- 11 hours ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Jason Lloyd of The Athletic. Jason, welcome to the show, bud.
00:03Hi, Jason.
00:03Hi, boys.
00:05Well, here's the thing. We have a litany of issues with the Cavaliers.
00:09So, if I asked you to state all of them, that would take up the entire 15 minutes.
00:14So, let's go with, what do you consider the number one reason the Cavs are down 0-2?
00:21Number one reason. Well, I mean, I have to put it on Harden, on James Harden,
00:27if we're going to go with the number one reason, because you've got the ball in his hands
00:30and they've been atrocious. Now, I think it's a lot more than that.
00:33I think that they're just not playing with a sense of urgency.
00:36The starts have been terrible. Evan Mobley was terrible last night in terms of rebounding.
00:41Like, we know all the issues. But if you're going to make me point to one thing,
00:44I would start there. Because the best quarter that they played last night was the third quarter.
00:51And that's because they took the ball out of James' hands.
00:53They got Asar Thompson off the floor. He was in foul trouble.
00:55They got Asar off the floor and they put the ball back in Donovan's hands
00:59and in Dennis Schroeder's hands.
01:01And they scored 32 points, the most points they scored in the series.
01:04So, that's why I wrote for today is going forward to me.
01:07I mean, James just, he looks really old and really slow all of a sudden
01:12against this Detroit defense that is terrific.
01:15And everybody knows the Cavs style and how they like to operate offensively.
01:19And Detroit is doing a terrific job of taking away what they like to do.
01:24And it was funny, you know, before game one, coaches were talking about just the quick turnaround
01:29and coming off one series to the next, you've got 48 hours prep time.
01:34And it's not a lot of time to get ready.
01:36And you've got coaches that are doing advance that it's on these teams and all that.
01:40But still, by the time you win your first-round series and you dig in,
01:43you don't have a lot of time.
01:44And somebody asked JB if he felt comfortable or if he had an advantage
01:49just because of how well he knew the Cavs, all he said was yes.
01:53But there was a lot of intent behind that one word, yes.
01:58And remember, he had James in Houston as well.
02:00And obviously, that was a different version of James, but he coached James in Houston.
02:03So, he has intimate knowledge of all of these guys and strengths and weaknesses.
02:07And I just think the Pistons have done a terrific job through two games.
02:10And you're right.
02:11It's like, I know that there's a lot of doom and gloom today if the series is over
02:15and, oh, my goodness, and the Cavs are terrible and everything.
02:18Well, you know, it was 2-0 going back to Toronto.
02:21And I think a lot of people had the same feeling then that it was over and it wasn't.
02:24So, this series is far from over.
02:27It looks really bad right now.
02:28It's not over.
02:30But certainly, they've got to win both of these at home
02:32or else we're going to be having a much different conversation.
02:35Is Harden masking some of the other Cavs players' problems,
02:39especially in Game 2, for instance,
02:41where it feels like Harden's taken a lot of the flack,
02:43but Mobley had one rebound, wasn't particularly good.
02:46Max Struis had three points after scoring 19.
02:48You're down two with six minutes left.
02:51And in that entire fourth quarter, Jason, they went 0 for 11 from three.
02:54Harden didn't take any of those.
02:56So, like, is he masking it for other people?
02:59Well, when he's the one with the ball in his hands,
03:02he's going to take a lot of the criticism for it.
03:05And when he's falling down, turning the ball over, it's warranted.
03:09Now, again, I said there's plenty of other things to go around.
03:12And I mentioned Evan.
03:13Like, Evan's got to be better.
03:14And they've got to get more out of their bigs.
03:16They've got to get more rebounding out of their bigs.
03:18You've got to get more physicality out of them.
03:20So, yeah, there's plenty of blame to go around.
03:22But if you're going to make me start with one spot,
03:25that's where I would start.
03:25Because when they got the ball out of his hands in the second half,
03:28it looked much different.
03:29And I just think that that's the way they need to operate going forward.
03:33Jason, is James Harden in danger of playing himself out of a Cavs uniform right now?
