- 2 days ago
Jeff Phelps and Dan Menningen react to the Cavs' loss to the Thunder on Sunday night, and whether their struggles against good teams is cause for concern.
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00:01sometimes folks get a little perturbed with me because i don't get too excited about
00:06like one big game or one big loss or one big win or anything like that
00:11so don't expect anybody to get too excited about what happened yesterday
00:16against the oklahoma city thunder however there were some things that happened that you think okay
00:25test i and i don't believe in regular season tests it was a game and it didn't go well
00:29however however cavaliers losing to the oklahoma city thunder yesterday the defending nba champs
00:36who didn't have shane gildress alexander didn't have jaylen williams didn't have a.j mitchell
00:44and didn't have alex caruso okay yeah that could have gone better but that's okay if they happen
00:51to meet again i would be in the nba finals maybe it'll go better dan menigan yeah lou dorit is
00:59still a pain in the butt lou dorit's just a bruiser isn't he that's what i took away from
01:04this game the few things i took away from this game one of them in the first half the turnovers
01:08were just death the calves were so sloppy with the ball and it was just showing up every single way
01:14and some of that of course is great defense on the thunder front and even missing your four best
01:19players that offense that mark dagnell the head coach of the thunder runs is still present and it
01:24looked so smooth and they got so many good shots off of it and you clearly saw yesterday why they
01:29are the team to beat in the nba because they missed their best well four of their five players
01:35they were still out they were out there two best players and some other guys who really help them
01:40yeah and they were still a menace yep and they were still tough all right let's let's let's dive in
01:48jeff are you worried about the physicality that you saw yesterday as well it kind of seemed like
01:53jared allen and and evan moby got pushed around a little bit in this game it seemed like chad holmgren
01:59was able to get wherever he wanted to go whenever he wanted to do it that's a physical beast is
02:03oh wait
02:03a minute i'm sorry i have him confused with steven adams your boy isaiah hart and steen stein
02:11steen stein uh-huh i'm still stunned that the calves let him walk away i mean six for six from
02:17the floor i like that guy i do too yeah he can he can play he can play and that's
02:22a good thing
02:23no i'm not i'm not i'm not upset at the physicality and that the calves didn't have that kind of
02:30a game
02:30yesterday i'm not and though you have to have aspects of that in your game to succeed in the nba
02:38i don't think it's a huge issue i really don't you you still had you still had good basically good
02:47all-around play jared allen had 13 rebounds had a double double you're getting evan moby back into
02:54this that's that's still the thing to me dan that you've got to figure out how do you get evan
03:00back
03:00into this with james with jared still staying you know top notch evan had two rebounds yesterday
03:07and that's that's not good that's rough that's that's not good that's real rough but he's i and
03:13i don't mean to make an excuse for him i'm assuming he's you know gonna work his way back into
03:19regular
03:19playing shape and everything else but he's got to do better than that he knows that we know it
03:23everybody knows it yeah tell him that he you've it's a big part of this if he if he can't
03:30give you
03:31that if he can't give you the rebounding aspect if he can't give you the defensive player of the year
03:35stuff that you saw last year which i think he is i'm with you he's rounding back into shape it's
03:40why
03:40i'm i'm not panicking or anything else like that over this game panic he's you know he's played two
03:46games now in february right he's been banged up during the season and now you've added in this guy
03:50in james harden where you're still trying to figure out okay where should i be standing where do i need
03:54to look please for the love of god don't have the answer be go stand in the corner try to
04:00figure out
04:00how to play high low try to figure out how to run pick and roll with a guy that you've
04:03never played
04:04with before right and some of the intricacies might take a little while to figure out and and james
04:12clearly just helped jared allen thrive and they figured that out now can they do that with two
04:20bigs and that that's and you have plenty of time to figure that out that that's the one thing i
04:25think
04:25everybody needs to remember there's plenty of time here for them to figure out how to make that work
04:31so play out the rest of the season fine tune some things get on the same playoff page and
04:38be ready to go when the postseason hits and hopefully when it does you're sitting second
04:41or third in the eastern conference it was it was a good game to have take place i would have
04:47loved to
04:48have seen it take place a month from now when everybody else has a little bit of time together
04:53and they're rounding into form and they start to get a better understanding of where everyone needs to
04:57stand and what everyone needs to do on the offensive end because oklahoma city is a defensive juggernaut
05:02they're really really good at that i mean they they put lou dort on donovan mitchell and donovan mitchell
05:06had a rough for donovan mitchell rough afternoon and that's just the way that they go and i want to
05:15see
05:15what that looks like a month from now because i wonder if some of those hard edges get smoothed over
05:19well they've still won and this is even before james they've won 11 to 13 games and yesterday's
05:26loss ended a seven game winning streak so they've been really coming around playing better basketball
05:32now you bring in harden you're going to have that period especially with mobley back now it's just
05:38going to take a little time to get everything cooking but the team clearly and clearly looks
05:44much more ready to to be a force in the playoffs than it did beforehand you know first of all
05:51darius wasn't in there and so he he was dinged up number to join us by the way 216-474
05:58-0092
06:00the team just the team looks like it's much more playoff ready than it ever was at any time this
06:08year in in my estimation and it's it's not just because you know somebody's healthy it's because
06:14harden's making some different things happen i think he's helping mitchell i think we know he's
06:19helping jared allen he's helped sam merrill sam merrill had a game yesterday well sam's getting a
