00:00Speaking of former players, this is Club 520, the podcast.
00:03This is Jeff Teague.
00:04Guys, this is why we're feeling good.
00:07We're feeling like, oh, okay, we're back to 2-2.
00:10We're feeling like even now.
00:11This is why there's a lot of pressure to win this series,
00:14and I'm going to take you to a place that you don't think I'm going to take you to.
00:17Here is Jeff Teague, Club 520 on what the Cavs need to do.
00:23Stay with us after you hear this.
00:24Go ahead.
00:25They wanted Evan Moby in all their available first-round picks.
00:28They should have did it.
00:29I don't know what the Cavs is waiting, though.
00:30Y'all be going to the finals right now.
00:32Bro, Donovan Mitchell and Giannis is great.
00:34And James Harden?
00:35I don't give a f*** whatever we would have to give.
00:36You could give them every pick we own for Giannis.
00:38He's that much of a difference maker if you already got a decent team.
00:41That's still Giannis.
00:42But if I was the Cavs, I would have did that.
00:44I would have gave up every pick and him for Giannis.
00:46Immediately.
00:47And y'all in a win-down mode, bro, y'all got James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, and Giannis.
00:51What the f*** are we talking about?
00:52This is why you need to win this series, because I got to get to a place that's kind of
00:55a safe haven.
00:56I know the Knicks are a formidable opponent, and it even leads me into the conversation
01:02about taking the softness away from the Cavs, where I didn't think they lost a soft series
01:08against Indiana.
01:08Indiana nearly won the NBA Finals, for crying out loud, last year.
01:11And I don't think they're playing soft against Detroit.
01:14I don't think so.
01:15Maybe some people do, but I don't think they're playing soft.
01:18So maybe that needs to go away.
01:19It ain't going to go away if you lose to Detroit.
01:21We just know how this is going to go.
01:24But if you get to the Eastern Conference Finals, and we'll see how the Knicks series would end up.
01:29It's like, I got to get rid of some of this conversation.
01:31Because, I mean, Giannis is a great player, obviously.
01:36But it's not like this is a foolproof thing, that you move on from Evan Mobley,
01:40and God knows who, for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
01:43And it's like, guys, we got to relax here a second.
01:45Our season's still going on.
01:47Their goal was to get to the Eastern Conference Finals.
01:49Now, the goal was probably to play Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals.
01:52But here we are, because it would be more acceptable to lose to Boston.
01:56But, okay, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
01:58But let's say, hold on.
02:00Evan played wonderfully last night.
02:03If there's a move that has to be made, fine.
02:05I'll make it.
02:05But I don't just want to go crazy and start training people to try to catch up.
02:10I've said this on the air.
02:11The formula for a Giannis trade never involved Evan Mobley being bad.
02:18No.
02:18Like, that's the part of this that's so hard.
02:21Like, if Evan were terrible, if he's bad in the final two or three games in this series,
02:27everyone's going to go, well, yeah, we need to trade him for Giannis.
02:29But, yeah, Milwaukee might not want him.
02:31I don't know.
02:31And we might end up being prisoners of the moment here.
02:34But also, that might change the way he plays in these final two or three games.
02:37Hopefully, it's just two when we end up winning games five and game six.
02:40But the way he plays for the rest of the series and then the way he would play against the
02:44Knicks
02:45maybe would change a lot of people's minds.
02:47I think over the wintertime when it's first brought out, it's like, yeah, you know what?
02:50We like Evan, but we got to do what we got to do.
02:52We got to go out and we got to get Giannis.
02:53I think that that conversation can change still.
02:56And I think that conversation is changing even right now.
02:59You saw the 5-3-5.
03:00We've been kind of making a joke here or there because it seems to be a stat that's pulled out
03:04of thin air.
03:05But, okay, if you have something in common with Michael Jordan that the first time that's ever happened
03:09since Michael Jordan did it in 97, all right, he played a hell of a basketball game.
03:13And he needs to be commended for it.
03:15Now, there's been a couple of turds out there that he's had to deal with and answer for.
03:18But I'm telling you right now, if you get to the end of this season and Evan Mobley's a bright
03:23spot,
03:23I think you're going to find a lot of people who don't want to move on for a 31-year
03:27-old Giannis
03:28who has been getting banged up here over the last couple of years.
03:30Yes.
03:31Yes.
03:31There's an inherent risk with it.
03:33There's no doubt.
03:34Obviously, Giannis is still, when he plays, he is a top 3, 4, 5 player every single year in the
03:41NBA.
03:42Clearly.
03:42And that's without the ability to really shoot, which is kind of a big skill.
03:46So it shows you how dominant he is in other ways.
03:48And, of course, when he needs to, he can play world-class defense, too.
03:51He might not be doing it in the regular season anymore.
03:53But it's something I don't want to think about right now because my team just showed the signs of life
03:59I needed to see from my team
04:00to actually think they can make the deep run that I've been hoping and clinging to that they could be
04:06making this year.
04:07So I'm not thinking about Giannis today.
04:09Now, come and talk to me a week from now.
04:11Now, do we have to remove the soft label?
