00:00I'm just going to say this right now. If this offseason is about choosing between Donovan
00:05Mitchell and Evan Mobley, I'm choosing Evan Mobley. With love and respect to Donovan Mitchell,
00:12if I have to choose, I will choose the younger player that plays a premium position that I think
00:19has not been set up to succeed because he's like the third option on the team, as opposed to a
00:2530
00:25year old miniature combo guard who is getting on the wrong side of 30 that's about to start making
00:32$70 million a year. Yeah, I mean, I didn't expect anything different for me out of this one. You've
00:37been a Mobley defender for a while and I get that and understand that. For me, Mobley hasn't taken
00:40the offensive jump. The problem I have with Donovan in this discussion is this playoff showcased more
00:45so than ever that Donovan cannot be the number one on a championship team. And so I'm battling the
00:50idea that there is no offensive jump that's happening from Mobley. So it's just not good
00:54enough. He's just not going to be a good enough guy to be a number one on a championship team.
00:58But I also don't think Donovan's good enough to be a number one on a championship team. So here we
01:02are. So here, when it comes down to the offense, because I do think we just look, well, Donovan scores
01:07X amount of game and then Evan scores X amount of game. Donovan's a better offensive player than
01:12Evan. He averages more points per game. One, I think Evan is overall a far more impactful player on
01:19both sides of the court when you, when you kind of level it out. But two, there is a cause
01:24and effect
01:25here. Donovan is a ball dominant guard whose worst habit comes out very often. And that is that he
01:31dribbles the ball and creates a lot of really bad possessions for the Cavs. I think Donovan is getting
01:36in the way of Evan's development. And I think it's as simple as, you know, we've asked for Evan,
01:42hey, call for the ball more. He was in the post season. He did. He was calling for it multiple
01:46times. And the guards were ignoring them because they were feeling the pressure of their own
01:50caca performances. So with like love and respect, I hear you. Evan is not scoring 25 points a game
01:57right now. I think that that miniature combo guard who, again, I want to make it clear. I don't want
02:03to run Donovan out of here, but if they, they being Donovan and Evan make me choose, I just,
02:09I don't think people realize from a value perspective for the next three to five years,
02:16a combo guard, that's a scorer that's undersized, doesn't bring you the same kind of value as a
02:21young big in his prime. Bigs take longer to develop, especially in winning situations.
02:27I'll, I'll take that gamble as opposed to, I'm going to bet that Donovan's going to be Donovan
02:31for the next three to five years. So that's it. That's the, the gamble is whether or not you
02:35think Mobley is going to ascend to something better than what he is right now. Cause what he is
02:38right now is not, he's not an all NBA player. He's not, he's not one of the games, a leader
02:44even close to it. And that's fine. That's okay. But if the bet you're making is that he's going to
02:47ascend to that because of the offensive side of the ball, I have question marks attached to that,
02:50but I also have question marks attached to whether or not betting on Donovan is the right call either.
02:54And so for me, it kind of comes down to, and this is where I think the calves are sitting
02:57as well.
02:58Who is easier to replace in this game? Who is easier to replace? Is it easier to replace
03:03someone like Donovan or is it easier to replace someone like Mobley? And based off of this off season,
03:07I think there was, I think the reason why they're going Giannis are broke is because Giannis,
03:11Giannis gives you the best chance to play alongside Donovan and have superstars that are there.
03:15Yeah. And I think maybe that's where my concern is. I mean, similar to the way of like,
03:19if you were going to keep Kenny Atkinson, if you just announced that decision tomorrow at about 2 PM
03:26or about 1 59, right before the show starts, if you just announced that, then I probably still have
03:31questions about a unilateral decision on Kenny and Kobe, but I can at least go, well, you spent 48 hours.
03:37You thought about it, you know, like you took the time to make this decision. Maybe you did confer
03:43with Donovan and James and Evan and all these guys. You, you, you put some thought into this.
03:48Yeah. When you announce it less than 24 hours after a real embarrassment, it tells me you already
03:55made the decision. And I don't, I don't, I don't love that. I don't love making any decision in the
04:00wake of that kind of loss in the wake of that kind of embarrassment. It feels like they've made the
04:05same decision on, well, if we have to Donovan or Evan, and I think this bears a lot more thought.
04:10So I think they, I think they made the decision before the Harden trade. I think this has just
04:15been a continuation of them making that decision and then just going through with it. Once you
04:18made the Harden trade, what you're doing and getting rid of Darius and trying to get off that
04:22contract and then bringing Harden in here with the short amount of time you have, that bet is
04:26on Donovan. That's that, that's them signaling in every, every loud way possible. We chose Donovan.
