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00:00man we are ready for the playoffs i'm ready man did you hear kenny i'm ready
00:06between him and evan mobley i don't know who's gonna scare you more the american people should
00:11be ready yes we are ready it has been a it has been one of the most i gotta be
00:17honest with you
00:18it's been one of the most bizarre calves regular seasons i think i've been a part of and now has
00:22it not and not it it has been because obviously the injuries and because of the way things unfolded
00:27last year uh-huh um but i feel as good as i think the calves could possibly feel given the
00:36matchup
00:36the route if you're looking ahead and also the fact that they're healthy it's the healthiest this team
00:45has been all year this is amazing this is about as close to what they wanted us as you could
00:50possibly
00:50find so now you know this is where it is all you know there's been a lot of people over
00:54the last
00:55i'd say few months have been calling each other afraid afraid of what i'm not sure but everybody's
01:00been accusing each other of being afraid there's nothing to be afraid of now this is what they
01:04wanted and you got what you wanted now i i think in a perfect world if i if i really
01:09truly got what i
01:10wanted i think we'd be playing atlanta in the first round of the playoffs but you know part of that
01:15is
01:15just trying to figure out exactly you know one team i've had a lot of experience seeing that
01:22you're a better matchup you're a better matchup against them they are not uh they i do we want
01:28to say that they sat everybody against the heat yesterday to avoid you to make sure okay i'm making
01:33sure i'm just making sure because i had a lot of people over the weekend 100 well the video we
01:39had
01:39where i'm like hey i'm not rooting for the calves to lose but i don't necessarily want them to win
01:43because of the matchup kind of got around to a couple of hawks fans and they're like this is not
01:47lebron calves ago then why'd you sit everybody on sunday they did they would rather everybody they
01:52thought the knicks were a better matchup for them than the calves were i mean i get fans talk tough
01:56but this is this is the matchup that you wanted you wanted to not face you rather face the knicks
02:02and rather face the cleveland cavaliers so that's on you you guys figure that out down there we're
02:07probably not going to see each other here for the rest of the postseason so good luck to you
02:10but when it comes to toronto you know my first thought was well we haven't beaten toronto well the
02:14last time we played toronto was what november as owen specified so you're a different basketball
02:19team the last time you played the toronto raptors this is not the same cavaliers team now i mean
02:24toronto friends they might feel differently about it i'm not necessarily sure about how you feel about
02:29this matchup this is not expected to be much of a series oh really you won't find anybody that
02:34thinks this is that that follows the nba closely that follows the teams the calves are massive favorites
02:39in this series i think of all the series where we know both teams they're the biggest favorites of
02:44all of them of course we don't know the one in the two seeds who they're going to be playing
02:47in
02:47each conference because of the plans but um this is why there's there there are no this is where
02:53finally finally i think all the shows can be on the same page here on the station and i think
02:59the haters
02:59and the optimistic people can all unite and say this we're done with excuses we're done we're done
03:06trying to soft pedal anything i mean if the calves blow this then they will blow up the team and
03:11should
03:11blow up so there's like there's no point of being afraid of anything there's zero point of being
03:15afraid of anything like this is this is what you have in front of this is on but kenny i
03:19woke up
03:20this is clear as it's been in quite a while they are playing saturday one o'clock is that the
03:25is it
03:25still nba tv invitational or they didn't do away with that it's on prime oh it's a prime okay so
03:31you're kicking off their coverage you're kicking off the playoffs um playing games this week but you
03:36know your opponent you should be able to just simply outclass i don't think it's going to be
03:42as dominant as last year's series against miami where that was an all-time lopsided series but you
03:47you should be able to dispense of the raptors in four or five games and move on get ready for
03:53what
03:53should be detroit and then you know we'll see what happens come easter conference finals but i i like
04:01i like the opportunity that they are in uh that this celtics team has been amazing all year if we
04:07were to create you know look ahead big time but they are not the unicorn boston celtics that they
04:13were last season going to the playoffs and that team didn't even make it to the eastern conference
04:17finals if you're a calves fan i don't know how you can't feel great about this scenario going into the
04:22postseason oh well i i think it's easy for him to not feel great about the scenario going into the
04:27postseason is that they don't trust him i think the challenge has been laid by calves fans again i
04:33i don't think you're going to get a lot of whooping it up and root and toot and excitement from
04:37the
04:37fans until you get to the eastern conference finals honestly i i think that you've done it in a non
04:44you've done it in a non-traditional way like again saying that i did not want them to win
