Summer League Recap: Cleveland 93, Indiana 88 (Or, Return of the Cedi)
2018-07-10
The force is strong with this one! Cedi Osman returned to action for the Cavs’ Summer Leaguers Monday afternoon and looked like a Jedi master. Won’t Ante Zizic out for rest, Cedi scored 25 on 18 shots and added six dimes and six boards in 31 minutes, plus a block and a steal. He looked, dare-I-say LeBron-esque the the way he controlled the game down the stretch: isolating on big men and shooting over them, or backing down smaller guys on switches and going to the hole… oh, and the spin moves. He combined with Marcus Lee (six points, six boards, and +10 in 21 minutes) and Collin Sexton to stop Aaron Holiday (12 points on 4-14 shooting), guard Edmon Sumner (14), and Center TJ Leaf (20 points on 21 shots).
Sexton had another solid game with 21 points on 9-17 shooting, four assists, and four turnovers. He attacked in transition and off the dribble, and no one on Indy seemed to have a shot at guarding him off the bounce. He still drives me nuts when he doesn’t use the backboard to finish, but he and Cedi are deadly together, cause no one can load up on either one of them, and Cedi, especially, looked too good for this league.
Both guys sliced up the Pacers in the pick and roll, and showed a great chemistry together as three of Sexton’s dimes went to Osman. Check out the highlights below. The Cavs are off till at least Wednesday when the Summer League tourney starts up. Hopefully, the inspiring play continues.
Ugh…
I would think all players that are healthy will play —-DOMINATE !!
Why about this. If Pels are sniffing out Hood, s&t Hood for Dialo, Anjinca and a future first. Put in Soloman Hill for two future firsts.
Take that. Doubt we could get much more than that. How bad is hill’s contract that they would give up two firsts?
NATE I AM LMAO —THE GODFATHER PICTURE —GREAT —-YOU DIDN’T DISSAPOINT ME ON YOUR OPINION !!
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I am going to assume since it is a tournament game it will be –” all hands on deck “—
Anyone know if Cedi and Zicic are playing today?
seems (per rumors ) pelicans are very interested in signing rhood —do we get in a bidding war with them –( nate I know your answer already )—how high do we go / what would (contract ) you offer to retain him
http://lawyersgunsmon.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/post-34533-my-offer-is-this-NOTHING-gif-A-nei5.gif
Ha!
Yup.
I’m not a big fan of Hood. I wouldn’t be against retaining him, but I probably wouldn’t offer much more than the MLE.
Match if it’s 9 mill or less. I don’t love the idea of keeping him, but that would be reasonable.
This team is going to be more fun to watch now with all of the young guys getting run.
Good god, Knox looks good. That said, (mind you, I haven’t watched an entire game of his yet), there is one reason I think Sexton still might have been the right pick, and Knox might be a bit of a summer league mirage, despite his ungodly high ceiling. I haven’t seen much playmaking from him in his highlights other than very basic passes, so he could run into a lot of trouble against NBA defenses. The way real NBA teams play defense, you’ve got to be able to make high-level reads if you want to be one of the best… Read more »
One other thing about Knox: he looks like he took a luxury car on the ugly train.
I want to see The Young Cavs, Featuring Kevin Love. Give them until the all-star break and see if Cleveland can have something to work with. Let Lee train under K-Love and see if he will be able to take over next year. I really like what the team looks like. (Yes, I understand it the summer) I would like to see them together at least until Feb.
I think “clueless ” has been given ” marching orders ” to play the young players / develop them or larry drew / david blatt will be coaching the cavs ———-wow cody allen just “imploded ” blew a great performance by bauer —WTF TRIBE
Ty Lue starting 5:
Hill, JR, Hood, Love, TT.
Anyone want to bet?
Of course it will be, can’t have 30+ million riding the pine ya know….
That’s going to give me a heart attack…
Honestly, I don’t even want any of those guys on the roster, let alone 30+ min starters.
I don’t want JR Smith around anyone on the team under 25. What ever it takes you have to dump this guy.
I’d love to dump JR, but unfortunately I don’t see it happening. We can’t afford to trade away picks at this point, and he’s literally useless at this point. He sucked on a championship caliber team for the past 2 years and makes a lot of money. Unfortunately, we might be stuck with him.
His contract is only partially guaranteed next year. Shouldn’t be too hard to find somebody looking for cap relief if they really want to get rid of him, but might also have to take on another not so great contract with maybe a couple second round picks (similar to what Philly got for taking Chandler’s contract). I think Cavs prefer to just ride it out and take the cap relief next year.
