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00:00to, referring to himself as a star.
00:05Danny Cunningham's never done that.
00:06I can tell you that much.
00:07But Danny Cunningham was also not a second-round pick.
00:09He would have been a first-rounder.
00:11Joining us right now on the Weissart-Wright,
00:13We Make It Right call, Kyle Wright hotline.
00:15Danny Cunningham locked on Cavs.
00:17You've got to subscribe to his sub-stack, the inside shot.
00:20Danny, you've got to DNP the first two games,
00:24and Kenny Atkinson seemed to have a little bit of regret about that.
00:28Yeah, Kenny said that he had a gut feeling
00:31that Malik Thomas needed to play
00:32after he went back and watched the Brooklyn film.
00:35And I think Malik Thomas is going to be playing for a while longer now
00:38after what he did last night in his NBA debut.
00:41Really impressive stuff, obviously.
00:43You know, I've been saying that it's unfair
00:47to expect a guy picked 34th overall, a second-round rookie,
00:51to come in and make an impact on a team
00:53that thinks it's capable of winning a title.
00:55And maybe Malik Thomas is just ready to do that
00:58because it is hard to be anything other than super impressed
01:01with what we saw from him last night.
01:03Danny, they've got to keep playing him, right?
01:05Like, I know maybe it was a little bit of a surprise,
01:08no Craig Porter Jr., no Tyrese Proctor,
01:10but after that showing, Kenny has to keep going to him, right?
01:15Oh, absolutely.
01:16And listen, when the Cavs play tomorrow night,
01:20Malik Thomas is going to be in the rotation.
01:22Like, I do think that you can earn minutes with how you play.
01:25And it was fair to wonder what he was going to look like
01:29in his NBA debut, right?
01:30Like, no guarantee.
01:32Like I said, that a 20-year-old second-round draft pick
01:35comes in as a rookie and looks good.
01:37Like, that's, in fact, it's really, really rare.
01:40But he has to keep playing after what we saw.
01:43Like, he has to be part of this rotation.
01:45I think the question is going to be, like,
01:47is the rotation just going to be nine guys now,
01:49like it was last night?
01:50Kenny going to find room for a tense guy that we have?
01:53Like, those, I think, are the questions.
01:55But I think it's very clear that after Malik Thomas' first game,
02:00he has to be a guy getting minutes
02:02because he showed that he is capable of helping this team.
02:06All right, Danny.
02:08There is a lot of consternation with some fans in this team
02:13over myriad issues, but that they don't see this team
02:17with James Harden and Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley
02:21being able to make any kind of a leap.
02:23But the adjustments that the team has made
02:26after they did not land LeBron,
02:28it was a very savvy move.
02:31It did use up more of their assets to go get Peyton Watson.
02:35He has not played great so far, but you've seen the flashes,
02:38which I think is exactly what they would have said in Denver
02:40from the moment they got him, always showing flashes,
02:43never anything truly consistent.
02:46But then they also have this Malik Thomas situation developing.
02:50What do you think so far after what you've seen three games in?
02:54I think there has been more good than bad with what we have seen.
02:58And it's obviously what happened in Philly on opening night
03:02is going to be the thing that casts a shadow
03:03over the early portion of their season.
03:06This schedule is really tough over the first 10 games,
03:09and that Philly loss is going to be one that you look at and say,
03:11man, like if they just would have found a way
03:13to hang on to a 29-point lead.
03:15And I realize how ridiculous that sentence says or sounds,
03:19but this team I think has been a lot more good than that.
03:22There have been flashes.
03:22It's obviously not all been perfect, right?
03:25You don't blow a 29-point lead and be like,
03:27oh yeah, everything is sunshine and rainbows with all of this stuff.
03:30But the Cavs did build that 29-point lead.
03:32They had a 22-point lead.
03:33I thought what they did last night against the Minnesota team
03:36that, especially with the news out of OKC from yesterday,
03:40I think that Minnesota team is more than capable
03:42of winning the Western Conference and being in the NBA Finals.
03:46That's a really, really nice and impressive win for the Cavs.
03:49So it is a work in progress.
03:50There's not a team in the NBA that just like is in its final form
03:54in the month of October.
03:55All of these groups are works in progress.
03:57So I do think that there's a lot to like about this team.
04:00There are also things that need to get better.
04:02They did a better job protecting the basketball last night.
04:05Offensively, they look clunkier than I thought they would.
04:08But also defensively, they look better than I thought they would.
04:11So listen, they play 82 of these for a reason.
04:13They've played three of them.
04:14I think this Cavs team has a chance to be really, really good.
04:17But we have to wait and see how it comes together still.
04:20Danny, really slow start to the season from James Harden.
04:25I felt like he woke up there in the third quarter,
04:28kept the Cavs in the game.
04:29Are we optimistic that James Harden might be woke up now
04:33for the rest of the way?