04:50on friday against atlanta it wasn't the most a lot of people thought it was the right thing to say
04:55but it wasn't the most popular thing to say you know what i disagree i i think most people
04:59understood what the uh what the situation was i didn't see a lot of people who watched the calves
05:03and watch the nba i did not see the blowback i think that you did i i think everybody was
05:08like
05:08yeah this is the smart thing to do they're more understanding of you like because me i i go back
05:12to a different sport in 2017 i brought that up plus it's like well this is what they want so
05:16i might
05:16as well support them in what they want uh because i i could sit there and go no you should
05:20try to win
05:20everything and take on all comers yeah if you lose in the first round then all of a sudden we're
05:24talking
05:25about blowing this thing up so they've set this thing up the way they want it they want to ramp
05:29up
05:29they want this type of first round they're going to get this type of first round unless something
05:34crazy happens they should be right on to the second round and then we'll talk about what detroit may
05:39bring and everything else but but again what i need to specify is that the challenge is late like i
05:44you'll get people in the arena on saturday afternoon who are really excited but i don't think this is going
05:51to be the the lead up to a calves postseason the way that we've seen in the past anthony and
05:56i i just
05:56don't want you to by thursday and friday be getting really down on the fan base again because i i
06:00just
06:00think that the challenge has been laid by the majority of fans now it's interesting before the season
06:05started when we knew that tyrese halliburton was going to be out and we thought jason tatum was going
06:10to be out the whole year i kept saying why not like why why not the calves like and that
06:15was with
06:15darius right and you know they they had deandre hunter and that was the other thing you know people
06:20will tell you all week people will try to scare you about the raptor series and then i went back
06:25and looked you had lonzo ball and deandre hunter starting those games so you got to keep that in
06:30mind i think darius was not available for one of those games and dom and mitchell was not available
06:34for one of them darius might not have been available for two of them um and none of that is
06:38relevant
06:39anymore because they don't even have darius garland they don't have deandre hunter they don't have
06:42lonzo ball so i wouldn't worry about any of that stuff i do think the one challenge that toronto
06:47poses they they do have size and it's why dean wade has to start this this series yeah you know
06:52you have brandon ingram at the three um and he is he has got a lot of size on everybody
06:57that he can
06:58get a shot off at will against anybody um you know rj barrett is going to be in there scotty
07:03barnes i love
07:04this for evan mobley that he had to hear all year that scotty barnes was better than in a redraft
07:08scotty barnes would go ahead of evan mobley and evan has been playing lights out since the all-star
07:13break i think that's a that's kind of in this city gone unnoticed how unbelievable like he's made a
07:20mini leap here yeah uh since the all-star break since i said he should be humiliated the fact that
07:25he was an afterthought in nba circles around all-star weekend and everybody was selling their evan
07:30mobley stock he flat he should have been i mean and i don't think the part this is something that
07:35builds with him but i don't think that he's out of the woods here yet i think that he's if
07:39this team
07:40doesn't get to where they need to go i think they'll look at him i think he becomes public enemy
07:44number one for a lot of fans out there i it might be a little bit of donovan but again
07:49i'm i'm trying
07:50to see something that hasn't been played yet i i just i know how we are and we're like this
07:55with a
07:56lot of sports we were like this with the browns where we move blame from one person to one person
08:00to one person and we've done the exact same thing with the calves and so we move blame and now
08:05there's
08:05no darius garland for us to kick around so the next person would be who the next person would be
08:09evan
08:10yeah i think evan could dominate this series and he very well i am really excited about him gaining
08:15confidence this was another reason why i think it was so silly to try to bring on the celtics as
08:21early
08:21as possible come playoff time no this is this is about this team this team needed to kind of look
08:27themselves in the mirror and figure out who they are they barely practice it's a hardened trade
08:31and i know people will hear that and say what are you talking about that hardened trade was so long
08:35ago now they barely practiced it and anybody that knows how the nba functions it's it's hard to
08:41actually get guys on the court healthy and do more than a walkthrough yeah joe varden i think was
08:46it joe varden who had the story that harden was making them go through walkthroughs in hotel
08:52ballrooms so and while while you got me when i'm on the road traveling looking for bathrooms that i
08:58can use uh because i get kicked out of my home bathroom by my wife i might stumble into james
09:04harden because those are the bathroom the ones that are adjacent to the ballrooms those are huge
09:08nobody knows about them you didn't get kicked out when we you and i have shared a hotel room you
09:14didn't get kicked out no when i'm with my wife i get kicked out i'm not allowed to use um