06:25lot of looks isn't he absolutely those are the he's getting some good shots driving kick stuff i mean
06:29that's where it plays into it as you start getting driving kick from harden he's really good at that
06:33he's really good at collapsing the defensive finding the open shooter and harden has done a nice job of
06:39avoiding the pitfalls that you were very afraid of yeah he has not done pound
06:44pound pound pound pound pound pound pound pound step back which is good which is good
06:49uh bill's in parma hey bill how are you bill good morning good morning um you know the team is
06:55entertaining to watch but uh you know they kind of moved the deck chairs around on the titanic
07:02and by estimation because i saw mobley getting knocked around by holmgren and when i saw that i
07:11thought whoa i mean where is our big guy that we need to have and i've been saying this for
07:18three four
07:19years that knocks them around and mobley bothers me in the sense i haven't seen any improvement this year
07:28and i think this may be mobley and if this is mobley he's good but we're not gonna win a
07:36championship
07:36with this type of mobley and uh billy's also been hurt though for a good chunk of the season i
07:42mean
07:42the poor guy's been dealing with injuries through it so you sometimes get these where it might just
07:47be one of those wash years that he was dealing with injuries well but dan i hear what you're saying
07:53but
07:53i think my biggest concern was he would go into the paint and holmgren would knock him around i mean
08:00he would his knees would would buckle when he got a forearm from chet holmgren and i mean when it
08:07gets
08:07into the playoffs and they're really pounding uh whether he's injured or not injured what i saw was the
08:15same guy as last year and not really sure where he fits not really aggressive when he could be
08:23and what do i see you know maybe we'll get a little bit farther but but also you know i
08:28i think um
08:30i'm just worried a little bit because i wish we would get a bigger guy but you guys are doing
08:34a great
08:35job have a great day bill thank you very much one thing about evan and i've made my thoughts really
08:40clear i think this team can become a championship caliber team when he is clearly at least the second
08:47guy on this team and has that changed with james harden here maybe slightly but it's a short-term
08:56change because if james is going to be here it's not going to be for another five years i wouldn't
09:01think hopefully he's here next year i like the way he's fit in but the weird thing to me about
09:06about evan
09:06has been his though his play has improved his defensive play is better he's added some elements
09:14to his game the defensive player of the year right and people people are looking for more i think
09:19people are looking for yana's type of numbers right and i don't think you're going to get those out of
09:23evan mobley i just in this system you're not going to get those now if it weren't this system and
09:30you were playing in something where he was more featured would he give you those yana's type numbers
09:36i don't know the answer to that and that that to me is the big unknown here his his scoring
09:42hasn't
09:44gone up much since he's been in the nba he's between 15 and 19 points a game every year he's
09:50been in the league his rebounding has been between 8.3 and 9.4 so his rebounding hasn't soared
09:59and i think a lot of folks were hoping for i know i was hoping for the hey nice really
10:06nice
10:06beginning nice second year this is the year where you jump to 24 25 points a game and average 11
10:13rebounds looking for the leap yeah and we haven't had the we haven't had the leap that i think a
10:19lot
10:19of folks think he should have and certainly want to see i know i've wanted to see it what he's
10:26been
10:27is a really good nba player there's a lot to be said for being a really good nba player in
10:32a 6 11
10:32body with a lot of skill but if you're looking for that leap and i i think this is fair
10:39to say dan
10:42if it doesn't happen in your first five years in the league it may not happen
10:49and he's in his fifth year in the league do you wonder how do i put this do you wonder
10:57if this is
10:57almost like a jonathan kaminga type of situation no because because evan has produced significantly
11:03much more than kaminga has right but hang with me where he hasn't really had those opportunities
11:10or the necessity for him to have to go out there and completely just dominate on the offensive end
11:17i think so that skill set has never grown because you're always feeding darius garland
11:22and you were feeding donovan mitchell now you're feeding james harden now you're getting jared allen
11:27involved like well you you know my thought on that yeah because i thought having the two ball dominant
11:33guards really hindered the overall development of evan mobley because donovan's going to get his shots
11:40and he's going to take his shots but darius was too and it seemed it seems to me that harden
11:48harden is a little more i'm able to pass the ball and get assists while still getting my points and
11:55really
11:55help my big guys where darius i don't think was that same kind of player here and so yeah i
12:01i think that
12:03i think if there's going to be growth it's going to be now because i think he could be counted
12:09on a
12:10little bit more in the offense and i think he has a point guard now who's a little more able
12:17to get him involved and help him help him really soar we'll see could be i want to see how
12:25this looks i
12:25want to see what happens with it because i i hope you are right i would love it if somehow
12:30harden could
12:30unlock more of what evan mobley can do on the offensive end because he hasn't taken the step
12:35forward on the offensive end that people thought i still think he's a phenomenal player i mean my
12:40goodness that's that's the thing we're all expecting and hoping for absolute greatness and hall of fame
12:46caliber because you see a 611 guy with the skills that he has the mobility that he has and the
12:53defensive play that he i mean he's phenomenal on the defensive end we're all hoping that he becomes a
12:58yana's type of offensive force that might not be the guy 2164740092 we'll find out because he's not
13:08played but two games with james harden we'll see if harden can help that happen and if the absence
13:14of darius garland can help mobley become a better offensive player do you think that can happen
13:19it's basking and phelps right here on the fan
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