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00:00We go to the Make It Right, Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
00:03He does a fabulous job of covering the Cleveland Cavaliers for the plane dealer.
00:07Cleveland.com.
00:09And, of course, we hear him here on the fan as well from time to time.
00:12Is our buddy Mr. Chris Fedor.
00:14Hello, Chris.
00:14Hey, Chris.
00:15Hey, what's up, guys?
00:16How are you?
00:16Good.
00:17We are well.
00:18We're better than the Cavs' defense was last night.
00:23How minor a little blip, a little letdown, or anything to be overly concerned about?
00:30I don't think at this stage of the season that you can call things that continue to happen minor blips.
00:35You know what I'm saying?
00:37Yep.
00:37Like, this is a team that says that they're a defensive-oriented team.
00:41This is a team that says they want to be top 10, top 5 in defense.
00:45They've got the reigning defensive player of the year in Evan Mobley.
00:48They've got two of the elite rim protectors in the NBA in Jared Allen and Evan Mobley.
00:54They've made these changes to their roster and their composition so that they could be better
00:59on the perimeter when it comes to guarding.
01:02And it just hasn't happened.
01:04They were a middle-of-the-pack defense before the trade deadline.
01:08Since the trade line, they're a middle-of-the-pack defense.
01:12And at some point, you just have to say, okay, is this just who they are?
01:17Can they find a way to find a different level on the defensive end of the floor?
01:22And they just haven't shown enough consistency and enough signs that they can be more than what
01:28they are defensively, at least statistically, which is a middle-of-the-pack defense.
01:33So that's just not good enough for this team.
01:35Not for a team that prides itself at that end of the floor.
01:38Not for a team that says they should be better.
01:41Not for a team that has personnel to be a better defensive team.
01:45So if they don't get it better on the defensive end of the floor, it's going to be a harder
01:51road in the playoffs for them.
01:55We were talking about this.
01:56Is 14 games to go enough to kind of get this chemistry together, especially with Max Drews
02:01coming back?
02:02I think it depends on what you're looking for in terms of chemistry.
02:06Offensively, they are great.
02:09Offensively, they're one of the best teams in the NBA since adding James Harden.
02:13And I don't think it's going to be very difficult to incorporate Max, because you saw the evidence
02:18of that.
02:19Max is the kind of guy who can just blend into the fabric of the team.
02:23This isn't a situation where the Boston Celtics are trying to reincorporate a high-usage,
02:29high-touch, high-volume player in Jason Tatum.
02:33This is Max Drews.
02:35This is a guy who blends into the fabric of your team.
02:38This is somebody who's going to create a lot of chaos in the offensive flow.
02:43He's somebody who's going to run around constantly, ball movement, player movement, floor spacing,
02:50random cutting.
02:51That kind of player is really easy to incorporate.
02:55The hard one was supposed to be James Harden, right?
02:59Because he's the guy who's going to have the ball in his hands.
03:02He's a ball-dominant player.
03:03He plays a different kind of style than what the Cavs are accustomed to with his isolations,
03:10with his dribbling, with his attacking off the dribble and stuff like that.
03:13But that hasn't been a problem.
03:15He's been a seamless fit on the offensive end of the floor.
03:18And this ceiling for this team, offensively, has changed because of his arrival.
03:24And I think it's going to go even higher because of the addition or the re-edition of Max Drews.
03:31Because I think the Cavs need the things that Max brings to the table because he's a different stylistic player
03:37than what they have.
03:39And the only one on the roster that is similar to him is Sam Merrill.
03:45So Kenny Atkinson's offenses have always flourished with a guy with that kind of skill set.
03:51So I don't think that there's going to be an issue from a chemistry standpoint or a reintegration standpoint with
03:59Max specifically.
04:01Because I think he fits as a starter, fits coming off the bench, and fits this offense to a tee.
04:08Chris Fedor joining us.
04:10But with Max coming back, there's a little bit of a jam.
04:14Whose minutes does he take?
04:16Does he eat into Sam's minutes?
04:18Does he eat into Keon Ellis' minutes?
04:20I know Dennis Schroeder is a different type of player, but does Dennis get a minute's ding because of this?
04:27The answer to all of those questions, to me, is yes.
04:31Because I think that's the way that the Cavs have to do it.
04:34I don't think you can just say, all right, Max Drews is back.
04:39He's a really important player.
04:41He's a really impactful and effective player.
04:44Somebody who has been part of this team for the first 67 games in a big role in some capacity
04:52is just gone out of the rotation.
04:55I don't think you can do it that way.
04:58So I think what Kenny Atkinson has to do is take a little bit from each guy and see if
05:05that adds enough to Max.
05:08Now, it was easy.
05:08It was very, very easy yesterday because Sam Merrill was not available.
05:13Jared Allen was not available.
