Cleveland Cavaliers TRANSFORM With Darius Garland’s Return | Donovan Mitchell DOMINATES Sixers!

Cleveland Cavaliers TRANSFORM With Darius Garland’s Return | Donovan Mitchell DOMINATES Sixers!

On today’s show, Darius Garland made his season debut. Donovan Mitchell stole the show, and the Cavs looked like the Cavs again on Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers. We’ll talk about all that and so much more on today’s edition of Locked on Cavs. You are Locked On Cavs, your daily Cleveland Cavaliers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hello again everybody. I’m Danny Cunningham and I cover the Cleveland Cavaliers over at my Substack the Inside Shot. And I want to say thank you to you for making Locked on Cavs your first listen today. And thank you to those of you everydayers that make Locked on Cavs your first listen every single day. You can find the show anywhere you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else. Be sure to give us a fivestar rating. Leave us a nice review. Be a friend. Tell a friend about the show. Make sure you’re subscribed. Make sure a friend is subscribed as well. And if you’re watching us on YouTube, do us a favor. As we get rolling here, hit that thumbs up button for us. Click subscribe and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss latest locked on cast content. A proud part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And today’s show brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can bet just $5. And if your first bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use all across the app. Head to FanDuel.com to get started today. Okay, the Cleveland Cavaliers back in action on Wednesday night with a 132 to 121 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. And this game was very important because it was the game that I think truly does signify the start of the Cavs regular season. Yes, they’ve been playing basketball for two weeks already. They had played seven games before this one, but Darius Garland made his season debut on Wednesday night. That’s why I think it’s time to really mark this as the beginning of basketball season for the Cavs. It’s not that nothing matters from those first seven games because that’s not true. There are some good things that have happened. There are some bad things that have happened. But I think as a whole, it’s been very unfair to judge what the Cavs have looked like without Darius Garland in the lineup. And Garland played on Wednesday for the first time and he looked okay. Played 26 minutes, wasn’t super efficient from the floor, scored eight points, was three of 11 shooting, two of seven from deep, had four assists, had three turnovers. Like, he looked like a guy who was making his season debut. He looked like a guy who was coming off of a six-month rehab process off of a toe surgery. Those things are fine. That is, I think, what I expected out of Darius Garland. I don’t think that we should be judging Darius based upon this one game, but I think the fact that he was back on the floor, the fact that I thought he moved around as well as he did, like that was one of the things. Does Darius Garland look like, you know, the guy that was an all-star last year? Does Darius Garland look like a guy that has the requisite burst in his step? I think those things were very clear that he did that and yeah, the shooting wasn’t there. I have enough trust in Darius Garland because I’ve seen Darius Garland be an elite level shooter in the NBA to think that there’s no reason whatsoever to have any bit of concern based on one poor shooting game. But Darius Garland’s return to the lineup, I think, affected the Cavs in a lot of different ways. Obviously, he started this game and the first six or seven minutes, I I don’t remember exactly at what point he checked out, but the Cavs looked like the Cavs at that point. Like, they got off to a fast start. They were leading the Sixers 17-4 at one point early on, and it they looked like the team that won 64 games last year. They were great offensively. They were great defensively. I thought the ball movement in this game and the tracking numbers as I record this very late on Wednesday night are not yet available. So, I can’t like dive into how many drives they had or how many passes were thrown. Maybe I’ll touch upon that for Friday’s show, but the ball was moving at a rate just to the naked eye that I hadn’t seen at all throughout the year. And the Cavs have had some good moments in their first seven games, don’t get me wrong. Like certainly at times against Milwaukee, they looked very good. At times against Atlanta, they looked good. Uh at times against Brooklyn back in the first week of the season, they looked good. But they never looked like this, right? Like I think the Cavs off Benz without Garland had gotten too stagnant. And that is to