04:35I don't know if I would necessarily say that.
04:37I'd like to see a little bit more because I do think that the game
04:41against Philly wasn't very good.
04:42I thought the first half last night was atrocious.
04:45I thought that that was – I thought he was the worst player on the floor
04:48in the first half.
04:49And the second half, he was awesome.
04:50Like it was just such a reversal of who he was from that first half.
04:54And he is somebody that like a lot of his game at this point in his career
04:58is going to depend on, are you making three-pointers?
05:01And he was not making them in the first half.
05:03Obviously, he made a few huge ones in the second half.
05:06He had the floater that tied the game.
05:08And I also think it's, are you protecting the basketball?
05:11Because that is something that in the first two games, he did not do.
05:14And I believe he had two turnovers last night in the Cavs as a group.
05:18Only had 12, which was down from an average of 22 per night
05:22in the first couple of games.
05:24So James will figure it out at some point.
05:26Like he's just not going to be awful the way that he was
05:29in the first half last night.
05:31I don't know that he's always going to be awesome the way that he was
05:33in the second half last night.
05:35I do think that better days are ahead for him this season
05:38as far as like what we're going to see.
05:40But I wouldn't be stunned if he comes out on Wednesday
05:44against Washington and just doesn't look great yet.
05:46Like I do think that he is somebody that needs to find his rhythm
05:50and that just hasn't entirely happened yet.
05:53I thought, Danny, he did a really good job freeing up shooters
05:57and very smartly, you know, making defenders have to be put in conflict
06:03to where he could then free up Merrill.
06:05Unfortunately, Merrill, I think, missed every three that Harden got him.
06:08I think he was one for six and oh for five on Harden passes.
06:11But I do wonder, where are the lobs?
06:13You know, James Harden, his entire career, has been able to feed bigs
06:18and get them the easiest baskets ever.
06:20And he just didn't even really do that all that much.
06:23Had some little chemistry.
06:24Had a little bit with Allen last year in the regular season.
06:27Where have those lobs been?
06:29Why can't he free up Evan Mobley?
06:31And some of the action from Kenny Atkinson, why can't they get that done?
06:35Because I think it takes time to figure that stuff out.
06:38And I think that James and Evan are still learning how to play together,
06:42particularly without Donovan Mitchell and Jared Allen on the floor.
06:44Those two together last year were really good in that situation.
06:48But they only played around 200 possessions together,
06:50which, as you know, is just not a very large sample size.
06:53And that is something that's a partnership I'm of the belief can be really, really good.
06:58I think that James can be a really, really big help to Evan Mobley.
07:03But it's going to take some time to figure that stuff out
07:05because Evan is a bit of a different big than what Jared is, obviously.
07:09Like, he is somebody that's going to screen and pop at times.
07:12And Evan's jumper, I think, has looked really good so far this season.
07:16So I think it's going to take time for them.
07:19Like, we all look at Peyton Watson and say,
07:20OK, this is going to take some time offensively to see what this looks like.
07:23I think that the Jared Allen, or not Jared Allen,
07:26the Evan Mobley-James Harden partnership
07:29is going to take a little bit of time, too,
07:31just because while James has been one of the best pick-and-roll guys ever
07:36in the history of the game,
07:37Evan Mobley is a little bit of a different big
07:39than what we have seen him play with in the recent future, too.
07:44All right, Danny, Evan Mobley,
07:46people keep making fun of him online about the 18 points thing.
07:50He had, what do you know, 18 points.
07:52Did have not eight rebounds last night, but 10.
07:54Had some significant defensive plays, you know,
07:57battling with Rudy Gobert, and then hit those big threes,
08:00which is huge.
08:01He did hit some timely threes in big playoff games
08:05in the last two minutes to help them win there.
08:07So I don't question that about him.
08:09But I have said, Danny, that I don't see the Cavs
08:12truly contending for championships
08:14until Evan Mobley is a takeover guy.
08:17And I know it's only been three games.
08:19I have not seen takeover guy.
08:21No, I haven't seen takeover guy.
08:23And until his handle gets better,
08:25and I think his lower body strength gets better,
08:27I don't think that he's going to be takeover guy.
08:29I will say I think he looks a lot better
08:31through three games this year
08:32than what he looked like early in the season last year.
08:35Like, he looks like a guy that I think
08:37is in a much more confident place,
08:38that I think is in a better place,
08:40that has just played better basketball
08:42early on this season than what we saw from him last year.
08:44And I think that is a very encouraging thing
08:46for Cavs fans.
08:47Like, the jumper looks better.
08:49The free throws, I know they didn't look good last night,
08:51and it looked like he had a little bit of a hitch
08:53and a shot at the line last night.
08:54But the free throws had been better.
08:56I think he was 7 out of 10 in the first couple of games.
