This crowd rises to its meaning. What Carl slam it? Oh, Carl left wing free ball, perfect pop? Then HELLI lock the shot at the rim? How in the left hand and of fowl.
Welcome to the Chase Doown podcast, part of the Caves Media family. I'm your host Justin Browan. The Chase Down is presented by Fubo, the official streaming partner of the Calves. Watch over three hundred and fifty channels of live sports and TV, including fan Duel Sports Network without cable. There's no cost and no commitment. Try for free at foobotv dot com. Slash Calves. The clevid Kevaliers are in the
final week of the regular season. Their magic number is down to one after missing an opportunity to clinch the number one seed in the Eastern Conference against the Sacramento Kings. Unfortunate to lose that game, particularly with Oka see cracking that doorback open for the best overall record appears to be a bit of a long shot now, but we still have plenty to play for in this last week and joining me today as my co host, Carl Rodriguez.
Carter you doing, buddy, I'm doing well. Been under the weather. You know, the throat getting a little froggy. But you know, I'm just going through my pre playoff swoon. So I'm ready, you know, better better now then later. And uh, you know, overall doing well. Disappointing to lose that game, disappointing to
have to lose the way they lost it. You know, I do give big credit to the officials for you know, uh, you know, in their you know, pool report effort wherever the conversation happened, just gone, hey, you know, made a mistake. You know, I will never ever, you know, I'll be disappointed by it by an outcome, especially one that like
is influenced by a mistake like that. But at the end of the day, like, you know, what can you ask other than accountability in that way, you know, so unfortunate way to lose, and like I thought, Kenny had a really grown up response, who was like, yeah, I didn't all the way understand or you know, or like, you know, I got the explanation, and I'm disappointed by it,
but I it's not why we lost the game. And I do think that's a fair summation, you know, like it would have taken quite the quite the leap to get them over the over the over that final hurdle, and there's a lot of stuff they could have cleaned up to win that game, and just an unfortunate way to you know, unfortunate, uh, with the momentum back in their corner to drop that one. But what are you gonna do? Man?
Yeah, yeah, I mean I think there's a reason why we tend to not focus on refs when it comes to this podcast, because it is so subjective. Basketball is one of the most difficult games to officiate. Everything happens so fast. In a lot of time, it's fifty to fifty. So guess where my you know, opinion is usually going to land on the fifty percent that benefits the cows. It's so much more productive to focus on, you know,
the aspects that you can control. I definitely did appreciate, as you said, them coming on and saying, yeah, that's exactly being bucket shindt have counted. We saw today that the Max Strus technical has been rescinded, reviewed that situation and decided, you know, he shouldn't have got a technical in that situation. So you could, in theory, wipe three points off the board in this one. But there were certainly factors within the Cavs control that they came up short.
But you know, as frustrating as it was to lose that game, I really here's how you know, sick.
I am Carter.
I wanted to win that game because it would have clinched a better record against the Western Conference. We would have been twenty four and six against the West this year, which is a sixty seven win pace. Do you know how much fun it would have been to say we have a sixty seven win pace against the East and the West. Now, unfortunately, you know, we finished twenty twenty three and seven against the.
West, twenty three and seven, which is.
The best record against the Western Conference this season, significantly better than you know, even a team like the Thunder, who you know, has almost twice as many losses and only ten or so more wins. So you know, that's definitely a feather in their cap. But with the opportunity to clinch, you know, the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, it definitely was disappointing to drop that one.
But I can't help but feel like the biggest win from that afternoon was Donovan Mitchell's injury scare, and that
not being more serious. He's already been ruled out for Tuesday's game after the adrenaline war off, but the fact that he was even able to enter that game again and you know, look pretty pretty fine, I would say for the remainder of that game was a huge, huge relief, because, you know, if that's a high ankle sprain and we're talking about's he going to make it back midway through, you know, the first round of the playoffs, how are we going to fare if we have to play a
series without him and those type of scary questions that this would be a much much more depressing podcast.
Yeah. I had to have one of my first why is Daddy in such a foul mood conversations with my daughter after he went down, because I was I was desolate. I was really worried something really serious it happened. It's something really I don't know. Like, guys have been hurt a couple of times this season, but it was one of the first times where I was like, oh no, oh, no, oh no. And Millie came up to me and goes, what's wrong, And I'm like, Donovan Mitchell got hurt, and
she goes, why did he get hurt? I don't know, Han, but stop talking to me right now is a really selfish decision on his behalf. I'm a sad boy, and I can't. I you're you're a couple of years away from understanding why because it's not super logical. But but yeah, so ultimately glad to see them dodge the bullet. And I don't think they played a bad game. I definitely think they played a good first half that I didn't
feel like was terribly reflective of the score. Do you feel that way about the second half or do you or do you think that they left a little meat on the bone there. So I'm a two minds when it comes to this game. One.
You know, on our last podcast, we talked about how we as fans probably want them to make a statement a little more than they seem to want to right now. And I certainly felt that in this game because that, you know, I want something to calm some of the narratives. And I think there's justified concerns. I think there are some unfair framings and unjustified concerns that are mixed in. You know, it's it's definitely a bit of a balance.
