- 12 hours ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I think if you're a Cavs fan and you're looking to find your kernel of hope through all of this,
00:05I wouldn't go back and be like, well, you got beat by the eventual NBA champions
00:09because your team really didn't show up.
00:10I think a lot of people felt that way, though.
00:12And I understand it, but that's not my lesson.
00:15My lesson is the NBA championship parity.
00:19There are leagues that have good parity, but then you get to the finals or the championship
00:23and it's like, oh, it's the same four or five teams we're used to.
00:26The fact that we're, what, eight straight years now with a different championship,
00:30or with a different champion, that's the lesson.
00:33So that, if you do prudent moves, if you do prudent moves, if you do the right things over time,
00:40theoretically, any team that was in the last two rounds of the playoffs this year,
00:44no matter where they are, should feel like they have some path to it.
00:48Well, and that's a good job by the NBA, though, because for years I used to rip the NBA
00:51because in January we already knew who not only was going to win the NBA finals,
00:54but the two teams in the finals playing against each other.
00:56Now in the past almost decade, it's kind of turned itself up on its head.
01:00Like, that's better for the NBA.
01:02That's more exciting to have a team like the Knicks that you can't even,
01:05you don't even know in January if they're a serious basketball team or not,
01:08the way they were talking, and then all of a sudden they go on the stretch.
01:11Like, that's good.
01:12But ultimately, Nick, I think it comes down to, they have so many guys.
01:15Look at their roster up and down.
01:16How many guys are 27 to 30?
01:18How many guys are right in their prime?
01:19Like, they just have the exact number of guys that are living in their basketball prime right now
01:24and are all synced up in the moment to go ahead and go on what is probably a one
01:28and max two-year window to take advantage of.
01:31Yeah, and I think it's funny.
01:33Like, when the Warriors won the championship, the amount of think pieces that came afterwards
01:39and being like, look at how this came about and how long it took to come about,
01:44and then all of a sudden you were there.
01:45And I know the KD thing, that was just good luck meets good planning.
01:51But, like, I'm talking about, like, the initial run with Steph, with Klay, with Draymond.
01:55Like, I think you, even though none of those guys were drafted by the Knicks,
01:59I think you can make a similar case of the Knicks of luck meets preparation.
02:04Because it's like, I mean, the Dallas Mavericks didn't want to pay Jalen Brunson that money at one point,
02:10and by the time they did, Jalen was pissed.
02:11And neither did 90% of the media by the time the deal actually happened.
02:14And it doesn't just stop there.
02:16OG Ananobi makes more than Brunson does.
02:19That deal was largely criticized when it happened.
02:22Mikael Bridges.
02:23How many people are like, you gave up five first-round picks for Mikael Bridges?
02:27The cat trade.
02:28I mean, they're like, there's, I don't know that they've made a move in the past couple years,
02:32hiring Mike Brown, bringing on Leon Rose.
02:35I don't know that they've done anything in the past couple years that has been universally like,
02:38oh, yeah, that was smart.
02:39We like that.
02:40But every one of them has worked out.
02:41Well, and I think the key to that is, it's because they never made the Donovan Mitchell trade.
02:48And that's not to knock Donovan and saying he's not worth it.
02:51But all, you know, they were going to give three unprotected picks,
02:54and then R.J. Baird and a couple other pieces for Donovan Mitchell.
02:57And those other pieces became O.J. Ananobi.
03:00It became Josh Hart.
03:02It became, oh my gosh, Mikael Bridges.
03:05It, in some way, became Karl-Anthony Towns.
03:08And then you made, like, you lucked into Jalen Brunson.
03:12I mean, when I say lucked into, I mean, people didn't, the NBA.
03:16He wasn't supposed to be that.
03:17He wasn't supposed to be that.
03:18There were so many signs, though.
03:20And then the NBA was just a step behind, and you didn't realize you had the dog of all dogs
03:26that you were going to walk in on a team-friendly contract that the guy that was the rare undersized
03:32guard
03:33that could lead you to an NBA championship.
03:35Yeah, no, he wasn't supposed to be that.
03:36But I think that's where people have hope, though, is the idea that you do have this undersized guard.
03:40I just would say Donovan and Jalen, they don't seem like a one-for-one.
03:45You know, Jalen closes like it's, I mean, I don't know that we've seen many better closers in the NBA.
03:50And in a closeout game, by the way, 45 points, that's one of the great closeout games we've ever seen.
03:55It just happened in the Game 5, so we're not going to remember it the same way as if it
03:58happened in Game 6 or Game 7.
03:59But Cat was nothing in that game.
