00:00Pistons beat the Lakers last night. Why is that important to Cavs fans?
00:04Tone, you know why. Tell them why, Tone.
00:07I think it's actually huge, and I think it might solve one of the potential conundrums
00:15for the Cavs here down the stretch when it comes to jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference.
00:22Can I just get a quick answer from everybody?
00:25Yeah, I'll give you a quick answer.
00:28I'm guessing we all think the Cavs are going to win the first round.
00:31Never know, but they will beat Toronto, or Atlanta in the first round.
00:37I know Atlanta's been playing really well, but everybody would probably pick the Cavs
00:40to win that first round series, right?
00:42Yeah.
00:43So, of all the other teams, the Knicks, the Celtics, or the Pistons, if it's all chalk,
00:50who would you not want to see in the second round?
00:53Celtics.
00:54I would agree.
00:55Okay.
00:57Yeah.
00:57Who's the next team?
00:58If I power rank them, it's Celtics, then Knicks.
01:01Yes.
01:01Yes.
01:02Then Pistons.
01:03Okay.
01:03Pistons, most likely.
01:04Well, right now, the Pistons' win last night gives them a five-game edge over the Celtics.
01:11It's five games in the loss column.
01:12However, they also own the tiebreaker.
01:14So, it's six.
01:15So, it's six.
01:16So, this is a wrap.
01:18There are only, for the Pistons, 11 more games this season, and 11 games for the Celtics.
01:24Are they going to make up six games in 11, whether there's Cade Cunningham or not?
01:27No.
01:28Probably not.
01:28I know the Pistons don't have the easiest schedule in the world looking at it right now, but they
01:37have winnable games here.
01:39They'll have teams that are trying to lose.
01:41They have Indiana.
01:44Milwaukee will be trying to lose.
01:45You never even know who Philadelphia is going to have when they play them.
01:48New Orleans has been trying to win, but still, they want to win.
01:52They should be able to win that game.
01:54All I'm saying is, six games to make up in 11.
01:57It's probably not happening.
01:58No.
01:59Which means that you would have the Pistons in the second round, and you'd be the favorites.
02:06So, you win two rounds, you're in the Eastern Conference Finals, boom.
02:09All of a sudden, that puts a lot of the, I think, anxiety about that, I think that should
02:16put that to rest.
02:16You'd be in a really good spot.
02:20Just kind of play this out, and let that be the collision course.
02:24Well, I love where he heads at.
02:26Because I think that, just make, if this is a clearer, more clear runway to the Eastern
02:30Conference Finals, then I think it calms down a lot of folks.
02:33Even though, you know, Sean Devaney, where I read this article from Heavy.com right before
02:39the weekend, this was on Friday, Sean Devaney was on Nick and Jonathan.
02:42I mean, when you're hearing stories like Evan for Giannis, if things don't work out this
02:47year, I mean, we're starting to get a little bit nuts here.
02:50This would calm down a lot of people.
02:51Sort of looming over everything is Jonathan Mitchell, and they want to make sure that he's
02:56happy and that he's going to stay put long-term.
02:59That's going to be the big thing.
03:01And so we've already seen them make the James Harden trade with that in mind.
03:05So the question becomes Giannis, and do they get back into the Giannis business or the attempts
03:10at the Giannis business, which is really going to be something that, as if you didn't get
03:14enough of it in January and February this year, you're going to get a whole lot more of it
03:18in June and July, because, you know, chances are he's going to wind up on the trade block.
03:23And that's where the Cavs can potentially do something.
03:28Obviously, you'd be talking about probably trading away Evan Mobley.
03:31That would have to be the decision.
03:34And, you know, I'm not saying that's an easy decision.
03:37I'm not saying they would definitely do that.
03:38But if you're going to decide, OK, we need to make a major change, that's probably what
03:43that's going to look like.
03:44All right.
03:45So that's Sean Devaney.
03:46I don't know why we had to fade it out like it was an old Led Zeppelin song.
03:48But either way, not Owen's fault, by the way, you heard what Sean Devaney said for the most
03:53part until the fade away.
03:55It was like Lama getting off the phone back in the day.
03:57Oh, he's in a tunnel and he went.
03:59So that to me, that's alarming.
04:01That's DEFCON 1.
04:03The NBA executive who told Sean Devaney that actually said DEFCON 5, and then we had to
04:07get it.
04:07It's DEFCON 1.
04:09Donovan wanting out is the DEFCON.
04:12If they set this up the way they can set this up, which is how it's set up right now,
04:16thanks to the Pistons beating the Lakers and having this cushion now, which turns into a
04:19six-game cushion, like you said.
04:21I mean, we're laughing.
04:22I think we're laughing.
04:23I know that we have injuries and we have things that we have to figure out right now, but this
04:26seems to be set up as perfect as possible.
04:28I don't want to be demeaning towards...
04:30You want to respect all the teams that you may take on, but you should be able to beat
04:35Toronto.
04:36You should be able to beat a Pistons team that they're going to try to make it physical, just
04:40like you said.
