Playoff Podcap: Cleveland 105, Indiana 101 (or, The Association’s Best)
2018-04-30https://soundcloud.com/ctb-5/episode-169-the-associations-best
After an exhausting, maddening, thrilling, nail-biting series, the Cleveland Cavaliers emerged victorious over the Indiana Pacers in a series that saw Indy outscore the Cavs by 40 points over seven games (courtesy of two blowouts). LeBron James proved that he is simply the best basketball player on this planet scoring 45 points on 72 TS% while adding nine rebounds, and four steals.
The wine and gold got a very unexpected contribution from Tristan Thompson who started the game after being buried on the bench, and who went off for 15 points, 10 rebounds, and one monstrous block on Victor Oladipo late that helped preserve the victory. The Cavs also got 14 from Kevin love who returned to form a bit at 4-8 from downtown. Cleveland held off a furious charge from Victor Oladipo who dropped 30 with 12 boards and six assists. It was an exhausting game that saw a few lead change until a furious comeback in the third gave Indy the lead briefly in the third, until Cleveland was able to hold them at bay to close out the fourth
Tom, Nate Smith, and Right Down Euclid (the first) dropped into the podcast booth to break down the game, the NBA, and the next series: our simple conclusion? LeBron is the best player in the whole danged association. We broke this down and so much more.
As always, you can catch us above, on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts or Google Play.
Note: Please let me sincerely apologize for the audio sync issues that are most pronounced during the middle of this pod. We tried out a new software to improve the quality and while the sound quality was better, the sync issues were frustrating and ultimately unfixable. We will do better.
I could easily see the cavs getting blown out tonight a la game 1 last series but for different reasons. If the cavs are tired they could get routed the same way as if they were not prepared and not taking the game seriously like last round. If they are down big (over 25 at the end of the third or down 20 midway thru the fourth) I wouldn’t mind Lue conceding a little bit early to keep people fresher for game 2 and getting Cedi and Zizic some sustained run. If the game feels out of hand, I don’t… Read more »
Wow. That was quick!
He’s gone full Playoff P – disappearing immediately!
That article is pretty thin.
He probably is leaving, but not totally buying this yet.
I would say he should sign with Philly, but I think that would be difficult unless Philly renounced Reddick’s rights and Johnson’s rights to clear their cap holds. As of right now they will have 44 million in cap holds, Reddick comprising 27 mil, Johnson comprising 13 mil, and Ersan and Bellinelli with 1.5 mil each. That would clear the space for a max. However, I am not sure whether they would have to resign Bellinelli and Ersan prior to signing PG. If they did, it is likely those guys will likely get at least get 5-10 million a year… Read more »
Really good piece on the bizarre Kawhi situation. His uncle sounds like a Diva.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23366667/inside-tension-kawhi-leonard-spurs
Is his uncle Dredrick Irving?
LOL I was thinking the same thing!
Good News: None of the teams left in the EC, will match up as well as Thad Young did with Kevin Love.
Bad News: Its still Kevin Love
Exactly lol
He’ll do better against Toronto, especially if Hill plays.
Saric is pretty mobile and could create problems for him in other ways
This will never happen but I would be tempted to just rest LeBron Onik. Surrender came on. Have him ready to go strong the next games. He only had one day off and then was a travel day. International travel.
This voice to text thing isn’t perfect is it?
I think it improves things. ‘Surrender came on.’ is a very profound sentence…
And LeBron Onik is a great cyborg name…
Ha. This made me laugh.
Hey, I’m a scientist & know that stats may not show the full picture. But this graph is really something. Cavs still alive….
wow, pacers are a much better team than us
Problem is that isn’t that based off one series and subsequently one opponent for each team? In other words we have no idea how much the competition for each team plays a role in those numbers. The pacers could be mediocre playoff team and the Cavs could have made their numbers look good. No way to tell until teams play other teams.
This is the problem with averages. The Cavs conserved energy in games they lost. Pacers were chasing triple doubles. Most of this average was due to one outlier game. Basing things on a seven game sample size is dumb, especially with one obvious outlier.
I make a run at Kawhi if I am Boston.
