October 7, 2025 • 25 mins
Jason gives his predictions for the Central Division in the NBA’s Eastern Conference including what he expects out of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons, Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers in a season without Tyrese Haliburton, as well as Coby White and the Chicago Bulls.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at
the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
had an incredible weekend. We are continuing our season previews
(00:21):
today with the Central Division out in the Eastern Conference,
so that's the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Detroit Pistons,
the Indiana Pacers, and the Chicago Bulls. You guys have
the jop before we get started. Subscribe to oops to
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(00:42):
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the All right, let's talk some basketball. We are starting
(01:03):
today with the Cleveland Cavaliers off season recap. They kind
of sort of just decided to run it back, which
is a plan that I agree with, but let's dig
into it a little bit. They lost Ti Jerome as
a free agent to Memphis. They lost Isaacaccorro in a
trade for Lonzo Ball and Tristan Thompson. They added Lonzo Ball,
who is a very different player than Ti Jerome. Ti
(01:24):
Jerome has a higher ceiling, but it doesn't matter if
Ti Jerome is going to flame out as spectacularly as
he did in the postseason in the Indiana Series. Like,
the ceiling doesn't matter if you can't get there when
it matters, right, So, like, Lonzo's a different type of player,
but I think he has a much higher floor. Why
because he brings competence Defensively, He's not the target that
(01:45):
Ti Jerome was. He's actually a good defensive playmaker, which
I think will help continue to drive the transition opportunities.
Like Cleveland was a top ten team scoring points off
of turnovers last year. I think a Lonzo fits well
into that identity. And he's a guard who drives pace
on offense. He's like a very poor man version of
Tyre's Halliburton in his ability to just throw kickhead passes
(02:05):
and make quick decisions out of action that start advantages.
Just a good connective like rising tide that lifts all
boats type of offensive player. And so again, he's not
going to be able to just dissect teams in the
clutch the way that Ty Jerome did and hit four
to five floaters in a row at a drop coverage.
That just rips the heart out of a team. But again,
(02:27):
Ty wasn't able to do that when it mattered. What
Lonzo brings to the table is something that should translate
to the postseason. It's a higher floor option. Larry Nance
Junior is a small ball five that I actually really like.
You can shoot the ball well, he runs the floor well,
you do some switching on defense. I think he fits
Cleveland's basketball identity really well. Thomas Bryant, if you've ever
rooted for him, I've rooted for him with the Lakers,
(02:48):
have seen him around the rest of the league. He's
a really solid offensive big. He's got good hands, he
can finish in traffic, he can shoot a little bit.
But he's just an incompetent defender, which keeps him from
really sticking anywhere in the league at this point. In general,
I like the moves. They avoided doing something crazy. I
think Cleveland's playoff flameout was mostly just a product of injuries,
mainly the turf toe injury to Darius Garland, which we'll
(03:10):
talk about more in a minute. So they're basically running
it back with a couple of better options at some
key positions, right, Like Isaac Atkorro has been expendable really
ever since they got Max Strus, especially now with DeAndre Hunter,
like they didn't need him as much. Ty Jerome was
great all season, but he flamed out spectacularly. Like we
talked about, I thought that replacing Tie with Lonzo is
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a really savvy move. And then Larry Nants is just
a solid backup center if he can stay healthy. Right,
So the Calves are running it back and giving this
group another chance. I think this is the right call.
The Calves kicked a lot of ass in the regular
season last year for good reason. They were a good
defense that scored well off of turnovers, and they were
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a transcendently good offense fueled off of the dribble. Penetration
that was created by Darius Garland. He had a turf
h injury one that was so bad he needed surgery
earlier this summer, so of course he couldn't move as
well as he needed to move In the Pacers series,
of course, that had all sorts of trickle down effects
(04:13):
in the Cavs offense, Like the same offense that was
the only offense in the entire NBA to log an
offensive rating over one twenty last year in the regular season.
