Cavaliers Thread: We Somehow Both Don't and Do Suck

[AkronsWitness]

26 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

This is also a symptom of having 2 ball dominant players who can make it hard for other players to get into a rhythm.  
 

This team just needs more catch and shoot guys who can provide space and who don’t need to have the ball in their hands to be effective. 

meh I dont think its on the guards and I would argue because the Cavs dont have anybody outside of their top 4 they can rely on, it forces the guards to have to be even more ball dominant than they should. The top 4 are literally shouldering everything

but sure, they need catch and shoot guys who they trust to just do their job and be consistent. Cedi/Levert/Okoro are the furthest thing away from consistent. When 1 of them can show up and contribute 15+ the Cavs look like a whole different animal (like we saw last night from Levert). Problem is, that it only happens 1x out of every 3-4 games that one of them show up.

Its just strange to me how those type of guys are seemingly easy for every other playoff team to find and the Cavs act like its rocket science. 80% of the Nuggets roster are those type of guys, same with the Lakers, Kings, Warriors as well. All Im asking for is someone like Jeff Green, how hard is it to pull a couple of those type of guys and add them to the roster.

I guess we will find out this offseason...when Jerami Grant is finally a Free Agent 🙏

Edited April 19, 2023 by AkronsWitness

[candyman93]

Chuck said it best at 5:35, Mobley and Allen absolutely MUST be more aggressive or we’re screwed

 

[FGK]

4 hours ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

This is when it would have helped to keep Love tbh.  

He can’t go every night, but limited minutes in the playoffs when you’re not going back to back and travel is limited is a different animal. 

Maybe. But he's looked AWFUL for Miami the last few. I think he's just cooked at this point, as sad as that is. Some people's bodies just can't hold together like Lebron.

[AkronsWitness]

15 minutes ago, FGK said:

Maybe. But he's looked AWFUL for Miami the last few. I think he's just cooked at this point, as sad as that is. Some people's bodies just can't hold together like Lebron.

I would sure like to have him on the floor just spotting up 3s and getting rebounds with the second unit. He is nothing close to where he used to be, but having to watch Cedi Osman play meaningful mins every night in the playoffs is going to give me a heart attack lol Hopefully Danny Green can fill that veteran 3pt shooter role of the bench and JB continues to lean on him.

I do like the way JB has handled it though, he knows his bench is feast or famine and he has shown no hesitation to pull guys and try someone else when he sees one of them not making a impact. Like benching Okoro last night 7 mins into the game or pulling Wade after 6 mins in the first game.

Edited April 19, 2023 by AkronsWitness

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

1 hour ago, FGK said:

Maybe. But he's looked AWFUL for Miami the last few. I think he's just cooked at this point, as sad as that is. Some people's bodies just can't hold together like Lebron.

I mean, he had 18 points and 8 boards in 23 min in game 1 vs the Bucks. 

Do I think he could do that every game? Absolutely not. But I do think that he’d more capable of doing that than say Wade or Cedi in *playoff* game (as opposed to a regular season game when the defensive intensity isn’t quite the same).

I get he’s likely done, but we didn’t gain anything by buying him out.  Would have been nice to have worked things out and let him wrap up his career here.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

1 hour ago, AkronsWitness said:

I do like the way JB has handled it though, he knows his bench is feast or famine and he has shown no hesitation to pull guys and try someone else when he sees one of them not making a impact. Like benching Okoro last night 7 mins into the game or pulling Wade after 6 mins in the first game.

On the other hand that’s a great way to kill the confidence of your bench guys. If someone has a hot hand, cool, ride it.  But pulling guys and looking desperately for someone who may be hot is not great imo.

You should have a rotation squared away by now.  Trust your evaluation and make small changes here and there, but drastic changes and short leashes aren’t a sign of competence imo.  Good players don’t always come out blazing, sometimes it comes to you later in the game.

[AkronsWitness]

43 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

On the other hand that’s a great way to kill the confidence of your bench guys. If someone has a hot hand, cool, ride it.  But pulling guys and looking desperately for someone who may be hot is not great imo.

You should have a rotation squared away by now.  Trust your evaluation and make small changes here and there, but drastic changes and short leashes aren’t a sign of competence imo.  Good players don’t always come out blazing, sometimes it comes to you later in the game.

In a perfect world yeah, but the problem is finding a rotation of 22 year old guys off the bench who wont **** the bed in a playoff game is different than finding a rotation of guys for the regular season on a Tuesday night in January. Every game is must win now, cant leave a guy like Ricky Rubio or Dean Wade in the game if they are turning the ball over or are 1/6 shooting. They just cant afford it with how much weight the starting unit is carrying.

I wouldnt be suprised at all to see JB go back to Danny Green or even try Neto in this next game just to keep mixing up the looks for NY.