Jeez, if only Lue WOULD HAVE PLAYED CEDI MORE LAST YEAR MAYBE HE COULD HAVE HELPED MORE IN THE POs.
Lue will play Hood & Clarkson 30 min a night & Cedi 10.
Lue’s a moron.
I think Trae Young’s gonna be alright… his vision and shooting are starting to show, but I do also think Sexton knows how to actually run a team better. Young is missing a ton of reads to exploit PnR switches. Sexton has already shown the ability to direct traffic to exploit mismatches. My guess is Avery Johnson accelerated Sexton’s knowledge of the game… and Lue will be able to as well.
Carter’s gonna be alright too… continuing his good play.
Shooting yeah, but man his finishing in the 0-10 foot range in traffic has along ways to go. Curry wasn’t great as a finisher coming out of college, but he wasn’t bad for a guard his size and considering his game. He more or less averaged around 58-60 percent 0-3 feet his first three years. Pretty good for a guard of that size. It was only in year five where he consistently finished above 62% from that range and really averaged close to 66% for those five years which is absurd for a guy like that. In 2014-2015 and 2015-2016… Read more »
Young may not be as great a shooter as Curry because no one is, but he is still a great shooter and passer, so I think we’ll see him on an all start team one day. A lot of it is simply going to come down to his ability to get stronger, adjust to the speed of the NBA game and accept that he is going to have lear to work without the ball in his hands. But there is also the matter of playing within a system, with players that will give him the best chance to succeed and… Read more »
thinking billy preston- ( in couple yrs )- could be another clint capella / with a much better offensive game
can you say ‘last years Brooklyn nets ” ? (west coast cav )—-which I thought played inspired / competitive / energetic basketball—–fun for the fans to watch / get hope for young kids to grow together
That would be fun.
Absolutely. I was thinking along those lines. I hope TT and JR can be grown up enough to take on mentoring roles though I fear JR without LBJ is going to be a distraction or worse. TT probably content to collect his check and be a celebrity. We know Korver will be a great influence if he isn’t traded. Even Clarkson has potential if someone would coach him, reign him in and take advantage of his skill set. A lot of positives for the Cavs if Lue can let go of the vets.
Loving the idea of the energy a Cedi, Sexton, Nance lineup will bring. The regular season could really be fun with these three’s enthusiasm stealing some games from languid January veterans. Couple that with the skill and professionalism of Hill and Love and we should have something to watch. A far cry from the aftermath of lebron’s first exit.
Cedi has been so impressive. He’s had at least 3-5 mid-level Lebron passes in the 2 games he’s played, and his instincts around the rim are Ginobli-esque. I was also impressed how he was able to get to the rim at will against the Pacers, even though they were playing NBA-level defense. That spin move on the left was definitely something he picked up from Lebron.
JRL–agree with you on the ‘bias of espn not mentioning cedi’s name or even ante for summer league standouts —what a joke !!
Unfortunately the Cavs are back to irrelevancy.
“IF ‘ clarckson can be coached —off the ball shooter / take the ‘blinders ” off –I could see him and sexton causing problems on both ends with their athleticism —just saying—–have to remember about ANTE —kid just turned 21/ still growing ? strength –coordination -athleticism -skill—still think he can be a big help for the cavs
I’d love to see a starting lineup of Sexton, Hill, Cedi, Love and Zizic. I think that team could compete and do well in the East. I don’t care about Tanking or whatever, but I don’t want to watch JR and TT play anymore.
Zizic isn’t starting over Nance.
You guys are delusional. Zz is a 21yo kid with hardly any NBA game time, nor top HS/College coaching. He did play overseas but nowhere near at the level of Cedi. Besides the fact that the kid is from another country, so I’m sure he’s still learning the intricacies of the US/English and American life. This all takes time. One thing I did see was the 25/11 game he had against Chicago, where he was a man amongst boys. Again, he’s only 21yo. Give the kid a full season or two of playtime, along with good coaching and he’s a… Read more »
Nobody said he’s a bum. Just that he’s got a long way to go to be an effective starter on an NBA team. I think that’s a fair assessment He’s got great touch and footwork around the basket, but he doesn’t have the footspeed to defend in space or athleticism to be an elite rim protector, and when you don’t have that naturally, it takes years of work to learn the defensive positioning necessary to make up for it and transform your body to become more mobile.