They only got one twelve point six in the Pacers series.
I always talk about how basketball is more art than science.
I'm a big believer that even one small shift, if
(04:34):
it's in a specific area of vulnerability in your team,
it can have devastating effects. Darius Garland dribble penetration was
the initial breaking of the defense. Talk about it all
the time. If a guy dusts his man off the
dribble and comes screaming down into the lane, the defense
overreacts and you get these really clean kickout opportunities which
(04:58):
are going to lead to really high quality shots. It's
either right away or after one or two driving kicks
that come off of that. But if you run into
some resistance and maybe you probe the paint a little bit,
but the drive has been flattened out. The defense isn't
going to overreact. They're going to stay within their scheme.
Those easy, easy kickout reads aren't there. It's going to
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be like a more of a shorter close out, which
is going to rely more on those guys to put
the ball on the floor to create the next advantage,
and all of a sudden, you're not getting those same
super high quality threes that you did. So Darius Garland
not being the same dribble penetrator that he was in
the regular season directly led to the difference in the
(05:40):
quality of three point shots that Cleveland got in the postseason.
Like Donovan Mitchell is an insanely gifted playoff scorer, but
just like I was talking about with Shay on Friday,
like putting up great individual numbers doesn't necessarily add up
to great team offense, Darius Garland was the guy irresponsible
(06:00):
for the quality of Cleveland's three point shots. Does easy
stat to demonstrate this. Cleveland generated fifteen unguarded catch and
shoot jump shots per game in the regular season, per Sentergy.
In the four losses to Indiana they generated just nine.
The one game they won, they generated seventeen. That that
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was what got the engine running for Cleveland, early dribble
penetration off of pace that generated open kickouts. Without Darius
at the top of his game, they were never going
to get that out of him. So overall, I think
Cleveland's front office did a good job of reading the
room here. The East is weaker. Your two biggest threats
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have been effectively eliminated in Boston and Indiana. You were
the only Eastern Conference team to log a win against
Oklahoma City last year. We talked about this on Friday.
They went twenty nine to one against the East, with
that one loss being to Cleveland. You match really well
at Denver because of your speed and your ability to
attack YO kitchen space. If I remember correctly, you guys
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went two and one versus or two and overs Cleveland
last year. You were clearly hampered by injuries when you
actually made it to the playoffs last year. You're clearly
capable of playing better than you did, and you have
that opportunity for internal improvement because Evan Mobley continues to
get better and better year by year. So making slight
tweaks and running it back was the right strategy in
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my opinion. Now many of you will say Darius Garland
is injury prone, that's just part of the deal. Now,
that may or may not be the case. But I
still think after reading the room again, like if if
everyone was coming back, like if Tyrese and Tatum didn't
tear their achilles, maybe you have to have a tougher conversation.
But I think it makes sense to give them one
(07:45):
more shot and then if Darius breaks down this year,
then you can start having serious conversations because the track
record at that point is too significant, and the East
in twenty twenty seven will almost certainly bounce back in
a huge way, both through the return of Tae Him
and Halliburton and also just through the improvement of teams
like Orlando and Detroit. Things along those lines, right the
(08:08):
Milwaukee Bucks offseason recap. They lost Pat Connaton, Damian Lillard,
and Brook Lopez. They added Cole, Anthony Emre, Coffee, Gary
Harris and Miles turn Everything's got to be greater on
a curve here, did the Bucks successfully pivot into becoming
a championship contender? Obviously not, but that was essentially impossible
under the circumstances. They did the best they could. First
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of all, I thought John Horst works some magic retaining
his current players on favorable deals. Like Gary trent On
two for seven and a half. That's an awesome deal.
Bobby Portis three for forty three and a half. That's
an awesome deal. I thought he was going to be
asking for something closer to twenty per year. Tory and
Prince two for seven point one. That's an awesome deal.