04:02Yeah, and I...
04:02Cat did nothing.
04:03Like, I've been trying to think of, like, again, what's the central message?
04:09Build matters as much as anything.
04:11The Cavs' problem has not been talent the last four years.
04:15It has been the build.
04:16I still think the build's a problem now.
04:19I still think it's a wonkily built team because of...
04:23Well, but how many people said the Knicks were built poorly, too, though?
04:26And what they're going off of that was the idea that when it's Brunson and Cat,
04:29they said you can't possibly win that way because no one's playing defense when the two of them...
04:33When the two of them are on the court, the other three players have to be two-way guys.
04:36You have to make sure you have both of it.
04:38And, like, look how...
04:39I mean, they even subverted some of the NBA expectations we've come to build anyway.
04:43And why people are wrong about that is they have three great defenders.
04:47Actually, more than three great defenders.
04:48But they've got guys in the wing that can help overcome the deficits of two of their players.
04:54And they also...
04:55They can overcome deficits on both sides of the ball because their three and D guys are three and D
05:01guys,
05:01not three or D guys, which it feels like most of the Cavs guys are.
05:04Well, that's it.
05:05Like, the two-way players out of that.
05:06And that's what they had to have because with Cat, you get no defense.
05:09With Brunson, you get no defense.
05:10But, like, I just think, like, the Knicks are...
05:13The Knicks are not the Warriors.
05:14But the Warriors were a perfect storm by the time they got to KD.
05:19That is what the Knicks had.
05:21The perfect storm that...
05:23And they built around their best player.
05:26And their best player and all of the subsequent players have the right mentality.
05:31And I think that's, like, when I look at what the Cavs are lacking that the Knicks had,
05:37if you want to go back to what Boston had a couple years ago when Boston won,
05:41they were built on enough guys that had that dog in them, that championship mentality.
05:46And I think the problem is, when you've got Evan, that people doubt, does he have that dog in him?
05:52When you have James Harden, people doubt that.
05:55Even Donovan.
05:55Donovan says the right stuff.
05:57But in the playoffs, he's not doing what Jalen Brunson has done pretty consistently in New York.
06:03And, oh, Jarrett, the brights are too bright.
06:05Like, the lights are too bright.
06:07At some point, you wonder, well, do you have any dog in you?
06:10As opposed to that team that it's like, Carl Anthony Towns might be the one guy you can doubt,
06:15while everybody else on that roster is of a certain mentality.
06:18Yeah, I mean, it's easy to say now, right?
06:20Because they want it.
06:22So, like, I don't know.
06:23I don't know how much...
06:23Like, Landry Schammett played great.
06:25Did anybody have that expectation for him to hit 23 out of 33 threes?
06:29I mean...
06:29Landry Schammett's parents did.
06:31There's so much about this.
06:33Are we going to call it, like, the world's greatest heater, where you lose one game of basketball in two
06:36months?
06:37I'll take it.
06:37Is that what that is?
06:38I don't know.
06:39It's incredible to see.
06:40And there's so many times, and so easy to point out some of the flaws of this Knicks team.
06:45But then you look and see what they did, and you look and see all the pieces that came together.
06:48Again, OG was awesome through many, many games in this playoffs.
06:53Josh Hart is never going to have to pay for another beer in New York for the rest of his
06:56life.
06:56There's so many components of this that people slept on or laughed at as recently as a month and a
07:01half ago.
07:02Well, Fedor was on with Dan Medigan and Daryl Ryder today in middays and talked about Donovan Mitchell and the
07:09waiting game for his contract extension.
07:12He can make more next offseason.
07:14He can make more in terms of years.
07:16He can make more in terms of overall salary, and he can also get some perks attached to his contract,
07:23including a no-trade clause.
07:25So there are benefits to Donovan not signing an extension with the Cavs this offseason.
07:30And I'm not going to put words in his mouth.
07:32He's a very savvy person.
07:34He understands how to handle these things in the media, and when these questions continue to come,
07:39he continued to answer them the same kind of way.
07:41But I'm reading that as Donovan is preparing this fan base for him not signing this contract extension because I
07:48think he understands the benefits of waiting.
07:50And I think he's laying the groundwork to bypass this contract extension from the Cavs and try and cash in
07:58next offseason.
08:00But I don't think that that means that he doesn't believe in this group.
08:06So I look at this situation, and I understand the business side of this.
08:11If I'm the Cavs and Donovan doesn't sign the extension this offseason, I think it's only natural that you would
08:18be very concerned about his commitment to the organization,
08:20especially if you're considering things like trading Evan Mobley or trading any of the pieces around him.
