has had some good games, I feel. The Warriors game, I thought it was 20 and 13. That's solid, you know? Going back to that Detroit game, which I know feels like forever ago now, he had eight blocks that game, eight. It was amazing. I watched just about every minute of that game, which was great. And I'm just jumping out of my couch, basically, because he's just blocking everybody.
00:11:49
Speaker
And, you know, you could see the talent there. We all saw it last year, and it's just you want to see it consistently. Right. And we're having some moments where he's not able, you know, able to kind of contribute consistently to where you feel like he's going to be your
00:12:05
Speaker
your third guy, right? It's going to be Mitchell Garland and Mobley. That's going to be the show. And some nights it is, but some nights it's not. And he's a second year player. He's still young and he's got plenty of time to grow and get into that consistent role.
00:12:24
Speaker
Um, he's had some, he's had some good games. He's had some bad games. Let's just put it to you that way. Yeah. Which game was it? He had eight blocks. Detroit. Detroit. In Detroit. In Detroit. It was awesome. He was blocking fools all over the place. Yeah. I'll have to look for a highlight reel on that. Yeah. Yeah. It was, the Detroit game was, was.
00:12:42
Speaker
It was a fun game because of that. Detroit was kind of a thorn in our side last year. If you recall, there was a couple bottom feeder teams that just had our number. New York, Detroit was one of them. Toronto gave us a hard time last year and it felt good getting that win against Detroit and then kind of in the fashion that it did because it had to be so deflating.
00:13:06
Speaker
Um, Kevin Love was having a great game. I think that was the game where he was a rebound or two away from a triple double as well. So, um, but then he had the Lakers game happened and, you know, we pull out the wind there, but then it's, it's kind of been downhill from there. And that Lakers game feels like an attorney to go now as a result, you know?
00:13:26
Speaker
The good news is, is they play the Hornets next. They got the Hornets and they got the Heat, the Bulls, Portland. So I mean, you know, the schedule doesn't get any easier per se, but the Hornets is a winnable game and a game to get back on track.
00:13:42
Speaker
And they need to win that game, but then they also need to go against Miami, the Bulls, and remember, they crushed the Bulls earlier in the season. And they need to get back on the winning side of things, build their confidence back up, and start to string some wins again. Yeah, here's hoping for
Fan Experience and Game Costs
00:13:58
Speaker
a win against the Hornets. That's the game tomorrow, Friday, probably. If you're listening to this, I'll probably post this tomorrow on Friday, so today.
00:14:08
Speaker
That's also the salute to service game to honor military veterans. It's a game I typically go to and always have a blast at going to that game. I think I've gone to that game the past
00:14:22
Speaker
I don't know, four or five years in a row, but I think this will be the first time in a few years I don't make it to that game. Yeah, that's too bad. Tickets are a hot commodity this year. Oh my gosh, I was looking at tickets yesterday and it's, yeah.
00:14:38
Speaker
It's a lot. It's not like it was the past couple of years, Cory. Well, it's always a lot when you're trying to take like a family of four or something like that. Even those bleeds will run you a couple hundred at the end of the day between, you know, tickets, parking, the food. And it's not cheap. It's not cheap to go to a game. And I'm sure it's even worse now. You know, it makes me nervous every time I play the Hornets, especially in Cleveland, especially in Cleveland. Michael Jordan? Yeah.
00:15:05
Speaker
Oh. Jordan. Still gives me nightmares, man. No, Terry Roger. Scary Terry. Scary Terry, man. I want to see him on the Cavs someday. But Scary Terry, man, he always has a crowd here in Cleveland when he comes and plays, his family, his friends, whatever, and he tends to show out
00:15:26
Speaker
And he's about the only guy in that team that scares me. And man, there's been some games now, granted, we didn't have the same roster we did now. But I feel like there's been some games in the past where, you know, he's kind of tipped the needle far enough in their corner with his performances. And that's why they've been able to win some games against us. But we'll see. It's a game they need to win.