But I came away from that game, if I'm solely like not thinking narratives and all all those sorts of things. I was overall impressed with their effort, and I thought that they did the right things. I thought they came into the game understanding, Hey, last time Sacramento played us, they beat us up on the offensive glass, they beat us up on the inside. We're going to have to
play with intensity. I thought their effort for loose balls, where sometimes it was the second or third player in from the Cavs making the effort that either secure or rebound secure to loose ball, whatever the case may be, I thought that was at a high, high level. You look at the offensive glass, the Calves out rebounded them thirteen to eight, almost doubled them up there. That's really really impressive. They outscored him sixty eight to forty eight
points in the paint. Normally, Demonta Sabonis is one of the toughest covers that they have. Yonis vound Tunis is very difficult coming in off the bench the Calves. If you look at the combined plus minus for those two guys, the Calves won the Sabonus minutes and the Valanchunis minutes by five they played Sabonus to a draw and they beat the valn Tunis minutes by five. That to me is a win only two more turnovers than the Kings would have liked to, you know, win the turnover battle.
But where they really killed us there is the points off of turnovers thirty seven to twenty one. So you know, there's not a big discrepancy in how many times we turned the ball over. We just failed to capitalize. And I really thought, from an effort standpoint, from a defense standpoint, from a hustle mentality kind of standpoint, I thought the calves were there in this game. I thought the offensive secure came up short. Do you think I'm cutting them too much slack here?
For the most part, No, I do think that third quarter, you know, the string got let go of a little bit, the rope got let go of a little bit. Yeah, And it was the weakest of the four for sure. And you know, I felt like Sacramento was getting what
they wanted. I don't know I was. I will say I was a little surprised to say Kenny was disappointed with the energy that came out with because I didn't really think they I thought, if anything, they fell apart a little bit in the second half, just getting getting attacked, you know, getting attacked with those big wings, some of those smaller lineups that the Cavs were running. I just thought weren't able to to kind of keep muster and
keep up with them. But again, I mean, I just kind of feel like it's a bit of a broken record with this team, where what is the you know, the one contributing factor to these losses? Bad three point shooting, bad free throw shooting. Yep, Like, and they shoot twenty six percent from three on a steady diet of pretty darn good looks. They got nineteen wide open threes for your rundown, thank you for actually doing homework on this podcast. So half their threes of their thirty eight attempts were
wide open. Yeah, and uh and they you know, they only made seven of them, so they missed a lot of those. And then the free throw woes, man, are getting really really concerning. Yep. I just I like, again, we've said it on the pod before, but it's the least interesting thing to discuss, and even if I'm a coach, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do about that.
And it's not like they aren't practicing them, but eleven of nineteen is like, yeah, that's literally the difference between you winning and losing this game.
Yep, yep, you know it's I really do think when when you look at kind of the Calves since the start of March, not shooting well seems to be the big theme here, right, And you know, from a Sacramento standpoint, you mentioned the Caves were seven to nineteen on wide open threes. This is just one of those kind of sets of stats that's going to make you pull some hair out. The Kings were fourteen four to fourteen on wide open threes, so they did not capitalize.
Wide open three point attempts. Is very good just.
For the terrific, right, Like the Caves for the season average twenty wide open threes with nobody within six feet and that's not even you know, near the top of the league. On those late contests where Calves defenders are within four to six feet, Kings shot four of twelve on those shots. Didn't shoot particularly well. There tightly contested threes where the defender is within zero to four feet, the King shot six of seven.
God, that's a great pull, brother, That's that's ridiculous.
And I was discussing this with our buddy Ben Cox, where he said, you know, it kind of feels like when the Calves lose, it's never just one little thing, it's everybody that struggles. And I said, yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense, because the Cavs have so much depth, and our margin for error because of that depth is so significant that it really does take almost
everybody struggling in order for a loss to occur. Because even throughout that winning streak, that sixteen game winning streak, things weren't necessarily going great, right, Like Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland were struggling with their shots at times, like we had, you know, things that made us feel like, hey, there's a bit of a slump occurring here. It really does take, you know, pretty broad struggles across the board from the team in order for them to ultimately lose
a game. And when you talk about ten of thirty eight from three eleven of nineteen from the free throw line in a game that.
You know the other team can't miss the shots that you're all over them on, like on shots from two to four feet for a frame of reference so tightly guarded the Bucks take four a game and lead the league at thirty seven percent. No one else has passed thirty four. Like, so six of seven is bananas bad luck.
And particularly when you know, I think two of those came from Tomorrow de Rozan, who's probably you know, bottom three volume shooter wing in the last twenty years, right, So you know that you can attribute to poor luck. But the Calves, even with that, it's not like the Kings were hitting an abnormal amount of their open shots. It's not like, you know, it's not like there were things that were outside the calves control that they just couldn't handle and it was an unfortunate game. It was, Hey,
you generated open looks you didn't capitalize on. You generated the most open look that you will ever have in a game, which is free throws, and you couldn't capitalize on those. Like, to me, that's the kind of stuff that I focus on more so than a zach Lavine shot left his hand a second late, shouldn't have counted. Obviously, that had an impact on the last minute. It has an impact on the shot decisions you make and all
that kind of stuff. But to me, the one result isn't as interesting as the last month in a bit here where the Cavs have been slumping offensively, because that, to me is a more macro trend that you have to take a look at. Because since the start of March, Carter the Cats are twenty three and three point percentage.
Yep, it's been rough, man uh like, and it does really just feel like I mean, and the thing is, it's a relatively centrally located bad three point percentage. It's not like it's not the whole team can't hit. DeAndre Hunter is still shooting fine, Dean Wade shooting fine. Oh, Korro even as mostly shooting fine, a little less in that stretch less on that, a little lower. But but
you know, like, uh, you know, even Evan. Evan's had more up and down games, I would say, but he's had good games where, you know, I don't feel like his three point shooting is significantly worse than it was the beginning of the season. No, it's Darius Donovan time. And all three of these dudes are just ice cold as jump shooters and have been since the beginning of March.