I’m sure Danny would offer Rozier and the Celtic 2019 1st for him, and the Celtic fanboys would howl that they were giving up ‘too much’…
honestly, i don’t think their front office or fan base wants to trade anyone.
I expect the Raptors to win tonight. If I was Ty Lue I would try to give Hood and Clarkson more opportunities to contribute.
LeBron’s been great but the Cavs aren’t beating the Raptors unless “the others” show up.
I fully expect LBJ to be passing to perimeter shooters for the first quarter & see what happens.
The Sixers didn’t play defense yesterday, they let the Celtics shoot wide open three’s all game.
Celtics were hitting everything, hard to imagine them sustaining that
I was thinking the same but then they only need to hit like that in 4 games and they will win those games with defense being constant.
But most of the Celtics looks were wide open looks. The Sixers defense was pretty bad.
Man. Rest not good for a young team.
Yup….. they lost their rhythm.
Embiid with one of the quietest 31/13 games I’ve ever seen.
How was it quiet?
Philly looks satisfied to have won a playoff series.
They thought it would ne easy with Hayward, Kyrie, and now Brown out. Wrong. Kind of like GSW vs us in 2015. They need to refocus and play HARDER.
Rozier with an all-time performance. unreal
26 in Game 7 and 29 tonight. Horford and Tatum 20+ both games as well.
He’s been really great for them, and, if I’m not mistaken, he’s from Shaker Hts.! As others have noted, if this team wasn’t from Boston, I’d be rooting for them: lots to like! They may well prove particularly scary next year w Kyrie and Hayword alongside their core.
I do hope the Celtics win this series.
Man. Philly playing like garbage.
Embiid has put zero physical pressure on Horford, who has moved freely into all his shots.
Tough environment for a fledgling team. Boston also great game plan… veering defense towards the shooters and allow them anything inside.
If the Cavs make the finals, the NBA has to change it’s logo to this:
I don’t see Kyrie or Hayward on bench. Weird
Terrible body language…already has one foot out the door. Maybe Simmons should write a 16,000 word column on it.
Loved the POD! In defense of Dan Gilbert, he wanted Oladipo in 2013, but Griffin sold Grant on Gum Drop Bear. Griff is somehow given a pass by oh so many, but he was kind of terrible at personelle.
I had not heard that GDB was Griff’s idea. Is that a for sure fact?
Yes pretty sure Griffin admitted that.
He’s openly talked about it on his pod with Zach Lowe (Lowe Post) and a recent pod he had with Woj, maybe a month or so ago. He said that GDB was amazing when he visited him at UNLV but he just wasn’t someone who put in the work when things got hard.
Sixers panicking & chucking. Lack of poise so far in the 4th.
Yup… and Celtics have a TINY lineup out there.
Horford redeems on a terrible double
Tatum should’ve dunked that. Rozier saves the day though.
every time i watch Philly they have a huge 4th quarter run
+41 in 4th qrt against heat
boston defensive strategy dictates Philly should dump it into the post every possession.
Baynes holding his own
Yes he is!!! He’s got the strength not to get bullied by Embiid even though he’s giving up a ton of length.
They should post up Simmons and let him operate there.
or Saric.
Huge 5 point swing there…. Terrible pass by Horford.
The last 3 by 76ers very Warriors like
WHAT A PLAY BY SMART!!!!! GETS THE REBOUND OVER EMBIID THEN FINISHED WITH THE AND ONE!!!!
If it was any team other than the Celtics we would all love this team
This game is why you never trade for any of their scrub players. Because they are scrubs who look good in their system.
Yup.
The resilience, grit, toughness, awareness, and TEAM-ness is off the charts.
yup.
I am rooting for them against Philly and I grew up a Dr J fan.
Just think it is better for the Cavs. Cs play with GSW intensity, if not the skill.
Boston is amazing. Is there another team you would pick to do this missing their #1, #2, and #4 players?
They could still have the #2/#3 pick. If not, they get the Kings pick next year (#1 protected). Plus they have Memphis’ first (protected 1-8) and a lotto protected Clips pick (that probably turns into a second).
The team to knock off the Dubs is Boston/Philly.