08:58So it's not been perfect.
09:00It's still a work in progress.
09:01But I will say, like, I think it's better
09:03than what it was 12 months ago.
09:05Danny, you also mentioned Peyton Watson
09:07on the offensive side.
09:08Just being a work in progress, too,
09:09coming along in a new organization.
09:11But what have you made just out of him in general
09:14in these first three games?
09:16Well, I think defensively,
09:17he's been a huge help to the Cavs.
09:20And listen, last night,
09:21what Ant did where he had 47 points,
09:24like, it's hard for me to sit here and say,
09:26yeah, man, Peyton Watson was awesome defensively
09:28when his main assignment just went off.
09:30But Anthony Edwards is obviously
09:32one of the best players in the world.
09:34But for Peyton to be able to make some of the plays
09:36he made down the stretch
09:37where he blocked a three-pointer from Edwards
09:39in the fourth quarter,
09:40had that block at the basket
09:42on the final regular possession
09:45and regulation for the Wolves before overtime,
09:48like, he had some really big plays.
09:49I think, obviously, he's been felt more
09:51on the defensive end.
09:52Like, the Cavs have been a better team
09:55defensively at the rim,
09:56and I think Peyton deserves a lot of credit for that.
09:58I know we don't look at him as a rim protector,
10:00but he is one.
10:01And offensively, it's going to take some time.
10:04He is still a raw player
10:05on the offensive end of the floor.
10:07But when you also look at it
10:08as he is in a much different role
10:10because the way Denver operates offensively
10:13is so unique
10:14because they've got Jokic
10:15compared to the way the Cavs
10:17and really the rest of the NBA
10:18can operate offensively
10:20because no one else has a big guy like that.
10:23So it's going to take some time
10:24because he's being put in new positions
10:26and he's being asked
10:27to do things that the Denver Nuggets
10:29do not ask of guys to do
10:31because of Nikola Jokic.
10:33Like, for instance,
10:34he's going to be playing in the short role
10:35so much more here
10:37than he was in Denver.
10:38Like, he's going to have to figure out
10:40how to throw lobs to Jared Allen,
10:42how to spray passes out to the corner.
10:43I think he is ahead of,
10:45maybe a little bit ahead
10:46on spraying passes in the corner
10:47than passing to a big in the pocket
10:49or in the dunker spot.
10:50But it's going to take some time.
10:52I will say,
10:54he, to me,
10:55when he doesn't have to think offensively,
10:58like when he can just kind of
10:59put the ball down and go
11:00or just, like, go hoop
11:01for, I guess, lack of a better term,
11:04I think he looks better
11:05in those situations.
11:06I think he, at times,
11:08is overthinking
11:08because the role is new,
11:10the system is new,
11:11and I think that this is going to look different
11:13in December and January
11:14than it does right now.
11:16All right, Dan,
11:17one last thing on this
11:18because I do have a league-wide question,
11:20but they,
11:22they're set up last night
11:24under two minutes in regulation
11:26and in overtime.
11:27I noticed a bunch of possessions.
11:28I was surprised they didn't
11:30go offense for defense.
11:32They had Harden out there.
11:34They had Merrill out there
11:35for a lot of big defensive possessions,
11:37and then that's in addition
11:38to Donovan Mitchell,
11:40and that surprised me a little bit.
11:43Now, Harden actually
11:44ended up playing defense
11:47pretty solidly down the stretch
11:49and actually got a few stops
11:51in one-on-one
11:52against Anthony Edwards.
11:54Now, some of that could just be luck,
11:55you know, and Edwards missing,
11:56but I thought, like,
11:58at least he was able
11:59to use his physicality.
12:01What is the strategy there
12:03with Kenny Atkinson
12:05in relying on those guys?
12:06Is he just doesn't want
12:07to use timeouts?
12:09Well, I think it's
12:10when you get a rebound,
12:11you don't want to have to call
12:12a timeout right away,
12:13and as you know,
12:14the Cavs,
12:15this Cavs team,
12:16last year's Cavs team,
12:17the Cavs team two years ago,
12:19they really had,
12:20part of the,
12:20a big part of the reason
12:21why they have James Harden
12:22is they have struggled
12:23when teams decide
12:24to put pressure on you
12:25from a full-court perspective,
12:27and that, I think,
12:28is why James Harden
12:29is on the floor
12:29because, one,
12:31and two,
12:32for a guard,
12:33he is obviously
12:33a very, very good rebounder
12:35and always has been,
12:36so I do think
12:37that there is something there,
12:38too.
12:38If we get a stop,
12:40we need to be able
12:41to get the ball
12:41to somebody
12:41who can handle pressure,
12:43who can make free throws,
12:43who can do all
12:44of those things,
12:45so I guess he's always
12:46going to be a weak point
12:47defensively in those situations.