Kevin Porter two for ten point five. All four of
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those guys for twenty six million dollars annually or whatever
it adds up to. I think that's solid cat manage
from John hors and the Bucks. They were super light
on ball handling, so getting a guy like Cole Anthony
is a backup guard is a nice get there. I
think Miles Turner is like the ideal front court partner
for Giannis. They will almost certainly on defense be a
(09:14):
pack the paint and funnel type of team because of
the point of attack defense. So like Miles Turner coming
up to the level with Giannis playing on that back
line as they kind of yo yo back and forth,
I think that's going to give team some problems defensively.
Miles Turner is a better defender than Brook Lopez at
this point in time, and he gives Giannis a natural
pick and pop partner. He's a guy that is gonna
(09:35):
get into action with Giannis and pop to the top
of the key, and it's going to be a way
to start the offense. And he's a decent option to
throw the ball down on the block against mismatches. Like Miles,
Turner did a lot of mismatch hunting with Indiana and
the postseason last year, especially in the first three rounds.
Gary Harrison a Mere Coffee are perfectly fine bench role
players on the wing. Again, given their situation, I think
(09:55):
the Bucks did fine. I think their best chance to
succeed in the short term is basically to lean entirely
into Giannis with shooting. I would start Kevin Porter, Junior,
Gary Trent, and AJ Green instead of Kyle Kuzma as
I talked about in our player ranking series. I really
want to see the Bucks at least double Jannis's pick
(10:17):
and roll volume. I think he ran somewhere around like
three hundred and fifty last year, but it was one
of their most productive play types. He just got great
stuff almost all the time, and towards the end of
the season he was just picking teams apart with it.
I'd lean into a steady diet of inverted ball screens
with guys like aj Green and Gary Trent slipping out
to the top of the key picking pops with Turner.
(10:37):
I think it's a great way to quickly get the
defense and rotation. I think they'll get a lot of
downhill Yannis screaming into the paint type of stuff out
of that. And then again, this was the best catch
and shoot team in the year in the entire league
last year, so you're gonna be spraying out to some
really high quality shooters there. I want to see Yannis
seven hundred and fifty picking rolls this year if he's healthy.
(10:57):
I think that would be a good hallmark of the
right offensive approach for this particular team. For the second side,
Kevin Porter Junior had some really natural ball handling, like
chemistry with Giannis. He plays with good pace, he does
a good job of getting the ball to Giannis in
the pocket. I think he'll similarly be able to have
(11:18):
some success with Miles Turner and pick and pop, so
like if you actually dig into the numbers, Kevin Porter, Junior,
Gary Trent, aj Green and Giannis. When those four were
on the court last year, albeit a small sample, in
two hundred and twenty four possessions, they were plus forty
two point four net. They had a one thirty nine
offensive rating With those guys, It's something that I would
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lean into. Lean into what you're great at. Right Like,
you don't have good back court ball handling, you don't
need to be given everybody else the ball. You don't
have good perimeter defense, So lean into protecting the rim.
At least be good at what you can be good at.
This team can be good at protecting the rim. Well,
they have to give up a bunch of threes, yes,
(11:59):
but they can be good protecting the rim. If they're
good at protecting the rim, and they give the ball
to Giannis on offense and they have him run a
ton of inverted action in ball screens with Miles Turner,
they're gonna be a team that can win some basketball games.
Are they gonna go out there and win sixty games? No,
but you'll get into the playoffs as a middling seed
and you have an upset shot against anyone in that
(12:21):
conference because there are four top tier superstars in the NBA,
three of them are out West, you have the other one.
