The Cleveland Cavaliers looked like the Cleveland Cavaliers again w/ Darius Garland in the lineup

The Cleveland Cavaliers looked like the Cleveland Cavaliers again w/ Darius Garland in the lineup

Heat. Heat. All right, welcome to overtime here in the old Cleveland Sports Show. The Cavaliers guys have had Darius Garland back for two games and they’ve improved to 2 and 0. Now to keep it real, they’ve played two really bad teams in Indiana and the Clippers, but obviously there’s been a lot better flow to the offense with DG back in the fold there. Jason, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t watch last night’s game. Neither did I. I saw it, but I was trying to But I’m not totally surprised that they offense looks better with Darius, right? Better. It’s always he’s out there. He’s not going to help you defensively. He better help you score and get you into the flow of the offense. So, I do want to go back. I told Mike I want to go back and I know they play tonight. I want to watch the Clippers game today and then watch uh the Raptors tonight and see. Uh but yeah, I mean I it’s early. I we keep saying the same thing because nothing’s really changed at this point. It’s still November. The games are Darius plays. The offense looks terrific. The games where he doesn’t, it doesn’t. Yeah. Listen, Darius Garland, I’ve now changed uh my my uh you know, thesis on what what it does to the Cavaliers and what it would take for them to win a championship. I’m now the scary part is Darius Garland is extremely injuryprone and he’s the smallest guard, so I I can’t count on him being a It’s always It always lingers in the air. It’s always one. But if they want to win, I think that it’s Darius Garland that is going to have to play at an elevated level. Um because when you watch him play, Evan Mobley looks comfortable because you’re not asking him to be the the focal point of the attack. Uh guys, the spacing looks better. Uh Jaylen Tyson, I don’t know what who he think he is. Like Jaylen Tyson, awesome. Jaylen Tyson looking like he trying to be I mean when did you get that level of confidence? DeAndre Hunter plays better. Um, and the shooters play better. And like you said, I agree with Mikey McNuggets. Uh, Donovan can play spot duty uh, as a go, you know, as a point guard, but he’s the quintessential we used to like say combo guard from back in the day. The 6’2 guy that you go to the high school gym that’s just better than everybody. He’s him. So when when Darius gets back, everybody seems to slack into their natural position and it looks better. And that’s what Donovan, I mean, with Darius not even shooting well. He didn’t make a three. He was three for 10 from the field. So he didn’t shoot well, but he had eight assists to lead the team. And I don’t know, it’s it’s uh you know, you say that, well, now we got to win a different way. Yeah. I just I don’t think it just doesn’t feel realistic. I don’t think the other way is realistic. Like if if I don’t think Evan Moy being like No, I know. But I think we just got to try to enjoy the season and see where it goes. I mean, the East is wide open, right? That’s that’s the saving grace right now is the East is wide open. And even though the Cavs, they’re 12 and six. They don’t feel like 12- six. They’re third in the East right now, half a game behind the Toronto Raptors, who they play tonight. So, if they beat Toronto, they’ll pass Toronto for the second place in the East. They have not played particularly well overall. They’re still finding ways to win games, which is promising. But I think, and Jason, I’m curious what you think on this. Evan Mobley in my mind was the, you know, X-actor for the Cavs. Like, if he jumped his game to another level, that’s how they raised their ceiling. Yeah. after watching the difference in how this team operates functionally as a team, but even Donovan as an individual when Darius is on verse off the court and more not off the court when he just takes stints in in the game like not playing. I kind of think Darius is the X-actor for this team now. Like I genu, you know, he was an allNBA candidate last year before he got hurt at the end. third team. Not like he’s a first or second team guy, but they have a offensive three-point rating. So, the amount of shots they take when he plays is in like the low 40s, which is right around where Kenny wants it. In games where he doesn’t play, 60% of their shots are from beyond the arc. Like, that’s such a drastic gap because they don’t have enough other guys that can get to the paint, draw the defense in, attack closeouts, and their other ancillary scorers aren’t beating guys one-on-one off the dribble as frequently as you need to when they’re just manned up one-on-one. They could get guys off rotations, but not in the one-on-one. The more and more I look at this team and the more and more I think Darius, and it’s a terrifying place to be in because of his injury history. Darius is really the X factor for this team reaching its full potential. I mean, I’ll okay, but I I just don’t like how that ends. We’ve just seen that. Like, we’ve seen this, especially fans in Cleveland should know by now that the postseason is a different sport than what the regular season is. So the regular season can look one way and you think you got it, but then you get to the postseason and teams start taking that away. And when you are driven by little guards more times than not, could they be the Could they be the anomaly? Sure, they could be the anomaly. I mean, the Pistons in the 80s, you could say the Warriors, but the Warriors had the greatest shooting in the history of the game. Super anonymally. So yeah, I mean, so even before Katie got there, the Warriors had just ungodly shootings, the best we’ve ever seen. This and Isaiah Thomas is the greatest ever. Yeah. And and so like so we’re nitpicking. We’re we’re we’re looking for like the other anomalies, the exceptions rather than the rule. And the rule is over the last 40 years, teams with little guards don’t win championships. So if you want to enjoy the season and like take your chances the postseason I don’t know what the alternative is at this point. So I guess okay go ahead to me the ceiling like