- 2 days ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello! They're still mad.
00:03Yes, still mad.
00:04Well, I thought he'd be gone.
00:05I thought Kenny was gone.
00:07I was under the guise, I gotta tell you, that threw me for a loop there
00:09because I thought he'd be gone and then everybody would be like satiated a little bit.
00:13And so then they would be like,
00:15okay, well, we'll move on with a different figurehead in charge of this team.
00:18And then they didn't move on from him, which, and they have their reasons.
00:22Like, it's weird.
00:24In the NFL, like, you could sit there and rant and rave and go,
00:27man, it's time for a change. It's absolutely time for a change.
00:30I think baseball, you can do it to a certain degree.
00:33And you could see in some cases how things change
00:36when they do have a different manager, things like that.
00:39Man, in basketball, it's just so hard.
00:41You know better than me. I really do. I acquiesce to you.
00:44I'm not trying to get out of an argument or anything like that.
00:48It's just like, some of this stuff, it's like,
00:50well, they just decided whether they liked the guy or not.
00:52Like, you hear some of this craziness that goes on with a coach
00:57and why he got fired, why he didn't get fired.
01:01And I think in so many ways, firing a coach is kind of throwing the fans a bone.
01:07But I don't know, man.
01:09This seemed to be pretty cut and dry with the way things went
01:13in the Eastern Conference Finals and in Game 4 and everything
01:18and leading up to it.
01:20Like, it's just the messaging was bad.
01:22He kept sticking his foot in his mouth.
01:24Should he lose his job over it?
01:25I don't know. Your fans don't feel very good over it.
01:27So it was just so hard for me to keep a – to have good reasons to keep him is
01:33all.
01:33Yeah, and obviously, you brought up the things that were said.
01:37I mean, they got lampooned nationally over his comments.
01:40And people like Kenny.
01:42Like, nationally, he has a pretty damn good reputation.
01:45I'm sure he's a nice enough guy.
01:46And even those people were like, whoa, boy.
01:50What is he talking about?
01:51He's complaining about the schedule.
01:53He's talking about, you know, the shot expectancy
01:58and the analytics of all that stuff
02:00while his team's just simply not getting back.
02:02And then that's another question.
02:03If he can't channel, you know, that energy,
02:07if he can't get them to make those key adjustments,
02:10what does that mean?
02:11Is he the coach for the team?
02:13Unless –
02:14That's interesting.
02:15And it got me to obviously –
02:16I think most Cavs fans all got them to thinking the same thing, right?
02:20Which is, are we sure they're just running back this team?
02:26Is that the difference?
02:27Is it instead of the coaching change
02:29and making sweeping changes with the staff and all that stuff,
02:34instead, is Kenny Atkinson going to be coaching
02:37a drastically different team next year?
02:38Do you think, one, that this is a mistake to hold on to Kenny Atkinson?
02:41Let's just get that out of the way.
02:43Do you think it's a mistake?
02:44Not necessarily.
02:45Okay, because I can't claim –
02:46it would have been a mistake.
02:48As much as I've said about Kevin Stefanski,
02:50this was coming to an end,
02:52and anybody who knew knew it was about a month before
02:54that you felt like this thing was going to come to an end
02:57with Kevin Stefanski.
02:57Maybe both him and Andrew Barry,
02:59but they said that Andrew was going to be safe.
03:02It felt like this thing would have been a mistake
03:05to run it back again.
03:07Is it a mistake to run it back with Kenny Atkinson?
03:09You said not necessarily.
03:10I'm saying not necessarily.
03:12And then you brought up something else.
03:13Like, who's the better basketball team?
03:16Was it – this is going to sound silly at first, and it should.
03:19Who do you think is the better basketball team?
03:22The Knicks or the Cavs?
03:23Yeah, I'd say the Knicks.
03:24The Knicks.
03:24Okay.
03:25Because to me, when you're complaining about the schedule,
03:27it still doesn't wash.
03:28Not you, him.
03:29When he's complaining about the schedule, it still doesn't wash.
03:31And I know he, like, didn't fully get into it
03:33because he said he didn't want to get into it.
03:35But when you say it without saying you want to get into it,
03:37you want to get into it, and you want us to talk about it.
03:39The schedule incentivizes the better team making quick work
03:43of the worst team.
03:44Like, they don't start the NBA Finals until next week.
03:47So, if it goes seven games with San Antonio and with Oklahoma City,
03:52that's another advantage for the Knicks.