05:15Craig Porter Jr. was not available.
05:17So it just became easier to find consistent minutes for Max.
05:22Jalen Tyson wasn't available.
05:23So when those guys are available, I do think it is going to be a little bit more complicated from
05:30a minute allocation standpoint, and it's going to require sacrifice.
05:34It's going to require guys to understand that the opportunities that they once had, the workload that they once had,
05:42is just not going to be available to them.
05:44So there's going to be a level of sacrifice.
05:46And if that means Jalen Tyson goes from 24 minutes down to 20, Sam Merrill goes from 26 minutes down
05:55to 22 or 20, whatever it is that the Cavs have to do from that standpoint, they need to figure
06:01it out because Max is important.
06:03Because everything for them, to me, to finish out this regular season is getting Max as ready as possible for
06:12playoff-level basketball.
06:14And if that means sacrifices in the short term, and if that means frustrations and growing pains in the short
06:20term, then so be it.
06:22Because he's going to be a piece of this rotation in the playoffs.
06:25You saw why yesterday against Dallas.
06:29And whatever that means, the Cavs are going to have to figure it out.
06:33And to me, what that means is just a couple of minutes from all the guys that stand in front
06:39of him or stood in front of him on the depth chart, losing a little bit so that Max can
06:45get those.
06:45That would mean that Kenny's going to play 10 guys in the playoffs, right?
06:51I find that hard to believe.
06:53I think what it comes down to is...
06:55But think about that, though.
06:57You know, because you've got your starting five, and then you've got Max, Sam, Keon, Dennis, Tyson, not even counting
07:05Tomlin.
07:06So I think they've got a numbers situation, Chris, and I agree with you.
07:11Everybody's going to have to buy in or there could be trouble.
07:14Well, I think the other thing is, you guys know this, every playoff matchup calls for something different.
07:21And I don't think all of those guys that you mentioned there are playable in every single environment, in every
07:30single matchup.
07:31I think some of those guys are better suited in different ones.
07:36For example, Keon Ellis, does he have enough size to play consistently against the Boston Celtics?
07:43I don't know.
07:44Does he have enough strength to play consistently against the Boston Celtics?
07:48You know, in the game against Boston recently, Keon looked a little bit out of place.
07:53So there may be a situation where Kenny says, you know what?
07:56This just isn't a Keon series.
07:59And there may be a situation where Kenny says, you know what?
08:03This isn't a Jalen Tyson series.
08:05And I think that may be what ends up happening here.
08:09But I think Max is more of, it isn't matchup dependent with him.
08:15He fits against Boston.
08:17He fits against Detroit.
08:19He fits against Orlando.
08:22He fits against Miami if it's Miami.
08:25Toronto if it's Toronto.
08:26So I think some guys are matchup dependent or more matchup dependent than others are.
08:32And I think Jalen Tyson kind of fits that mold.
08:35I think Naquan Tomlin fits that mold.
08:37I think Keon Ellis fits that mold.
08:39And Dennis Schroeder might fit that mold too.
08:41Because they do have a lot of playmaking.
08:43They do have a lot of ball handling.
08:45They do have a lot of creation.
08:47And if Donovan and James get their minutes bumped up and they can handle a bulk of that,
08:53maybe Dennis kind of goes a little bit further down the depth chart.
08:57Do you think Boston will catch Detroit four games back with a handful of games left, 15-ish?
09:05Boston's got a really tough schedule ahead.
09:08And Detroit has a really tough schedule ahead.
09:10So if it was a situation where Boston had the schedule that Cavs have,
09:15then I would say, okay, there's probably a pathway to Boston climbing and Detroit falling to that point.
09:23But I just don't see that.
09:25I think Detroit plays super hard.
09:28They want the number one seed.
09:31I think they're going to fight for the number one seed.
09:34I don't think they're going to do it at all costs.
09:36If Cade Cunningham's dealing with an injury, Jalen Duren's dealing with an injury,
09:40they'll look at some big picture related things.
09:44But I just don't think Boston has the kind of schedule set up that allows them to go on this
09:51huge run toward the end of the season
09:54and run down Detroit, especially because I do believe that Detroit is a good regular season team.
10:02I think they have some things to them in the regular season that makes them difficult to play against.
10:07And it's hard to see them, the style that they play, the competitiveness, the toughness that they bring to the
10:14table,
10:15how hard they play, how much harder they play than most opponents on a nightly basis.
10:19It's hard to see them collapsing here down the stretch.
10:22So I think Detroit's going to stay number one.
10:25And then it's going to be a battle between Boston and New York and Cleveland for the two, three, and
10:31four
10:31and how that's all going to line up.
10:33Chris Fedor joining us from the PlainDealer and Cleveland.com.
10:36Is Jared Allen's knee anything more than, okay, he just needs a little time here?