And I just don't know what to do about that, dude, because it's like, you know, every time, I think that they are kind of on their you know, on their way up, and oh Darius has a great game and now now he look he figured it out and he's back like it doesn't take long before it's you know, three four games a row of one of five, two of seven. Yep. And it's just one of those things that's just really disappointing. I mean, Okra, Yeah, you're right. Okor's at thirty point six since March first, so he
is not helping. But yeah, open, wide open looks too in that sample size, which is so he's shooting significantly better when he's contested. He's on that deroz and kick. Yeah, but we're we're at a fifteen game sample now of Donovan and twenty five percent. Yeah yeah, And you know, it's not like the quality of shots has gone worse over that stretch, right, because that's one of the things where all right here, here is a result. Let's work our way backwards and try to figure out what's going on.
You look, before March first, the Cavs generated twenty point one wide open threes per game, and they shot forty three percent. Since March first, they're generating twenty point three wide open threes per game.
So it's actually up to a little bit. They're just shooting thirty seven point six percent. But if you look at just those wide open looks, Garland's shooting thirty three percent on those, Mitchell's shooting thirty two percent, on those, Isaaco korro is shooting thirty one percent, Ty Jerome thirty
seven point nine. So those are the four guys that are kind of dragging that down that are around you know, that percentage or worse, every other member of the Cavaliers that takes you know, a decent number of threes wide open ones are shooting above forty percent. So it really is Darius and Donovan who are dragging that down. And then you know, you can mention o'korl and you can mention tie tie at least, you know it's somewhere around that average. O'cral's not taking a large enough volume to
bring that number down. But but you look at you know, since March first, overall three point shooting, Darius shooting thirty three percent and as you said, Donald Mitchell shooting twenty five percent. And it's not much better from the field either, Mitchell shooting thirty nine percent. From the field, Garland shooting for forty percent, right like it, both of those guys are struggling on a decent diet of good looks.
Yeah, I just I think I'm not quite sure what to make of it. You know, the volume is right about what you want. I don't think they're shucking your point. The open shots are have been good, and like, only time.
There's really chucking is like a couple of these late game scenarios where it felt like, you know, Darius and Donovan have put up like five threes in ten seconds span.
Yeah, which, like you know, like even that none of those even feel close, And like I do think, like I think something we're always trying, we try to be as careful as we can on this podcast. Is playing
the result instead of playing the process. And you know, I just wonder if we're griping about sam Merril minutes at the three, if Darius and Donimo is shooting a little better, you know, and like, how how much that just meaningfully if each of those guys is making one more three a game, you know, that's that's six points a game that meaningfully changes your offensive rating, meaningfully changes the kind of possessions the defense is taking as a
psychological effects that come with it, and you know, I do think it contributes to how much more work. It feels like the Caps offenses right now, where you know, they can still work their way to a few easy buckets, but when their actions are defended, well, their break class in case of emergency options just haven't been there. The backbreaker kickouts haven't been there. You know, the things that take a twelve point lead to fifteen or a fifteen
point lead to eighteen. Those are going off the back rim and often I'm starting fast breaks for the other team. And like I it's not the best podcasting to talk about this because there's not much to be done other than hope both of them start shooting better. I do think earning your way to the one seed and having a long layoff for the play in is probably the best thing for these guys, just to get in the gym, get their rhythm under them again. Yeah, but which I mean?
We saw Ty Jerome getting an extended time off. I thought he had a lot of juice, you know.
Against the Kings, Chris Fiedor mentioned on his podcast that, you know, the decision to not play time Moore down the stretch was he's already you know, hit that kind of twenty three minute limit in terms of how much he had played in that game. And don't want to you know, lose track of what the long term goals are here of managing a guy that's had some injury history, just because you want to win a game here in.
April right where speaking of that, that's the one storry to interrupt, But I did want to get this in earlier. There is a clear difference between what these coaches are coaching. For every single King starter played forty minutes, plus Malake Monk played twenty. Every other King's rotation player played seven or less. Yeah, so and then you look up and down the calves and no one tops thirty three minutes,
and like that does matter, It doesn't not matter. Like Tom Tibodau has won a lot of regular season games by playing his best players more minutes in playing them against other teams second units.
And that's something that we've seen, i'd say, over the last two weeks here, almost every single team we're playing is in that playing hunt, right, and they're playing basically a playoff rotation.
So that's going to have some impact.
But you know, you mentioned before how we've been talking recently about the Sam maryl at small forward minutes. Well, when the Cavs are struggling from three since the start of March and there's only two guys that are shooting above thirty nine percent and one is Sam Merril, that probably answers a bit of our question, right, like, hey, we need to have a shooting punch because the guards
aren't bringing it. It's you know, Max Struce at thirty nine point six percent, which you know, thank you Max.
He's been great. Max has been a real saving grace for us, I feel like in the last two months, and sam Merril at thirty nine point two percent, right, Like, those guys are giving them a lift at a time that they need it.
So as we continue to you know, have two eyes on all right, this is what the president is and this is what the future is, and you know, maybe some rotation changes we'd make to almost have the playoffs in mind and experiment with some stuff. There's also the reality of hey are two highest volume shooters, one of whom just passed j R. Smith in terms of all time makes in a season. You know, those guys aren't
aren't hitting their shots. We need to get guys that are going to give us a lyft from the three point range. It makes sense to me.