03:54They've been waiting around for, what, eight days?
03:56Before that, I mean, that's a huge advantage.
03:58And as anybody said, it might hurt you for a half of game one.
04:02I don't know if it's going to hurt you forever.
04:03So, we'll mark the schedule off.
04:06Analytically, you can bring up all the analytical stuff that's right.
04:09They believe – I do believe this.
04:11James Harden said it, and Kenny Atkinson said it,
04:15and this might be the scariest thought of everything.
04:18I think they believe they are actually better than the Knicks.
04:21And they're blaming things that Cavs fans are just not going to accept them blaming.
04:27You remember James Harden?
04:29He said that they were still the better team yesterday or two days ago.
04:33Kenny's bringing up the schedule.
04:34Then he's bringing up that, well, you know, it's a 2-1 series analytically.
04:39We've won two out of three games.
04:40Like, what?
04:41What?
04:42It sounds like a team in denial.
04:43Are they saying that this is bad luck with bad breaks?
04:47Bad breaks with a bad schedule?
04:49All of it mixing together to come against them?
04:51Well, I can see what teams typically do.
04:53And I'm sure there were some coping Knicks fans a year ago who were like,
04:59we're better than the Pacers.
05:00Just give us another year.
05:01Yeah, but you would have called them silly.
05:02Yeah, absolutely.
05:03But if Tyrese Halliburton wouldn't have got hurt, maybe they were better.
05:06But I still think you have to look at it and what it is.
05:10And there's plenty of teams that go, well, we're better.
05:12And just never hear of them again.
05:13Yeah, I am used to teams saying delusional things to make themselves feel better.
05:18But I know that Dan Gilbert would not accept.
05:20Yeah, I'm a Browns fan.
05:20You're a Browns fan, yeah.
05:21Dan Gilbert doesn't strike me as somebody who would ever accept that.
05:24So it got me into really, really thinking about what conversations Dan is having
05:30with Kobe Altman behind the scenes about what's next for the Cavs.
05:35I would be stunned if they're just bringing back this team.
05:39I would be stunned.
05:40Like, we know, okay, the first order of business is James Harden's going to
05:44tear up his option and then they're going to sign him to a two-year deal
05:48that will get them under the cap, that will allow them to start to make their moves.
05:51And then we'll see how different this team is going to be.
05:56You asked me a question, though, about the coach and whether I thought he
06:00deserved to be fired.
06:02And I said, not necessarily so.
06:03And I know it sounds like a cop-out answer, but here's what I'm getting at.
06:06If the minute the season ends.
06:07I don't think it's cop-out at all.
06:08Oh, it's not really just the minute the season ends.
06:09When they were having trouble in the Toronto series, I listed and we went on air
06:14and then I tweeted all these things I think are wrong with the roster.
06:19And I've talked about how they're the one team that has two big men that neither
06:23you really have to guard on the perimeter.
06:25All right, that screws up spacing.
06:26So all the screen and roll stuff that you're doing with Donovan Mitchell and
06:30James Harden is not going to be as effective as it is in a regular season.
06:33His teams are more dialed in.
06:34And then, oh, by the way, you have no wings.
06:37This is like year five of the Cavs not having real wings.
06:40You know, you're only real wing from size-wise and then ability-wise is Dean Wade.
06:47And he offered you nothing offensively except he could maybe make a couple
06:50open threes, maybe chase down a couple offensive rebounds.
06:53Then Max Truce is your one hustling guy, but he's undersized and, you know,
06:59did enough boneheaded things throughout the playoffs to make you realize, like,
07:02he's not a real wing either.
07:04So you have all these roster deficiencies.
07:06So how can I acknowledge all of that and then say coach needs to be fired?
07:11That'll get cleaned up with the next coach.
07:13Like, no, just hiring the next coach is not going to cover up all those things.
07:16So what you're saying is that they basically kept their – well, you're not saying it.
07:19I'll go ahead and say it.
07:20They just kept their – they just kept their chief excuse maker because this is just a
07:25litany of excuses.
07:26Well, we're the better team.
07:29Analytically, we would have won the series.
07:31The schedule's bad.
07:32Like, there's so many different things that are said.
07:34It's like, well, you guys are just making excuses.
07:36Like, it would have been easier to take had they kept Kenny Atkinson and they'd been
07:40talking tough this entire time going, you know, this is unacceptable.
07:43It was an unacceptable series.
07:45It's an unacceptable performance to be up by 22.
