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00:00We've got to hear what Fedor thinks about this.
00:01We'll also ask him, I guess, about the Cavs.
00:04On the Make It Right, call Kyle Wright Hotline,
00:06ChrisFeedor, Cleveland.com, Cavs and NBA reporter.
00:09All right, Chris, you heard the rejoin.
00:12That was from the end of the last segment.
00:13How do you think our guys, Anthony and JP, did?
00:18I think they did good.
00:19What were you doing there, Nick?
00:21Oh, I was twiddling my thumb, so you're not going to get me.
00:23No, I have no musical ability.
00:27You just wanted to take credit for the A on the group assignment there?
00:31Yep, yep, yep.
00:32No problem with that.
00:33No, that's generous.
00:34You said A.
00:34That's very generous of you, Chris.
00:36Oh, sorry.
00:37More like a B.
00:39B minus.
00:40Okay, now you're getting personal.
00:41Yeah, we'll take it.
00:42A B was fine, but we went with B minus.
00:44All right.
00:45We're downgrading in real time.
00:47Chris, I guess we'll start with the Cavaliers and not little Troy.
00:51Are the Cavs ready for the playoffs?
00:55I don't think they're as ready as they were hoping to be.
00:59I think there are aspects of the team that they aren't ready,
01:03but they have no choice.
01:05Like, the playoffs are just about here,
01:07and there are certain things that they're not going to be able to accomplish
01:10because of circumstances surrounding this team
01:13that are going to make it difficult,
01:15and it's going to be Kenny Atkinson kind of still learning some things on the fly,
01:20still figuring some things out on the fly.
01:23So I don't think they're as ready as they were hoping to be,
01:25as ready as they wanted to be.
01:27I don't think they're to the same level of understanding of this roster
01:32the way that Detroit is, the way that Boston is,
01:35the way that some of these other teams that have been together a little bit longer
01:39that know what their best starting lineup is,
01:41that know what their best closing lineup is,
01:43that know what their pet set is down the stretch of the game.
01:47Did you watch a little bit over the weekend with Denver and San Antonio?
01:50You could see the togetherness, the chemistry of the Denver Nuggets
01:54in the late-game situations.
01:56They knew exactly what they were going to go to.
01:58They knew exactly what lineup they were going to deploy.
02:01They knew exactly what kinds of actions they wanted to run,
02:04and the Cavs just don't have that same kind of understanding
02:08of this particular roster.
02:10But the reality is,
02:11they're just going to have to kind of figure these things out still
02:15as the playoffs go.
02:16So it's interesting if you bring up Denver then,
02:18because it was a great game.
02:19Jokic got the best of Wemby when it was all said and done,
02:22and Jokic might be the only person that Wemby just didn't have an answer for,
02:25but he didn't.
02:26But one thing I worry about with Denver is
02:28they just don't have enough of a defense.
02:30We talk about the Cavs' defense not being good.
02:32Denver's is worse,
02:33and they've been griping about that all season long.
02:35And so if you can look to Denver
02:37and then kind of say,
02:38well, all right, they have everything together,
02:39but the defense is lacking,
02:41wouldn't it be,
02:42could it be the similar thing for the Cavs or no?
02:45Well, what's the fix then for the Cavs?
02:47Like, if you're looking at the other side of that,
02:50what would you say is the fix to that?
02:52Because if you look at the other side of it from the Denver Nuggets,
02:55the fix is Aaron Gordon returns to the lineup,
02:57and statistics show that they're a completely different team
03:01with him in the lineup versus without him.
03:03So what would you say in terms of the Cavs
03:06that is comparable to that?
03:08Dean Wade?
03:09Probably not.
03:10Probably not.
03:10You know what I'm saying?
03:11I think that's the difference is that
03:13the Nuggets have shown to be at a different level.
03:17They have accomplished something together in a playoff run
03:21that the Cavs haven't to this point,
03:23and they don't have that,
03:25well, we'll just put this guy back into the lineup,
03:27and it's going to fix some of the problems
03:30that we have seen throughout the course of the season.
03:32I think the Cavs' defensive issue isn't so much personnel-based.
03:37I think the Cavs' defensive issue is
03:39they've got terrible habits defensively.
03:42They get caught ball-watching.
03:43They get caught over-helping constantly.
03:46They protect the paint at all costs.
03:48They struggle with cross-matches.
03:51They're not good in terms of communication in transition,
03:54and I'm just not sure that just putting somebody back in the lineup
03:58the way that Denver can with Aaron Gordon
04:01is going to change the DNA of who they are on that end of the floor.
04:07Chris, tonight it's a big night for playoff seeding.
04:10The Cavs are one spot behind, or one game behind the Knicks here.