The only other guy that can reach that level is
Embiid in Philly, and I think it's highly unlikely that
they survive this season long enough to actually put that
sort of confrontation in front of Giannis. So yeah, I
(12:44):
think they did about as well as they could under
the circumstances. It's going to be kind of like Giannis's
twenty eighteen Lebron year, very little chance to win the championship,
but an awesome chance to just flex your muscles and
show how good you are in this league. Giannis has
shown a ton of growth as a player maker on
the ball. I think he's got a good roster for
him to accentuate that specific part of his game. I
(13:05):
think him and Miles is a very strong defensive foundation
in the front court. I think they have the potential
to be at least an interesting team this season. Today's
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or Virginia. Next to the Detroit Pistons, another impressive offseason.
(14:52):
In my opinion, you lose Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway
Junior and Dennis Schroeder are all three guys that played
big roles for you last year, but you bring in
Duncan Robinson who can replace some of that shooting. And
by the way, I think Duncan's a better playmaker than
both Malik Beasley or Tim Hardaway Junior, so I actually
think he'll be a really useful offensive player in Detroit.
He had a lot of two man game chemistry with
bam Adebayo and was really good at making reads off
(15:14):
the way the screen defender was guarding him and could
get the defense into rotation coming off of action. I
think he'll help a lot. Karris Lavert and the return
of Jade and Ivy will replace Dennis Schroders ball handling.
Karris in a lot of ways is like a bigger
version of Dennis. He's like a three level scorer who's
also a good perimeter defender, like just a good backup
guard in this league. I think that's a good pick
(15:34):
up there, And obviously you're returning Jade and Ivy, and
Jade and Ivy before he went down with injury last year,
was putting up eighteen points, four rebounds, four assists on
fifty seven percent through shooting. In his last five games
before going down with injury, he averaged nineteen point two
points per game on sixty percent from the field in
twenty one for thirty six from three, which is sixty
(15:55):
two percent. So, like, I mean, that's that's the main
storyline to start the season, and as we're getting Jade
and Ivy back, let's see what this guy can do. Right,
we always talk about your rebuilding pathway. We were just
talking about it yesterday with respect to Portland and Utah. Right,
you need your foundational superstar, and you need your supporting star,
(16:15):
and then from there you need a mix of role
players that fit the skill sets of those two stars.
You're in a better spot than most teams in the
league because you know you have the right foundational superstar.
I thought Kate was incredible last year, and yet it
still feels like he can get so much better. So
your foundation is set. The question is can Jade and
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Ivy be the right number two around Kate. I think
he can be, but we need to see more and
hopefully we'll get to see that this season. The set
of role players, it's starting to take shape solely but
surely right Like you have athletic wings who can defend
on the perimeter and a men Thompson and Ron Holland
you have skilled veterans on the perimeter that can help
your young stars on offense like Duncan Robinson and Karis Lavert.
(16:59):
You have big ass kicking centers in Jalen Dura and
Isaiah Stewart. The weak spot on the roster is the
power forward spot like Tobias Harris, and I actually thought
Tobias playing well like he did for stretches in that
playoff series against the Knicks was like a proof of
concept for what an upgrade there would look like. And
I've heard the name Laurie Markinen brought up by several
(17:19):
folks for Detroit, and I gotta say I like it.
In addition to being the type of high volume catch
and shoot player that Kate has always thrived with, he
loves hunting shooters, especially in transition. He's just a bigger,
better athlete, and just a much better all around player
than Tobias Harris. I think it's the kind of move
that would kind of accentuate this era and the timeline
(17:40):
that Detroit is on as Kid is growing faster than
we originally expected him to. But regardless of whether or
not they make a trade or how far they get
in April and May, it's going to come down to
Kaid's development, especially in the playoffs. There were several warts
that showed in the Knicks series, which I thought, overall
(18:02):
was an impressive showing from Detroit. Cad averaged five point
three turnovers, which is too many. He shot four for
twenty four on pull up threes. His mid ranges were fine.
He was pretty good there. He's thirteen for twenty seven.
That's forty eight percent, but his inability to hit the
pull up three really hurt him in that series, and
he was just forty two percent on layups eighteen for
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forty three. These are all areas that I think he's
more than capable of massively improving on as soon as
this year and certainly in the coming years. I that
it really showed for the Pistons in crunch time. The
Pistons logged a one to oh nine offensive rating in
the clutch against Detroit, in large part because of turnovers.