04:41You get to the Eastern Conference Finals and you lose to Boston.
04:44If you get boat raced four games to nothing, maybe I'll change my opinion.
04:48We have to see how that looks.
04:49But man, you know, this is setting up.
04:50I know that we're all, ooh, scared.
04:52This is perfect.
04:53This is everything I think a Cavs fan should want in terms of a formula to make a run in
04:59the Eastern Conference playoffs.
05:00And obviously, I'm just talking about the teams we're going up against.
05:04Yes, we have to play well.
05:06We're not just going to roll the balls out.
05:07I've seen people already say, you just think the Cavs are going to just...
05:10No, I didn't say that.
05:12In fact, we lost three games earlier this year to the very Toronto team that we would play
05:17in the first round.
05:18But obviously, we will be big favorites over that.
05:21You're the most expensive roster in the NBA.
05:22You still find a way to make a trade that's going to affect this basketball team this year
05:26and hopefully next year.
05:27You're still talking about big trades.
05:28I mean, let's call it what it is.
05:29I'm going to hold them to a standard here.
05:31Because I think we're going from one extreme to another as a fan base.
05:34Either we're being too patty cake with them, we're pussyfooting around the situation too
05:38much, or we're being too hardcore.
05:39Let's call it down the line here.
05:41All right?
05:42You make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, say you lose a tough series to the Boston Celtics.
05:46Well, then let's look at this pragmatically here.
05:47If you lose a tough series to the Boston Celtics, I'm sorry.
05:51I might reach a point.
05:52I'm not going to say it right now, even though I'm going to kind of brush up against it.
05:56I may reach a point, depending on how this plays out, where if I'm hearing a bunch
05:59of threats about Donovan Mitchell and all this other stuff, I may go, you know what?
06:02Maybe you just ain't got it.
06:04Maybe that's it.
06:05Because we can have these little threats here and there about, well, what he wants to do
06:08and what they want to do and how he might want to leave.
06:10It's like, well, if you're not good enough to get past the Celtics at some point here
06:13with James Harden, with everything else that you've been given, maybe you're just not the
06:18right mix for this basketball team and for this fan base here.
06:20I'm going to worry about that.
06:21I'm going to worry about that when we get there.
06:23I will worry about that when we get there.
06:24I'm focused on these guys right now.
06:27Well, I'm focusing for the future.
06:29I'm focusing for the right now as the postseason as well.
06:32But see that, I just got to stop you there.
06:34Like, we are less than a month before the playoffs.
06:37You know how much I love the NBA playoffs, whether the Cavs are good or bad.
06:40I love the NBA playoffs.
06:42I don't think we need to be talking about next year right now.
06:44We can talk about stakes are big.
06:46Like, yeah, the heads are going to roll.
06:47You already traded Darius Garland, who, by the way, had another nice shooting night
06:51last night for the Clippers.
06:52He barely needed to play because they dominated in their game so big.
06:56He seems like he hasn't missed a three since he went to the Clippers.
06:59His toes are looking good, and I don't care because James Harden's playing well.
07:02And James Harden's had some takeovers in the fourth quarter.
07:05And I think Donovan feels like he's got a better shot right now with James Harden.
07:10And, yeah, stakes are enormous.
07:11They've got to win.
07:12But I feel like the roadmap is now there.
07:15It's now set.
07:16Bring on the Pistons in the second round.
07:18But I'm saying the tough talk can happen afterwards if they don't get to where they need to go.
07:22If they get to the NBA Finals, then obviously I think that everything else is –
07:27all that other conversation is moot.
07:29But if they go to the Eastern Conference Finals and say you lost to a Boston Celtics team,
07:33if it's a tough series, I don't really want to hear any of these crazy threats
07:36and all this other idle stuff.
07:38All right?
07:39I'm getting a little bit – I'm getting a little bit tired of the craziness.
07:42You just made a strong move.
07:44It's only natural that things are not going to work out the way you exactly want them to work out.
07:48And maybe it's going to take another offseason to get going.
07:51Kind of like what's going on with Luka and the Lakers right now.
07:53Yeah, I just love that every guest we bring on on this station,
07:57they're all bullish on the Cavs and the wide-open East.
08:00In fact, both guests yesterday on the afternoon show,
08:02both of them talked about how the Celtics are struggling with their offense,
08:08how all the feel-good vibes of the Jason Tatum return
08:12have all kind of dissipated very quickly.
08:15And now Tatum's not shooting well,
08:17and it's dragging down the efficiency of the Celtics.
08:19And so I love that all the national guys are talking about all the other issues
08:24with the other teams and how the Cavs can absolutely represent the Easter Conference.
08:28And yet, when we open up the phone lines,
08:30everybody just thinks it's last year or the year before or the year before that.
08:33I'm like, well, they went and traded for James Harden because of that.
08:35That Cavs conversation brought to you by the fine folks at Surfside Hard Ice 2.
08:38I ask you to please remember to enjoy your Surfside Hard Ice tea responsibly.
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