Podcap: Cavs 113, Sixers 91 (or, A Brief History of Time)
2017-11-28https://soundcloud.com/ctb-5/episode-152-a-brief-history-of-time
What does Stephen Hawking have to do with the Cavs’ decisive victory over the Philadelphia 76ers tonight, their eighth win in as many games? Well, you’ll have to listen to the podcap to fully appreciate and consummate the answer. Needless to say, just like time itself… the fortunes of these teams have followed a process (with a capital “P” for the Sixers over the past few seasons, and a lowercase one for the Cavs over the past few weeks).
While some thought the upstart Sixers, led by Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons would be more than a handful for the more aged veteran Cavaliers (we tried out a few names for the bench bunch like “Geezer Gang” and “Zero Celsius” the “Anti Black Hole”… other suggestions welcome in the comments), Cleveland hit Philly with a large dose of LeBron James before the bench chipped in their 55 points to ice the runaway win. LeBron dropped 30 in 31 minutes, Vintage Wade was in the house, Jeff Green picked up a double double and Channing Frye completely OWNED The Process.
Nate and Tom hopped in the booth to discuss these developments and many more topics ranging from the win streak, to the unceremonious firing of David Fizdale, to who the Cavs might still target as a mid-season pickup, to the quantum physics of why Derrick Rose is a basketball black hole. Though EG also tried to chime in, he was thwarted by his own technology, ultimately having to resort to “Evil Hawking” mode with Nate translating.
Catch all of this bizarro episode above, or as always on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts or Google Play, and big props to hero to millions and one of the foremost minds of 20th and 21st centuries, Steven Hawking. Much love and admiration to you
(And, yes David, we even spent an obligatory section on lawn care…)
If we could keep Whiteside off the offensive glass, they would have zero points. Love on fire early, only missed the heat check.
Calderon just got 2 quickies on Dragic.
The nickname is The Dinobots. Channing referenced it last night and Allie had no idea what he was talking about.
That takes care of that.
Dinobots it is.
Dinobots is perfect. So is DWade now known as Grimlock?
Has to be. I’d say Channing is Slag, KK is sludge, and Green is Swoop…
Wasn’t there one more?
Grimlock – The team leader. Transforms into a Tyrannosaurus.
Slag – The second-in-command. Transforms into a Triceratops.
Sludge – The logistician. Transforms into an Apatosaurus.
Snarl – The analyst, engineer, and medic. Transforms into a Stegosaurus.
Swoop – The scout. Transforms into a Pteranodon.
Wade must e Grimlock. Green is the only one doing any Swooping of those 4.
We may have to wait on assigning Korver & Frye specific names until we know if there will be a consistent 5th member or not.
If you push me, Frye has to be the Apotosaurus.
Does that mean Shump is Snarl for the time being?
Grimlock…
If LeBron commits, then we can talk about trading picks. If not, keep them both.
BTW, I am not trading Frye. His skills are almost unique & he is the best shooter on the team not named Korver.
I feel like we could use another lengthy wing power forward that can shoot threes. Feel like the more of those we have to matchup with Durant on d the better. Or another decent backup point that can defend. Those are the only pieces I might try to get. Unless a superstar falls into their lap, I wouldn’t use the Brooklyn pick.
If y’all don’t mind, I’d just as soon NOT ” consummate the answer.”
Hey man, that’s your choice ;)
Love to see LeBron and Wade get the night off tonight. Maybe Korver
Winning streaks are fun, but gotta keep May-June in mind
Agreed.
Neither played big minutes last night… no reason to sit them this early in the season…
Still a back to back. Cavs roll to finals if rested and healthy, need to find nights off
Plenty of other teams to give them a night off against coming up like Atl, Chi or Sac…
Agree 100%. Though the Kings did get the Dubs the other night. Ye of little faith. NBA loss column: 4 = Rockets, Celtics 6 = Dubs, Pistons 7 = Cavs, Spurs, Raptors A lot of those tems have been missing significant piece(s) and/or have a ton of new players. Kind of amazing. Dubs & Raps are the exceptions. Pistons swapped Bradley in for Caldwell Pope. C’s have 4 players returning & lose Hayward in game 1. Rockets lose Paul & have adjustments to make with him & Harden. Spurs with Leonard & Parker out. Us with IT out & TT/… Read more »
Honestly, I’d rather them lose a relatively meaningless game to Sacto than a matchup with an EC team they might see in the first round to give them any confidence…
No Curry No Durant in the loss. We should sit guys against the Suns, Bulls, and non Brooklyn cellar dwellars
Wademan and the Masters of the Benchiverse. It’s perfect.
Lue says he won’t play more than 10 guys, & that 10 is difficult. Nine are easy.
Starters: IT, JR, Bron, Crowder, Love.
Dinobots: Wade, Korver, Green, Frye
Floating #10: TT, Shump, Calderon/Rose,
Cedi (depends on matchup, how game develops, etc).
It sucks for TT, Shump, & Rose but I think they are going to be matchup or spot players. The chemistry is just too good with the other guys. When a guy has a knock or needs a rest, which will be often, it will be great to have players like that available.