00:15:49
Speaker
They got to figure
Defensive Struggles and Optimism
00:15:50
Speaker
out a way to win this game. It's at home the crowd will be behind you and The crowd will be itching for and win some should be bringing the energy and you know the Hornets are not that great of a team So it's a great opportunity to bounce back here and get back on the right side of things
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I know we're kind of kicking this dead horse, but I got a stat for you. And I just want to want to get your thoughts on this. Caves have lost five games in a row. Their 30th in defensive rating during that span. They were second before. That is, I mean, that's
00:16:27
Speaker
What's interesting is, is Alan's been out, what, two or three games. So he hasn't been out for the full stint of the losing streak. He was around, I think, up until the Sacramento game. And then he missed Minnesota. He missed the Bucks. Maybe one more in there, whatever. So that tells you that that defensive rating probably started to go down when he was around two a little bit.
00:16:52
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know why that would occur because that was before Alan Wade, you know, all those guys were out. Garland had some bad games cause he's under the weather, but it's not like Garland was the guy that was holding your percentage in a good spot to begin with. You know what I mean? So yeah, I mean, it's tough to win games when you're, you know, basically last in the league from a defensive rating and.
00:17:15
Speaker
All they gotta do is just, just focus again, have a better defensive effort and just maintain that effort moving forward. And I do feel, um, like I'm not all doom and gloom. Like, Oh my gosh, like do we need to be concerned? Do we need to make a trade? You know, the cows not going to be able to do what they need to do. I like, yeah, they're going to get back on the right track. This is still a very good team. They're still going to get to the playoffs. They're still going to make noise this year. They're going to have their ups and downs. They just.
00:17:41
Speaker
This could be the only time they can have this one. Let's just put it to you that way. No more five-game losing streaks after this. Two-game losing streaks, sure. It's gonna happen. Don't string too many of those in a row, whatever. You need to get back on winning five, six games in a row before you lose a game, and no more five-game losing streaks. They'll be all right. Yeah, like you said, this Hornets game is the perfect opportunity for us to get back on track. It's at home. The Hornets are struggling.
00:18:07
Speaker
If Kelly Oubre goes off on us, I'll lose my mind. I was just looking at the roster. I was like, yeah, I'm not. Gordon Hayward, I don't even know if he's playing. I feel like he's injured. Yeah, there's nobody here that I'm too concerned about, but it's the NBA. There's always somebody that's got to score points, right?
00:18:27
Speaker
And there'll be somebody that you're not expecting that gets them some buckets. And the Cavs just got to counter that and keep guys in check and don't let Rosier go off. And it should be a very winnable game.
00:18:41
Speaker
Cheers to that.
00:18:59
Speaker
I think the next one will probably be a ways off. They're not going to cover the five game losing streak. Well, they're going to have to because you know what, you can't you got to cover the struggles too. And you know what, I wouldn't be surprised if an episode is posted the day we post this episode. All the videos are hype videos. I can't think of one that that's like negative, you know, or covers a struggling time period.
00:19:25
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. We'll see, it'll be interesting. But did you get a chance to watch the latest one? Yeah, yeah, I did. What did you think of it? It was short. Yeah, I think it was only like eight minutes and it kind of showed some highlights from the Celtics game, which was cool. Yeah, I mean, it was okay, nothing to write home about.
00:19:52
Speaker
Yeah, it was all basically just kind of recap videos. Yeah, the second Boston game, then the Detroit game, you know, and it was cool after that because, you know, the junkyard dog chain thing, instead of giving it to one player, bigger staff gave it to the whole team, because it was a team effort.
Team Spirit and History
00:20:13
Speaker
I mean, like I just said, well, we went off for eight blocks, Kevin Love almost gives triple double, but it was,
00:20:18
Speaker
It was a team effort that game like Chetty's making, you know three pointers and stuff like that and just It was a good team win. So I thought that was cool. And then they talked about the Lakers game and What was really fun about the Lakers team Lakers game win and they show this at the very end of the video
00:20:39
Speaker
is the Lakers were in that game. I don't know what it is, but Russell Westbrook always seems to have good games against the Cavs. You know, LeBron's doing his thing and just whatever. It was a game, right? And bigger staff must have had a heck of a halftime speech.