They turned the ball over an astonishing twenty six percent
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of their possessions in the clutch in those three clutch losses.
It wasn't all Kaid, but kay did have three of
those turnovers. Now, to be clear, none of this is
meant to be an attack on Kde, more just a
reason to be optimistic about the future. There's a reason
why I always talk about young teams underperforming in the playoffs.
(19:07):
There's a reason why Oklahoma City got pushed to seven
twice by two inferior teams when they were a sixty
eight win team and a stacked conference. There's a reason
why Cade wasn't as good in that playoff series as
he was in the regular season. The playoffs present different challenges.
Coaching stabs get to spend weeks figuring out how to
make you uncomfortable. The defenders get to guard you so
(19:28):
many times over the course of weeks that they become
familiar with your moves and they get better at guarding you.
The pressure and the stakes are different than what they
used to be, so for veteran teams, they've been through
it a ton. They've addressed their weaknesses, They've added variety
to their games to make them harder to guard if
(19:49):
a defender sees them for two weeks straight, and they've
learned how to be more collected under pressure. So, like,
I'm not judging the Pistons. I thought they were overall
very impressive in that for run, but it showed the
specific things that Kide needed to get better at, and
I expect him to start getting better at those things
this season. Maybe the ideal trade for a guy like
(20:10):
marking In will pop up and that can accelerate the
timeline a little bit. But if not, this year just
represents another opportunity for Kaid to become a better basketball
player and for the Pistons to learn. If Jade and
Ivy is their secondary star right to learn what tweaks
need to be made in the roster for the future
when they need to make deeper playoff runs down the line.
(20:32):
We're gonna go quicker on these last two. The Indiana Pacers,
they lost Thomas Bryant and Miles Turner and effectively Tyres
Haliburton for the whole season with an achilles tear. They
added James Huff, who I think is a solid rotational center.
He can really shoot the ball and he's got good
size at the rim. James Wiseman, who obviously was a
very talented lottery pick, but he struggled throughout his career
to reach that upside. But he does have upside. He's
(20:53):
coming back from an achilles tear as well, though. It's
worth mentioning. I was listening to Rick Carlisle on the
Zach Low podcast while I was working out the other day,
and he did a nice shot kind of breaking down
the strategy to start next year. Ben Matherin's going to start,
which I think is great. They're going to give him
a ton of touches and they're going to see how
he's developing at this phase in his career. I thought
he showed some real pop in the postseason. He's an
(21:14):
apex athlete who can get to his spots and can
get to the rim. There's real value there. He's also
a fiery competitor. It probably needs to be rained in
a little bit. But you'd much rather have a guy
like that that you need to reign in a little
bit than a guy that doesn't like to fight and
that you're begging to fight and he doesn't want to
fight right. So, like I think it's a great opportunity
for Ben matherin. Rick said he's likely going to go
center by committee. They have four of them, Isaiah Jackson,
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Tony Bradley, James Wiseman, and James Huff. We'll see I
would imagine we'll see all of them at various points
in the season. He specifically mentioned the twenty fourteen Dallas
Mavericks is kind of an example of a three center
rotation that he used for an entire year. He talks
about how Andrew Nemhart and Nemhar is going to be
his primary initiator throughout the season, but he's also going
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to be the primary guy to guard the opposing best
perimeter player, which is obviously a lot to ask, but
it speaks very highly of Andrew and Emharden. I don't
think the Pacers are gonna win a playoff series this
year or make any real noise, but I do have
way too much respect for Rick Carlisle and for the
guys in that locker room, how hard they play, the
overall basketball culture of the team to think that they
(22:20):
won't be a pain in the ass and probably find
a way to make the playoffs. Anyway, They're probably still
gonna pick up full court. Rick correctly stated that it's
basically impossible to replicate Tyrese's pace, but I'm sure that
they're gonna try nemhard, Nie Smith and Siakam are all
still really good players, and the East isn't exactly full
(22:40):
of awesome teams, right, So I think it's absolutely possible
that the Pacers will win some games, be a pain
in the ass, and if we see them playing in
April in a playoff series, I wouldn't be the least
bit surprised. Lastly, today the Chicago Bulls quick offseason recap.