04:14The Knicks have the Hawks, who are the fifth seed currently,
04:19and the Cavs, meanwhile, 15.5-point favorites over Memphis.
04:24How strongly do you think, with the Knicks game going first,
04:28how much are the Cavs going to be scoreboard-watching
04:30to figure out how committed they will be to winning this game
04:33at the end of the game, depending on what happens with the Knicks-Hawks game?
04:37That's the problem.
04:39Some of these games down the stretch that the Cavs have,
04:42they would have to work really, really, really hard to lose them.
04:47In NBA terms, they are essential gimmies.
04:50Are you kidding me?
04:51I mean, we're talking about yesterday against Indiana.
04:53The Cavs did not play well at all.
04:56They just had to play for eight minutes of the fourth quarter,
04:59and that was enough for them to win, given what the Indiana Pacers' current state is.
05:04I think it's the same thing with Memphis, obviously.
05:07I think it's the same thing with the Washington Wizards toward the end of this season.
05:11So the only two games on the schedule that you think that the Cavs could actually lose
05:18unless they're openly trying to lose them are the two games against the Atlanta Hawks.
05:23So even the version of the Cavs that they're bringing to Memphis tonight,
05:27no Donovan Mitchell, no James Harden, no Max Struess, no Dean Wade, no Jalen Tyson,
05:33no Thomas Bryant even.
05:36The version of the Memphis Grizzlies that they're going to see,
05:40I don't know that that version of Memphis can stay competitive consistently with the Cavs.
05:45So what would Kenny Atkinson do, play four on five, play three?
05:52It's just hard for me to envision a scenario where even if the Cavs are motivated to lose
05:57based on what's happening elsewhere in the NBA,
06:00because they don't want to be number three in the East,
06:04it's hard for me to envision a scenario and what would Kenny do in order to accomplish that.
06:10You know what I mean?
06:11Like, Evan Mobley is going to be out there.
06:14Jared Allen at times is going to be out there.
06:17Some of these other guys, Keon Ellis is an NBA player.
06:20Dennis Schroeder, NBA player.
06:22So even if they're motivated in a way to lose these games,
06:27I just don't know what kinds of lineups Kenny would have to deploy
06:31in order to manipulate the outcome of a specific game because of what they're playing against.
06:38Did they get to this a little bit too late?
06:40Like, in the last week, Donovan said he didn't want to upset the basketball gods.
06:43And then Atkinson turned around and was like, yeah, I got to be thinking about these things.
06:47And I just wonder if they got to this a little bit too late,
06:50because as you described now, it seems like even if they want to try to lose some of these games,
06:54it's going to be hard.
06:56Well, I just don't think the timing was going to allow them to do that
06:59because the first thing that they had to do, they had to clinch.
07:02They had to officially clinch a playoff berth.
07:05And they didn't do that until the other night against the Golden State Warriors.
07:09So once that happens, now all of a sudden you look at some of these other scenarios that are in
07:14play.
07:14And just the timing of it, it was so late toward the season.
07:18And the way that their schedule sets up is the way that their schedule sets up.
07:22You know, going into that game against Golden State over the weekend,
07:25the Cavs knew that the following games that they had remaining on the schedule
07:30gave them the easiest schedule of any team remaining.
07:33But you couldn't start trying to do these kinds of things until you actually clinched.
07:39And then the other thing is they had other things that they still wanted to accomplish as a basketball team,
07:44right?
07:44All those things that we were talking about so that they could be better prepared for the playoffs.
07:49I mean, Kenny had this ramp-up process that he was hoping to have in terms of bumping up the
07:55minutes of Jared Allen,
07:56in terms of bumping up the minutes a little bit of Max Struis,
08:00in terms of maybe bumping up the minutes of Donovan Mitchell so that when the playoffs roll around
08:04and he says, hey, Donovan, we need you to play 41, 42 minutes or something along those lines,
08:10Donovan can be effective in that kind of scenario.
08:14But some of those things have been taken out of his hands because Jared's probably not going to get bumped
08:20up in minutes
08:21because of the situation that he's dealing with in terms of his knee.
08:24Because Max Struis may not be able to be bumped up as much in terms of minutes or play back
08:30-to-backs
08:30or things along those lines because he's still so close to returning from the off-season foot surgery.
08:36So I think circumstances have kind of prevented that.
08:40And I think, again, the clinching and the timing of the clinching has also prevented that.
08:45Chris, about five days ago, you had a post that scared the hell out of me about Jared Allen
08:50and about Jared admitting that he's still struggling with pain in his knee.
08:55We are, what, four games to go left in the regular season.
08:59Any give on where Jared is with his knee and whether this is going to impact him deep into the
09:05postseason as well?
09:07I do think it's something that he's just going to have to continue to manage.
