Zach Lowe and Steve Jones had an excellent discussion on the Cavs at the 15-game mark (pre-Rockets) and I thought there were some really interesting points made. A few highlights:

  • Zach talks about his nervousness about how dependent we are on Garland being available to play the brand of basketball we want to play. You can still attempt to play your brand of ball without a star but the Cavs seem to shift dramatically when DG isn't there.
  • In that vein, last season – 50.1 drives per 100 possessions (7th). This season – 40 drives per 100 possessions (27th).
  • JA's minutes are down and crucial situations are seeing him leave the floor and play Mobley at 5. What does that say for JA and what this team should be?
  • That said, if your best look is Garland, Mitchell and Mobley at 5, that's bound to very small. How do you prepare for that?

I'm still really bullish on this team if we can get Garland back healthy full-time but some really good discussion about some concerns swirling. Link to time-stamped video below.

https://youtu.be/9En3-a72-Ns?si=A7UZoBdx2bSdlnvk&t=2651

8 comments

  1. I might be wrong so def correct me, but pretty sure JA has been sitting a lot of fourth quarters to help heal his finger rather than taking him out strategically. We have done that in the past, but I’m p sure we haven’t been doing that almost every game this season

  2. Relying on Garland to be healthy is a major problem. But maybe this season we can fix it by just having him miss major time at the beginning of the season rather than at the end.

  3. The one question at the end, “can they hit enough shots?” Right now, it’d be hard to trust you can rely on Evan. I’d trust last year’s version more than this year’s. But that’s besides the point.

    The point is the Cavs are 10-6 with room to grow. This counters the few couple seasons where they were fantastic Nov – Feb but played like they are playing now but instead of Oct/ Nov, it was Mar/ April

    This tells me the Cavs have the *opportunity* to play their best basketball *going into the playoffs*, which we have literally never seen this team do in any new-era iteration. That’s the exciting part.

    But I cannot stress enough how much this depends on Evan figuring it out and Allen saving his best self for the playoffs.

    I’m happy to see the productivity from the young guys, Sam Merrill looks great, Hunter looks like the two-way wing we’ve all been asking for, Dean Wade is, well, Dean Wade. A healthy DG and a put-together Evan Mobley makes this team great again. It’s just up to them to put it together

  4. Relying on DG is a huge issue because he’s hurt every year. I’m not a salary cap guy but I know at one time Atlanta had interest in trading for Garland when they were dealing with Trae issues. I would love if possible a DG/Trae swap

  5. I don’t like how it feels like they are disrespecting JA. I was high on Mobley but I’m selling some stock…

  6. Relying on a small point guard and a big that can’t shoot… Just like the 21′ Jazz all over again. At least, Mobley is better than any of Mitchell’s running mates on that Jazz team.

    For 3 years in a row, I’ve had a hard time seeing it work in the playoffs because any good team can pick at the weaknesses on either end of the floor. It doomed the Jazz, I feel like it’s going to doom this team and it’s probably too late to make any changes.

  7. Have mostly given up on Zack at this point – his Ringer show feels way more sportstalky/youtuby (thus boring) than the good old ESPN days.

    Responding to your summary… I think the common throughline is that Kennyball requires a specific roster that we have not had available to this point this year. It is up to Atkinson to either find some other stuff that works, or up to the front office to get those players. Personally I still believe the offense will figure it out, and defense is a much bigger question for this team.

  8. Statistically, our best lineup right now is Mitchell-Merrill-Hunter-Mobley-Allen. Somehow that lineup has only played 54 total minutes together this season. Logically, it makes sense why this works.

    We have no other lineup even close. Second best is Ball-Mitchell-Allen-Wade-CPJ

    You have to go through a number of pages to find a successful Cleveland lineup with Mobley at the 5.

    Providing some context.

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