Yeah, it's uh, it's tough, man. These are the the you know, the dog days the season are kind of passed. Now we're into playoff prep mode and yep, you know, and I don't want to like overly do them in gloom. The Cavs are one to three in a row for this loss, and like we're so spoiled that uh, you know, that feels not great. You know, the fact that they're six and six in their last twelve probably they're you know, there's probably something to be said that is probably their
most extended stretch of the season. Like, you know, they had a few like lost you know, three or four out of seven or you know, like but a twelve game stretch where it kind of just kind of just feeling so up and down is something that we're just not used to this season. Yep. But at the end of the day, they also like just they really just don't have that much to play for, you know, they don't and that especially now that the wins record cannot
be beaten, it can only be matched. I do wonder if that'll change the way they they they attack these these last five games or so. Yeah, and also you know, just the fact that Donn and Mitchell had that injury scare. I think they're going to take a very cautious approach here.
And you know, if they're not playing on Fan Appreciation Day on Sunday, that means in all likelihood they're getting eight days of rest before Game one of the playoffs, and that's going to give them a chance to actually practice. It's going to give them a chance to rest up,
deal with whatever nagging injuries that they have. And I think the hope is all right, you know, they're going to have an opportunity to get this thing going, and you would hope that they take care of business in the first round, and that gives them even more chance to rest up and to prepare for another round of the playoffs, to find a little bit of a rhythm if they need. Some of those games, you'll almost get
a little bit of a warm up round. And for that reason, I really hope it's not the Orlando Magic. Not because I'm scared of the Magic. Honestly, if I had my brothers scared of them in the way you're scared of a school yard bully. No, I'm not even scared of one of that.
Honestly, if I had the ability to, I'd like to play the Orlando Magic, I'd like to play the Detroit Pistons. I'd like to play the New York Knicks, and before I play the Boston Celtics. Because I'm just sick of the narratives and I'm not scared of a single damn team in this Eastern Conference.
I'm not.
I'm just saying from a practical standpoint of finding a rhythm. You know, that's not a team that allows you to really find a rhythm. So if you're talking about ideal scenarios as we're trying to get the offense back on track, they're probably not.
The the ideal scenario.
But you know, even with the Cavs not playing their best and pretty much not shooting their bestie is what you could kind of put this all down to, because I think when you're missing shots, it's going to lead to fast break opportunities for the other team. It's you know, it's not as demoralizing as when you're hitting absolutely everything and you're just a death machine out there. Like basketball is a very psychological game, and when the shots aren't
aren't falling, you're giving the other team hope. But even with them not shooting well, there's seventh in net rating since the All Star break, right, Like, the floor of this team still remains incredibly damn high. It's just you know, trying to give us a little bit more confidence as we're heading over.
To the playoffs. Yeah, I'm not down, but I am monitoring, you know, I am monitoring. I think that's kind of where we are where we just want to see the bounce back. We want to see this team fine, you know, with showing a few more of these positive signs, you know, on the defensive end, you know more, you know, I want to see two three lockdown quarters in a row. I want to see more forty eight minute efforts. I want to see execution. I want to see you know,
at the end of I want to see shots going. Brother, you know, it's the name of the game. You know. We can talk about shop profile, we can talk about you know, openness ratings. All we want. They either go in or they don't. If they don't, you have to go home. And that sucks. What that to happen?
Yeah, it's definitely not what you want to happen. And looking at the standings right now, I think the third best team in the Eastern Conference for the last month or so here has been the Indiana Pacers, and I think that that's going to be a really interesting matchup if that's ultimately what the Cavs play in the second round. And Darius and Donovan are still in this range where you know, Darius is shooting forty thirty three from the field and Donovan' shooting thirty nine to twenty five from
the field. That's a series that goes from hey, this is a test, to hey, this is something that you know could actually knock us out right, And I don't think that's going to be the case. I have confidence that they're going to be a little turned around. I have Donovan's got a track record of, you know, not finishing a season particularly strong, but stepping up in the playoffs.
We thought he was cooked. We were really worried he was cooked going into the playoffs like that. Knees just he's not right. He's has in top twenty games in two weeks or twenty points in a game and like two three weeks and then all of a sudden. I mean you just started hard carrying. Yep, yep.
You know, Darius doesn't have the same track record, so that's something we're going to need to keep an eye on. It's always tricky to talk about his playoffs when the bulk of those games came last year, which was just kind of a lost season. But he's got to get that shot the fall man, Like.
It's crazy to think we only have two playoff runs of data to analyze. We have three series. We've drawn so many big conclusions and so many we've tried to extrapolate every possible take in data out of this unbelievably limited group of games. Yeah, it's what, seventeen games, Yep, seventeen games. Not a tremendous amount.
Yeah, it's it's not a lot of data to keep track of, but sometimes you do have a lot of data to keep track of Carter. And that's why tools like zoom Ai Companion are so important. Because only you can do your best work, zoom Mai Companion can help you do the rest, like automatically taking notes, answer meeting questions, and helping you respond to your coworker. Available at no additional cost with eligibly eligible paid plans were happy with zoom Ai companion, Carter other Let's.
Talk awards, let's get let's get away from this regular season. April early April Angst.
All right, I have one thing I want to bring up, and I don't really want to discuss it much in depth, But Evan Mobley's first quarter gainst the Spurs rocked, and we don't need to have those Kevin Love quarters for Evan Mobley where he doesn't continue to get fed quat, you know, touches after that. So the annual Kevin Love Award goes to Avin Mobley for big first quarter and not enough touches the rest of the game, because I would have liked to see ev.
Go for fifty. Yeah, I was. I'm rarely frustrated with the fellas him him finishing the night with thirteen field goal attempts after eighteen in the first quarter, and the game you almost lost because their offense fell apart. Not great, Bob, No.