03:39I don't know.
03:40I don't want to get too overreactionary to everything.
03:44But, I mean, yeah, he looked okay against Toronto.
03:47He looked fine.
03:47I thought he helped them.
03:49I know he had some high turnover games.
03:51But these two games have been really bad.
03:54There's no getting around it.
03:56And, you know, I want to reserve judgment on all of that
03:59until we get to the end of the series and see.
04:03But, yeah, I mean, when you watch that game last night,
04:06it's hard to walk away from that and say, okay, well,
04:10let's sign him for two more years and let's sign Donovan
04:14and let's run this whole thing back as is.
04:16Yeah, it's hard to feel that way today.
04:20But, again, there's a lot of basketball left.
04:23Teams are going to play better when they're at home.
04:25So I would just reserve judgment until we get through these two games in Cleveland
04:28and see what this looks like if and when the series goes back to Detroit.
04:32A lot of fans already getting after Kenny Atkinson.
04:34How much do you feel like belongs to a coach in this situation
04:37or is it more on the players for not executing?
04:40Well, the players are the ones with the balls in their hands.
04:42So they're the ones that, you know, I tend to blame more usually.
04:48I don't think this has been Kenny's finest hour necessarily.
04:52I thought some of the rotations in game one were just strange.
04:55I understood the explanation of, like, well,
04:59we just came off a grueling seven-game series, you know,
05:03trying to get guys some rest.
05:05It's a long series upcoming.
05:07I get all that.
05:08But at the same time, Detroit had the same exact setup,
05:11and these games are coming every other day now.
05:14So I just – I'm not going to blame him for – I know he's catching a lot of heat.
05:20I don't know that it's necessarily all of his fault.
05:23But this is what happens when teams fall behind in the series.
05:26You automatically say, well, this guy got outcoached by that guy and da-da-da-da-da.
05:31And I do think that JB's done well to take away the things that the Cavs like to do.
05:36But I also think that it's a different style that they're trying to do offensively.
05:42And they've done a nice job with it during this regular season.
05:45It actually went more seamlessly than I thought that it would
05:48because they really kind of overhauled the way that they played in the middle of the year
05:51once Harden got here.
05:52And they took the ball from Don and they gave it to James,
05:54and it became an ISO-heavy team where the pace slowed dramatically.
05:59And James just plays a different style than Donovan.
06:02And so, you know, I think Detroit has handled that change incredibly well
06:06in terms of taking away some of the roll guys and some of the pick-and-roll actions.
06:11They're clogging the paint and taking away some of the actions of the bigs.
06:14And the Cavs are just missing a ton of shots.
06:17And some of them are really good, and some of them are not so good
06:20in terms of shot selection, but they've missed a ton of open looks.
06:24And when you are this three-point heavy dominant of a team that relies this much
06:28on the three, when they're not going in, this is what happens.
06:32You wind up in an 0-2 hole.
06:34Jason Lloyd of The Athletic on the Wise Heart Right.
06:36We Make It Right call.
06:38Kyle Wright hotline.
06:39So, I know Donovan seems to have a minutes cap.
06:42He was also asked about his health last night, and he denied that he was injured.
06:46It does feel like it's a fair thing to question.
06:49Is there maybe more at play with Donovan, or is that just a convenient excuse for bad play?
06:56He looked better last night than I think he's looked in quite a while.
07:01I think the Toronto series, I don't think he was hurt.
07:04I think Toronto did a nice job of just sort of junking things up on him.
07:08And the way that Toronto defended him was much different than what most NBA teams do.
07:16And it takes high effort and high intensity.
07:18And I think he just never really got comfortable with some of the angles and where the help
07:22was going to come from.
07:23And he just didn't have a good series.
07:25He wasn't great in game one of the Detroit series either.
07:29But I thought last night he kind of got back to how he normally plays.
07:35Again, the shooting isn't there.
07:37That's concerning.
07:39I forget what he was from three.
07:40Like two and nine or something like that.
07:41Yeah, two and nine.