07:47Like, they blame the luck when they were down by – when they lost the 22-point lead.
07:51Kenny Atkinson blame luck.
07:52Like, yeah, there's a little bit of stuff that's unlucky in there.
07:55I'll grant you that.
07:56But, my God, the moment that you stopped actually coaching, the moment that you just
08:01kind of went along for the ride is when you lost that game.
08:05The moment when you lost the use it or lose it, like, that's where you lose that game.
08:09I mean, we've been over all that, but I'm thinking about Dan Gilbert in all of this.
08:12Yes.
08:12I'm not thinking about, you know, as much, you know, the excuse making.
08:18Like, we've been over that.
08:19My thing is, why would Dan be okay?
08:22Someone who spares no expense, it would not be anything for Dan to say goodbye.
08:27Another contract situation where he's paying a coach two years down the road, he wouldn't
08:31care.
08:32Why do you think Dan Gilbert at this moment in time would sit there and be okay with
08:39you called him, like, the chief excuse maker.
08:41Why would Dan be okay with that?
08:43And I can come up with one reason.
08:45I have two reasons.
08:46I want to hear your reason first before I use both of mine.
08:49I think there are going to be massive changes to the roster.
08:53And I think they want to give Kenny Atkinson a team that they think he can coach and not
09:00have to make as many excuses for, not have to cover up the shortcomings.
09:06And he's keeping Kobe Altman too.
09:08So Kobe, to me, clearly has presented a pathway.
09:13What are the massive changes?
09:15Well, the one is obvious, right?
09:16Like it's LeBron.
09:17All right.
09:18But the other.
09:18Anytime that's him, that's a massive change.
09:20But when you say massive change, like maybe I'm looking at LeBron, not as a massive change,
09:27but it's like, all right, that's a conversation we're going to have no matter what.
09:30Massive changes was going to be like four different guys in your core four playing for
09:36your team.
09:36That's to me like massive changes.
09:38Well, I, I, or you only hold on to one.
09:39Oh, I think, I think there, I mean, you can start listening to them.
09:43I think Max Drews could be gone.
09:44I think Sam Merrill could be gone.
09:45I think Dean Wade could be gone.
09:47But would they think Evan Mobley being traded as a massive change?
09:50Evan Mobley would be a massive change.
09:51Yes.
09:52And that's where you're starting to get to it.
09:53And obviously it's something we're going to talk about every day until we hear otherwise,
09:57but it's, it's going and getting a guy that has been a champion and has been a top three
10:02player in the league, or at least a top three MVP candidate for like 10 straight years.
10:06That's Giannis.
10:07That would be a massive change.
10:09This hardened thing.
10:10Well, we're, we're having Joe Varden on at 820 this morning.
10:13Did he say we're not in on Giannis?
10:15Yet.
10:16Yet.
10:17Yeah.
10:17He put the caveat yet.
10:18Why not yet?
10:19If we're not in on Giannis, what are we waiting on?
10:22No, no, no.
10:22Not just, just like they have to, the ground has to solidify here.
10:27The season's not even over.
10:28You've got, you've got three teams that are left playing for a championship and the dust
10:32still needs to settle on this.
10:32Are there tampering rules that we have to deal with here?
10:34In the NBA?
10:35No such thing.
10:36Okay.
10:37My two reasons were one, I, you know, I, you hear the stories, you read the stories,
10:41you hear the, you hear the rumors.
10:42He hired him.
10:43Dan hired him.
10:43Kenny Atkinson.
10:44So he wants that to work out.
10:46The second thing is, is I think, and this goes against what you were saying.
10:49I thought he lived in reality.
10:50Like, I don't know.
10:51There's with James Harden, basically taking a discount to free them up, that frees them
10:56up to make a bunch of trades.
10:57So it kind of goes along with what you're saying, but it's like, Hey man, you're not going to
11:01just blow this thing up and we're going to go back to draft pick land and that's it.
11:04Like there was a time, I think if Dan Gilbert with the old CBA, I think he would have toyed
11:11with the notion of this isn't working.
11:12Let's blow this thing up.
11:13We're getting rid of these guys and we're going to get some picks back.
11:15I don't think that that would work anymore.
11:17And I, I think he knows that.
11:18So I think he's trying to live in reality here.
11:21What's best.
11:21Well, what's best is still the same.
11:23You're going to have malaise.
11:24You are definitely going to have a fan base.
11:25That's kind of apathetic as this season starts up next year, but they're still going to be
11:30a fan.