you said look he’s the X factor but I mean I mean how how confident am I that they going to get that? Not very like but my I’ve adjusted kind of as I watch what they were. I’ve adjusted my thought process to what their ceiling could be. I think if if right now you told me, “Hey, the Cavs tough it out, get to the finals and have a puncher chance against one of these teams in the West.” You sign up for that. I take that. You sign up. Well, that’s the funny thing is I take that as like kind of blas I feel about the Cavs. I’m like, “Yeah, they could get to the finals cuz nobody in the East is any good.” And like once you get there, who knows? Now, now do any of us think they’d have a chance to meet Oklahoma City in the finals? I wouldn’t I would have picked them in I wouldn’t pick them against the Rockets. I wouldn’t pick them against the Nuggets, right? But they’re only going to have to play one of those teams. So, you know, so the NBA should have long ago blown up the East West nonsense. You know, those teams have played better basketball. The the reason why the Rockets the way they’re playing right now is scary because they’ve only played together a little bit of time and they seem to be like they got a formula. But the Denver Nuggets, they know how they’re going to play. OKC knows how they’re going to play. They don’t got to figure nothing out. You know what I mean? The Cavs are still trying to figure out, oh, who’s going to be the guy? Who’s gonna So, if they get to the finals, what I mean, the Cavs shouldn’t have any more to figure out than those teams. They’ve been playing together for years. I mean, if they go to the finals, that’s a win. I take the win. I That’s a If you win the East, even which I think that’s possible, but like how much faith do you have, even though the East isn’t that good that they’re going to do it when they haven’t won their only series wins are against teams they were massive favorites against? I I agree. Yeah. Where I’m not I’m not pushing back and I’m I’m still not sure like listen I I’d still have Orlando circled. I know nobody’s talking about Orlando. I got New York circles. Or well everybody’s got New York is a team that but Orlando ain’t scared of these guys at all if it becomes a matchup. I mean the Pacers weren’t scared of them. No. I don’t think any team’s I’ll be honest. I don’t think any team’s scared of C. That would be the wrong mindset to have, but I don’t think any team’s going into a series saying we have no shot like some teams would go up against OKC and and feel and maybe even Houston and maybe even Denver depending on how the season goes. If the Cavs If the Cavs were playing in the Thunder in the finals and you had to pick, you got two choices. Thunder and four or Cavs win the series. What would you take? Thunder and four. Thunder and four. Yeah. I I think I’d be it’d be hardressed to get them four four games four to one. If SGA had to play with one arm tied behind his back, here you go. Who would you pick? Stop. There you go. Stop that nonsense. Disrespectful. But do you do you guys realize how good the Thunder have been this year? Oh, I know. What are they? 18-1. 17-1. That’s ridiculous. By the way, Jaylen Williams hasn’t played yet this season. That’s nuts. Oh, I know. Every single person they have has taken a leap. SGA is obviously SGA. Homegrren’s made a giant leap in in year number three for him. They have a guy named AJ Mitchell who was a second round pick who’s now the betting favorite for six man of the year. And they’re doing this in one of the smallest markets in the league. Yeah, they what what Sam Prey has done in OKC is incredible. Yeah, absolutely incredible. Nuggets is back. Nuggets are great and the rock the three best teams in the league right now are in the West by a lot. Right. It’s been that way for 20 years. The West has dominated the West. I don’t I don’t understand how the west continually I mean yeah LeBron had his run here but for the like if you just stacked the West versus the East like that the West has been the dominant conference over the East for 25 years. I mean even when you had back in the day you you had the Lakers but then you also had the Spurs and then the Trailblazers were good for a while and then you had the Jazz were good and then the Sacramento Kings with Weber and them had crazy Sacramento. I mean they’ve been like the worst franchise in the league. I mean he’s going way back. I’m going way back. But I even there hasn’t been a team in the East where it was like besides LeBron’s team, Celtics and but that’s I mean this is 85. There hasn’t been like three or four I’m I mean I don’t know Miami. I’m delirious. Right. But now No, I’m like in the East has there how often how many years has there been where there’s you look at the East and you go any of these three or four or five teams could make the finals. No, it’s been one team in the East you Were we saying that last year in the East? Yeah. No. Boston, Ind. Nobody was even saying Indiana. Nobody was saying Boston. We should have Boston, Cleveland, and New York. So, and that but the reality was more than that because we should have had Indiana on that list. But more years than not is my point. Yes. The West has been mostly better than the East for you know since the since the uh 60s since the 70s basically. Yeah, for the most part the West has been better outside of a couple of you know stretches here. Interested in watching the game tonight. We’ll see what they do. Shout out to the Cavs. It’s on Peacock. Oh, right. Isn’t Isn’t that a Peacock game? It is a Peacock game. It is a Peacock game. So, the Cavs Peacock is just a terrible name. It really is. I mean, it’s just awful. Like, I mean, and it’s such a beautiful animal, but this is tough name. Any any any animal name with in it is not just I mean, this meat and meat show is is crazy today, man. And shout out to Joe Thomas. But uh we’ve been doing a lot of pause worthy content. Yeah, that’s true. All right, we’ll see you tomorrow on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. Peace. The

The Cavaliers looked like the Cavaliers again this weekend with Darius Garland bck in the lineup.

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