They are amazing but I’d give Cavs better chances against Warriors than Celtics
Oh yeah. I wasn’t talking this year, but in the near future.
Starters: Kyrie, Brown, Hayward, Horford, Baynes.
Bench: Rozier, Smart, Tatum, Morris + some incoming lotto picks (Sac/Memphis) and a shot at 2/3 this.
Will be interested to see if the defensive identity of Boston changes when top players come back nest year.
Definitely felt like there was regression to the mean with Kyrie playing.
Horford’s a lame…. flexing after a missed shot because he was fouled.
That looked like a charge all the way. Bad call IMO.
Good TO Stevens. Cut the run off quick.
TO pays off!!!
Horfords working Philly’s bigs.
Marcus Smart gives me hope KLove can turn it around too.
this has always been Marcus Smart though
Love had 3 pretty good games from deep. He was just horrid from 2.
The fact that Saric can body up Horford on D while Embiid just looms under the basket is disturbing
I had no idea Rozier was from Shaker Heights. I love this guy now.
Yup… thought he would fall to the Cavs and I wanted them to draft him. Ended up going 10 picks earlier than I expected.
Still wont be surprised if 76ers win tonight. They have a tendancy to go off hard in the 4th
Man. Watching this game. There is absolutely no reason the Cavs can make the finals. Great note by Chuck about Brad Stephens empowers his players and Ty Lue does the opposite.
Can’t make the finals you mean?
Yes. Sorry Long day.
well Ty empowers some of his players
It is so true.
LeBron is the system. But that means everyone defers to him too much. They never learn how to make plays themselves & Bron has to work too hard. And we tend to stand around & watch too much.
Yup… interesting comment from Chuck. And he was on the money about which teams don’t pass the ball.
what did he say?
He was contrasting the Sixers and Celtics as the best passing teams with the worst… he mentioned the Wizards, OKC, and Cavs among the worst passing teams. Then he criticized Lue along the lines of what Nate paraphrased… that Lue doesn’t “empower” players with an offensive system by which they can create without LBJ.
Boston with a great start. Taking advantage of Philly’s inexperience. Tatum and Rozier playing with confidence at home.
Fighting well, although I got the feeling Philly were starting to warm up by the half. Will be an interesting 3rd.
Simmons just needs to settle in… stop turning the ball over, they can make it a game!
We should have asked for Rozier in the Kyrie deal.
Yup… wasn’t injured and on the wrong side of 30 like IT.
Added a note above. Apologies for the sync isses. .
Love that you guys are always pushing to improve.
Starting lineup is tricky. There are places for Bron to rest (Anunoby & Ibaka) but if TT starts and Hill does not (Bron, JR, KK, Love, TT) either Bron or Korver HAS to guard Lowry or Derozan. I do not like either matchup for extended minutes.
Calderon for Korver is not much better defensively. For TT means Love on Jonas, (OK), Calderon on Lowry (yikes), and Korver on Anunoby/Ibaka (not so good).
Cedi’s length could bother DeRozan some. Or Lowry. Though I am sure Ty will go with JR & Green the most (justifiably so). Hill’s length on Kyle will be a plus. Hood has the length but may be too soft.
Though Ibaka is not nearly the post player Thad Young is when he gets caught in a switch.
hot take: celtics should trade kyrie for kawhi and someone. or trade kyrie for…?
They should let Kyrie walk in free agency after next season…
Klay Thompson.
The correct answer.
Not a chance in hell GS would even consider that. Redundant with curry. Doesn’t fit their offensive system and makes them smaller. Klay fits much better and helps unlock their spacing. In an era where great three point shooting is at a premium, Klay’s value as probably the second best three point shooter in the league based off volume of shots, percentage, quickness of release, and ability to shoot from on the move makes his value skyrocket.
that Intel VR ad with Lebron and the Cavs fans is cliche in the best way
UG. we would/will desperately need Ante against Embiid and we wasted any opportunity to get him ready when we could have totally used him last series
I’ll be pretty surprised if Sixers don’t win this game by 20…
Released the post Treize posted with all the links. Really proud of the legacy of writing on this blog, especially when the Cavs were garbage. Made me miss Colin and Kevin and the golden age of nba blogging!