04:13Because I think our fans will be in a much quicker phase to remove that soft label.
04:17Well, actually, I don't know how the fans are going to react to that.
04:20I would think they'd be faster to try to remove the soft label.
04:23Also, here's the question I do have.
04:25What?
04:25When you go to seven games with Toronto, it was embarrassing.
04:29I was not happy to see that series go seven.
04:31I'm not going to lie.
04:33But by the end of the series, did you not think we matched their physicality by the end?
04:37I thought we did.
04:39Which series again?
04:40Against Toronto.
04:40Yeah.
04:41Okay.
04:42I don't think we were soft against.
04:43I didn't think we were soft in the end against Toronto.
04:45The last two games here in Cleveland, who was the tougher, more physical team?
04:51We were.
04:52So, look, I think it's going to be a catch-all whenever they eventually lose.
04:55And most likely, the Cavs are not going to win the championship.
04:57I hate to break it to all of us.
04:59Like, my expectations are not that this team is the best team in the NBA.
05:02But eventually, when they lose, that's this catch-all term, toughness.
05:07And I do think there have been times when I've thought they were either mentally or physically
05:11not so tough.
05:13But I have to say, like, they've been able to match it.
05:16Like, what part of Evan Mobley did not look tough to you last night?
05:19Nothing.
05:20He looked tough the entire game.
05:22Like, does Durant look tough to you right now?
05:24Does beef stew?
05:25But bothers.
05:26Maybe Paul Reed.
05:27He was terrific yesterday.
05:28Yeah, but what's going to make you mad is that you just said what it is.
05:31It's a catch-all.
05:31Okay.
05:32Well, if you go, hey, they're not a great defensive team.
05:34Or they're not a great this, that, or the other.
05:35That's fine.
05:37When you call a team soft, that is a personal insult, obviously, to that team.
05:41And it's really an insult to the fan base.
05:43Because no fan base, I've told you this a million times, doesn't matter where you're
05:47at, no fan base wants to have a team that's labeled soft.
05:50It's the most demeaning thing ever.
05:51It's part of the reason why I think a lot of fans were down on them going into the season.
05:54Because there's a lot of people, again, they did not play soft in the NANA series.
05:58But when you have so many people using that as a catch-off, because you have been soft
06:02in the past, when you've got people using that as a catch-all, they're going to assign
06:06that to your team.
06:07You didn't play soft against them, and you're not playing soft now.
06:09There was a couple of soft moments against Toronto.
06:12I'm not going to deny that.
06:13I don't think they, I got to tell you, I don't think they played soft against Detroit.
06:18I think they've been tough against Detroit, and certainly were the aggressors last night
06:22against the Pistons.
06:24So this whole soft label thing, I think it's beat to death.
06:28What bothers you, it's exactly what you said.
06:30The odds are probably against them winning the finals.
06:33Wherever they end up, you know what's going to be said about them.
06:37Because there's a lot of stuff as an identifier, you can't really make an identification on
06:42who they are.
06:42They just traded for a major player in James Harden.
06:45They have to put a lot of pressure on him.
06:46There's a lot of things that still have to even out.
06:49That's hell, that's half the reason I want to at least just get to the Eastern Conference
06:51Finals, just so we can go, hey, whoa, hold on here.
06:54Now, even if we just got to the Eastern Conference Finals, whatever happens against the Knicks is
06:57whatever happens against the Knicks, I'd love to go to the NBA Finals because then I think
07:00it's pat down 100%.
07:03I don't want to touch it.
07:04I don't want to hear nothing about it.
07:05Let's see what we can do with an offseason.
07:07But it's like, once we get to the offseason, let's calm down and make a real decision here
07:12instead of knee-jerk, get LeBron.
07:14Knee-jerk, get Giannis.
07:15Knee-jerk, get them both.
07:16Like, I don't want to do that.
07:17Well, I'll just say for me, knee-jerk.
07:18And when you call a team soft, that's what they're going to say.
07:20Yeah, it's not ever going to be knee-jerk about LeBron for me.
07:23I think it's a universal, always, take them, absolutely do whatever it takes.
07:26But at least I can have a conversation about it if they get to the Finals.
07:30But I'm looking at Detroit like, how tough mentally and physically does Austin Thompson
07:38look right now?
07:39How mentally and physically tough does Duncan Robinson look right now?
07:43Like, I think the tables have completely switched.
07:46And we'll see.
07:47When you go back on the road to Detroit, hey, I'll save you guys a tweet.
07:51Prove it on the road.
07:52Yes, of course.
07:53They can't win the series unless they win a road game.
07:55We all know that.
07:56You don't have to tweet me.
07:57I've had 25 people tell me, oh, when they do this on the road, I'll get excited.
08:00Okay, I'm going to tell you something right now.
08:02If you guys weren't pumped up and excited and jubilant about yesterday's performance
08:07where your superstar was on a transcendent level and authored up one of his virtuoso playoff
08:13performances, and then Evan Mobley looked dominant defensively like he did, and James Harden
08:19was awesome, then I don't know that this sport is for you.
08:23It might just not be.
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