00:00Jimmy Watkins from Cleveland.com is our happy guest today on the Wise Art Right.
00:04We make it right. Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
00:07Jimmy, how are you today?
00:08Our happy guest.
00:09Are you our happy guest today?
00:11Doing well, guys. Doing well.
00:13You have Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals and Day 1 of OTAs
00:19where there's a May quarterback competition happening,
00:22which is somehow on semi-equal footing in this city.
00:26I thought for a second there you were going to go Monsters.
00:28You're up 2-1 on Toronto, too.
00:30I was impressed. Very, very impressed.
00:32A triple threat.
00:34Come on, Taylor Greene.
00:35It's all good.
00:37All right, let's start with the Cavaliers first, Jimmy.
00:39Can they bounce back tonight, and how much life did it suck out of this team
00:43and maybe a little bit clearly the fan base in Game 1?
00:47Yeah, I think they can bounce back.
00:50I think that they've proven over the course of this playoff run
00:54that this is a more mentally resilient group than we have seen in the past.
00:58I think the kids are growing up.
01:01Your Evan Mobley's, your Jared Allen's are proving that they have learned things
01:07from their past playoff failures.
01:08I think James Harden's brought some maturity to this team.
01:11I'm sure we'll talk about some of the problems he's presented to this team
01:15from Game 1 as well, but I don't think in the playoffs that necessarily,
01:21you know, the things that happen in one game are going to be lingering
01:25in your head in the other game.
01:26These games are so segmented.
01:28Every game is its own organism, right, that I don't think it works that way.
01:33I do think, obviously, though, that they just made a difficult playoff series
01:37more difficult.
01:38Like, if they lose tonight to the Knicks, is it going to be because they had,
01:42you know, a higher mental barrier to clear because they lost ugly in Game 1?
01:45Or is it just because the Knicks are a better team than they've been playing
01:49so far in these playoffs and they can put more pressure on the Cavs
01:52by scoring the ball better?
01:53I think it's probably closer to that than it would be, oh, no,
01:56they can't recover from that loss.
01:58Jimmy, I enjoy your five biggest takeaways that you're doing after these games.
02:02You're doing a really nice job on those.
02:03One takeaway I have on that is I wonder, and I want your thoughts on this one,
02:11why didn't Kenny Atkinson make any kind of a defensive adjustment late in that game?
02:17Why do you think it was?
02:19I think during that run, I think the Cavs were kind of in shock.
02:28I think that they really thought at 22 point,
02:30I think this is a natural human condition.
02:32I think we, like, you and I probably had a similar reaction watching this stuff unfold.
02:37Like, oh, my God, is this really happening?
02:39Exactly.
02:40Right.
02:41And I think that that's, again, a natural human reaction.
02:45It's also just not the reaction that you can afford to have
02:48if you are at the controls of trying to stop that run.
02:52Like, there's really no other explanation for why did you let Jalen Brunson
02:57isolate James Harden on eight straight possessions in that fourth quarter.
03:02Other than either what Kenny's been saying, which I can't believe he keeps saying,
03:08that he keeps referencing, you know, the 1% shot quality,
03:12and he actually liked their process.
03:14Like, that's just not how this works.
03:16These playoff games are not played on paper or on graphs, whatever.
03:21Like, Jalen Brunson was making the shots over and over again against James Harden.
03:25Were some of them more difficult than others?
03:27Yes.
03:27But that's what happens when you gain confidence against someone who's guarding you.
03:31So you need to change something.
03:33And, again, I've been saying this until I'm blue in the face.
03:36The shot quality conversations are designed to bear out over long samples.
03:42So the playoff series are defined by short samples.
03:45And, again, you need to adjust your calculus quicker.
03:49I think it's just – I think, frankly, like the – I hate using this phrase again.
03:55I think the lights got a little bit bright for the Cavs and for their coach.
03:57I think we had a nervous coach, and that personality was following down to a nervous team.
04:06I think Kenny kind of froze up and didn't recognize what was happening
04:11or what needed to happen until it was too late.
04:15I wouldn't have thought this going into the series because I thought that maybe, perhaps,
04:19getting by Detroit would keep Kenny 100% safe moving forward.