be expected. And to be fair to the Cavs here, it’s not just that they were missing Darius Garland. They had missed Sam Merrill for a few games. They had missed DeAndre Hunter for the first couple of games of the season. They had missed Jared Allen. Not that he’s necessarily a ball mover, but he is a good screener. And that is something that I do think impacted the Cavs offensively. So it’s not just that they had missed Garland. It’s that they had not been whole even without Darius for most of this season. Like they basically played a game and a half, the game against Milwaukee and then the first half against Detroit with what they thought was going to be their starting lineup going to the season available to them. But Darius being back and yes, Sam Merrill was back in this game and Jared Allen was back in this game. DeAndre Hunter did not play in this game because of an illness. But Darius being back to me put the Cavs back to where we think the Cavs should be. the ball was really moving around. They were able to create offensive advantages in ways that they weren’t able to do so before. And Darius being back on the floor was about so much more than what does Darius look like? How does Darius play? It was about how the rest of that group could feed off of him. It was about the way that he could put his teammates in advantageous positions. And there are other guys on this roster that are capable of doing it. But I don’t know that anyone else on this roster is capable of doing it in the same way that Darius Garland is capable of doing it for his teammates. And I think that’s a really important thing. Kenny Atinson earlier this week uh both at practice on Tuesday and then I asked him about this prior to the game on Wednesday. He talked about Darius Garland being an advantage creator, somebody that can blow by their defenders, somebody that can set their teammates up in the perfect spot. and Donovan Mitchell is capable of all of the things Darius Garland is capable of in that regard. But I think that Darius Garland and and I think Donovan since he’s gotten to Cleveland has grown tremendously as a passer, but he’s not the passer that Darius is. And then you look at somebody who is I think the passer Darius is and maybe a different style, but certainly same caliber in Lonzo Ball. He’s not the same advantage creator because I don’t think he has the same burst. I don’t think he has the same ability to finish at the rim. not the same offensive threat with the basketball in his hands to score that Darius Garland is. So, I think that Darius has that special combination that even on a night where he’s not scoring the basketball super efficiently, where he’s not he he looked rusty as far as that went, and again, that’s fine, he’s still able to have such a big impact on how the Cavs look offensively that that’s why I come out of this game thinking, okay, it’s not going to all be built tomorrow. Like, the Cavs play again on Friday. Maybe they look great, maybe they don’t. They play again on Saturday after that. Maybe they look great, maybe they don’t. But I think that Wednesday night serves as a reminder even without DeAndre Hunter and Max Shus is still I think a ways away from making a return. I I still think we’re looking at two months probably before he’s back on the floor. But even without those guys, I think that this serves as a reminder of just what the Cavs are going to be capable of because it’s going to take them some time to get up to speed. They’re not done having growing pains that they’ve been talking about. Those things are still going to exist. But this was another reminder of, oh yeah, the Cavs are really good. Like the Cavs offensively, they were 26th in the NBA coming into Wednesday night. And yes, Philadelphia was on the second night of a backtoback and Philadelphia didn’t have Joel Embiid and they didn’t have Jared McCain and they didn’t have Paul George. I This is not about who they played. It’s about how they look. The Cavs offensive rating coming into this game was 111. In this game, their offensive rating was in the 130s. They just they looked like an elite offense in the way we expect them to be an elite offense for the first time all season. And the other thing so actually there are two more things that I think Darius Garland’s return did. I do think it was an emotional boost for the Cavs and maybe it was the classic edition night had that building feeling a certain type of way. Um I know there were guys on the team that were very very excited to be in those navy blue threads and play on that floor. Donovan Mitchell talked about it afterwards. Um like so maybe that was part of it too, but it just felt in watching that game like there was a different energy that the Cavs had that had been missing for the first seven games and not like missing for the entirety of the first seven games. And I don’t