He really spent some time preparing for this expose, didn’t he? Made me wonder about poster’s identity, given we were promised that a certain someone might return to the blog in May to tell us all how wrong we are about the Cavs… (although it’s May 1st here in Australia but not technically in the US just yet).
I can assure you I am **not** that certain-someone, the perpetual optimist whose mere name will get my post flagged. It’s not hard to use the site’s search tool to recall old posts in under two minutes.
And I totally agree with Nate that the writing on C:tB–both the posts and comments–have been exceptional since the very beginning with John Krolik. Consistently the best NBA read on the web for ten years running, even if I needle it a bit.
Well said – timing just made me curious, that’s all.
Thanks. Sorry if I let myself get triggered.
No worries, those were dark years for all Cavs fans.
Forgot the handle of he who cannot be named was banned in posts. My other comment is awaiting moderation, but what I said was Trey has been around before even during the Co$% era.
Treize, damn autocorrect
There is some serious thread inception going on down below
Watched first half and listened to the second half in Spanish. By the way, Rafael Hernandez Brito is an amazing announcer. Absolutely riveting.
Glad LeBron did what he needed to in order to win. Raptors will be a bit easier. Hoping injuries get healed before ECF.
So LeBron is cramping up, Hill has back spasms and while Love found his stroke from deep in Game 7, his injury seems to be impacting his play. I think we’ll have to start TT again to minimize damage to Love and allow him to roam the perimeter. Maybe rely on Calderon to start the series and work Hill into the mix when it’s a necessity later in the series. Raptors didn’t show me anything against the Wizards that would lead me to believe that they have discovered the mental toughness to beat us. Cavs over Raptors in 6. I’d… Read more »
FWIW, I think the Raptors series will be easier than Indy. Though not easy.
Cavs in 6 assuming Hill can go.
Watch the young Raps play well as we get another team that develops players.
I would be as confident if the teams had even amounts of rest. Cavs have gotta be tired right now, particularly LBJ, and the punishing schedule of the upcoming series will advantage the younger team. Giving me hope is the improved Cavs defence. Yes Bill Simmons, there does seem to be a switch for that end of the floor, at least.
Sorry to have missed this Game 7… was celebrating my son’s last birthday before he heads off to college. Glad the Cavs pulled it out, and great to see a resurgence of 2016 TT. Major props to George Hill for playing through what sounds like a terribly painful back issue. Read somewhere today that Lue didn’t play him in the first half, and played him all those consecutive minutes in the second half because they were afraid it would stiffen up on him once he sat down… Also, when the series started, I couldn’t imagine the Cavs would struggle this… Read more »
Thanks EG, that was classy.
But I deserve to lose points because I chickened out on my Cavs in 7 after the the Game 6 debacle. And once again after Bron went to the dressing room.
Great breakout weekend for RDE as a contributor! Well done!
Thanks EG and you’re right about Wright. Meant to bring it up
Surprised you guys didn’t bring up Delon Wright who had some really nice games in the Wizards series in place of VanVleet who had shoulder issues…
Great analysis guys! Although I do feel like I was listening to the audio equivalent of Memento at times with the delay… lol
according to Windhorst, George Hill has had 5 back injetions including an epidural
Ow!! That’s horrible!!!
Well coached game by Ty Lue. I cringed when I heard that he was starting TT, but he was right.
The optimism C:tB’ers have for young players who probably won’t amount to much continues to perplex me.
It feels like many of you are simply copy-and-pasting comments from years past, just replacing the names “Manny Harris”, “Alex Kirk”, “Luke Harangody”, “Cornell Warner”, “John Leuer”, or “Omri Casspi”, with “Cedi Osman” for 2018.
I don’t see any need to give Osman minutes in these playoffs.
He’s one of our best if not our best perimeter defender who has decent court vision, lots of energy, great pick and roll skills, and shoots 3s ~35% (don’t have the numbers in front of me). You honestly don’t see any minutes for that player?
3PT% in a Cavs uni this year:
Green = 31.2%
Hill = 35.1%
Hood = 35.2%
Clarkson = 40.7%
Osman = 36.8%
I don’t remember anyone speaking fondly of Manny Harris.