09:11And I think the thing about this one is there have been times where he has felt this same kind
09:17of thing in his knee,
09:18this same kind of tendonitis flare-up.
09:21And then all of a sudden, he does the things that he needs to do in terms of treatment, in
09:26terms of recovery.
09:27And then his knee responds the way that he's hoping that it's going to.
09:33For this particular issue, it's just lingered a little bit longer.
09:38And the kind of rest that he required was a little bit more than what he anticipated.
09:43The kind of treatment that he needed to have, it was a little bit more than what he anticipated.
09:49So I do think it is something that he's going to have to continue to manage.
09:54I do think it's something that he's going to have to continue to work through.
09:58I think it's something that, for him, he's going to have to learn how to play through, right?
10:03What kinds of movements can I do that are going to be not as limited as other ones?
10:10What kinds of things am I going to feel when I come down from a dunk or I come down
10:17from a lob
10:18or I come down with a rebound?
10:19And how do I manage that particular pain throughout the course of these games that are coming up?
10:26So I think you can tell that he's not as explosive.
10:30He doesn't have the same kind of burst.
10:32He doesn't have the same kind of recovery on the defensive end of the floor.
10:37You could see all of that, even though he was scoring double digits against the Los Angeles Lakers
10:42and beating guys off the dribble.
10:44Even though he was playing well against the Golden State Warriors,
10:47it just wasn't the same kind of movement from J.A. that you had grown accustomed to.
10:53And look, I do think that there is an area of this on the defensive end of the floor.
10:58The Cavs like to switch everything.
11:00Kenny Atkinson believes in being able to deploy certain kinds of lineups that can allow him to switch.
11:07And Jarrett can switch on to smaller guys and hold his own defensively.
11:11And Evan Mobley can switch on to smaller guys and hold his own defensively.
11:15And I do think it's something that Kenny is at least going to have to consider avoiding doing as much
11:20as maybe he would want to.
11:22Because putting Jarrett on an island in this kind of physical state with him being a little bit limited because
11:30of that knee,
11:31I don't know that it's going to be as successful or as effective.
11:35So those are the kinds of things that I'm talking about in terms of having to manage it,
11:41having to work through it, and having to just figure it out of what things he's capable of,
11:48what things he's not capable of.
11:50But it's clear that he's not 100%.
11:52And I think there's legitimate wonder inside the organization about whether this knee is going to get back to where
11:59it was before the injury.
12:03Or if it's just something that he's going to need to recover this offseason and just figure it out throughout
12:10the course of the postseason.
12:11Chris, I know it's more about who finishes, who closes out the games, than it is who starts.
12:16And it might be matchup dependent, but who would be the fifth guy in your opinion right now?
12:22So I do think it is matchup dependent.
12:24I do.
12:25And I think that's the way that Kenny Atkinson's going to play it.
12:28And I think part of the reason that he's going to play it that way is because there isn't an
12:33easy answer to this question, right?
12:36And that's part of the difference with these Cavs versus some of these other teams in the Eastern Conference
12:42or the Western Conference that are further along that have these kinds of answers
12:46that have been together longer to work through some of these kinds of things.
12:51For me, I think the answer should be Dean Wade, because I do think that the Cavs need his size.
12:58I do think the Cavs need his physicality.
13:01I do think the Cavs are a better rebounding team when Dean is out there on the floor.
13:06And I do think that there are bigger wings that they're going to see throughout the course of a playoff
13:11run
13:11where it's just the version of Max Struess that they're getting
13:16and Max still being this close to a return from his offseason foot surgery.
13:21I just think it's asking him a lot to deal with Jalen Johnson or Jason Tatum or OG Ananobi,
13:30any of those kinds of guys that you're talking about, the bigger, longer, more athletic wings.
13:36And even though Dean is not the kind of offensive threat that Max Struess is,
13:41he's a different kind of player, I do think there are enough numbers that support him being a good fit
13:48alongside the other four guys and this team specifically needing that kind of defensive first type of impact
13:57more so than they need Max Struess and everything that he brings to the table.
14:03And that doesn't mean that Max isn't going to close games.
14:06And it doesn't mean that Max isn't going to spend time playing alongside the other four starters.
14:11But I just think in this current state, I think that the things that Dean Wade brings to this team
14:19should not be overlooked.
14:20And I do think if you're trying to become a more respectable defense
14:25and a more effective defensive team at some point,
14:29because that's what needs to happen for this group to make a deep playoff run,
14:33then Dean helps that a little bit more than Max does at this point of the season.
14:39Chris, you're the best buddy.
14:40We know the NBA playoffs are coming up and that's going to be chaotic.
14:43Can't wait to see what you have to say down the line.
14:46And appreciate you as always.
14:48You got it, guys. Anytime.
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