00:20:56
Speaker
The Cavs turn around from a defensive effort and win the game. This is in the video. Bigger staff's going to award the chain to whoever's supposed to get it, and he goes to the box where it's at, and he says it's not there. Kevin Love springs up. You would have no idea.
00:21:17
Speaker
freaking 34 years old springs up starts yelling and he says something along the lines of after that f-ing halftime speech and uh you know the confidence and all that stuff we're we're giving this one to you you know as far as the junkyard train chain and man that just just watching that again i his smile came back to my face just like when it did when i first saw that after that night
00:21:43
Speaker
right just gave me just gave me the feels man it's just like it just tells you how together this team is and that's why i think they're gonna ultimately be okay and come out of this but picker staff puts the chain on you know how they take the picture out yeah i love that moment oh man that was that that was awesome man bigger staff crouches down and strikes a pose just like they always do it's absolutely hilarious it's hilarious every time they do that just i i can spend 10 minutes just staring at the picture and just
00:22:09
Speaker
looking at each player's individual like facial expression and it's it's hilarious man yeah and the only the only thing i'll the only thing i'll knock bickerstaff on that he did a bad job of is he covered up the chain in the picture though the way he was posing yeah but uh other than that that was that was really cool they all jump on them and they're all yelling and stuff yeah they're all rubbing his bald head like that was awesome it's a great moment yeah
00:22:34
Speaker
Yeah, totally a great moment. So it was a quick episode, but it was a good episode because it's basically the last time the Cavs had a string of wins. And if you want to remember what that feels like, watch the latest episode of the Cavs Road Back. Yeah, I mean, it's a hype video. It'll get you psyched.
00:22:52
Speaker
right right um another thing i wanted to call out quick shout out to kevin love i did see i don't recall during what what game had happened um i know it was a game or two back so maybe around uh the minnesota game or maybe the warriors game somewhere around there kevin love man he's been around for a while this is his eighth year with the squad so he's he's moving up in the record books alex
00:23:14
Speaker
He moved up to number three all time For defensive rebounds and have a year's history. Yeah, that is pretty sweet one day i'm gonna have to look up Where else he ranks, you know, i'm just wondering how many other areas is he in the is he creeping into the top tens? You know eight years is a long time alex especially these days Yeah, so i'm curious if he's if he's like is he in top 10 yet for scoring and maybe he is maybe he isn't um three pointers, you know just
00:23:42
Speaker
Man, just, so just shout out to him, you know, moving up in the record books, you know, making just continues to add on to the case to probably get that number retired one day and happy for Kevin Love. You said you were asking, you were asking who was number one and number two, right? Right, yeah. So he had just passed big Z, love big Z, man. So he passes big Z and number two, if I'm not mistaken, was Brad Doherty and number one is still LeBron.
00:24:11
Speaker
Um, at like 5,000 153 or something like that rebounds. Kay loves a little over 3000 now. So he's got a way to catch those guys. I don't know if he'll get there, but, uh, yeah, you seem surprised that, uh, that was number one and number two. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know who I thought would be up there, but I, you know, I was surprised. Tyrone Hill.
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah. Tristan, Tristan Thompson, he's got to be up there. I mean, yeah, I mean, Tristan's popped into my mind, but... Andy? No, he didn't. He was hurt most of his career. He didn't hardly play at all. Yeah, it's like Windler, right? Who?
00:24:55
Speaker
Who said? I've only heard his name being whispered by fans in dark alleys. I'm not sure he even exists at this point. I'm very surprised he's still here to be honest with you. I think I remember seeing him play once. It might have been summer league of his rookie year.
00:25:13
Speaker
Right, right, right. You're reminding me, I don't know if I mentioned this on the podcast before, but talking about these records, there's a website called Land of Basketball. It's landofbasketball.com, where you can choose a player.