Kevin Hetrick wrote a post called, “Diamond in the Rough? . . . Manny Harris”
Nate Smith argued that Harris was outplaying Danny Green.
https://cavstheblog.com//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////?p=9240#comment-27335
Mallory Factor jokingly argued that C:tB had influenced Chris Grant to re-sign Harris.
https://cavstheblog.com//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////?p=8565
Colin McGowan used terms like “competent” and “decent” to describe Harris’ play.
https://cavstheblog.com//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////?p=8573
https://cavstheblog.com//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////?p=9240
etc. . . .
(originally posted with links, now without.)
Kevin Hetrick wrote a post called, “Diamond in the Rough? . . . Manny Harris”
Nate Smith argued that Harris was outplaying Danny Green.
Mallory Factor jokingly argued that C:tB had influenced Chris Grant to re-sign Harris.
Colin McGowan used terms like “competent” and “decent” to describe Harris’ play.
etc. . . .
Sure, but that’s one article. We’re fans pushing to keep Manny Harris on this roster, who is out of the league and has been for some time. You could say the same for Harrangody. I hated watching Omri Casspi. If anything you might compare Cedi to Delly, in terms of fandom. I will never miss the days of lineups featuring Manny Harris, Omri Casspi, Samardo Samuels, and some other scrub. If the Cavs revert back to those days, I will not watch.
The way back machine!
All I remember is the frozen foot burn! LoL
I think some here somewhat overrate Cedi, but the real question is will he bring more than Hood? Does anyone really think Hood brings more on both sides of the ball?
Hood is a disaster. He can’t be worse. Certainly Cedi is much better defensively. Hood is tissue paper soft on defense and basically has barely contributed anything on offense. He can’t create his own shot with any consistency and turns the ball over nearly any time he dribbles with his left hand, ironic since he is a lefty. He dribbles so high he is basically asking for his lunch to be taken by any decent perimeter defender. Hood also has not been consistent as an outside shooter.
An inordinate amount of young players have left the cavs to success in other organizations. Casspi has had some success elsewhere, many Harris is currently a major contributor in Denver, Danny green is an NBA champion. Not developing young players is a great way to turn your organization into the Brooklyn nets of the last 5 years. Lebron is just that much better than the rest of the league so we have stayed at the top. Acting like Osman compared to luke harangody and Cornell Warner is being purposely disengenuous
Uh. You got the wrong Harris in Denver. You’re thinking Gary, not Manny.
I assume you are a troll.
If not, and you want to be in on a serious conversation, you might want to check the facts first. The Cavs played a lot better with Cedi on the floor. For most NBA coaches, Cedi would probably be a starter by now.
The difference between Cedi and the rest of this laundry list is that the Cavs actually drafted him and stashed him in the Euroleague for a couple of years. Other than Casspi (who actually turned out to be a useful player on a couple of teams), most of the rest were undrafted D-Leaguers who filled out the end of the bench. If you watched him play (in the few instances this season that Lue actually played him), Cedi acquitted himself very well… especially defensively. He had one or two bad shooting games down the stretch, but you’ll have that with… Read more »
Not trying to be a firestarter, I just disagree and would rank both Hood and Green’s occasional offense ahead of Osman’s defense on the depth chart. None of the three are inspiring, of course.
With more playing experience next season, hopefully Osman flourishes, but the counter-examples of Danny Green and Matthew Dellavadova are not exactly all-stars.
And really, does nobody recall Manny Harris-mania on C:tB in 2012-2013 the way I do?
Hood’s offense was basically a non-factor for much of the series while his defense was generally atrocious. Impossible to know how Osman would have compared since he only played a grand total of 10 minutes to Hood’s 132. 10 minutes is way too small a sample size to really judge anything over 7 games.
And no, from what I recall Manny Harris was regarded as a limited rotation d league guy that really should not have got much PT. At least I never remember being impressed with him. I don’t remember anyone calling for him to get much playing time.
In fact, he was one of the guys Indy shaded off to pack the paint for LBJ and he still could barely hit open shots.
