00:00A fire interview. Ethan was strong, as always, talked about, you know, he thought the move to Philly, it made
00:07sense from a basketball standpoint for a guy who is clearly ring chasing, as he put it, and putting himself
00:13in a position to go win another championship.
00:15It made all the sense in the world. He said that the lack of pursuit for Jalen Brown for him
00:23was a bit underwhelming.
00:24And I think that in our conversations today, not saying that it was the totality, but it seems like that
00:31one move tipped the scale more in Philadelphia's favor than anybody else's.
00:37And we're going to always be left to speculate what a trade package for Jalen Brown could have looked like.
00:45You know, I'm not comfortable. I've heard that they did call and they asked for a certain player.
00:50That player was not Evan Mobley. This is what I was told. I don't know how accurate that is.
00:56I've said this twice now. You go back and you look at the return that they got for him.
01:01I am curious. I will always be curious to know what package the Cavaliers could have put together.
01:06But we found some pretty interesting information as well, as far as, you know, the pursuit of this thing.
01:13Spencer, you want to lay that out there?
01:14Yeah, there was an article from The Athlete that came out, like, I don't know, 40 minutes ago, whatever the
01:18hell it was.
01:19Is Joe Varden part of this? David Aldridge also was part of this story.
01:23And there was a section on, like, each team, sort of, like, breaking down how they, their communications with LeBron
01:30and his reps and Rich Paul and all that.
01:33And how it kind of, how it came to be.
01:36And there was an interesting line in here where basically it said,
01:43Among the attendees at James Partys was Cavs' assistant general manager Brandon Weems, a childhood friend of James and former
01:48high school teammate.
01:48While Weems is the only executive of any team James spent real time with during his free agency,
01:55other Cavs' basketball officials indicated to The Athletic that they were unsure that LeBron ever really wanted to return to
02:02Cleveland.
02:03Which, again, it's not necessarily surprising.
02:07Maybe the kicker was that they hadn't done enough to that point to maybe lure him with the roster.
02:12Fine.
02:12But it speaks to, again, like, everything we've already talked about to this point.
02:16The idea that, you know, they, they, LeBron wasn't in it for the sentimental part of it.
02:24He wanted to find the best team.
02:26And I also think, though, to, like, to what we talked about earlier,
02:30there was no, like, magical pitch that was going to convince him anything either.
02:34Like, the fact that he only met with, he didn't meet with, like, anybody in, like, these formal settings.
02:40It sounds like he met with Weems, like, at some sort of event.
02:44It don't even sound like it was like, oh, that's my homie, let's go kick it.
02:47Like, yeah, they were friends.
02:48And I'm sure it came up.
02:49And, like, they probably joked about it like you would with a friend.
02:51Like, you know, if we were on the brink of going to some, do some radio show together somewhere,
02:57and I was already there, and I was like, hey, Earl, you're coming, right?
02:59Like, we might joke about that.
03:01Like, I feel you.
03:03But, I don't know, man.
03:04I just think this came down to LeBron surveying everything, thinking about where his future held,
03:13and deciding where he felt he had the best chance to win a title.
03:16If that's what it was, that's what it was.
03:18But he made his choice.
03:20And like I said, this whole show, we get to take what we have and rock with that and be
03:27good with it.
03:27So, you know, I think the more clarity we get on this, the more, like, I understand everything.
03:32And, yeah, there's cases to be made.
03:33The Cavs probably should have done more, still need to do more to fix this roster.
03:37But it ultimately came down to what LeBron wanted.
03:39I ain't going to lie.
03:40I'm frustrated that they didn't do more because, to me, this article kind of supports my argument.
03:48The second paragraph of this reads,
04:12So, yeah, that's distasteful to hear that that was why you were in a holding pattern.
04:18Because I got two questions now.
04:20Yeah, that's a fair thing to be a frustrated one.
04:21Yeah, because now I got two questions.
04:23If none of you all was really convicted that he was coming back here anyway,
04:27then why the hell would you not more active making moves prior to this?
04:31Because now I need to go back and check and see what day did Jalen Brown get traded on?
04:35And why is it, why was there not more effort put into pursuing other players that you could have helped,
04:43like...
04:43He got traded on July 1st, like the day it all opened.
04:46But that means, so it was agreed to beforehand, obviously.
04:49Like, we knew that was coming down and then he got traded.
04:52So, that's just one question, but the other part goes into...
04:55Wait, wait, hold on.
04:56Maybe I'm...
04:56It says the trade officially was finalized on July 6th, but that's like the paperwork and all that.
05:01So, you get what I'm saying?
05:02Like, if you really felt like in your heart that it was a possibility, but your...
05:06The possibility wasn't that strong, so I'm just going to make sure I stay in communication here,
05:11just in case, that's not fair to this fan base.
05:16When Dan Gilbert said that we are nowhere close to where we need to be,
05:20and we will be dug in all summer doing whatever we can to improve this roster,
05:24that don't sound like the Cavaliers was dug in all summer doing whatever they can.
05:29It sounded like they was waiting on one person that they wasn't sure who wanted them,
05:33and Jonathan Kamingo was their plan B.
05:35Yeah, and this was the other thing that I thought about when we were...
05:37As we sort of scanned this piece, because we didn't have time to read it in its entirety,
05:41it's very long, was what you said.
05:42The idea that if they didn't feel that way, that LeBron is necessarily ever going to come back to Cleveland,
05:50then why weren't they more aggressive in trying to find things to change the roster?
05:54I think that's a very fair criticism, and that goes back to what we've said all show,
05:57and what Ethan said.
05:58Like, right now, this offseason can't be called anything but a failure.
06:05Yes, they have more time to see what they can do,
06:08and we might walk away feeling better about...
06:10Maybe not as good as we'd feel if LeBron was here,
06:12but we might walk away feeling better about the state of things right now
06:15if they get Kamingo, or they trade for somebody.
06:19But as things stand right now, like, yeah, they have failed to improve this roster
06:23while other teams in the division have got...
06:24Or the other teams in the conference, I should say, have gotten better.
06:28That means you're failing at what you're trying to build right now.
06:30There's no other way to slice it, for sure.
06:33Yeah, man, that's tough to read, and it gives more clarity to the situation.
06:38Also, Golden State's general manager wasn't there,
06:41and it seems like, you know, they kind of looked at it after week one.
06:43They didn't really have a legit shot,
06:45but we will have more and more information come available to us,
06:49and I've already shifted towards, you know, the Cavaliers,
06:54and when this decision went down yesterday,
06:56I was thinking about the Cavaliers and the lack of moves
06:59because you've been on my case a little bit.
07:02Some of the court callers have been on my case.
07:04I don't want my comments to sound like that I felt like
07:07they should have made all these changes just to entice LeBron.
07:11What I'm saying is, with or without LeBron...
07:14You just wanted them to make one change.
07:15They needed to make more moves so that you can be in a better position
07:20to chase a championship whether LeBron James joined your team or not.
07:24If you happen to get LeBron, that's great.
07:27The more, the merrier.
07:29But I never looked at the singular move of LeBron James
07:31being added to the Cavaliers.
07:33Put us over the hump.
07:35I always looked at it like you needed to do a little bit more than that,
07:38and I thought a move for Jalen Brown or other,
07:42if there was an other out there, could have worked.
07:44The Cavaliers had the opportunity to swing big this offseason,
07:48and they didn't.
07:49And we don't know if that was the right decision or not.
07:52We probably will find out sooner than later.
07:55Yeah.
07:55But, man, I'm wondering today what Dan Gilbert is thinking.
07:59I truly, truly am.
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