think that they have been playing like joyless basketball or anything, but I think there was an extra amount of joy that was sort of injected into who they were as a basketball team on Wednesday night. And I think Darius Garland is the reason for that. I I genuinely think this team was very very excited to get to play basketball with Darius Garland again. I think that was evident in the way the ball was moving. I think that was evident just like this the style of play, the joy that they played with. I I don’t know a better way to describe what Garland’s first stint looked like where I mean the ball was moving so well and then the third quarter was just like that is Cavs basketball. That is what we expect the Cavs to look like. That to me is what the best team in the Eastern Conference and a team that can win the championship this year looks like. And I think that is one of the most important things to come out of this. And then the other thing that Darius’s return does for the Cavs is it puts guys back into their natural spots. So Sam Merrill, who had a good game on Wednesday night coming back from a hip contusion, he had 14 points. He hit a few threes. like he looks good because Sam Merrill so far has looked very good this season and I don’t think that is some surprise but he played 26 minutes. Sam at times has been tasked with playing 30 32 minutes which is probably a little bit more than you would like to ask of Sam Merrell. The scoring burden on him has been a little bit bigger. Like to date, Sam has probably been the third or fourth best player for the Cavs this season before action started on Wednesday night because it’s Donovan and it’s Evan and Jaylen Tyson is up there and it’s Sam and like those guys have been super important, but with so many other guys missing time this year, he has been thrust into a heavier load. The same thing can be said for a guy like Lonzo Ball, for a guy like Jaylen Tyson, and those guys. I know Lonzo hasn’t shot the basketball well yet, but he has done a lot of things really well, and he had eight assists to one turnover in 22 minutes on Wednesday night. You’re going to take that from Lonzo Bal every single night of the week. But Darius being back just pushes everybody other than Donovan Mitchell sort of down the pecking order one spot. Maybe not Evan Mobley. Although I do think that Darius’s return and the ball movement that was a result of it directly made life easier for Evan Mobley and that is a very very important thing as we look at his development and what to expect out of him. I think Darius being back had a very positive impact on Evan Moley’s night. He had 20 23 points uh was much better in the first half than the second half in this one. But overall, the guys that are supposed to be role players were still asked to be role players with Darius Garland out, but the roles were a little bit different. They were a little bit bigger. Now with Garland back and the Cavs just looking closer to full strength again because DeAndre Hunter didn’t play in this game, the role players are in the roles that they’re supposed to be. And it’s not that they weren’t being set up for success, because I don’t think that to be true, but I think that the ask was a little bit outsized for some role players in the first seven games. And I do think those guys played well, but it wasn’t fair to expect them to be them their best selves in an outsized role. Darius Garland shifts everything back to where it’s supposed to be. And I think that that is one of the best things that his presence just on the floor does, even on a night where he’s not the most efficient, even on a night where he doesn’t have his wind. And it’s going to be a little bit because for as much conditioning and work as you do and folks behind the scenes have raved about what Darius Garland did to get back at this point. Like they view this as a little bit of an early return for Darius from this surgery. But no matter what you do, you’re not going to be in game shape until you actually play in several games. Like Darius Garland is probably going to be tired again on Friday night and that’s fine. And if he plays both ends of the backtoback, which I don’t know if that’s the plan or not. I’ve not asked about that. If he plays both ends of the back toback, he’s gonna be tired on Saturday, too. That’s just going to be a part of the process for a little bit. But overall, I think that there are some really, really encouraging things to look at from Garland’s return to the floor. The Cavs are going to be better for it, and I think Wednesday night was just the first sign of it. Now, Garland’s return was the big story, but Donovan Mitchell kind of stole the show. He had 46 points. We’re going to talk about his night next right here on Locked on Caps. But first, today’s show brought to you by Gusto. Let’s be real, no one starts a