11:30They're still going to be, have a, have a baseline of depending on what they do, 50 wins.
11:35So you're still a competitive team.
11:38How competitive are you?
11:39Well, I guess we have to wait until next spring to find out because that's all it is.
11:43Now the season is no longer 82 games.
11:46The season is what you do.
11:47And the season isn't going to start.
11:48And it's going to upset you and annoy you season.
11:50Ain't going to start till April.
11:52I mean, we, we have a whole new, basically a year until the basketball season starts again
11:57for Cavs fans, unless you do make those changes.
12:00Cause you're going to be watching if they were to make a change with the honest, you're going
12:04to be watching him like a Hawk LeBron.
12:06Same thing.
12:06LeBron comes with a different set of circumstances, but the minute you trade for LeBron, the
12:10regular season means something totally different and not that the games are going to be life
12:14or death.
12:14The experiences, the, the swan song, the soul.
12:18And I know that none of that has anything to do with winning a championship.
12:21So there'll be an element of the fans that won't care, but it's LeBron in Cleveland.
12:25Like that's going to want to go out on top.
12:27That is that.
12:28Yeah.
12:28But that, whether they were 0 and 82 and they were mired in, you know, getting ready
12:35for the lottery fans would absolutely care.
12:38I don't care what anybody says, like seeing LeBron, your chance to bring the kids, your
12:42grandkids to the last LeBron game that you'll ever get a chance to see them like that.
12:47That'll play all year.
12:48Like whether, whether the people that only care about winning championships, they want
12:53to dismiss that.
12:53Like, that is a big deal.
12:54I, I saw Kobe's swan song, like it was a big deal in every city.
12:58You made a big deal ago.
12:59I remember that.
13:00And, and obviously in LA and people cherish that stuff.
13:03So you can't, you can't just wave a wand to dismiss that and say, but that has nothing
13:07to do with winning a championship.
13:08Obviously the minute they get LeBron, that would, that would make the season all every
13:12game that he would suit up would be a big deal.
13:15Are you fine with Kenny coming back?
13:16Or do you think that this is a mistake?
13:17I, I, I, I'm a little, I gotta be honest.
13:20I'm a little nervous about it.
13:22And especially like if they did the opposite of what I'm talking about this entire segment,
13:26like if they just brought Kenny back in the whole, the whole sale job is, Hey, we need
13:32to get these guys in camp together.
13:33I don't think I, okay.
13:34They might be able to shore up some defensive rotations in the end.
13:39They still have the anatomy of their team is still flawed.
13:41I mean, you guys think you have to prepare for that.
13:44That is the, that is the very lowest level of if you can try to make these moves, you got
13:50to get other people to work with you on this.
13:52You don't have many assets.
13:53You do not have many assets.
13:55You don't have many controllable assets.
13:56Mobley is a big time asset.
13:58That is a, that is big wiggle room that they do have.
14:00And then getting under the, getting under the salary threshold, but you have to have
14:04a team that now you're going to have to have a team.
14:07This is going to be an interesting part of this off season.
14:09We're going to find out exactly.
14:11We probably wouldn't find out until too late till trade was consummated.
14:14How much teams actually value Evan Mobley compared to where the fans are, because I think the
14:19fans are, are annoyed.
14:21I think they're frustrated.
14:22I think that they're a little annoyed at us.
14:24I think they're a little annoyed at me for making out a guy to be a little bit more than
14:27what he was, than what he is.
14:29And I know he's still 24.
14:30So there's still room to grow.
14:32But if he were that special of a player, I think he's, he would have already taken off.
14:37He is a good player.
14:38He's a very good player, upper echelon.
14:40He's an all-star.
14:41Is he the, one of the special, special ones?
14:44No, I don't think so.
14:45And I think that Cavs fans were kind of banking on that and they heard us.
14:49And I think that made, that made them bank on that.
14:51So now we're going to find out here because you're right.
14:53Evan is a great asset, but a team like Milwaukee, will they want Evan and picks?
14:58Do they want picks?
14:59Do you get a third team involved?
15:00There's a lot of things that have to happen there.
15:02And then how really, how valuable is Evan?
15:07Cause I think to a lot of Cavs fans, eh, fine.
15:10I mean, he's, I don't know if he's this ace in the hole, because if he is this ace in
15:14the hole, people are going, well, he's 24 years old.
15:15Why don't we just keep him?
15:162-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-92.
15:18As he's not on Donovan's window.
Comments