They lost Lonzo Ball and Taylor Horton Tucker. They addn't
know us say, and the lottery, basically a super raw,
(23:02):
a high upside wing type of prospect. Isaac Accorro is
basically a D and three wing. You Bols fans have
had plenty of experience with that type of player over
the years. They were feisty to end last season. They
went fifteen to five down the stretch. That was the
fifth best record in the league. From March sixth on,
they were top ten in both offense and defense in
that span. Their schedule was kind of weak, but there
(23:23):
was also a handful of really nice wins in there,
Like they beat the Lakers twice, they beat the Pacers,
they beat the Denver Nuggets. Kobe White and Josh Getty
hit a really nice level offensively. Kobe averaged an efficient
twenty six points per game in that span, Josh Gitty
basically averaged a twenty one point triple double in that span,
and they had an insane stretch of clutch shooting. They
hit fifty five percent of their clutch threes in that
(23:46):
span of games, which is by far the best in
the league. And they even hit a half court buzzer
beater against my Lakers in this wild finish of a game.
One of Lebron's worst moments in the regular season season
in his career. It was a fun stretch, but I
don't expect the Bulls to be like hosting a home
court playoff series this year or anything like that. Let's
just put it that way. And it kind of feels
like they're a team headed towards a lot of turnover,
(24:07):
either this year or next. They extended Josh Giddy, and like,
I think Josh is good. I think he's a nice
shot creator. He's really good to end last season, but
I think he's basically incapable of being good enough at
what he does to build your team around. Like his
primary trait is shot creation, and I just don't think
he's nearly as good at it as the best players
(24:30):
in the league. And so it's it's tough. There's a
place in the league for guys like this, But I
just if he's on your team and he's making twenty
five plus million, I just think the handcuffs you to
a certain extent. They have Patrick Williams locked up. Madis
Buzzellis is an exciting and talented young player. We'll see
what Noah Senga is, but basically everyone else is an
expiring contract. Kobe White will be unrestricted next summer. They
(24:53):
haven't extended Idea the Soon Moon. Apparently they were shopping
him around a bunch this summer, so they seem kind
of destined for another full Rebut I soon this year
will be about seeing if Josh Giddy is worth building
around again. I wouldn't personally, but he's gonna get another
opportunity this year. We're gonna see what ceilings guys like
Modus and Noah are actually headed towards what they're trending
(25:14):
towards this point, and we're gonna see what you can
get by trading some of these expirings. There are a
lot of guys in that lineup. Whether it's Ayahasumo, or
it's Kevin hurd Er, it's Nikola Vucevich or any of
these guys, There are gonna be guys in there that
I think teams are gonna make calls on throughout the
season to anchor their lineups as they attempt to make
a run at the championship. And those are vehicles with
which to give yourself more runs at the draft to
try to find who your foundational stars are. All right, guys,
(25:36):
this is all I have for today is always to
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We'll be back on Wednesday with six sports excuse me,
five more teams. I will see you guys then
The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at
the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
had an incredible weekend. We are continuing our season previews
(00:21):
today with the Central Division out in the Eastern Conference,
so that's the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Detroit Pistons,
the Indiana Pacers, and the Chicago Bulls. You guys have
the jop before we get started. Subscribe to oops to
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the All right, let's talk some basketball. We are starting
(01:03):
today with the Cleveland Cavaliers off season recap. They kind
of sort of just decided to run it back, which
is a plan that I agree with, but let's dig
into it a little bit. They lost Ti Jerome as
a free agent to Memphis. They lost Isaacaccorro in a
trade for Lonzo Ball and Tristan Thompson. They added Lonzo Ball,
who is a very different player than Ti Jerome. Ti
(01:24):
Jerome has a higher ceiling, but it doesn't matter if
Ti Jerome is going to flame out as spectacularly as
he did in the postseason in the Indiana Series. Like,
the ceiling doesn't matter if you can't get there when
it matters, right, So, like, Lonzo's a different type of player,
but I think he has a much higher floor. Why
because he brings competence Defensively, He's not the target that
(01:45):
Ti Jerome was. He's actually a good defensive playmaker, which
I think will help continue to drive the transition opportunities.