[bigben07MVP]

I wouldn’t mind seeing Osman replace Okoro in the starting lineup for game 3. If he can do 75% of what Okoro can defending Brunson (I think he can) then it’s worth it to create that space for Garland and Mitchell. That way you also are still getting the scoring punch off the bench from Levert. 

Then I would have Levert, Danny Green, and either Okoro or Neto playing sparing minutes as your 3 bench guys.

[AkronsWitness]

3 hours ago, bigben07MVP said:

I wouldn’t mind seeing Osman replace Okoro in the starting lineup for game 3. If he can do 75% of what Okoro can defending Brunson (I think he can) then it’s worth it to create that space for Garland and Mitchell. That way you also are still getting the scoring punch off the bench from Levert. 

Then I would have Levert, Danny Green, and either Okoro or Neto playing sparing minutes as your 3 bench guys.

Okoro might be better used off the bench, especially for this matchup. He gets targeted way too much with the starters and you cant hide him. Having him come off the bench to chase Quickley/Grimes/Hart around for 15-20mins would be a good matchup for him, considering those 3 are likely going to play much better at home than they did away.

The playoffs is all about matchups and coaches adjustments, unlike the RS where no team changes their lineup based on 1 game they play another team. His offense deficiencies dont matter nearly as much in the RS as they do in a 7 game, game planned playoff series.

For this series, Okoro going balls to the wall for 20 mins on defense against the Knicks potent bench guards might be the recipe we need. I would also pair him out there with Danny Green who can negate the lack of shooting by having him on the floor.

Edited April 20, 2023 by AkronsWitness

[bigben07MVP]

Listening to Fedor podcast this morning and it sounds like Levert is a lock to start tonight. Puts a lot of pressure on Cedi to come off the bench and provide something offensively. 

[BetterCallSaul]

33 minutes ago, bigben07MVP said:

Listening to Fedor podcast this morning and it sounds like Levert is a lock to start tonight. Puts a lot of pressure on Cedi to come off the bench and provide something offensively. 

I'm about as hopeful for Cedi to have a big game as I am for a Zydrunas Ilgauskas return.

We desperately need to win this game. This is the confidence game. If we lose, I'll be in full panic mode. How about freaking Mobley shows up tonight? That dude has gotten bitched all series long by average players. He needs to get way more physical instead of settling for long-range floaters and jumpers. Hopefully, at the very least, this opens his eyes that he needs to add 15 pounds of muscle in the off-season, because I don't think he's capable of backing down my grandmother right now.

[bigben07MVP]

2 hours ago, BetterCallSaul said:

I'm about as hopeful for Cedi to have a big game as I am for a Zydrunas Ilgauskas return.

We desperately need to win this game. This is the confidence game. If we lose, I'll be in full panic mode. How about freaking Mobley shows up tonight? That dude has gotten bitched all series long by average players. He needs to get way more physical instead of settling for long-range floaters and jumpers. Hopefully, at the very least, this opens his eyes that he needs to add 15 pounds of muscle in the off-season, because I don't think he's capable of backing down my grandmother right now.

Mobley was fine offensively in game 2 considering LeVert and DG combined for 33 shots, you can tell he started getting more comfortable getting to his spots against Randle in the 2nd half. Levert, DG, Mobley, and Spida can’t all go for 25+ every game, and no one should be surprised that DG, Mitch, and even Levert on his hot nights would carry more of the scoring load when the playoffs came around. 

He’s been incredible defensively and 13 rebounds against a great rebounding team like NY is impressive for a guy who can’t back down your grandmother. He’s 21 years old and in his first playoff series for crying out loud.

Full-panic mode if we go down 2-1 after just completely undressing the Knicks in game 2? Did you think this series would be over in 5? These teams are more evenly matched than we’d like to admit, it’s going to be a long back and forth series. Just relax man.

 

[bigben07MVP]

Couldn’t agree more with Shaq here. If DG/Mitchell come out swinging and we can pull of a 10-15 point lead in the first quarter, the crowd will quiet down heavily and I think we have a really good shot at pulling this out.

My personal prediction is the Knicks win tonight rather easily. Quickley, Hart, Grimes, and even Toppin should all play much better returning home. Then, Mitchell comes back and delivers a W with a signature MSG performance in game 4.

[AkronsWitness]

They need Mitchell to set the tone is this game, badly. I can easilly see the Cavs bigs fumbling/bumbling all over themselves with the pressure/crowd and Darius getting sloppy with the turnovers. This is a game Mitchell needs to be the guy we traded him here to be and lead

[bigben07MVP]

1 hour ago, AkronsWitness said:

They need Mitchell to set the tone is this game, badly. I can easilly see the Cavs bigs fumbling/bumbling all over themselves with the pressure/crowd and Darius getting sloppy with the turnovers. This is a game Mitchell needs to be the guy we traded him here to be and lead

Agreed. But I’m not gonna be mad if DG wants to turn into prime Kyrie for another game either. 

We are 1.5 point underdogs tonight, I think that’s being generous to the Cavs.