business for the joy of calculating tax withholdings or managing payroll spreadsheets. That’s where Gusto comes in to take the stress out of payroll, benefits, and HR so that you can focus on running your business and supporting your team. Gusto is the all-in-one remote friendly payroll and HR platform that makes managing your team simple, transparent, and fast. Whether you’re hiring, onboarding, or paying employees, Gusto helps you do it all from one place without the hassle or the hidden fees. And if you listen to the show, you know we don’t like hidden fees. Unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price, which means no surprise charges at the end of the month. And Gusto’s automatic automatic automated tools like offer letters, onboarding materials, and direct deposits can save you hours each and every week. So try Gusto today at gusto.com/lockedonba. That is gustto.com/lockedonba and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That’s right, three months of free payroll at gusto.com/lockedonba. One more time for you, that’s gustogust.comonba. [Music] Thank you again for making today’s edition of locked on cavs your first listen. And thank you to those of you that make lock on cavs your first listen each and every day. Donovan Mitchell was incredible in this game. Like the only thing that could have pushed Donovan Mitchell going off for 46 points on 15 of 21 shooting to the second segment of this show would have been Darius Garland’s return. Like if this would have happened on any other night throughout the season, this would have been the lead story. Donovan was incredible in this game. Um, and I I do think it kind of it’s sometimes these things are a reminder that we take Donovan Mitchell for granted. And I thought it was very interesting that because the Darius thing was the big story. Like that is just it’s such a game changer for the Cavs that that’s what is going to be the story, right? That’s what I just spent 12 minutes talking about to open the show. That is what I asked Kenny Atinson the first couple of questions after the game at his press conference. What were my questions about? They were about Darius Garland, but we kind of lose sight of just how good Donovan Mitchell is. And Kenny Atinson after this game, he called him the best guard in the Eastern Conference. And Jaylen Brunson is great. Like he’s up there. Tyrese Maxi, who had an okay game. Like he had a very good second quarter in this game that really got Philly back into it. He he was okay. I don’t understand why he played 36 minutes in a game the Sixers were down by 27 points. But hey, I’m not Nick Nurse. He’s a really good guard, too. Like there are some really really good guards in the Eastern Conference. Donovan Mitchell is the best one. Like I voted Donovan Mitchell very high in our top 100 list over here at lockdown. And maybe I should have voted one higher like the start the start he’s off to, but Donovan Mitchell is just a bonafide top 10 player in basketball. And we have started taking for granted nights like this where he goes out and he has 46 points and he’s crazy efficient in doing so. this was I’m never going to say that something’s like the best game he’s ever had on the Cavs because I think that will unless he goes out and just has like this type of per performance in the finals. I don’t think anything’s going to surpass the 71point game where he also had I believe it was 13 assists and eight rebounds. Like he almost had a 71point triple double. I don’t think he’s ever going to surpass that with another regular season game. That’s probably going to be the best. But watching him play so efficiently and I don’t know if like effortless is the right word to describe what he’s doing, but he makes it look so easy, right? Like Philadelphia is a good team. And yes, they’re on the second night of a backto-back. And and as I said in the first segment, Wednesday night was so much more about the Cavs than it was about who the opponent was. Like it didn’t matter what the opponent was wear, what jersey the opponent was wearing on Wednesday night. This was always going to be about the Cavs. But what he was able to do, just like he can get to a spot over and over, he was six of 11 on three, which you’re going to take every single night. He was nine of 10 inside the arc. And there were some tough finishes mixed in there. There were some easy ones certainly because he’s great at getting to his spot, but there are there were some tough finishes just like I I don’t have the words to describe how good he is. And I just I continue to be impressed. He is. This is Donovan Mitchell’s team and I wrote it in my substack after the game. I think it was against the Hawks the other night. Like there might be a point where Ivan Moley becomes the best player on this team. I think the Cavs hope that point arrives. I actually think