04:23But I'm afraid that if there is a couple more games, and what you just said right there,
04:27makes me wonder about Kenny's future if we have another one of these games
04:32in the rest of the series.
04:34What are your thoughts on Kenny and his future?
04:37Well, I think – I mean, you got to the conference finals.
04:41You hired Kenny to raise the playoff ceiling, to break through this glass playoff ceiling
04:46that you've been hitting your head on for three years now.
04:50And he did it.
04:51He got to the conference finals.
04:53I do think we have to see how the series goes.
04:56If this is – if game one does turn out to be the kind of loss that they just can't
05:00recover from
05:00and it's an ugly playoff loss, I think you might reevaluate the situation.
05:05But generally speaking, I think that coach evaluations, good and bad,
05:10are just all about what expectations you have for the team
05:13and how close the coach came to meeting those expectations.
05:17People always say coach of the year is like a – can be like a backhanded compliment
05:21because you win it because people didn't think your team was very good
05:25and then your team was better than they thought, right?
05:27Right.
05:27I think in the same way, coach dismissals are like an expectations punishment.
05:34Like we thought your team was better than it was and you didn't meet those expectations.
05:39Now you can argue if the Cavs lose the series in short fashion.
05:41And again, they lost one game.
05:44And in ugly fashion, I'll grant you, they lost one game.
05:47They looked pretty good for stretches of that one game.
05:49Let's see what happens going forward.
05:50But you could argue that if they were to lose this series in four or five games,
05:54that that would be falling short of expectations in this series.
05:58But on the whole still, I think the bigger picture would outweigh that.
06:03And Kenny is going to be totally fine as long –
06:06and I do think they are going to be –
06:08they're going to remain relatively competitive series.
06:11It's just going to be a lot tougher to win it after you basically have to win five games
06:15because you had won one already.
06:17Jimmy Watkins joining us, columnist for the PlainDealerCleveland.com
06:21and does a great podcast as well.
06:23You and Fedor Ethan doing a really nice job with all that stuff.
06:28Donovan Mitchell, in your notes, you mentioned a no-show in the fourth quarter
06:33and overtime basically.
06:35How did that happen?
06:37Is that on Donovan?
06:38Is that on James?
06:40Is that on Kenny?
06:42How does it keep happening?
06:45I think in this playoff, there have just been way too many moments at the end of games
06:52where Donovan looks disengaged.
06:56And it's to the point where like after game one,
07:00one of the reporters was asking Kenny like,
07:02it looked like he was hobbled out there.
07:05Like did he tweak something?
07:06Or I was asking before game seven of the Pistons series,
07:10how's that ankle that Donovan tweaked in game five when he like landed on the camera operator,
07:18which is a sidebar.
07:19You know, are we just going to wait until an NBA player gets seriously hurt,
07:24fall tripping over one of these camera operators before we need to start moving people back?
07:29I love my media brethren in all of our different jobs.
07:32But like, do we need to be sitting at the feet of these players?
07:37Can we not scooch back a couple feet and put a railing between some of the camera operators
07:42and the players?
07:43That's just, I think that's a player safety issue that has been needed to be corrected for a long time.
07:48But back to the Donovan point,
07:52like he's either tired at the end of some of these games or he's hurt at some of these games.
07:56And he might be so tired that he looks like he's hurt because people are asking those questions.
08:00And he's not on the injury report.
08:02So like, I don't know.
08:05It's hard for me to analyze because it just confuses me for a lot, for most of his career.
08:11This guy's been an elite closer.
08:13But at the end of some of these games, he's been a bystander.
08:17And it could be partially like he feels like he needs to defer to James sometimes
08:22because, you know, James is like one of the elder statesmen in the league.
08:26And he, you know, they're both on Adidas.
08:29He came into the league looking up to James.
08:31James beat him in a playoff series, in a couple of playoff series at the beginning of Donovan's career.
08:35But like, this is Donovan Mitchell's team.
08:38If James Harden is waving you off at the end of the game, like, it's okay for you to say,
08:42no, no, no.
08:43Like, I need the ball right now.
08:45And I think we need to see more of that at the end of these games.
08:49Do you think he needs to get the bench more involved?
08:52I mean, they are sitting in $53,000 seats there.
08:55Tomlin and Bryant and Tyson and Porter and Proctor.