I Donte think Zizic is a starting caliber player. He’s basically a less strong Valunciunus. Very skilled but doesn’t have the speed or ability to switch on defense, at all.
Agreed. I like the guy, but I don’t get why some people here are fetishizing him. He can’t shoot, can’t defend in space. You don’t want to build around having to hide those flaws.
What is this criticism coming from? Two summer league games? He wasn’t bad in p/r last year.
Seriously? He was awful defending in space last year. He doesn’t have a good feel for positioning and can’t keep up on switches and isn’t quick enough to contain and recover. So he’s worse than Love and and is slower laterally than him, and Love is average on a good day.
Hmm. I saw some decent moments from him last year. But it’s probably memory. Im distrustful of anyone who believes strongly in anything.
These are normal things everybody with Zizic’s body and footspeed struggles with. He would be a stud if he was even average, but it took Love a decade to become even average and he was already one of the smartest positional defenders in the league. But once the league went more in the switching direction, he had to really work at it to stop being a total liability, lost weight, improved his conditioning, got better at keeping his hands up.
Basically. He doesn’t defend pick and roll competently enough to be a major minute player. Could be a decent backup/ situational player.
As noted below, nance will start, but you can certainly run a competent second unit offense through ZZ.
All for Zizic off the bench. He might even play a lot of minutes depending on the night because Nance isn’t really a high-minute guy either. He probably tops out at 25-30 min a night with the energy he expends. God, can’t believe Tristan is our 4th big. He does not fit at all anywhere.
Agree. Nance is probably best in that range as a high energy guy that provides that spark to get things started off right early in the first quarter. He may be what he is, but he can develop that jumper and be more disciplined and focused on d he could be an excellent two way weapon. His main weakness is that he is so one dimensional on offense he is easy to game plan for save perhaps accounting for offensive rebounding. Basically, just ride him/impede him on rolls and you take him out of the play. That also can be… Read more »
But If he can develop
I think Nance has even more potential than he showed last year. That post-trade team had zero chemistry on the court outside of Lebron-Korver-Love and occasionally Hill-Love. George Hill and Lebron missed or underthrew so many lobs to him, it was ridiculous. He’s a good passer, and that was underutilized because of the lack of chemistry. He showed the ability to run the offense from the high-post with DHO’s and high-level reads. He also showed flashes of being able to grab the rebound and run the fastbreak, which should be fun to watch with Sexton and Cedi also being able… Read more »
If Lue actually gives him a chance, Cedi can be great. I’d love to see Cedi and Zizic play a lot and shock the NBA and make LeBron regret going to the goddamn Lakers.
The NBA site has been doing the “Summer Standouts” and not once have they mentioned Cedi. What a joke.
Is Clarkson’s issue a mental/coaching one? He seems to have the skills/potential, but his “bilnders on” mentality gets him into more problems than not. He needs to understand he’s out there with 4 other players and not by himself.
As much as I hated his game last season, I would still give him some solid minutes to try and figure it out.
For the members who saw him regularly in LA, how was he out there?
He could be a very good spotup shooter if he put his mind to it. But it is a mindset thing. His natural inclination is to go get his shot. It was even more extreme in LA because he was never playing with a true creator. It’s too late for coaching to really change him. He has to want to find the best role for him as a pro and adapt. But most guys his age won’t do that as long as they have a multi-year 12 mil. deal.
Maybe Hood will resign on the qualifying offer, Cavs showcase him with some empty stats, and dump him around the deadline to a playoff team looking for bench shooting. Might be able to pair it with a bad contract like Clarkson, JR, or TT (a man can hope!).
I guess similar to what Cavs did to get Nance and Clarkson off the Lakers.
Hood has no-trade clause while playing on a qualifying offer. But for the right situation… maybe.
God I hope someone makes Hood a godfather offer and they let him walk. The dude is TURRIBLE. A two Year deal to help the Cavs tank wouldn’t be so bad I suppose.
I think Hood is committed to either getting a $10 mil/yr offer sheet or playing on his qualifying offer to hopefully take advantage of the mini-cap spike next year. I can’t imagine anybody would make an offer that wasn’t frontloaded with 13.5 mil to make the cavs choose between matching and going back into luxury tax land or letting him walk.