Donovan Mitchell hopes that point arrives, but this will be Donovan Mitchell’s team as long as Donovan Mitchell is on this team. Um, and I think that nights like this are are just evidence of it. like he the the Cavs are going to go as Donovan Mitchell goes and there’s not a better guard for me in the Eastern Conference. The fact that he can do this and it just like make it so routine. The start he is off to this year is absurd. This was the best game that he’s had obviously so far, but it’s not like he’s been struggling at all. He’s off to I think one of the best starts in his career so far this year. You go watch what he did opening night against the New York Knicks. And I know that I just talked about how everything from this point forth matters even more, but he came into the night averaging 29 points on 55% from the floor and 44% from three-point range. Like, that’s just absurd stuff. Especially when you consider that Darius Garland had been out. Especially when you consider that Evan Mobley is I think it’s fair to say sort of at least in the first seven games. I think it was less so on on Wednesday, but searching for how to play, I think, is probably a fair way to describe it. But like the last two games, Donovan Mitchell has played, so Sunday against the Hawks, 37 points on 12 of 21 shooting, eight of 15 from beyond the ark, five of five from the line. Wednesday night’s game, 46 points on 15 of 21 shooting, six of 11 from beyond. Like, this is just absurd efficiency. And I don’t know, I’d have to ask about this. I don’t know if the player of the week stuff starts on Monday when it like if it’s Monday to Sunday or if it starts on Sunday, but like this is player of the week, player of the month type performance. This is, oh yeah, that guy is just like he’s going to be an all-star starter again. I feel I I don’t want to talk about all-star stuff eight games into the season because that’s silly. But like it’s okay, who’s the other guard going to be? Is it going to be Tyresese Maxi who’s been awesome? Is it going to be Jaylen Brunson? I don’t know. But I know it’s going to be Donovan Mitchell. That’s the type of tier he is in. If you don’t think Donovan Mitchell is a top 10 player in basketball, you’re wrong. Like I I am somebody that is open to discussion on a lot of things. I I think that there are a lot of different viewpoints that there’s not always like a black and a white. There’s a lot of room for gray area in sports. Not with this. Like this is a black and white thing. Like he’s a top 10 player in basketball. I don’t know how many ways I can say it. I don’t know that I ever come away from watching him just like, “Yeah, I should be more impressed than I am because at times, and I am guilty of this, I think a lot of us can sort of just take him for granted.” And that is a thing that I would caution against because it’s crazy watching him do what he’s able to do night in and night out. And it was funny too. I want to share what he said after the game, but he talked about his day on Wednesday because the Cavs didn’t have a mandatory shootound. I don’t know if Donovan Mitchell went to optional shootaround or not. It doesn’t matter. But he was playing two, he said he was playing 2K during the day on Wednesday and there was a a kid or a guy that was uh talking smack to Donovan Mitchell. Like imagine playing 2K with Donovan Mitchell and just like talking crap to him, right? So he said that that’s what was happening. Guy’s like, “Yeah, I haven’t seen Donovan Mitchell highlights and and you’re washed and stuff.” And he’s like, “That’s what I used as my motivation.” Like, “Okay, watch this.” And then he goes off and has one of the best games so far in the NBA this season. 46 points on absurd efficiency. And it serves as a reminder that we should not take Donovan Mitchell for granted that he is one of the best players in basketball. The list of guards that are better than him in this league is very very small. He belongs to he deserves to be talked about as one of the best players in the NBA and Wednesday night against Philadelphia was just another example of it. Now, there was one more guy that stood out to me. I want to talk about Jaylen Tyson. Plus, I do want to touch a little bit about how Evan Mobley looked different and Jared Allen had a very nice night, too. So, we’ll touch on all those things next right here on Locked on Cavs. But first, today’s show is brought to you by FanDuel. 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I can’t get there. I can’t get there. I’m gonna take the under. 37 and a half is the total. I’m gonna take the under in that game. That’s going to be my Cleveland Browns pick of the week with FanDuel. So, you can be like me. You can take that or you can bet any NBA game live. There’s only one game on Thursday. You could bet that game live. That could be your first $5 bet with FanDuel. But if you’re a new customer, your first $5 bet with FanDuel can lead to $300 in bonus bets. That right. That’s right. If you just hit your first $5 bet, $300 in bonus bets are yours. So, head to fanduel.com. That is fa due.