04:32Oh, I thought that, I thought it gave you a lot of flexibility because knowing that James was going
04:37to opt out and then sign a team friendly contract, which was going to get you below a specific
04:42threshold, the second apron, a deal for Donovan would allow you to also get below maybe even the
04:48first apron. Like you'd be able to do, and depending on what you, you kind of factored in and what
04:53you
04:53got back. And I, listen, I, I think in the same way I can say I can turn Evan into
04:59Giannis. I think
05:01there's a good chance you can turn Donovan into Jalen. And I think Jalen Brown, a big wing who can
05:06do everything and take over the game and has that dog in him with a big, who has the style
05:12of play
05:12that Evan does. I think that could be potentially lethal for the next five years. And listen, I,
05:17I said yesterday, I would do the Brown for Donovan swap. I'm not against that in the slightest bit.
05:21I, cause I don't think you're winning anything big with Donovan and we're yet to see, obviously
05:25you can win big with Jalen Brown. We watched him do it in Boston. I just, where I'm sitting at
05:29right
05:29now, I, I need Boston to give me some signal, some sign that he's actually available and he's on the
05:35market outside of just his, uh, his own rants that he has in social media. Like I, I just, I
05:40don't,
05:41in my heart of hearts, I just don't believe he's going to actually be traded. But that's why I think
05:45if you've already made the decision on Donovan versus Evan in the, in the, the, the former of,
05:50or rather in the favor of Donovan, I think not even allowing this off season to breathe
05:54is a massive, massive mistake. Here's the thing. I, I, this year, uh, Evan had a down year
06:00shooting. I think he shot about 30% from three, no disagreement there. The two previous years,
06:05he did shoot about 37%. And all you really ever need Evan to shoot from three is like league
06:11average, which is about 36, 37%. So I think there's a little bit of recency bias going on here.
06:17And again, I, I do. He doesn't shoot with the volume of threes though. That's kind of the
06:20discrepancy there. Yeah. I mean, he shoots three a game. Do we want him to shoot eight threes a game?
06:25No, but like if you're shooting three a game, let's say it just, it's not, it's not, it's not
06:30anything the basketball community looks. There's a reason why Steph Curry's as impressive as he is.
06:34It's not the fact that he shoots 40% from three is that he does so on 13, three attempts
06:37a game.
06:38Yeah. I mean, what's, what's the most do you want Evan to shoot from three, six a game,
06:42six attempts per game? Oh yeah. I don't, I don't want him shooting a bunch. That's not the point I'm
06:45trying to
06:45make. I know, but I think my point is, I think the way to unlock Evan is to move on
06:50from Donovan
06:52and it's not even Donovan. It is the, the, the dual guard with ball dominant guard thing that
06:58the calves have been stuck on now for four years. And if I'm already stuck with James Harden, because
07:03you know, NBA backroom deals, I don't understand why Donovan's getting this treatment. And, and by
07:08the way, in what, what Tim said about Donovan on the, and again, I wouldn't want to make it all
07:12about Tim. Cause I really do respect him. We just disagree the opinion here. Why is Donovan
07:17getting treated like LeBron James? Donovan's treated like he's, he's past go and it's time
07:23to collect his $200 and that we know you can win a championship with him and that we know
07:27that he is the best player on a Eastern conference finals winning team. And we don't. And nine years
07:34into your career, I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm saying the odds are getting real long
07:39that it's suddenly going to, you're going to find the perfect situation around him,
07:44especially in this environment. That's going to unlock this version of Donovan Mitchell.
07:48I think we're confusing scores a lot of points with being a dynamic, impactful player across
07:53the board. I know. I think Donovan's taken a massive hit for this post season. Like from
07:57a perception standpoint, the amount of people I heard, like I heard Russillo earlier today
08:00being like, I'm, I'm, I'm guessing anyone that thinks about Jalen Brunson versus Donovan Mitchell,
08:06that conversation has changed. And then he went on to talk about how basically anytime anyone wants
08:11to do one of those rankings with Donovan and play, he's going to have to do a double take
08:14essentially. Like that's, that's what Donovan has done for himself. A second team, all NBA player,
08:19someone that legitimately is somewhere between, I don't know, eight to 12 in the NBA hierarchy
08:24is being questioned left and right for how efficient he actually is and whether or not he can be a
08:28guy
08:28on a championship team. Like that's, that's crucifying Donovan in many ways.