08:25Oh, so you do look at this as a sign?
08:27As a sign of, like, you're not fully committed.
08:29You're trying to maybe play your pieces in a certain way?
08:31Yes. And by the way, I think it's fine if Donovan is four years in and he uses the business
08:38side of things as the motivation,
08:41or sorry, as the public motivation, and privately he goes,
08:45I'm also in wait-and-see mode because a year from now I don't want to be stuck like Giannis
08:50has been stuck
08:50or some of these other guys who have kind of, well, I just signed that extension, might want to let
08:55it breathe for a year.
08:56Yeah, the only hard part I have on this is that if after this season they don't get the job
09:01done and they don't win a title
09:02and he's sitting there and realizing he's not going to ever be the number one on a championship team,
09:06should have already had that realization, but maybe it comes to him a little late, right?
09:10I want to know how serious he is about actually winning that title.
09:13And so, like, if you always said you are that serious and then if the Cavs come to the conclusion
09:18you're not the guy,
09:19you're probably not going to win a title here.
09:21And so if you sign for another five years, that way you're just, you're locking yourself into what?
09:26Yeah, it's weird because I think there are a fair amount of people who are like,
09:31if you told them right now, hey, you're not going to win a championship,
09:34you're probably not even going to make it to the NBA Finals.
09:36But for the next five years, you're going to be a top four seed and consistently in the NBA playoffs
09:41in the second round or later.
09:43I think there are people that would sign up for it.
09:46But I just look at it and go, you know, I don't want to be the Warriors for the last
09:53seven years.
09:54And granted, they won the championship in 2022, but I don't want to be that team that's consistently good
10:01and talks about being great but never pulls the trigger on being great
10:05and you're constantly living off of what was.
10:07Because their what was was multiple titles.
10:10Your what was is, hey, we got swept in the Eastern Conference Finals by the Knicks.
10:18It's not good enough to then, when Donovan does start to fade,
10:21then you have to have that realization and that reality that that was as good as life is going to
10:26get.
10:26I understand that.
10:27I genuinely do believe, and maybe I'm just being naive about this whole thing,
10:31and that's definitely on the table.
10:33I just genuinely do believe that if he doesn't sign it this year,
10:36it's because he realizes he'll make $70 million next year when he does sign it.
10:41And he's playing the no-trade-clause game mixed with the max amount of money he possibly can get game.
10:48It's not bad financial stuff.
10:50Even if it is that side.
10:52And again, I think Donovan's smart enough to go,
10:56hey, this is the way that would give me the least amount of crap
10:58while I still evaluate my options and keep my options open, right?
11:02But if I go, it's just the financial side of stuff,
11:07do people realize what a gigantic risk he's taking?
11:10Not as much as I think in most situations,
11:12and that's only because of the player option he's got beyond the following year.
11:16And so next year, obviously, in most situations, Nick, you'd be right.
11:20You'd be like, all right, if he gets injured,
11:23if for some reason it absolutely craters out on him next year,
11:27most situations you'd be right because then you have no leverage,
11:29you have nothing to operate, and you're just banking on people giving you money.
11:32But because of the player option, he can always then opt into that player option
11:34and then regroup and recoup some of his value that way.
11:38He's got like a two-year runway after turning it down.
11:40That usually doesn't exist.
11:41I just think with the Cavs, if let's say the unforeseen happened
11:46and he had a serious injury this year,
11:49that would be the kind of thing that would give me incredible pause
11:52that next summer to extend him
11:55because he's a 30-year-old player going on 31, coming off a serious injury.
11:59I mean, I'd already have those apprehensions if I were them.
12:01They clearly seem like they don't, though.
12:03By everything that they've directed us and how we've looked at this,
12:07they're just not as concerned by that.
12:09I'd imagine an injury this next year would change that.
12:11I mean, yeah, if you have something that'll, I don't know,
12:13take you out for a long period of time.
12:15But again, he's going to have the player option to opt in,
12:17and then from that point forward,
12:18he'd be able to showcase what he can and cannot do again.
12:20And so if he opts into that player option that he's got built in there,
12:24and then he spends the following season after this injury
12:26scoring 27 a night and getting back to normal,
12:29then the conversation goes back to normal too.
12:31I would just be very, very concerned if I'm the Cavs.
12:33But most people don't have that.
12:34I would just be very concerned.
12:36I'm already concerned about paying Donovan.
12:37Again, I want to make it clear.
12:38It's not that I don't enjoy the Donovan experience.