That one was not fun. I think, you know, I think they were up ten with two minutes to go, and I thought it was over. They obviously thought it was over, and it was not in fact over. So they were lucky to get that one. Now, let's Transition Awards. I just had to get that off of my chest because that quarter was so damn fun from Evan Mobley. I want to start things off with Kenny Atkinson Coach of the Year. You know, this was one of those awards that it's kind of spoken for itself all season.
You know, the Cavs did not make significant changes in terms of their rotation, were really banking on internal development and wanted to bring in a coach that was going to help foster that internal development. And Kenny Atkinson has absolutely done that. You look at where they're at now, They've already you know, exceeded their Vegas over on their win total by fifteen games. Evan Mobley has taken that step forward. You look at the sacrifice that Donovan Mitchell
has made this season. Everybody you know, having really really terrific seasons, even despite this slump. When you look at the season long numbers, they have been terrific. They have exceeded all expectations. They're on the verge of clinching the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, and I think, you know, it's something that we've talked about for years. The most difficult spot, and the most difficult thing to do is go from being a fifty win team to
a sixty plus win team. That is the hardest thing to do, particularly when you're just relying on internal development rather than bringing in some large piece to help shorten that jump.
Yeah, I mean, what a We know, it's really hard to evaluate coaching. You know, we're not in the room. We don't get to see this stuff. So what are the things you look to to evaluate with what limited information you have. Is a coach imprinting his style onto the team. This went from a very predictable, moribund offense to the best offense in the league, perhaps and almost one of the best offenses in the history of the sport.
They went from a slow team that really struggled to play with tempo and pace and went from twenty fourth in pace up to twelve. They are one of the best teams off cuts in the league. They are a team that kills you in five or six different ways. They have the ability for you know, Kenny has gotten them to play his style of offense in terms of pace, in terms of selflessness, in terms of the three point volume. How many years do we beg for that three point
volume to go up. You know, they're up top five and three point rate this year. So that's one thing you look for. You look for the ability to imprint your style. What's the next thing you look for? You look for the ability to inspire your the players to play the way you want them to play to generate
buy in. Donovan Mitchell playing less minutes than he's ever played, less volume than less, you know, less shot volume than he's ever had, less control of the offense than he's ever had, and done it with a smile on his face. And that's a testament to Donovan. I'm not trying to feel any valor here, but it's also a testament to
Kenney for coming to his player with a plan. You know that that that that lunch meeting several several months ago with assault shakers at the table and diagramming plays with Donovan and showing him I have a point of view on what this team should be. Here's exactly what it is, here's exactly why you should buy in, and then Donovan does it. So so that's thing too that you're looking for. Thing three is are players the best versions of themselves when they're playing for you? Look at
Evan Mobley. I don't even think I have to say more than that, Like every player, every role player has been, you know, the best version of themselves With this team, Guys like Ty Jerome, who you know, we're into rotation guys for much of their career have blossomed in the sixth Man of the Year considers.
Sam Merril's been terrific, you know, really developed into a solid rotation player this year.
Yeah, So up and down the rosters, everyone the best versions of themselves. Yes, and then like the fourth thing that you look for is kind of what the Cavs didn't do, which is you're always trying to figure out are they better because they change the roster? Are they better because they got better? Yep? You know, and this team there's no where to look really, I mean, Hi Jerome, a mid season acquisition of DeAndre Hunter when you know
they were already great before they got DeAndre Hunter. You know, I just think for the data that we have, for the information we have, there is no clearer choice than Kenny Atkinson. Yeah. I agree.
And you know the tricky thing about discussing awards is you know, when you look at usually the top five candidates, everyone's very deserving, Like I think that there's a lot of very deserving coaches this year. I think when you look at Defensive Player of the Year, there's a lot of deserving candidates MVP, there's a lot of deserving candidates. So anytime you start doing in comparison, it always comes
across as a little negative. So I just want to say on the front end when we do those comparisons, I don't mean for it to be negative. Maybe a little bit with Draymond Green, but you know there's a there's love and history there right when it comes to Draymond. But you know, listening to the Hoop Collective today and
they were discussing the leap that Detroit has made and JB. Bickerstaff, as you know, kind of that second leading candidate there, and you know, very similar to the Calves have exceeded there over under Vegas over under by fifteen wins. Detroit has exceeded theirs by seventeen, so a couple games more. As I said before, I think going from a New York fifty win team to a mid sixty win team
is a little bit more difficult. And if you want to look at the history of the Ward That's exactly how this has played out, because I want to know a very very comparable situation.
When JB.
Bickerstaff took the Calves from nineteen wins to forty four wins, which there right now Detroit's had thirty forty three wins with four games left. They're currently down to Sacramento, so finishing at forty four might finish with the exact same number of wins. He did not win Coach of the Year. He lost Coach of the Year to Monty Williams, who took a fifty one win Phoenix Suns team two sixty four wins, because the argument at the time was that
is the more difficult thing to do. It's we're talking about almost an identical leap and identical coach. It is very funny the parallels here where we're talking about Monty Williams who was replaced by J. B. Bickerstaff, we're talking Kenny Atkinson who replaced JB.
Bickerstaff.
JB is absolutely deserving, But when you're talking about teams that have exceeded their Vegas over under by almost the exact same number of games, and we are conceding that is so much harder to do that at the high end versus a Detroit team that was not trying to win games last year and was artificially deflating their win total. You know, I just think that that Kenny Atkinson deserves the nod here.