12:50I think that is part
12:51of the thinking
12:52for having him out there,
12:53and I will say,
12:53like,
12:53I was surprised Jalen Tyson
12:55was not part of their
12:56closing group last night.
12:57I thought Sam Merrill
12:58played fine.
12:59I thought he really
13:00struggled defensively
13:00in the first half,
13:01was better in the second half,
13:02but I was surprised
13:04Jalen Tyson wasn't out there
13:05a little bit more,
13:06but I think the thinking
13:07of having James Harden
13:08out there is,
13:09like,
13:09if you do get a stop,
13:10you need to be ready
13:11to break pressure
13:13from Minnesota,
13:14you need to be ready
13:14to hit free throws,
13:15and James Harden
13:17did do both of those
13:18things down the stretch.
13:19All right,
13:19a league-wide question here.
13:21We had a significant injury
13:23to OKC's Jalen Williams.
13:25They all said
13:25Cason Wallace injured,
13:27and we know that they
13:28had already,
13:28you know,
13:29lost three of their players
13:30that were all part
13:32of the rotation
13:32in different times
13:34of last year's
13:34for OKC,
13:35and then the Knicks
13:36are 0-3.
13:38Danny Cunningham,
13:38are you changing
13:39your NBA Finals predictions?
13:42Has the dynamics
13:43shifted already
13:45in the NBA
13:45just one week
13:46into the season?
13:47Well, yeah,
13:48I thought that
13:49Oklahoma City
13:50was going to win
13:51the title this year.
13:52That was the team
13:53that I believe
13:54did the best chance,
13:55I think,
13:55coming off of last year,
13:56and they weren't healthy
13:57in the playoffs last year,
13:59right?
13:59Like J-Dub,
14:00who now unfortunately
14:01is going to likely
14:02miss the entire season
14:03with what was just
14:04a brutal
14:04and gruesome injury.
14:06Like,
14:07I think that absolutely
14:08changes the West,
14:09and I also,
14:10like,
14:10I thought the Knicks
14:12would be better
14:12than 0-3.
14:13I think everybody did.
14:14I don't think
14:15that's some bold take,
14:16but I have not loved
14:18the vibes in New York,
14:19and I know that last year
14:21it wasn't all sunshine
14:22and rainbows for them
14:23throughout all 82 games.
14:25Like,
14:25they had a stretch
14:26where they lost
14:2711 out of 14
14:28in the regular season
14:29and the sky was falling,
14:31but last year
14:32when the vibes were off,
14:34it was like
14:34they couldn't figure out
14:35the basketball stuff.
14:36This year with the vibes,
14:37it's about money
14:38because Carl Antietowns
14:40wants an extension,
14:41Josh Hart wants an extension,
14:43and I think when those vibes
14:44are off,
14:45things can get a little tricky
14:46at times,
14:47even if you've got
14:48a championship
14:49in your back pocket
14:50the way that the Knicks do.
14:51I think both of these conferences
14:53are wide open.
14:54I think the Spurs
14:55can obviously win the West.
14:56I think the Timberwolves
14:57could win the West.
14:58I think the Lakers
14:59have a chance of,
14:59like,
15:00putting together
15:00that type of team.
15:02And then,
15:02in the Eastern Conference,
15:03you know,
15:04I'm probably lower on Miami
15:07than consensus,
15:07although they're 0-4,
15:09so consensus is definitely
15:10coming down now.
15:11I've eliminated them already
15:12from championship hopes.
15:13Yeah.
15:14I thought that there were
15:15six teams
15:16coming into the season
15:18that I think,
15:19you know,
15:19I could have seen
15:20win the Eastern Conference
15:21and I actually didn't have
15:22Miami as part of that group,
15:23but, like,
15:24I think this is
15:25as wide open
15:26and as deep of a conference
15:27as we've ever seen
15:28the East be.
15:29All right.
15:29Danny Cunningham,
15:30locked on Cavs,
15:32the inside shot
15:33on Substack.
15:34We appreciate it
15:35and all your coverage.
15:36Tremendous appearance.
15:37Thank you, Danny.
15:39Thank you for having me, guys.
15:40All right.
15:41Danny Cunningham.
15:42Boy, it was Danny
15:43excited about the prospects
15:45of Malik Thomas.
15:45When we come back,
15:47we've got about last night,
15:49hey,
15:50how about that quarterback class
15:52next year?
15:52How's that looking?
15:53We have a major development
15:54when it comes to that
15:56and so much more.
15:57Your chance to win
15:58$50 Lively's gift card
16:00at 8 o'clock.
16:01Cavs ticket giveaway
16:02at 9.
16:03We still have the neutral zone
16:04and we still have Ken Carman
16:05joining us
16:05the final hour of the show.
16:07Lima and Nick Padone
16:08here on Sports Radio
16:0992.3 The Fan.