09:18not allowed
09:18to go number two in the in the home bathroom in the hotel room bathroom yeah that is expressly uh
09:25that's something that's a rule by her because yeah she doesn't she doesn't want that nonsense
09:30especially when i'm drinking and eating like i do on the road but what i'm not trying to i'm not
09:34trying to gross everybody out here this is not new material but i thought that was your rule i never
09:38knew that was her rule no so you just did it when you and i were together then it becomes
09:41i don't
09:42even think who knows what i was doing i don't even that was learn behavior i was on such a
09:46such a kick
09:46for that trip i have no idea if i okay now that's a while stuffed up the whole time who
09:50knows
09:51but uh you might run into james harden and the fellow cavaliers and him going yeah hey dean wade
09:58i haven't seen you i don't know who you are but you seem like a guy that would be fun
10:02to play with
10:02hey max truce welcome in hey we can just run seat you i don't know we can just run this
10:08pick and
10:09roll and i will get you endless three-point attempts that are gonna be wide open good jared allen and
10:14evan mobley i get to play with both of them see that is the thing that when i said to
10:19all to a full
10:21circle moment to get back to where i was going i started the year saying why not us there's no
10:27no
10:28big bad indiana pacers anymore that we're on the brink of winning the championship in seven games
10:33against oklahoma city the boston celtics that we were scared you know what of um over the last few
10:39years yeah they are a very different team now they still had an amazing regular season we'll see
10:44if all those guys can play well in the past but they do have jason tata back that's why they're
10:48probably and they still are the favorites but everybody else i'm like i i feel really good i
10:53feel really good about the cats and now finally at the end of the year we have our calves team
10:57again
10:57and the bugaboo of having small darius and small donovan together that's done so you'll see that you'll
11:04see that drive i mean come on if you've watched the calves it's a hardened trade who hasn't absolutely
11:09loved what we've seen out of james harden so i'm excited i really am well let me ask you then
11:15are
11:15the eastern conference finals far enough for you if you're setting a goal for the calves are the eastern
11:20conference finals far enough for you or what needs to play out like i i wonder if so i i
11:25do wonder for
11:26some fans you've set this up the way it is and i think that boston is a serious opponent i
11:32think
11:32everybody thinks that but i would put the eastern conference finals is like all right this is my goal
11:38this is where i could see them going to do you think that's going to be far enough for a
11:42lot of
11:42fans out there realistically maybe it should be common sense wise maybe it should be considering
11:48the two teams and considering you'd be still one of the four best teams in all the nba but i
11:53think for
11:53some fans maybe it's the final i mean they they've got to get to the eastern conference finals and they've
11:58got to they've got to be more than competitive it has to be a series that is in doubt you
12:04know that
12:04that goes six or seven games i'm not i'm not i'm not sitting here after all that i've said
12:09over the last two months i'm not just going to accept us getting you know beaten down by boston
12:15in the eastern conference finals no because then your team because this is a lesser version of the
12:20celtics than even before so i'm not accepting that especially because you know halliburton will be back
12:26the following year for indiana yeah so they'll immediately be put ahead of you they won 19 games this
12:32year so they'll yeah they'll be back they'll get a pick they'll have help they'll be back
12:37so i all i'm here to say is like i'm not i'm not gonna be like hey yay we got
12:42to the eastern
12:42conference here my calves pom-poms in the eastern conference finals just because we hadn't been there
12:47before like they have to get there and be a threat to go to the nba finals donovan mitchell would
12:54not
12:54accept anything beneath that okay there's no way james harden would not accept anything beneath that
12:59i think this is i'm feeling confident about the calves i think you and i and a select few are
13:05the
13:05only ones i think everybody else is i think they're calves fans i think they're cautiously optimistic
13:10but i think the challenge has been laid out by calves fans for the calves this year going hey
13:13like we've supported you the general calves fan i think that the general calves fan is hey we've
13:21supported you we've we've stuck by you but this year is the year where the challenge is laid down
13:27all the excuses are out you're healthy uh you're about as healthy as you're going to be now that
13:32you've gone through the injuries i know that there's the james harden situation where you know
13:36you get him halfway through the year you don't get to practice a lot in the second half of the
13:39season so
13:40that was a great story about how he was getting people out into the hotel ballrooms and conference
13:45centers to go through walk-arounds and things like that like that's great but i don't think that's
13:50going to matter to a regular calves fan where it has been a wonky season is you started out
13:5617 and 16 you make this trade you're like 35 and 10 or whatever it is down the stretch i
14:02mean you
14:03were fantastic down the stretch for the most part but there were a lot of nights where there were