Yeah, I mean, JB is a great coach. I think it's been a vindicating year for those of us that were like, hey, like whether or not the JB experience has run its course in Cleveland. I can't pretend like he didn't do good stuff here in a.
Great job late, a terrific foundation. Kenny credits it all the time.
And uh, and so very validating. But like, at the end of the day, someone one person's got to win. And I just think in all the ways that we can evaluate this stuff other than just I mean, I feel like the only thing JB really has going compared to Kenny right now was the element of surprise. Yeah, and the starting point of last year, right, And that's not a good reason about for awards.
Yeah, And you know, there were a lot of other elements brought in there, right, Like Detroit spent a lot of money the saw season. They brought into bias He Harris, they brought in Tim Hardaway, junior who's been terrific for them.
That's that's the one. You know, they both have, I mean both have been very good.
Yeah, yeah, I just mixed up the shooters that they brought in. But you know, Tobias Harris has been better than Paul George with the sixers, Like you know, you know, it was not just a coaching change that resulted in overachieving by seventeen wins, whereas with the Calves DII Jerome getting healthy is certainly part of it, but you know, it wasn't like there was major shakeups. It's not like there was a big investment in the off season here that helped result in that. Next to WARLD, I want
to discuss Clutch Player of the Year. Obviously, Darius Garland is our candidate for this one. I think this one you're kind of leaning a little bit on team success just because the Calves haven't been in as many clutch games as other teams. The Calves have the best clutch net rating in the league. They have the best winning percentage in the clutch this season. It's funny to do this coming in off of clutch loss, but guess what that feeling of losing a clutch game. Almost every team
is felt that way way more than the Caves. That sucky, sucky feelings, you know, has not been felt because of how good they've been in those situations. Only one team in the league has more clutch wins than the Calves. That's Houston, one more, but they also have eight more losses. There are ten players in the NBA this season that have scored at least one hundred points in the clutch this season. Darius Garland is one of them, and he is the most efficient. He has a true shooting percentage
of sixty eight point nine percent in clutch situations. Jalen Brunson is the next closest at sixty four point seven so over four percent worse. And Jalen Brunson has been phenomenal in those situations. So you want to reward the best clutch performer, the most efficient clutch performer on the best clutch team. I think that, you know, the award would go to Darius. But again, it's a little bit of an uphill battle just because they do not have the same volume as some of these other teams.
Yeah, I mean, I do think it's an uphill battle.
But the other thing you're looking for outside of the statistical profile, is do you have a well established history of slamming the door on teams, because you know, the clutch staff can be a little they can be a little misleading, Like you can be up five with four minutes left or whatever it is, and you know that's technically clubch time, right, and like, so being up five and hitting a three is a lot different than being tied in the last minute, and so like, while his
clutch debts are unassailable, they're great, I think you also need on the other side of the coin is some iconic moments, and Darius says a lot of those. Yeah, I mean, he's got the Vucevich layup, he's got the Detroit game winner, He's had all these moments where he's slammed the door on teams. Then the Thunder game he helped slam the door.
And the game at Madison Square Garden early in the season against the Knicks, shortly after the second matchup against the Bucks where you know, he had back to back clutch threes to basically while the Cavs were down to ultimately help them win that game. And then I think it was an assist to Allan or Mobile, Like you know, it's it's both the scoring as well as the playmaking where he's been so good in those situations.
Yeah, so I think it's I think like it's all those factors together that really really come down to it, and that is why Darius really does deserve it. It's it's going to be a narrative award. I think it's always going to be a narrative award because we know
Clutch is noisy. We know like Darius misses two extra threes and those numbers look way different because the samples are just comically small and our team as good as the Caves, we haven't played as much lunchtime as other teams they're even smaller.
So and also what happens you know on a national game, right, Like some of these national games that the Caves have just had blowouts and you don't really get a showcase that, right, So it makes it tougher. It's a Vibees award, but like Darius has matched numbers and the Vibes have matched this year.
Yeah, totally agree. Now, the final one I want to discuss.
Big Kahuna, is a little more clear cut in my eyes because Evan Mobley I think has been ridiculously dominant defensively this season. I think he is taking as step forward on the defensive end, even though so much of the focus has been on the offensive side of the floor and what he's done. And I think that's a good place to start this off because the fact that his defense has not suffered by him taking on a
larger offensive load is impressive. The fact that it's taking a step forward is even more impressive, because this is a guy that really does do everything on both ends of the court. Some second spectrum rankings here from Nick Guy's Duncan our good friend who has access to a spectrum, I certainly do not. You know, this is one of those spots where we're going to have to do some comparisons because it really does seem when you look at the odds that it's a two man race between Evan
Mobley and Draymond Green. So we're going to do some head to heads here. When you look at it, Mobley has the edge in drives, drives, defender ISOs, defended, rim field goal percentage, on court defensive rating, and on off differential. Draymond has an edge and pick and roll defense and post up defense as well as defensive EPM. You know, if a single person wants to, I like, I know, defensive EPM is the one that I kind of use a little bit as a catch all, just because there
are no good defensive metrics. But if anyone can tell me how it's actually calculated here and why that, you know, you're going to put a lot of faith in it. You have to make that as part of your part of your argument. If you're going to say that, hey, that that helps override a lot of things for me when when we're talking about these two.
Yeah, and I know a lot of those metrics do like kind of weight on off stuff and yeah of the day, which is weird because Mobiley's got the better on off Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just I think the fact that Evan is asked to carry some of the most difficult to carry defense of lineups. He is the full crumb of the defense. He is the scheme wrecker. He is the one who allows them to keep their shell by being such an excellent switch defender, he has
been even better as a help defender. I feel like this was the first year to me where he was by far the best rim protector on the team through no fault of Jared Allen. And I do think he holds the Calves identity on that end of the floor. He is the thing that makes them special. I think he's flexible. I think he's gotten much better as a post up defender. You know, I think he's still not perfect.