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Thank you again for making today’s edition of Locked on Cavs your first listen. And thank you for making Lock on Cavs your first listen or watch on YouTube every single day. If you are watching, do us a favor, hit that thumbs up button for us, click subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss the latest lockdown caps content. Jaylen Tyson had another very good night for the Cavaliers on Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers. Tyson was in the starting lineup with DeAndre Hunter out sick and he just does the little things so well. And Kenny Atinson after the game talked about the decision to start Tyson as opposed to putting Sam Merrill back in the starting five because that was part of the plan earlier in the year. But part of it is Tyson’s defensive ability to pick up a guy like Tyrese Maxi full court. And I thought it was important for the Cavs that yes, while Maxi did get going in the second quarter, he didn’t necessarily have a very first quarter. He didn’t necessarily looked super involved. And I think Jaylen Tyson deserves a lot of the credit for that. Like that is a really important thing. Tyresese Maxis’s first quarter played 10 minutes, scored four points on one of three shooting. Like that to me, and maybe part of it is he wants to get his teammates involved, but he also turned the ball over four times. That to me screams Jaylen Tyson doing his job. He’s shooting the basketball at a very high level. He entered play on Wednesday shooting 44% from three, was two of five on threes. So that percentage like might go down just a hair, but overall like he’s a super efficient player that does all of the little things. And that I think is so needed on championship caliber teams. You need guys that are willing to go out and do the little things. And do I think that this team still needs to rebound the basketball better than it has? Absolutely. I think that is like the one issue that I say this needs to get fixed. And Darius Garland’s not going to fix that. But watching Jaylen Tyson play, just he looks like a guy that when the Cavs, I guess if the Cavs ever get fully healthy, he has to play. if he keeps this up. Jaylen Tyson is not just an NBA rotation player. Jaylen Tyson is a guy that you can play in the playoffs because I think that he’s good enough offensively that he cannot be ignored on that end of the floor. He makes all the hustle plays. The putback dunk that he had on Wednesday night I thought was a huge play and I don’t know how many other guys on the Cavs are making that play right now. And I think that’s a really important thing to have as part of the rotation. I think that having somebody that is not just willing to pick up full court, but is eager to pick up full court and good at picking up full court are things that really matter. I think you need those things when the postseason arrives. And I look at this and say there’s going to at some point be because Tyrese Proctor I think will be a rotation player one day. I don’t know that it’s right now and that’s fine. He was the second round pick. That’s not the the realistic ask of him. But right now, if you look at the Cavs, when they’re fully healthy, they have 11 or 12 guys that are like, I should play in the playoffs right now. You’ve got the starting five, which we’re going to say is Darius, Donovan, Evan, Jarrett, and DeAndre. Those five obviously. Then off the bench, Sam Merrill, yes. Lonzo Ball, yes. Max Streus, yes. Craig Porter Jr., yes. Larry Nance Jr., yes. Dean Wade, yes. Jaylen Tyson, that’s 12 guys. There’s going to be one or two guys that have to get left out of the rotation. Maybe even three, but it can’t be Jaylen Tyson. He has meant too much to this team early on, and he has to keep this up. It’s November. Let’s not get over our skis. As far as that goes, he has to keep this up. But if he does, I look at it and say, well, who would you rather have playing playoff minutes for you right now? Would you rather want Jaylen Tyson or would you rather want Dean Wade? I think the answer is very clearly Jaylen Tyson as of this moment. Now, there’s a lot of basketball left to be played and things can change, but I’ve been super impressed with what I’ve seen from Jaylen Tyson so far and I thought that Wednesday’s game against Philly was another example of that. As for Dean Wade, he only played 30 seconds in this game. 38 seconds to be exact. He left with an eye injury. Kenny Atinson said that, you know, he kind of looked like a boxer after the game, but no structural damage, like there’s no damage to his cornea or nothing like