08:57Those guys.
08:58Nice.
08:58I mean, those are $53,000 seats at the Garden.
09:01Should those guys be getting into the game?
09:03Or Ellis even a little bit more?
09:06Yeah, I think that during game one in particular,
09:10I think there was an opportunity to dip into the bench a little bit more.
09:14Generally speaking, I am a guy who believes that the deeper you go into playoff series,
09:20the more you should lean on your better players.
09:23Like, rotation should shorten, and you should be, you know,
09:27pushing the limits of your best players endurance-wise.
09:30But in that game, given the circumstances,
09:34given that you had just finished a mentally, emotionally,
09:39and physically taxing seven-game series two days prior,
09:43given that you had control of the game for certain stretches,
09:47like, that's a rare opportunity in the playoffs for you to kind of just try stuff.
09:52Like, Keon Ellis played six minutes in game one,
09:55and I didn't love the six minutes either.
09:57He couldn't catch passes.
09:59But that would be an opportunity to maybe give him a longer leash in that situation,
10:05because that's not, I mean, I trust Keon Ellis to eventually catch passes.
10:10What I want to see is, can he guard Jalen Brunson effectively?
10:14And I want to see that for longer stretches.
10:16Jalen Tyson, a guy who didn't play in game one, who didn't play in game six or seven,
10:21he's been banished to the bench until he picked up a technical in game five of the Piston series,
10:24and Kenny Atkinson decided that, I guess, you know, emotionally,
10:27you're not ready for this kind of stage right now.
10:30Now, that's another guy who I think could potentially be helpful in this series,
10:33because one of the big questions for the Cavs, as this series goes on,
10:36wasn't a question in game one, because Dean Wade was pretty good shooting the ball.
10:39But the question is, can you get the lineups out there that defend the Knicks the best,
10:46which include Dean Wade, and get the lineups out there that score the ball
10:52at a rate that the Knicks are probably going to ask you to score at a certain point,
10:55which usually don't include Dean Wade.
10:57And usually, you know, at one end of the spectrum, you have Dean Wade,
11:02who's Mr. Defense.
11:03At the other end of the spectrum, you have Max Struess,
11:06who's a shooter and plays really hard and does a lot of, like, invisible box score stuff.
11:12But, you know, I don't think you're feeling awesome about him guarding Jalen Brunson.
11:16So Jalen Tyson's kind of like your, you know, a little of column A,
11:20a little of column B in that conversation.
11:22And the longer that you don't play him, the more I worry about what he's going to look like when
11:27you do play him,
11:28because he's a young player and you're, you know, you're kind of messing with his confidence right now.
11:32So I do think that was a missed opportunity in game one.
11:36And I have the same questions that you guys have about, okay, now, what did you learn from that?
11:41Because James Harden played 12 fourth quarter minutes in game one.
11:45That probably shouldn't happen ever unless it's, like, a do-or-die situation for a 36-year-old point guard.
11:53And I understand that the ground changed beneath your feet.
11:55You thought you were playing one kind of game at the beginning of that fourth quarter,
11:58and then it became another kind of game where you felt like you needed more of your best players.
12:01But, you know, I think you just have to find ways to get some of your guys' rest,
12:06particularly when we're talking about, and Kenny said this after the game,
12:09and he was talking about how he didn't like the offense at the end of game one.
12:13He thought that was a bigger problem than the defense.
12:15And part of the reason that he thought that they were stagnating was because the guys were tired.
12:19Well, if guys are tired, then maybe you need to get them more rest.
12:22All right, quickly, tonight, prediction.
12:26I think the Knicks win because, again, not because the, you know,
12:31the mental drain that they put on the Cavs in game one.
12:33I think it's just that the Knicks are going to play a better game than they did for the majority
12:37of game one.
12:38And I think they're a really good team.
12:39And, by the way, I don't think the 2-0 would not be an unsurmountable hole either,
12:42but I think the Knicks win tonight.
12:44All right, Jimmy, thank you.
12:45We're reading EverydayCleven.com.
12:46Appreciate your time.
12:47Great to have you with us, Jimmy.
12:48See you guys.
12:48Thanks, Jimmy.
12:49Thanks, Jimmy.
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