Appreciation for Underrated Players
00:25:29
Speaker
and then hit comparison and then choose another player and it puts all their stats side by side and all their accomplishments. How many rings they've won, MVPs, defensive player of year, offensive player of the year, points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game, anything you can imagine. Yeah, it puts them all side by side so you can kind of like directly compare player against player. Like I'm looking at it. Is it only Cavs players or is there any? No, no, it's any player in the NBA
00:25:56
Speaker
All right. So you can compare him to Michael Jordan or something? Yeah. I'm in it right now. I have Donovan Mitchell selected. I'm just scrolling through the list of players. They have Donovan Mitchell verse. I just tapped Monta Ellis for the hell of it. So I'm looking at Monta Ellis versus Donovan Mitchell. How's it stacking up? Because Montay back in the day, man, he was a bucket.
00:26:19
Speaker
You know, well, Monta Ellis played for quite a number of years more than Donovan Mitchell has, right? So when you're looking at... Overall, Monta Ellis played 12 seasons, Donovan Mitchell only played six seasons, but Monta Ellis was in sixth playoff and Donovan Mitchell was in five. Donovan Mitchell had three All-Star games, Monta Ellis zero, and then you get down to like stats per game.
00:26:48
Speaker
And Donovan Mitchell is dominating Monta Ellis in those individual per game categories. In the totals, Monta Ellis has more because he played twice as many seasons. But very cool website. Highly recommend you check it out. It's fun. If you're a stats geek like me, it's fun to check out and compare player versus player. Definitely. And I know this is a Cavs podcast, but it's always fun to hear kind of the random
00:27:16
Speaker
players that were, like I said, walking buckets are pretty good, but don't really get brought up
NBA 2K Experiences
00:27:21
Speaker
very much. And Monty Ellis is definitely one of those guys, um, another guy that kind of falls in that same category. And I just saw something, some stat on Facebook, uh, like a day or two ago, he made, it was like 13 years ago, he made his debut or something like that.
00:27:36
Speaker
Or during his rookie year, he put up, what was it? I don't know, 50 points or something like that against the Warriors. And that was Brandon Jennings. Remember Brandon Jennings? Oh, man. You haven't heard that name in a while. In a long time, right? And then I go down the path more. It's like Monte Ellis, Brandon Jennings, OJ Mayo, who was in and out of the league for a while. But again, another walking bucket.
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah, Jamal Crawford, you know, like I go down that path of like and Jamal gets probably the most respect and brought up the most out of any of those four players, but it's just Man, like I want to go watch like a Monte Ellis highlight reel now because you know, they're out there or a branding Jennings highlight reel because it's just something different and It's just yeah, just those players that just don't typically get a ton of love but man. Yeah, they were they were solid back in the day and
00:28:23
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And very cool. Very cool mentioning that site. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I just tapped on Darius Garland versus Donovan Mitchell. And, uh, boy Mitchell's Mitchell's got them on every stat except one. And that's a CIS per game. Really? Yeah. You mean three pointers? Uh, three point percentage Garland has the edge.
00:28:47
Speaker
Okay. Okay. I was going to say it's probably close, but I feel like Garland would have had the edge on him for sure. Yeah. So it'd be cool if one of those two got in the three point contest. Yeah. The All-Star game. Yeah, would be. Yeah. I would still love to see Kevin Love there too though, but yeah, we need somebody to go.
00:29:10
Speaker
Well, hey, I wanted to bring up something else fun, because we're done talking about the Cavs losing here, right, for a little bit. So, you know, we've talked about this before. We both, we both play video games a lot. And, you know, we love basketball and we love the Cavs. And as a result, we play 2K and stuff like that. It's the only game out on the market these days. So kind of your only choice. But I was, I talked of, I don't know, three or four or five episodes back that I was playing the My Era mode.
00:29:37
Speaker
And I'm still doing that. I started with the 8283 Cavs, World B Free, Phil Hubbard, John Bagley, and I'm still progressing through that. I'll play a couple games, simulate a bunch of games, basically get to the playoffs, play the playoffs all the way through, and have fun managing everything. Yeah, so you're constantly drafting and trading for new players and stuff, right? Oh, yeah. Is it really still the Cavs if you're building the roster out with all these other players?
00:30:06
Speaker
Well, you're using the Cavs branding, logo, and all that stuff, but the whole point of my era is absolutely, you're changing the course of history. I think I've said before, Michael Jordan isn't on the Bulls, he got attracted to the 76ers, already won a championship, he's paired up with Moses Malone. Oh man, that's crazy. Yeah, and Julius Irving was already there because by the 82-83 season, he was already on the roster.