08:31I don't want to act like I don't hear the Donovan criticism. I still hear a lot of James Harden
08:37and
08:38I still hear a lot of Evan Mobley and with love and respect to those two players, this thing is
08:43built for Donovan to be the best player. And Donovan, not only was he not consistently good
08:47in the post season, he's now about to get really expensive. And it's in it when we're, listen,
08:52I understand that this might sound like Nick doesn't like Donovan. That's not the conversation.
08:57The conversation is if I have to choose between these two guys, what direction am I choosing?
09:03Donovan's going to be 30 in September. He is, you know, he is an undersized guy. We've already
09:08seen him wear down a ton at the end of the season. Even this year they were supposed to, Hey,
09:13we're
09:13keeping Donovan fresh. He still looked washed and not washed that no, sorry, gassed. That was the word
09:19I was looking for gassed in multiple points in multiple series. Sure. Like the warning signs are here.
09:25And, and again, this is less, instead of heating the warning signs, it's like, Oh, well maybe,
09:29maybe we'll have you sit out this summer with any contract stuff in the following summer.
09:33We can give you 350 million. Yeah. And here's the thing, big commitment guys. And one, I don't
09:38really want to take. And here's the thing. Um, if you didn't have Evan here, I would understand
09:44if you had no choice, but to double, triple, quadruple down on Donovan, but you are four years
09:49in and you are, that's what they're acting like. They're acting like they, they feel a clearly
09:54by their signs and what they've done that Evan has reached his, uh, as close to his
09:58ceiling as he's going to be. And I think that's, I think, I think if that's true, I think the
10:02Cavs are punishing Evan for not becoming Kevin Garnett in a way that I think is really silly
10:07considering how they went about trying to get him. The problem with that is that, uh, and
10:11I agree with that they're punishing him for that, but Kobe Altman watched him play one
10:15game and said he was transcended after game one that Moby played, he used the word
10:18transcended. They then started going to, and then Moby's guilty of this himself. Moby's not
10:22an innocent bystander in this. Everyone always points to the Garnett comps and everything
10:26that happened early. Moby's the one that went out there and compared himself to women
10:29Yama. Okay. Like when you do those types of things, you put a lot, you put a lot, that's
10:33not what he meant. You put a lot on your own plate. You bring, you bring a lot to that,
10:37uh, on that yourself. And so like, I don't think Moby's been an innocent bystander in all
10:42of that. Uh, but I just, it's clear how the Cavs are viewing this, at least it seems right
10:46now. And I think this goes back to before the Harden trade. They think that Moby's near
10:50his ceiling and they're betting on Donovan. The hard part in this is me and you at this
10:54point would not be betting on Donovan from a standpoint of him winning you a title.
10:58Yeah. And I think there's, I, I, but I'm not really betting a mobile either though. I want
11:02to make that abundantly clear. I don't have a bet on mobile. I'm stuck in a spot where
11:05I don't want to bet on mobile because his offense isn't good enough. And Donovan showed
11:08me he can't be a number one on a title team. So I'm just, I'm kind of stuck and I
11:12don't
11:12want to choose either. To be clear, my, my first option, if, if I were to choose
11:17Donovan over Mobley would be finding a commensurate player at a different position. That's why
11:23the Jalen Brown thing makes so much sense to me. In fairness, there might be three trades
11:27out there like that this summer that might actually work out that way.
11:30And so I was thinking about it and I'm trying to figure it out. And I, none of these names
11:33are going to be enticing to you, but like the very best the market can offer in trying
11:36to just straight up replace Donovan beyond Jalen Brown, which we discussed drama rant, do
11:41anything for you? No, no, I didn't think it would. Uh, Kyrie going to do anything
11:45for you. No, I didn't think it would like the, the, we're getting like the Trey young
11:50tier as well. I saw a Miami package earlier that would include Tyler hero as part of the
11:55deal. Like, it's just like, that's, there's a rockets package out there that exists. That
11:59is not Shingun, not Shingun. No. And it's like, I was into Shingun for a minute. No, that's
12:04not their deal. And so like, you usually get to pay extra for a little Shingun. All of these
12:07packages that come up with Donovan being the center and the focus, we don't get the best
12:11player back in return. You get Amen Thompson. Yeah. I think he would be in the table. Yeah.
12:16A little more. All right. But like all, all the packages that come in play, we don't get
12:21the best guy back in return. And for the Cavs, I think that's very worrisome to them.
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