07:42Yeah.
07:43They're just not making threes.
07:45But at least last night he attacked the paint.
07:48He got to the basket, got to the rim, got to the line a little bit more.
07:52So those are all good signs.
07:54And you hear it all the time, and it's kind of a cliche, and people roll their eyes.
07:58But a lot of it is to make or miss league.
07:59And when the shots are not falling, when three-point shots, when you get good looks from three
08:03and they're not falling, again, when you are a team that's this predicated on shooting
08:08threes and they're not dropping, it puts you in a really tough spot.
08:11And they've missed a lot of good looks in the series.
08:14How do you explain Evan Mobley with just one rebound last night?
08:17There is no explanation.
08:19And this is a frustrating, maddening part of Evan because, you know, I've been a champion
08:24of Evan for years where I thought, like, there's more in there.
08:26There's more in there.
08:28And I wrote last year after the postseason ended, if they're going to advance beyond
08:31the second round, Evan's the one who's going to get them there.
08:32You know how far a Donovan-led team can get you.
08:34It's the second round.
08:36And there's been flashes and there's been moments.
08:38And what was it, Game 7 of the Raptors series?
08:41I thought he was terrific.
08:42Most of that series, I thought Evan was really good.
08:45But the games in Toronto, he struggled a little bit.
08:47And then it's the same thing here last night where it's a road game in the playoffs
08:51and he struggles.
08:52So part of it has to be, part of it I think is on him that he's got to be
08:55more,
08:57demanding of the ball at times.
08:59They need to do a better job of feeding him and getting him the ball.
09:01But, I mean, one rebound is inexcusable.
09:03And defensively, he's great.
09:05This is a tough series for him with some of the size of the Pistons.
09:09Like, they have – they're just monsters inside with size and strength
09:13and everything else.
09:15But the rebounding thing, there's just – there's no excuse for it.
09:18He has to be better.
09:19Jarrett has to be better.
09:21You can't give up 12 offensive rebounds.
09:23The game – Kenny's mentioned this a couple times.
09:26And the NBA is very much becoming – a lot of teams are looking at it this way
09:31of it's a possession game.
09:32And you hear Kenny reference, well, last night we won the possession game by three.
09:36Turnovers and offensive rebounds.
09:37Creating extra possessions for yourself is what a lot of teams are focusing on right now
09:42across the league.
09:44And, frankly, the Cavs have been terrible at both.
09:46We know about the 20 turnover game in game one.
09:49And they gave up 12 offensive rebounds last night to Detroit.
09:52So, when you are giving the opponent that many extra possessions
09:56and then Detroit outshoots them from three,
09:58which I don't think anybody would have predicted that before the series,
10:01that there would be a game where Detroit shoots it better from three
10:04than the Cavs do.
10:05That's how you wind up where you are.
10:07All right, Jason.
10:08I know we have plenty of Cavs to talk about.
10:10But Browns rookie minicamp is going on right now.
10:13The big topic this week has been Cincinnati turn Texas Tech turn maybe NFL quarterback
10:19Brendan Sorsby.
10:20If he does go the supplemental draft route, where would you put the Browns
10:26in terms of teams in need of his services in the NFL?
10:30I wouldn't touch them if I'm Cleveland.
10:32I just – when you start talking about gambling addiction
10:36and getting help for gambling and I wish the kid nothing but the best
10:40and I hope he gets the help he needs and hopefully he can go on
10:42and have a long, productive career.
10:44But, like, at what point is enough enough with the Browns
10:48and some of these – the people that they've taken on
10:52and some of the backstories and some of the issues that they've had?
10:55Like, when is enough enough?
10:56So, no, I'm not interested.
10:59And, listen, I haven't hit my feelings on where they stand
11:02with the quarterback situation.
11:03I don't think they have a good option.
11:05But that doesn't mean you keep compounding it with more bad options.
11:08So, for me, I'm a hard pass on it.
11:12Let's let him – let someone else take a chance on him.