14:07people they just weren't happy for a multitude of reasons and you and i have disagreed with most of
14:13those most of those folks but it is only natural when you kind of game the system the way you've
14:22gamed it that there is going to be a healthy amount of dissension with the fans where usually
14:27like we're raised to take on all comers you beat who you beat that's who it is this is the
14:31schedule
14:32this is what you got to deal with stop complaining and go after it like that's how we're all raised
14:36and when you game the system the way and the calves aren't the only ones i mean good god i
14:40just got done
14:40calling out the hawks and hawks fans were what they did last night i mean my god they they played
14:44the
14:45entire bench yesterday they wanted the sixth seed they got the sixth seed it's not just the calves
14:49basically every team that can does this but that's still not going to instill a lot of confidence
14:54considering the calves recent history so it's something that you're just going to have to live
14:58with and be kind of annoyed by like i think it's as the week goes on like yeah playoff basketball's
15:03here we'll pay attention to some of the play-in games and things like that even though it doesn't
15:06really concern us we'll pay attention to some of that stuff but i think by the time as it goes
15:10on
15:10like now we're going to look at things and see it a little bit differently here tone where it's not
15:15going to be the unbridled enthusiasm of what it's been in the past i i think that you and i
15:22are
15:22going to have to make a pact to just accept that throughout the rest of this throughout the rest of
15:27this week you know you just in a way we've been so spoiled uh making those lebron finals runs i
15:35mean
15:35to do that five times and then the other years where we didn't go but you know we're we had
15:39high
15:39expectations um you're just that's never going to happen again you're just never going to have
15:44a team where it's a foregone conclusion where you go to the nba finals yes just i mean look in
15:50the
15:50western conference right you have the defending champion uh oklahoma city thunder where every
15:56metric is like all-time great they they have everybody back from last year and it's not a
16:02foregone conclusion that they go to the nba finals no so we got to stop pretending that that's a viable
16:07thing just because lebron was able to make that happen for four straight years and yeah the eastern
16:13conference was down too but you know for that formula that you just wake up and you plan your
16:19calendar all the way through the middle of june every year it's not going to happen that's that's
16:23just not sports that doesn't happen in any sport i mean maybe you'd say the dodgers feel like that
16:28at this point in baseball but realistically that's just not reality so you can't have that expectation
16:34ever again but i understand kenny i understand that this team needs to prove themselves but the beauty
16:42is every team they're going up against has to prove themselves including boston because this is a
16:46different version of boston so you know the the same issues the same flaws that we're talking about
16:52the calves all the teams that we will be competing against have same questions they have issues they
17:00don't know there's no proof of concept that those teams think they should be sharpied into the nba
17:06finals either i agree with you i i think that matters well no i i agree with you because i
17:12i think
17:12that there's a lot of teams here that there's not oklahoma city's really really good san antonio's
17:18really really good um yeah obviously boston's there and those three teams you know i i've still left it
17:26to boston and and oklahoma city but these four teams here when you throw the calves in here you know
17:32it's not perfect but there's also a level of expectation there that that they have to reach
17:37oklahoma city i think they're playing with house money they've already won a championship maybe some
17:41people disagree boston it feels plucky just because you have a player that's come back from an injury
17:46here halfway through the year or over halfway through the year and now there's an expectation there you
17:51know san antonio it's only been a three years of of wemby they've got this young basketball team
17:56the sky's the limit for their future and they might be the next oklahoma city by the time this is
18:00all
18:00said and done for the calves you know they've done it in an old style way i've always brought this
18:05up
18:05about kobe altman now this is part of the reason they've had to do this they've been forced to do
18:09this but it seems that these teams are always built in a different era and not a bygone era but
18:15one that
18:15happened just back there and that they have to catch up with everything the quote-unquote the super
18:20team the quote-unquote the trade uh how they used to be a team of bigs then they're a team
18:24of small guys
18:25there are there this backcourt heavy team that's that's predicated on threes but the guys in the
18:31backcourt are six two six three instead of six seven guys we used to call tweeners back in the day
18:36like it always seems to be just a notch off well i don't think fans care about that fans care
18:41about
18:42the bluster the things that have been said the challenges that they have laid over the last four
18:46years that have not been answered and so now the cavaliers have a chance to answer these questions and
18:51they have a chance to answer these challenges so i i i see something here that could possibly be a