It's probably like you know, in terms of going up against these bulky dudes, is still like a thing that he has to work on, you know, in terms of getting strength, fighting for that position early and stuff. But also like the switch heavy Calves team has really asked him to cover a lot of.
It really has, and you know, they've actually switched more this season than the Golden State Warriors, and the Warriors have always been a very switch heavy team. And you know, to talk about how special both of these guys are defensively, both Evan Mobley and Draymond Green lead their team in two point field goals contested as well as three point field goals. Can test it like when you have one player that does both of that, that's that's really really
damn impressive. And I think that goes to show you just how switch heavy both of these defenses are. But if we're going to take a look at it. Evan Mobley defends twelve point two two point field goals per game and opponents shoot five point nine percent worse on those shots versus when Evan Mobley's not guarding them. Draymond eight point seven shots two point field goals per game, so almost four shots a game less from two point range.
To Draymond's credit, opponents shoot just a little bit worse on those six point eight percent. But you got to say, all right, Mobley can test more two point field goals. That's probably because the East defending a lot of shots of the rim is what it is, even though Mobile, you know, is defending the rim better than Draymond Green natural part of being a center. Well, let's take a look at three point field goals defended. Mobily can test five three point field goals a game and opponent shoot
three percent worse on those shots. Not easy to take a three pointer with a seven footer on you. Draymond Green five points seven threes per game, so not even a full three point attempt more than Evan Mobley can test per game and opponents shoot zero point two percent worse. So big, big difference in terms of the effectiveness of Mobley's five threes contested a game versus Draymond's five point seven.
So when you look at both of these guys leading their team in you know, two point shots contested and three point shots contested, but Mobily doing it at such a higher volume. To me like that, that's something that speaks in his favor absolutely. And I think the other two things that really go in favor of Evan is the consistent since over the course of the year, Like even as the Calves defense wax and waxed and waned over the year, I don't think Evan's did. I think
Evan has been excellent all year. And I think the other impact is how much of the player's success is because of the context around them versus how much of their success on that end of the floor is because
of them. Are they generating of their own just on their own two feet, you know, where it doesn't matter who you put out, Like I feel like the Calves have more lineups where with four bad defenders that still defend well just because of Evan's presence, Whereas I do feel like Jarrett or Draymond, just because he's not as big, can't cover ground the way Evan can is a little bit more dependent on the personnel. Like, I don't think it's any surprise that the Warriors defense took the huge
leap that is facilitating this Draymond Green run. Uh, after they picked up Jimmy Butler. I don't think it's any surprise that Jimmy Butler in a lot of ways the impetus for this defense to take a leap.
Yeah.
And it's funny because you look since the All Star Break, the Warriors defense is five point seven points better with Jimmy Butler on the cord versus off and one point one points better when Draymond on versus off. And you're right, like, it really does seem like their success since adding Jimmy Butler is getting attributed to Draymond Green taking this leap defensively. And one, it's a full season award even if that were in fact true, that you know, there's another level
of the effort. And two, like, it really does seem that Jimmy has been driving that because you look at the Warriors defense with Draymond on the court this season and no Jimmy Butler, it's a defensive rating a one to twelve point six with Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green out there, it's one oh seven point eight. So that's
a significant difference when you talk about that. And now the presence of Jerry Allen has always kind of been used to discredit Mobiley just a little bit, like, hey, you know, he's playing power forward next to someone that deserves all defense recognition as well, in Jared Allen. It is true the defense is a little bit better with Jared Allen out there. With Evan Mobley, they have a
one to ten point six. It should be they have a one ten point six defensive rating with both of them out there, But when it's just Evan Mobley, And as you said, Carter, some of those lineups that Mobiley's asked to cover for are really asking a lot of them. It's not even a full point worse. It's zero point eight points worse per hundred possessions eleven point four. One eleven point four eleven point four would be nuts, But like,
that's not a massive, massive gap here. So it just it's funny to me that, you know, the Warrior success post All Star break is really you know, pumping up this Draymond case, even though the number suggests Jimmy Butler is the one that is driving that change. You know, it's helped the Warriors get eighteen wins since the All Star break. Meanwhile, the Calves are slumping since the All Star break with their eighteen wins season award. What are we doing here, buddy?
I mean even yeah, it's just really really frustrating, and it just kind of feels like it just feels like to me, sometimes this is such a you know, such a whiner take. So I'm sure some pockets of the listener basically going to roll their eyes, but it's like, just sometimes it feels like teams are like the media is just looking for reasons to to have a wandering eye. You know. JB loses like Kobe hasn't won Executive of
the Year despite building this great team. Evan loses out on Rookie of the Year and might lose out on this defensive Player of the Year. You know, all of a sudden, I'm hearing all this noise about JB for Coach of the Year. Peyton Pritchard, despite you know, not being meaningfully better than DeAndre or Tie statistically, is just the lock. It don't even think about it, lock to win six Man of the Year.
Yeah, go look at the per thirty six numbers for Tie and Peyton Pritchard's side by side.
It's very very clear.
Who's having the better season when like the big difference is minutes. But that's really what comes down to.
So like I just I just feel up and down, you know, the Calves just it feels like they have to make it so without doubt in order to get this kind of love, and it's a little frustrating and we'll lie.