10:43Yeah, I think it is.
10:45And it's strange to me that Kenny Atkinson has said from the very beginning it's not a long-term thing.
10:52But the thing that he has not done is say what he views as a long-term thing and a
10:58short-term thing.
10:59He hasn't quantified that.
11:02And I think this kind of injury that Jared is dealing with, from what I'm told, it's severe tendinitis.
11:09This kind of injury, there's ambiguity attached to it.
11:13And that's going to make it annoying.
11:15And that's going to make it frustrating, both from a player standpoint and I think from a fan standpoint.
11:21Because it truly is a day-to-day thing.
11:23It's how does his knee recover?
11:26How does his knee respond to the time off and to the treatment?
11:31But how do you know it's pretty serious?
11:33Jared missed a game in Dallas.
11:35Jared doesn't miss games in Dallas.
11:37Jared loves playing in Dallas.
11:39That's his hometown.
11:40And there was one game that the Cavs were going to Dallas this year.
11:44One.
11:45And he couldn't play in it.
11:46But I talked to him a little bit before the game just about this injury.
11:50And he did say that he was feeling better and he felt like his knee was making progress.
11:57But there's a lot of wear and tear.
12:00And severe tendinitis is not something where you just snap your finger and you say, all right, I'm good enough
12:05to play.
12:07So it's how does he respond?
12:09How does his knee respond?
12:11How well does the treatment work for this particular issue that he's currently dealing with?
12:17It's two weeks at this point.
12:18I don't know.
12:19Like, if you were to say at the very beginning when you say, all right, this guy's not going to
12:24be available.
12:25And then you say it's not a long-term thing.
12:27Two weeks is not a long-term thing.
12:29I don't know.
12:29It feels pretty long to me to this point.
12:31And then I do think there's uncertainty about his availability on this upcoming road trip that the Cavs are going
12:37on.
12:37And when I asked Jared, I said, hey, do you have any kind of general idea of when you're going
12:43to be back?
12:43Do you have any kind of general timeline?
12:45He said, no, I can't tell you.
12:47And Jared's very forthcoming.
12:50And I have a good relationship with Jared.
12:52And I think the level of uncertainty with this, yeah, I do think when there isn't a specific timeline, there
12:59has to be some kind of, I don't want to say concern, because I think that's overblown.
13:03But some kind of wonder about when he's going to get back and how this kind of issue is going
13:11to bother him, if it's going to bother him for the remainder of the regular season and when they get
13:16into the playoffs.
13:17Speaking of the playoffs, how would you feel about a Cavs-Orlando series?
13:22A little queasy, wouldn't you?
13:24Yeah.
13:24I mean, if you're talking about all the potential teams that you could see in round one, I don't think
13:31anybody wants to sign up for that.
13:33Are you kidding me?
13:35I mean, if you've got your choice of Toronto and Miami and Atlanta and some of these other teams, are
13:42you going to be like, yeah, give me Orlando with three all-star caliber players,
13:46a really funky style to play against, a team that is really tough and physical and long and athletic, and
13:56a team that can, at times, fill it up from three-point range,
14:00and a team that can, at times, do it on the offensive end in a way that they haven't.
14:06It used to be, okay, you're playing against Orlando, let's win a rock fight here.
14:11They can score 130, now they can.
14:14You saw that the other day.
14:15So I just think, stylistically, they're the kind of team that can give the Cavs problems.
14:21They can, at times, shoot from the outside and rebound.
14:25Those are two things that the Cavs struggle against.
14:28They do have enough shot creation.
14:32Franz, if he's healthy, can create shots.
14:35Desmond Bain can create shots.
14:37Jalen Suggs can create shots.
14:39So it's not a situation like Detroit, where it's just, you worry about Cade, and he's the only creator that
14:44they have.
14:45So I do think there are elements of Orlando.
14:48Keep in mind, the minute that Orlando traded for Desmond Bain, there were people around the league that were wondering,
14:54hey, is Orlando going to be a threat here in the Eastern Conference?
14:59Is that the move that puts them over the top?
15:02Now, it hasn't materialized, but maybe it's just taken a little bit longer for them to figure out, how does
15:09this all blend together?
15:11How does this all work?
15:12So, if you're the Cavs, I don't think you fear a first-round opponent, necessarily,
15:18but that would be one that you would probably want to avoid, because they would test you more than Toronto,
15:24more than Miami,
15:26and they might have a pathway to actually beating you in a seven-game series.
15:31I'm not saying that they would, and I'm not predicting that,
15:34but that's not the kind of team that you want to see in a first-round playoff series.
15:40Always a pleasure, sir.
15:42Thank you for your expertise.
15:43Thank you for your time.
15:44You got to guess.
15:45Anytime.
15:46Chris Fedor joining us on the Make It Right Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
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