18:56future for you and me to deal with that might not be the same thing for every host as we
19:00talk about
19:00the calves we get ready for the postseason anthony and and i've been for the most part except for one
19:05day last week where i tried to see it on the other side you killed me for it but regardless
19:09you're
19:11expected to win this series against toronto i think even though they're a two seed i'm assuming it's
19:17going to be detroit in round two even though it's a two seed do you believe that calves
19:21fans expect you to expect you to beat detroit yes by and large i don't know i really well because
19:28so many calves fans are so scared about everything they're so they're they because we haven't proven
19:33anything i don't think there's anything to be scared of this is if you've been a honestly if
19:37you've been like a nick wilson i'm just gonna put it i don't mean to beat him up i don't
19:41mean to
19:41make too big of a deal hopefully nick you don't go crazy today i just gotta put a face with
19:46an opinion
19:46right is that you and i have been very pro calves nick has been different nick has been
19:52challenging of the calves so far this year and i know that nick is a calves fan but he's going
19:57to
19:57challenge them and that's fair but i think for a guy like nick it's you've set this up your way
20:04you
20:04wanted to play detroit now you go play and you beat detroit like everything is a challenge by the
20:10fans instead of this instead of this exuberance that we've seen in the past you're going to get
20:14some real cynicism here which is a tough word to say but you're going to get some real cynicism here
20:20and some questioning of what the calves are doing if they don't get to where they need to go which
20:25to me is like the sixth game of the eastern conference finals against the uh against the
20:29boston south yeah i'm just i it's it's just a weird as a cleveland sports fan my whole life
20:35when you go into the postseason they're supposed to be excitement and for whatever reason this town
20:40just maybe it'll change now maybe it'll change now that you know the matchup maybe it'll change you
20:44know in the middle of the series i hope it does i like it when we're all excited i cannot
20:48remember
20:48and they're believe me they're they've been guardians teams you know that that it's taken a
20:53little bit and then once the playoffs start it's like boom flipping the switch fans get pumped up there's
20:58nothing like you know going to your team's home playoff games obviously the browns have never had a
21:03home playoff game and many lives of uh our listeners in my adult life they haven't done that
21:08uh but there's excitement because it's the postseason and even the joe flacco browns people
21:14were excited about yeah going to the playoffs i don't feel that right now with fans i'm excited
21:20but i don't feel it from people in cleveland so maybe it's just a matter of all right slog of
21:25the
21:25regular season we haven't really seen him healthy all year and the failures of the past but now that
21:29we're here yeah it's finally here like you are healthy and you've got an unbelievable runway
21:35to make a deep postseason run that they've never made without lebron james so we have to go back to
21:40the elo price doherty years where there was that excitement and this i don't feel that excitement
21:48right now with fans i'm here to tell you that you should be this is this is set up for
21:52a deep
21:52playoff run tom and shaker heights your first up on the fan hello tom hey guys good morning hey no
21:57look happy playoff first of all let me say this because i first of all let me just say this
22:00for
22:01the calves i am thankful that the calves make the playoffs every year and they win 50 games every
22:05year that's just like a blessing they just do that in their sleep and that we got a basketball team
22:09in the city that can win 50 games every single season like clockwork that's like a blessing that
22:14we as clevelanders need to just salivate in like i like but i mean i know it's not good enough
22:19but
22:19it's just a blessing that we have the calves that can do that every year um but secondly i don't
22:23i'm not
22:23i'm not concerned about the raptors in fact i think it's a great warm-up series um for us because
22:28like you said anthony these players haven't had much time to practice together because you know
22:32nba or off days they're usually trying to rest or injury management um watching jaylen tyson last
22:38night really excite me because i think that he really is the best option for our three and i think
22:43getting him warmed up against the uh raptors is going to be perfect because we need him to guard
22:46tatum and cunningham and upcoming series is and he just looks so good i think the calves are going to
22:51at least make it to the east of college finals and i do think if we do come in the
22:55right form
22:56we can beat the celtics thank you guys tom thank you very much for the thank you very much for
23:00the
23:00call now i threw in a let's go calves at the end see that's the type of that's the type
23:04of excitement
23:05that we need going into the postseason i just don't think you're going to get many of those i i
23:08think
23:09you'll probably get more of them on thursday friday but i just don't think it's going to be the
23:12same type of fever we've seen in in the past i'm glad that tom feels that way because again it
23:16doesn't fall off of trees it doesn't happen all the time
23:18you
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