Yeah, I mean to me, the Coach of the Year parallel was just so funny where it's okay, you know Monty Williams got it over JB because fifty one to sixty four. Meanwhile, you know, if we go two and two the rest of the way, we'll get to that sixty four wins, So that'd be forty nine to sixty four, Whereas you know, again JB took the Calves from the
teens to forty four wins. Currently looks like the Pistons might lose to the Sacramento Kings here, so there's a very good chance that the Pistons end up with that
exact forty four win number. They're just going to be outside of the plan because the East is worse this year than it was back then in twenty one twenty two, where you know, you had the playing game against Kyrie Durant and Harden right like, it's that was a more difficult Eastern Conference And the only reason they felt, the only reason it was only forty four wins was because Evan Mobley missed two weeks, Jared Allen missed basically the last half of the season. Like, there was a lot
more injury adversity with that team. So getting to forty four wins in that situation, with all of that injury adversity, I thought JB absolutely deserved to be Coach of the Year. But at the time we were told no, getting to you know, sixty wins from where the Suns were, that is more difficult to do.
That is what needs to be rewarded here.
So it just seems like the goalpost move whenever it's uh, you know a Calves, you know, a coach or player that's in the running for the award. And I understand that this is being a whiny fan. I understand my bias here, but I'm also just presenting facts here.
Man. It's very clear it's very very rare. You get this clean of a parallel in terms of scenario. Yeah, I mean, you did your homework, brother, And that's all you can ask when when you're a biased fan like us, is that where at least you know, come and correct with some gives me a little bit of a shield. It gives me a little bit of a shield. But yeah,
I mean, here's the thing. I'll continue to say this stuff even though I absolutely want the Calves to be recognized up and down the organization for this unbelievable year. The thing that all keep going back to his fans is we can't really lose because if the Calves do get jobbed out of any of these three, and you know, I would throw six man in their six man in there as well, like talk about fuel, talk about something to like, oh, oh, we do you think Tigerome is
going to take something personally? Oh? I might suspect he would do that. You know, these guys are you know, if they're not going to get the credit they deserve from the media, that they'll have no choice but to let them know. Hey, I'm always on my way to let him know, Carter, It's just what I'm here for.
It's you know a little bit of fuel, particularly after you know, the first half of the season and you know, really the first seventy five percent of the season, and it's such a good job that we've been sitting here for a month being like I kind of would like to get to the playoffs here. They're really not playing for a whole lot. They have a ten game lead up on Boston. You know, they just need to basically go through the motions here and clinch that number one seed.
You know, That's kind of where I'm at, by the way, I just at this point get a win and then go one hundred two hundred percent into playoff prep mode. I do not care how they decide to handle the
rest this season. If they decide that they're going to play it out and everyone's gonna ramp up to forty minutes and try to test that out, great if they If they shut everyone down and say, hey, we're gonna do two weeks off and we're going to practice really hard between games with our top eight guys, cool, I
don't care. I do trust Kenny on this, and I trust the front office, I trust the training staff, and it's just going to be a matter of like, you know, like I don't think once they get that final win, no matter what approach they take, I'm going to have any quibbles with it, because I think there's too many roads up the mountain for me to actually have a problem. Yep, you know me, I always compartmentalize the regular season in the playoffs.
I basically already tucked this.
Regular season away, and I'm interested to see what this the team does in the playoffs.
Right, it's you No, I've I've had my way too long, brother, Like thirteen days away. It is right around the corner. I could not be more excited. You know.
I think the time off's going to do these guys a lot of good. And if it doesn't, you know they're going to have to fight through some adversity, right, you know, thinking back to that Celtics team that won with KG Pierce and all them right, basically going seven every single round along the way, and you know.
Hawks series was that saw Hawk series will be burned into my brain.
I just remember the PTI discourse for some reason, you know that that was my time of life or that time of life life.
Coin Heiser and Wilbon, Oh, they were're my favorite the best yellers in the game.
I would come home from high school and you know, I would watch that right after and then just reacting to every single game being a twenty point win by the home team.
It was so much fun in that series, The rain Breaker.
You know, I really, really, you know, hope that the cast take care business. I think it would be good for our collective, you know, our psyche here to to see them have a dominant playoff series.
And you know, maybe it doesn't matter. I do think that's important to say. It matters for the story we tell ourselves. But there has been so many teams that struggle in round one and then catch a heater. I mean, I I I'll have to be fact checked on this. I may be wrong. But the year the MAVs won the title, they played the Blazers in the first round and that was a hard series. I remember that, yeah, and I want to say it went six and then they just blew the defending champion Lakers off the floor
in four games. Is that the Brandon Roy game winner? It was? It was the Brandon Roy his last Hurrah game. My favorite favorite games favorite moments as a fan that that's not kas related Brandon Roy team was all that that Mavericks playoff run might be the best playoff run in the history of the sport. They played a loaded Blazer's team in the first round. Then they played the
defending champion Lakers and swept them off the floor. They beat a on fire Katie russ Harden Thunder team, and then beat uh and then and then knocked off the Heatles with Lebron and Wade. What a run, What a fun team?
You know, I'm You're right, it doesn't matter. But to me it does matter because the stories I tell myself are are very very important to me.
They are near and dear to my heart. I am a narrative fan. I know what I am.
I'm self aware. But we'll see, man, it's just around the corner. I couldn't be more excited to see how, you know, the Calves, how they do in the postseason. I want to say how they finish off the season, but at this point, just finish healthy and you know, let's let's clinch that number one seed. Tomorrow agains Chicago Calves have a chance to improve to aight and oero without Donna Mitchell this season too, which once again just goes to show the depth that they have and the
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