00:30:31
Speaker
So you have crazy stuff like that, right? But what I've done for the most part is I'm adding former Cavs players to my roster through trades, through free agency, through the drafts and stuff like that. All right. All right. All right. So I've had some successful seasons, but then get knocked off or I have some bad seasons and I miss the playoffs, but get a high draft pick.
00:30:56
Speaker
And I drafted Kevin Johnson and Reggie Lewis in the same draft. And that was my new starting backcourt. And that's when everything changed. And, you know, Reggie Lewis, of course, didn't play for the Cavs ever, but, you know, we all know the story of Reggie Lewis. You know, we all think he would have been a great player and he's been really fun to play with. But I'm up to the 1989 season
00:31:20
Speaker
have a very good squad. I'm going to list off the top of my roster here. I have Hot Rod Williams at my starting power forward. I have Mark West, who never played for the Cavs but a solid big, had some good years when he was out in the Phoenix Suns.
00:31:38
Speaker
I have Gerald Wilkins, former Cavalier player in the early 90s. I have Kevin Johnson as my point guard and Reggie Lewis. And then coming off my bench, I have Michael Cage. Remember Michael Cage with the Jerry Curls? Yeah, powerful. Yeah, yeah.
00:31:56
Speaker
I have John Bagley still. He's still there at the back of point guard. Thunder Dan. I drafted Thunder Dan in the crowd. Awesome. And then I have Jeff Cook, who believe it or not, nobody knows who that is, but he did actually play for the Cavs. Mark Bryant, another big, never played for the Cavs, but he was an NBA player, and then Vinny Del Negro. So pretty solid group, right? And I have a very good season in the 1989 season. I think I was the second seed overall.
00:32:25
Speaker
And I make it all the way to the finals. And I'm battling against the Houston Rockets who have Carl Malone, Jerome Kersey, Isaiah Thomas. And this is what happens with My Era modes is, you know, everything's just out of whack. And
00:32:44
Speaker
I sent you the video, Alex, before we started recording. Yeah. I'm down in game five. I'm down by two points. There's three seconds left and I have the ball. Mark West inbounds the ball to Dan Marley, who catches it, takes about three steps back behind the three-point line.
00:33:06
Speaker
I jack it up at the buzzard. It goes in. And my jaw just dropped. Just dropped. And 2K did a pretty good job. The crowd goes nuts. There's a nice about two minute highlight reel and ceremony and all that stuff. And Kevin Johnson gets handed the trophy by David Stern because David Stern was the commissioner at that time.
00:33:31
Speaker
shakes his head like in disbelief. He's got Hot Rod and the team behind him all clapping and cheering and stuff, and he hoists that thing above his head. The crowd's still going nuts, and man, talk about fun. Winning a championship 1989 cap season, and Hot Rod Williams was the finals MVP.
00:33:52
Speaker
I'm looking forward to running a back-out. So you do draft some Cavs players there. If you got Dan Marley, even though he was only on the Cavs briefly, did you go after Bill Lambier or Sean Kemp? You know what? Bill Lambier has come up in some trades, but they wanted a hefty price tag. And I thought about doing it just for you, but I haven't pulled the trigger. I figured out why until he gets a little bit older and his trading value goes down here in a couple of years.
00:34:22
Speaker
But and I did try to go after Sean Kemp, who I really want to add. But, you know, with being the second seed, you know, I didn't have a chance to draft them. And one thing I will say that I'm kind of impressed with is it's tough, man. You cannot you cannot get one over on the CPU with trades. They're pretty tough. You can't just give up, you know, I can't just give up Michael Cage and get Sean Kemp back.
00:34:47
Speaker
You know, I have to give up quite a bit to get these guys. So I missed out on drafting camp, but I'm going to try to trade for him at some point. I want to get Tyrell at some point. Heck, I even want to get Harold Miner at some point. I love drafting players, too. Like Thunder Dan has never really been in a 2K game, a recent 2K game that I can think of.