Seriously? “Mania” for a guy who made the roster as the 15th man? On a team that lost a record number of games in a row? I’m sorry we wanted the Cavs to have a ray of freaking hope to not be quite as crappy. Your cherry picking of random comments and articles from a throw-away season is laughable. Colin said, ” Manny Harris could be an 11th or 12th man…” that was his ceiling. To say we thought he was the second coming of LeBron is just a reading comprehension fail. As for Manny Harris outplaying Danny Green, yeah… Read more »
Further, your argument against Cedi is that we once thought Manny Harris might deserve more of a shot than Alonzo Gee because as Kevin’s article (which is still fantastic btw) pointed out, harris might develop into competent NBA bench player? Not a starter mind you. Not a star, but a competent bench guy. Somehow this invalidates every argument for Cedi Osman we’ve ever made? You’re throwing up arguments from six years ago that no one who still works on this blog made, and arguments I made when i was a commenter? This might be the single most ridiculous thread ever… Read more »
Lol, wow, down boy down. Let go of his leg! Going to have to take him to the ER after that bite.
No one associated with this blog EVER thought Luke Harangody would be good. I don’t even know who Cornell Warner is. Alex Kirk was always an end of the bench guy. As for Leuer and Casspi, they both proved, despite the Cavs’ judgment that they could be decent nba rotation players. So we’ll take the victory there. We were right. The Cavs were wrong. As for Cedi, I’ll trust the judgment of the best nba writer I know over somebody trolling stuff from six years ago. The dude shot 48% from the field, 37% from the three and had some… Read more »
I just agree with the Cavs’ decision to play Green and Hood–even though those two have often been disappointing–over Osman. Osman’s lack of NBA experience and inability to create his own shot offset his enthusiastic defense and hustle. Plus, you don’t normally stash players overseas who you’re confident will be impact players right away. The frequency of comments here this season to play Osman remind me of those similar calls over the years for more playing time for young players who often didn’t make it in the NBA, by the writers and commenters at that time. That’s part of the… Read more »
It’s actually a fair viewpoint. However, I would say Hood can barely create his own shot and it is pretty ineffective when he does. Basically it amounts to a 18 foot pull-up off a curl. His is pretty bad going to the rim probably because he is a bean pole and gets bumped off his lane insanely easily. From what we have seen this season, I would say Cedi is actually better at finishing hard drives. Part of the problem with Hood is that his handle is so shaky. I don’t think he is comfortable dribbling for more than a… Read more »
Finally, Hood was atrocious with the Jazz in the playoffs. He averaged 8.9 ppg in 25mpg while shooting a horrific 35.2% from the field and an equally awful 26.2% from three on 4.5 attempts. In the Indy series he is shooting 46.2% (not bad) but was an absolutely atrocious 16.7% from three. Finally he is a career 41.9% from the field and a pretty bad 53.6% TS. He is not efficient in general and his three point shooting seems to be nonexistent in the playoff series he has played. He also has passed up open threes in the Indy series… Read more »
Solid analysis, and the only thing I would add is how often Hood quickly advances out of the backcourt, which kept Indiana from setting up their defense several times. I was hoping Hood would benefit more from playing alongside James. Maybe not enough games together before the playoffs started.
A fair point, though I would say Cedi is probably the guy or one of the guys on this team that runs hardest on the break/transition. I worry now he might be rusty as heck since he barely has played for weeks. One of the reasons I wish he got a couple minutes of run per game in the third qtrs last series.
He had two more years on his deal. That’s why he wasn’t drafted higher…
I’m sure Skip has put immense research and thought into this prediction.
Guy is an idiot. As much as I want that to be true.
He says this basically to say the cavs have an easy path in case the cavs do make the finals. He thinks the raptors are pushovers. Dude is a joke. Could I see the cavs struggling a lot less? Yes. I could also see that series going 7 games too. No idea what to expect anymore. I fully expect teams to emulate Indy in how they defend the cavs with varying degrees of success. I don’t know if other teams will be as successful but Indy’s scheme worked for basically 7 games. Force LBJ to beat you but make life… Read more »
Skip’s playbook is to create a narrative that the Cavs have an easy path, and when it turns out to not be easy or if they lose, then that gives him ammo to attack Lebron. Bayless is a joke and nobody with half a brain takes him seriously.