11:15I just think the Browns, at some point, you have to say enough
11:20and stop taking some of these – I mean, I don't want to call addiction
11:24a character risk, but you know what I'm saying.
11:27Like, it's a slippery slope that you're on there.
11:30But I just – there's just too much there.
11:32We just went through the whole thing with Emmanuel Closset here in Cleveland.
11:36And when you're talking about – I mean, yeah, he was a freshman,
11:38but if he's betting on his own team at Indiana, I just – I am not interested
11:45in any of that.
11:46I know you're not the biggest Shador guy, but I have heard you say that you
11:49would start Shador this season instead of Deshaun Watson.
11:52Is it – I'm going to say it's maddening, but is it surprising that it feels like
11:57not only the inside track stuff with Mary Kay Cabot, but it feels like a lot
12:00of national reporters are just on to the idea that Deshaun is the best option
12:04and is going to end up being the guy that wins the job for week one?
12:08No, it's not maddening.
12:09I get the logic, and I came back from the owner's meeting saying,
12:12oh, they're serious.
12:13Because to me, when some of this Watson stuff first started,
12:16I thought it was more or less like motivation to make sure Shador is doing
12:21all the things he needs to do.
12:23And then when I came back from the owner's meetings, it was like, oh, no,
12:27they're serious about this.
12:28Like, it is going to beat Deshaun.
12:29I do believe Deshaun can be a starting quarterback.
12:32I get the logic of it.
12:34Because if you stand them side by side right now and you say,
12:37which one's a better NFL quarterback, I probably would say it's Deshaun.
12:40But my whole thing with this is, like, where are you going with this?
12:43Like, the Deshaun thing's been a disaster.
12:47So if you squeeze a few good games out of him or if you squeeze a moderately
12:53decent season out of him, are you signing him again?
12:56Like, under what circumstance would you give him another contract?
12:59To me, that's a not-in-starter.
13:01It's not negotiable.
13:02So then what are we doing?
13:04It just feels like a giant, complete waste of time is really it.
13:07Like, okay, you're trying to win as many games as you can.
13:10Okay, fine, I get that.
13:11I get that.
13:11And maybe Deshaun gets you one extra win or two extra wins, whatever it is.
13:15I don't think this team's very good this year because of the quarterback play.
13:19So all you're doing is hurting yourself in the grand scheme of things
13:21and trying to go out and find your quarterback in 27.
13:23So I just, I understand the Deshaun side of it.
13:28My whole thing has just been like, where are you trying to get out of this
13:31and where are you trying to go with this?
13:32And that's where you lose.
13:33Because I just, unless you are willing to invest another contract in Deshaun
13:39another three, four, five years in him, I just don't understand what it is
13:43you're trying to get done with this.
13:46All right, Jason, we know you got a boogie, but we got about 30 seconds.
13:49If you had told me last year at this time that Carson Swessinger would have been
13:52the best rookie from last year's class, I would have scoffed at you
13:56because that was my least favorite pick of their top picks.
13:59A year from now, who are we saying is the best Browns draft pick from this class
14:03after one season?
14:07Oh, I'm still going to say, I'm going to take the easier way out and say it's Fano.
14:11I like the pick.
14:12I think he's, I do wonder if he's big enough to stick at left tackle,
14:17but I don't have any questions about whether or not he's going to play a long
14:21time in the NFL.
14:21Like, I just think from the enough people I've talked to, the athleticism,
14:26the high character, like it's all there.
14:28It's everything that you want.
14:29And if he has to move positions eventually, then so be it.
14:31He has to move positions.
14:33But they just need good young linemen that are going to be around for a long time.
14:37And they made a lot of moves to address the line.
14:39I don't know how much better they are.
14:41We'll find out.
14:42But he's the one guy that I think is going to be sort of a centerpiece
14:48and anchor to that offensive line for years to come.
14:50All right, Jason.
14:51Great stuff, buddy.
14:52We know you've got to get on the road.
14:54We appreciate you, and we'll talk to you down the road.
14:56All right.
14:56I'll see you guys.
14:57See you guys.
Comments