I’d be ok with a 2 year tank/develop team route. I have this optimistic long term feel for this team and the young pieces they have. Sexton and Cedi looked good yesterday and I was impressed with Preston despite nothing really jumping out. He played solid defense and looked very comfortable bringing the ball up and making moves to the hoop. If they re-sign Hood in the 8-9 mil a year range like you mentioned I would be ok with that but like you would let him walk for more than that. I’m probably one of the few who thinks… Read more »
I think Hood plays on the QO and takes his chances next year when everybody has cap space again over signing a 2-year deal. I don’t think Clarkson is garbage, but he doesn’t fit into a movement-based, equal opportunity offense, so I think they should look to move him if at all possible. Also, they should really target Detroit with JR/Hill’s non-guaranteed deals. They are basically in win-now mode with Blake on the books and unloading Leur and Galloway’s contracts and not picking up any player options next year could put them as much as 20 mil below the cap.… Read more »
You’re of the opinion Lue can successfully install an “movement based equal opportunity offense”?
Look, I’m a big a critic as anybody of the way Lue ran the offense the last couple years. But he played for Phil Jackson and coached under Doc Rivers in Boston. Those are 2 very ‘share n’ care’ offensive styles, and he is basically only in his 2nd year coaching. He’s wouldn’t be the 1st coach to fall into the Lebron trap. So I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s an NBA level coach who knows his personnel. The ad hoc offense they are running in summer league is similar to what I’d like… Read more »
They ran some nice stuff though. It wasn’t like it was a Lebron/Wade do everything offense. They had some really nice pet plays.
True, but Spo was already in his 3rd year when Lebron got there, and Lebron never ran the plays to the point where Spo told Haslem and Battier not to inbound the ball to certain guys because those guys would just cave and pass Lebron the ball whenever he asked for it. Lue got thrown right into the fire and only has 2.5 seasons under his belt. I also thought the Cavs had some nice set plays in the first half of 2016-2017, but then kind of “devolved” (in quotes because actually their offense went on to be ridiculously prolific… Read more »
Cedi talking about how he will have to carry more of a burden this season…I’m all in for 35% usage Cedi. I’m sure he (and others) will play with more confidence when not deferring to Lebron before every move/ pass/ shot.
I hope the Kings empty their magazine on Smart, but if they offer Hood, I suppose I’d match if it’s $8-9 mill, no more than that.
I think the offense will be spread out more evenly. Gotta remember that Sexton also projects as a high usage player. Hood and Love also do their best work with a USG over 20. Cedi is an amazing off-ball cutter and creative finisher, so I’d like to see a lot of 2-man DHO between him and Love sprinkled in with a fake DHO into a hard cut by Cedi, and also Sexton-Love DHO’s with Love then faking a flare out or cut and springing into a pick to spring Cedi for a cut to the hoop. In general, the offense… Read more »
I think with the way Cedi looks, the most pressing question at this point is whether or not they should even match an RFA contract offer if Hood gets one or put all their chips on Cedi. He’s light years ahead of Hood in the playmaking department. He can run an offense competently and some of his passes in summer league have been mid-level Lebron reads. His shot isn’t where Hood’s is (based on last year’s regular season stats), but his form and fluidity look much improved, especially off the dribble. Maybe he could use another year coming off the… Read more »
I am totally fine with letting hood go. He is not good. Disappears too often and simply is bad on d. It wasn’t just the cavs d either. He was bad on Utah too.
Yeah, part of me wishes they would have kept Crowder because his contract would have been a great trade asset right around now… and he couldn’t have played worse than Hood in the playoffs.
Sexton
Hill/JR
Cedi
Love
Zz
That’s a fun lineup.
so…Cedi and Zizic are legit players. Like…even against real NBA players they have shown they are competent. Against Summer league competition they are all stars…but seriously. Is Lue going to be able to start Sexton, Cedi, Zizic, Love, and x? The cavs next few years hinge on Lue being able to change from a Lebron led coach to a coach who is willing to develop a real team. I actually think he was looking for this opportunity so he might be really good…But if he is awful…how many years do we have to suffer through before Gilbert tries another coach… Read more »
Shout out to Marcus Lee and Billy Preston on the win. Also liked the adjustment by Posey to go to Mathias after halftime… seemed open the game up to begin the 3rd. Posey also gave Preston and Mathias a little extra run and it seemed to help the offense in the 2nd quarter, when the Cavs took the lead. Sexton’s competitive desire really shined today… after a TO, he dove on the floor to get the ball and called a timeout. He also talked a bit of trash to Aaron Holiday. Sexton did get caught up in the middle of… Read more »
Nice.
SGA is absolutely lighting it up tonight…. he can get to the rim at will… dropping dimes… sheesh.