that. So, we’ll have to wait and see if he misses time and if so, how much time that he misses, but he did not return. Just wanted to leave that known. Then, I wanted to finish by talking a little bit about the game that the two bigs played because I thought Jared Allen was very, very good in this game. Obviously, he is playing through a finger injury. He has a fractured finger and he played with a splint and it’s on his left hand. So, while it is a little limiting, it’s not like super detrimental to his game. I thought he was very good. He had 24 points, he had 10 rebounds. I thought, again, much like Evan Mobley, think that he’s a big beneficiary of not just Darius Garland being back, but the ball moving the way that it did. There was a pass that that Lonzo Ball had to Jared Allen in transition that is just like, my goodness, man, what a pass. And Jared’s the beneficiary of those types of things. And I think that when the Cavs are playing well, you really notice Jared Allen. When the Cavs aren’t playing well, I think he’s kind of invisible. And I think that is maybe not a good thing. But I do think like he’s sort of in some ways, I think he’s sort of the barometer for this Cavs team. And then as far as Evan goes, I thought in in the first half especially, I thought he looked so much better. And as we talked earlier about like Darius being an advantage creator, it’s not just that he creates an advantage for himself. I think Evan is somebody that really benefits from that because I look at and I’ll have to go back and watch this game again. But I look at the where and how Evan catches the basketball. not just what his defender looks like, who his defender is, where the positioning is, but sort of what else is going on around him. I think far too often this year in Evans first seven games, I think he’s been catching the basketball. And it’s not that he’s the one standing still, but everyone else is kind of standing still, too. And I didn’t get that sense when Darius Garland was on the floor and the ball was really moving around. felt like the ball had energy when Evan was touching it and I think in previous games it’s just like okay Evan go do something like here’s the basketball go score like just find a way to make it happen and I think for growth that’s a good thing like I do think Evan will eventually be better at those things and I think the Cavs will be better obviously because of it but I think that Wednesday night watching him be in the positions that he was in because the Cavs were able to create more advantages on the floor I thought he was a big big beneficiary of that and I look for that to be a bigger part of who the Cavs are offensively and I think Evan Mobley is very quickly especially having some of the experience that he gained in the first couple of weeks with how he had to play I think he’s very quickly going to look like an all-star in the offensive end of the floor once again. So that’s going to do it for today’s edition of Locked on Cavs. There’s a lot I think this game is very important because of the Garland return. So, I’m going to probably take a little bit of a deeper dive into some of the advanced numbers like drive, stuff like that, and just how the Cavs were different in this specific game versus the previous seven that they played. So, that’s probably what tomorrow’s edition of Lock on Cavs is going to look like. You’re not going to want to miss it. I can promise you that. So, make sure you’re subscribed to this show wherever you get your podcast. That’s on Apple, that’s on Spotify. You can subscribe on both of them. Actually, I think you should do that. That’s what I would would recommend. Give us a fivestar rating. Leave us a nice review. And if you’re watching the show on YouTube as we get out of here, the best way you can help the show is hit that thumbs up button right now. Click subscribe. And you want to hit that notification bell, too, because you don’t want to miss the latest lock on Cavs. I’ll be back tomorrow talking more about the Cleveland Cavaliers.

On today’s edition of Locked On Cavs, Danny Cunningham (The Inside Shot, 92.3 The Fan, Cleveland Magazine) discusses how the Cleveland Cavaliers reignite their season with Darius Garland’s return, but it’s Donovan Mitchell who steals the spotlight with a jaw-dropping 46-point performance against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Danny breaks down how the team’s dynamic shifts with Garland back, spotlighting improved ball movement, emotional energy, and smoother roles for key contributors like Evan Mobley, Jaylon Tyson, and Jarrett Allen. The episode explores Mitchell’s relentless scoring, Garland’s playmaking impact, and more!

Check out Danny’s Substack, The Inside Shot: https://theinsideshot.substack.com/
Email the show: LOCavsmailbag@gmail.com
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