12:41It's that I don't necessarily want to lock in good, not great,
12:45when I think some of the good, not great is tied specifically to Donovan.
12:49I don't want to trade Donovan,
12:50but I think you really have to be very careful about paying Donovan.
12:55Hey, it's great that he loves Cleveland.
12:58It's great that he's enjoyed the last four years.
13:01That doesn't mean just because somebody loves being here
13:04that you have to fall back on the line of,
13:06well, nobody ever wants to be here.
13:09So the fact that he's here, it's an NBA market.
13:13This organization has shown the ability to attract players like Donovan,
13:18now James Harden being another one.
13:20Even keeping Kevin Love for another big contract.
13:23You have been able to keep players more recently,
13:26and that's because of Dan Gilbert's,
13:29how people view Dan Gilbert around the NBA.
13:32And I just, I look at this and go,
13:34I'm already struggling with extending Donovan Mitchell this summer.
13:39If he wants to wait, and again, even if it's just financial,
13:42but certainly if there's a wait-and-see approach,
13:46if it's Donovan, if it's LeBron James, or if it's Kevin Durant,
13:51or if it's, like, name the top ten best players in the NBA at any given moment,
13:55you just give them the money, shut up, and think about it.
13:57Like, don't even think about it.
13:59Donovan isn't that player.
14:01I think he's proven that.
14:02I think they disagree with that assessment, though.
14:04I think that's where they're at.
14:05I have nine years of me looking right on this one.
14:08I tend to agree with you on this,
14:09and that's what this last playoffs did for me in the Donovan Mitchell discourse.
14:13I bet they, the way that they look at Donovan,
14:16and we can haggle on top ten or whatever he is,
14:18but he's somewhere in the NBA between eight to twelve.
14:20And so I do think they look at it like,
14:22you just shut up and pay him, and you don't even think twice about it.
14:24Okay, so May, I'll even go farther.
14:26I think top five.
14:28I think if you are, and it's a specific type of player,
14:30if you are a big wing that can score and occasionally play defense,
14:36I know I have to say that for some of those guys,
14:38occasionally play defense, but you can take over series single-handedly,
14:42then I write the check and don't think about it.
14:44If you're outside of that, you have to think about it.
14:47Otherwise, you're being stubborn.
14:49Right, but here's the problem, and the Knicks didn't do us any favors here,
14:52because where you and I watched Jalen Brunson and said,
14:55man, this guy closes in a way that Donovan could only dream of,
14:58I bet the Cavs looked at it and said,
15:00oh, Jalen and Donovan aren't that far off.
15:02We see it differently.
15:03I would bet they don't,
15:04because they're trying to talk themselves into this whole thing.
15:06They love Donovan.
15:07Everything about Donovan outside of the actual on-court play,
15:10this is the type of guy that they've been searching for and wanting
15:13and having dreams that he'd be this type of guy for the Cavs.
15:17It's just the on-court play for myself, it's not good enough,
15:20but for them, they're going to convince themselves that it is.
15:22I know that I've gone hard at the Cavs,
15:24because four years in,
15:25we haven't been able to capitalize and win a championship.
15:28But in all truth,
15:30I respect the hell out of Dan Gilbert,
15:31I respect the hell out of Kobe Altman,
15:33and I respect Kenny Atkins.
15:35I respect what they've built here.
15:37And at the same point,
15:39it's weird that the organization,
15:41who's made the difficult decision on Darius,
15:43who's made the difficult decision previously on Colin Sexton,
15:46you've made those difficult decisions,
15:47Larry Markkinen,
15:48who you found and watched blossom in his,
15:51what is it, year in Cleveland,
15:53two years in Cleveland,
15:55you've made these difficult decisions before,
15:58I think you have to really be diligent on this one.
16:01And again,
16:01I don't want it to be the end of the Donovan experience,
16:04but I just,
16:04there's so much money at stake,
16:06and when you give that out,
16:08it locks you in in such a way,
16:09that the idea that this team gets weepy
16:12for a very,
16:13very good,
16:14like,
16:14great,
16:15but maybe not greatest player,
16:17is a little befuddling to me,
16:19considering how much high regard
16:20they hold these guys in.
16:21Yeah,
16:22but they've never been shy about giving out max deals.
16:24I mean,
16:24Mobley got the max,
16:25and it wasn't even a question,
16:27you know what I mean?
16:27Like,
16:28there's just a certain tier of NBA players that you do,
16:30you said for top five,
16:31but really,
16:32on this Cavs team,
16:32they've shown you,
16:33they'll do it for guys that aren't even close to top five,
16:35top ten.
Comments