Like Cleveland was a top ten team scoring points off
of turnovers last year. I think a Lonzo fits well
into that identity. And he's a guard who drives pace
on offense. He's like a very poor man version of
Tyre's Halliburton in his ability to just throw kickhead passes
(02:05):
and make quick decisions out of action that start advantages.
Just a good connective like rising tide that lifts all
boats type of offensive player. And so again, he's not
going to be able to just dissect teams in the
clutch the way that Ty Jerome did and hit four
to five floaters in a row at a drop coverage.
That just rips the heart out of a team. But again,
(02:27):
Ty wasn't able to do that when it mattered. What
Lonzo brings to the table is something that should translate
to the postseason. It's a higher floor option. Larry Nance
Junior is a small ball five that I actually really like.
You can shoot the ball well, he runs the floor well,
you do some switching on defense. I think he fits
Cleveland's basketball identity really well. Thomas Bryant, if you've ever
rooted for him, I've rooted for him with the Lakers,
(02:48):
have seen him around the rest of the league. He's
a really solid offensive big. He's got good hands, he
can finish in traffic, he can shoot a little bit.
But he's just an incompetent defender, which keeps him from
really sticking anywhere in the league at this point. In general,
I like the moves. They avoided doing something crazy. I
think Cleveland's playoff flameout was mostly just a product of injuries,
mainly the turf toe injury to Darius Garland, which we'll
(03:10):
talk about more in a minute. So they're basically running
it back with a couple of better options at some
key positions, right, Like Isaac Atkorro has been expendable really
ever since they got Max Strus, especially now with DeAndre Hunter,
like they didn't need him as much. Ty Jerome was
great all season, but he flamed out spectacularly. Like we
talked about, I thought that replacing Tie with Lonzo is
(03:32):
a really savvy move. And then Larry Nants is just
a solid backup center if he can stay healthy. Right,
So the Calves are running it back and giving this
group another chance. I think this is the right call.
The Calves kicked a lot of ass in the regular
season last year for good reason. They were a good
defense that scored well off of turnovers, and they were
(03:52):
a transcendently good offense fueled off of the dribble. Penetration
that was created by Darius Garland. He had a turf
h injury one that was so bad he needed surgery
earlier this summer, so of course he couldn't move as
well as he needed to move In the Pacers series,
of course, that had all sorts of trickle down effects
(04:13):
in the Cavs offense, Like the same offense that was
the only offense in the entire NBA to log an
offensive rating over one twenty last year in the regular season.
They only got one twelve point six in the Pacers series.
I always talk about how basketball is more art than science.
I'm a big believer that even one small shift, if
(04:34):
it's in a specific area of vulnerability in your team,
it can have devastating effects. Darius Garland dribble penetration was
the initial breaking of the defense. Talk about it all
the time. If a guy dusts his man off the
dribble and comes screaming down into the lane, the defense
overreacts and you get these really clean kickout opportunities which
(04:58):
are going to lead to really high quality shots. It's
either right away or after one or two driving kicks
that come off of that. But if you run into
some resistance and maybe you probe the paint a little bit,
but the drive has been flattened out. The defense isn't
going to overreact. They're going to stay within their scheme.