00:35:07
Speaker
I don't even think he's on the all-time heats Team because just how stacked the heat team has been think of LeBron and Chris Bosch Dwayne Wade right and then you had like the Alonzo morning era with Tim Hardaway and Glenn Rice and
00:35:23
Speaker
Like Dan Marley is never in the 2K game. So when I saw him in there, I'm like, oh, I'm drafting him. I don't care. He only played one year for the Cavs. I'm taking him. And I'll do the same thing with Harold Miner. I'll put myself in a position to get him whenever he comes up in like the 92, 93 draft. But it's fun. It's fun playing the games. It's fun revisiting, playing with old Cavs players.
Recommendations and Conclusion
00:35:46
Speaker
If you're a 2K player and you played my era mode, you also know that they have
00:35:51
Speaker
The stadiums and broadcasts look like from that era. Um, even you said, like when I sent you the clip, you're like, Oh wow, it looks, it looks like the eighties. You know what I mean? So that's very cool, but it also looks like an old school broadcast. Yeah. Yeah. But it also kind of has that strategy to it too. Like you got to build out your team. You got to build out your roster through smart trades. You're going to have to give up something to get something good back. You have to draft good.
00:36:16
Speaker
and things like that. And it's been fun. And I've already gotten through the off season. And I did lose some key players. I unfortunately lost Hot Rod Williams to Free Agency. And I lost Gerald Wilkins. But I did add Larry Nance and Craig Elo. And I drafted, I'm already regretting this, but I drafted Danny Ferry. Oh, nice.
00:36:44
Speaker
Oh boy. I met Danny Ferry once. I told you that. Yeah, you did tell that story a long time ago. While we're off the subject of the Cavs, I watched the Redeem team documentary that's on Netflix.
00:37:01
Speaker
Yes. Very good. Yeah. Yeah. Highly recommend it. It's awesome. And it's not just about the redeem team. At the very beginning, they go all the way back, right? And they show clips of Team USA. I mean, I mean way back. Even before the...
00:37:17
Speaker
before the Dream Team. No, Mark Price wasn't in it. But even before the Dream Team. No Dream Team to love. No Dream Team to love. The Dream Team is in it a little bit. Like they talk about the Dream Team and they show some little clips, but they go back to like, they start back, you know, back when Team USA basketball was all college players. And they talked about how even with just college players, we were dominating. And then
00:37:42
Speaker
You know, because basketball was a sport that was invented in the United States, like obviously we were the best at it and all the other countries were trying to catch up and they finally caught up. And we lost to Russia. I think we lost to Russia. Our college players did one Olympic. And that's when they said, OK, let's send our best. So they recruited NBA players. And that's when you had the dream team.
00:38:10
Speaker
we just rolled through everyone, right? And then we got to Athens in 2004. And yeah, I mean, that's when we got the bronze and that's what the whole documentary is about is how they, you know, they kicked kind of Coach Larry Brown to the side. They brought in Coach K. They, yeah, they recruited Kobe. And there's a lot of talk about how they got Kobe to
00:38:37
Speaker
who was kind of a pry at the time because everything that Kobe went through at that time and how they got him to fit in with the team. And yeah, highly recommend it. Very good documentary. If you're a basketball NBA fan at all, which you are, if you're listening to this podcast, you got to go watch it. Yeah, I've been meaning to watch that one. And I
00:38:55
Speaker
I heard, I believe there's an and one mixed tape documentary on there, like the rise and fall of and one that I've been meaning to watch as well. So I got to get those two queued up and. Yeah, I need to watch that too. Yeah, definitely. All right, Alex. Well, good stuff. As always, let's go ahead and wrap up this episode of the cast pick and roll podcast. I want to thank the cast fans as always for tuning in and listening and Alex, you want to let them know where they can follow us and connect with us.
00:39:23
Speaker
Follow us on Twitter, at calvespickandroll. Shoot us an email through our Gmail, calvespickandrollatgmail.com. Wherever you're listening, click like, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we'd appreciate it. All right, CAS fans, there it is. We will talk to you again soon. Peace out, CAS fans.