Exactly!!
Found myself watching him (poor judgement, I know) earlier. He is claiming LBJ choked, went to the lockers, alluded to mental rather than physical issues, and that Love won the game for the Cavs (by scoring 8 points). He quite creative in his BS spinning.
Sounds like he should be on fox news.
He is so insulting sitting up there high on his ivory tower judging Eastern Conference players as dirt. It’s just a another ploy to throw more disrespect towards Lebron. He’s become a head case when it comes to #23.
He is one of the majority of people that have Rose colored goggles for the 90s Jordan era. An era where talent was far more diluted across most of the league. The 90s Jordan’s bulls would not beaten the healthy 80s Celtics, Lakers, and Philly teams, or likely the super teams of the past 7 years. I don’t buy the bs legend of Jordan. Weak era with far fewer teams with 3-4 four stars on a team like the 60s, 80s and late 2000s-2010s.
Sorry my point being, his Jordan worship is threatened by everything Lebron does.
FYI – The draft lottery is May 15th and Nick Gilbert will be representing the Cavs.
If the balls fall our way, their could be some pieces to be had: Blazers, Wiz, Thunder, + Kawhi are the most likely to move. Boogie is a FA. Even if they do not, imagine Mikal Bridges & Cedi terrorizing teams on the perimeter and hitting threes. Just some time together for the vets: Hill, JR, Korver, Bron, Love, TT & Green all came through at different times. Nance was fine. That is eight guys. Ty just needs to coax some playable minutes on the wing and in the backcourt from Clarkson, Hood, Jose, and freaking Osman. If we can… Read more »
Quick question. We changed some recording software. Wanted to ask you all how the sound quality was. Better? Worse? The same?
Did you feel like the three streams got a bit out of order? I felt like I was about a second delayed
Still? Seemed OK to me. But I didn’t go over it with a fine tooth comb
wasn’t as bad as what Simmo described but felt a little bit off to me
First listen (shortly after you posted it), Tom’s stream was a few seconds ahead and it was unlistenable since you were all talking at the same time. Tried again a few hours later, all good.
Yeah. I had to fix it.
Audio quality was great. Heard Tom messing around with his controlling playing Rocket League.
When it paired or actual buttons being pressed?
For all of LeBron’s heroics, the Cavs do not win that game if not for the beginning of the fourth. It felt like the team figured out how to win a crucial game. I think that experience is going to be huge in the next round (and hopefully after that). They have the talent but lack the experience playing together. This was a big step.
Yep. I was thinking the same thing. That Hill/Love pick & roll saved our butts, and Hill never hit a three.
After finishing the podcap…I’m still on the cedi train. And I kinda feel like the whole city should put up signs til cedi gets minutes. I love the idea that the wizards will blow up…cuz Beal would be perfect next to lebron…also Porter, either of the Morris twins, and the polish hammer would also be perfect compliments to Lebron. If the ping pong balls fall our way, we could feast on the wizards leftovers and draft well and reload super quickly… This will certainly be an interesting off season…but also…we can still make it to the finals cuz indy was… Read more »
100%. Who knows what LBJ is thinking, but if he truly wants to try to stay in CLE, hope he bides his time & talks to the FO about these kind of options. Who knows what team is gonna blow up? There’s the Wiz, yes – but what if the Raptors get destroyed this week? How much more patience will they have before they start to move pieces.
Honestly…tye lue may have won us a series by starting Thompson, or he may have lost us rest by not playing Cedi Osman. We wont know for 100% sure unless he plays Cedi against Toronto and realizes how much better he is than Hood. Cuz…he freaking is. Clarkson is a guard, and also helped us win this game 7 by frustrating Oladipo from half court while he was in. He isnt a good defender in a system…but he tried really hard in game 7. Honestly…replace Hood’s normal minutes with Cedi…we are better. The whole season proved it. And then put… Read more »
RD is a keeper. I love the anecdotes & rabbit holes, but a project manager to get the podcap back on track is a valuable commodity & I think you just found one.
hahaha – I told ya Nate!