I think if Lue actually feels this way and wasn’t just spewing momentary thoughts, this leaves the door wide open to ship use TT in a trade, which means we can go after higher salary players because TT’s salary makes those easier to match up with. Not that I really even want to get rid of TT. I still think he’s the TT of old and not the TT we saw early in the year this year. However…I don’t know where you fit him into the current rotation because we absolutely must have Frye on the court with the bench… Read more »
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y8xlsuzm
Plus the Cavs 2018 First
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y9zgrw7z
Plus the Cavs 2018 First
Nice too see Arch back! I wouldn’t give up a first for Koufos. Plus, then you have TT, Koufos, & Zizic all sitting.
Plus, Shump is still useful in spots & can defend PGs. Let’s see how he reacts to being #10-#12 on the depth chart before we jettison him.
Why do you keep trying to give away first round picks? Nobody would make this trade.
A late first round pick?
Nice piece from Fedor arguing Frye should keep his spot in the rotation after TT returns.
https://articles.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2017/11/channing_frye_belongs_in_caval.amp
Notes Frye has the best DRtg on the team. And notes the Core 4 (Fantastic Four?) have an insanely good DRtg over the streak.
Frye has floated Dinobots as a group name for the reserves.
Agree. His shooting is to valuable in that second unit.
Too
We are 0-3 on tail end of b2bs so far this year. All in October. Lost to Orlando 114-93 at home after clubbing the Bucks on the road 116-97. Lost at Brooklyn 112-107 after beating the baby Bulls 119-112 at the Q. Got crushed by the Knicks 114-95 at the Q after getting crushed by the Pels in NO 123-101. These games were immediately after Brooklyn loss & we folloed them by losing to Indy by 17 at the Q. Hopefully we take both this time. B2bs by month: Oct = 3 (2-4) Nov = 1 (1-0) Dec =2 Jan… Read more »
We could go with the Geriatric Herculoids. Or the G-Hercs playing off of the G-League.
How about the “New Herculoids” for the current bench bunch? Or, “the Hercs” for short?
I don’t recall who coined the original term “Herculoids”, but it has been probably the best “CtB neologism” ever.
Not sure I want to listen to Evil’s real voice after this hahaha….entertaining pod for sure. Definitely agree about Lebron just being super efficient. Also the bench unit has been very good lately which is nice to see and allows for Lebron to have more rest.
I think Nate is right about the Kerr-Jordan thing. I thought Zach Lowe talked about it on one of his pods with the guy who wrote the Jordan book.
jmay agree with you on ty—finally got some emotion from him —was great to see some “fire “—–let’s time warp back to the beginning of the season when the word from coaching staff was –” channing will probably not see a whole lot of playing time “—-thankful ty chose to “eat his words ” and that channing is such a professional that he is always ready to deliver ——am still optimistic that drose with the right attitude / used correctly could be of help —but also if we could get some value in a trade ( throw in shump )… Read more »
Absolutely LOVED seeing Lue slam his hand down. Most emotion I’ve seen from him ever.
And on the chalk table for full effect!
Couldn’t have planned it better myself.
Was just missing ‘Take THAT for data!’
For sure. I was shocked. Would like to see more of that.
Fun podcast. Jeff Green has certainly been a very pleasant surprise as you discussed. That stable four man second unit should hopefully continue to push down LeBron’s minutes as the season progresses too. As Rick below mentioned, a few write-ups gave Crowder credit for his defense on Simmons. I was so annoyed at Crowder’s atrocious play on offense that maybe I missed watching closely his effort on Simmons. Neither AC or Fred highlighted Crowder’s defense on the broadcast. Last year with the Celts, Crowder averaged 14 pts with 6 boards and so far this year just 9/3. He has to… Read more »
I think Crowder will get there. His 3 ball has been off, which looking at the stats you quoted makes all the difference from a scoring perspective. I did expect him to be more physical inside though. With the whole team starting to know where they are supposed to be, I think his numbers will come right back. And hey, remember how awful JR was a few short weeks ago?
And speaking of Dr Who:
https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/17/11/27/2246249/tom-baker-returns-to-finish-shelved-doctor-who-episodes-penned-by-douglas-adams
Great Pod!
Looking forward to listening tomorrow. 2 things:
1) Wade gets to have like 3-4 wtf moments per game because he’s D Wade I guess. Also it wasn’t his fault but he blew a dunk on what would have been our best play all season (LB–>Korver–>someone–>cutting Wade)
2) $10 the team will be playing that Korver Frye fast break over and over for sh**s
Nice EG. Though I think the Old & Raining Treys bunch combined for 57 to the starters 56. Anywhoo, we were a slight positive with Bron off the floor, for the year, before this game. Bit bigger now.
9 minutes in and I am crying. Thanks fellas! Effing hilarious.
ESPN’s story praised Crowder for his D on Simmons – did you guys see that? http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/21592211/sixers-ben-simmons-struggles-leaving-cavs-game-ankle-injury