Those easy, easy kickout reads aren't there. It's going to
(05:19):
be like a more of a shorter close out, which
is going to rely more on those guys to put
the ball on the floor to create the next advantage,
and all of a sudden, you're not getting those same
super high quality threes that you did. So Darius Garland
not being the same dribble penetrator that he was in
the regular season directly led to the difference in the
(05:40):
quality of three point shots that Cleveland got in the postseason.
Like Donovan Mitchell is an insanely gifted playoff scorer, but
just like I was talking about with Shay on Friday,
like putting up great individual numbers doesn't necessarily add up
to great team offense, Darius Garland was the guy irresponsible
(06:00):
for the quality of Cleveland's three point shots. Does easy
stat to demonstrate this. Cleveland generated fifteen unguarded catch and
shoot jump shots per game in the regular season, per Sentergy.
In the four losses to Indiana they generated just nine.
The one game they won, they generated seventeen. That that
(06:23):
was what got the engine running for Cleveland, early dribble
penetration off of pace that generated open kickouts. Without Darius
at the top of his game, they were never going
to get that out of him. So overall, I think
Cleveland's front office did a good job of reading the
room here. The East is weaker. Your two biggest threats
(06:44):
have been effectively eliminated in Boston and Indiana. You were
the only Eastern Conference team to log a win against
Oklahoma City last year. We talked about this on Friday.
They went twenty nine to one against the East, with
that one loss being to Cleveland. You match really well
at Denver because of your speed and your ability to
attack YO kitchen space. If I remember correctly, you guys
(07:04):
went two and one versus or two and overs Cleveland
last year. You were clearly hampered by injuries when you
actually made it to the playoffs last year. You're clearly
capable of playing better than you did, and you have
that opportunity for internal improvement because Evan Mobley continues to
get better and better year by year. So making slight
tweaks and running it back was the right strategy in
(07:24):
my opinion. Now many of you will say Darius Garland
is injury prone, that's just part of the deal. Now,
that may or may not be the case. But I
still think after reading the room again, like if if
everyone was coming back, like if Tyrese and Tatum didn't
tear their achilles, maybe you have to have a tougher conversation.
But I think it makes sense to give them one
(07:45):
more shot and then if Darius breaks down this year,
then you can start having serious conversations because the track
record at that point is too significant, and the East
in twenty twenty seven will almost certainly bounce back in
a huge way, both through the return of Tae Him
and Halliburton and also just through the improvement of teams
like Orlando and Detroit. Things along those lines, right the
(08:08):
Milwaukee Bucks offseason recap. They lost Pat Connaton, Damian Lillard,
and Brook Lopez. They added Cole, Anthony Emre, Coffee, Gary
Harris and Miles turn Everything's got to be greater on
a curve here, did the Bucks successfully pivot into becoming
a championship contender? Obviously not, but that was essentially impossible
under the circumstances. They did the best they could. First
(08:31):
of all, I thought John Horst works some magic retaining
his current players on favorable deals. Like Gary trent On
two for seven and a half. That's an awesome deal.
Bobby Portis three for forty three and a half. That's
an awesome deal. I thought he was going to be
asking for something closer to twenty per year. Tory and
Prince two for seven point one. That's an awesome deal.
Kevin Porter two for ten point five. All four of
(08:54):
those guys for twenty six million dollars annually or whatever
it adds up to. I think that's solid cat manage
from John hors and the Bucks. They were super light
on ball handling, so getting a guy like Cole Anthony
is a backup guard is a nice get there. I
think Miles Turner is like the ideal front court partner
for Giannis. They will almost certainly on defense be a
(09:14):
pack the paint and funnel type of team because of
the point of attack defense. So like Miles Turner coming
up to the level with Giannis playing on that back
line as they kind of yo yo back and forth,
I think that's going to give team some problems defensively.
Miles Turner is a better defender than Brook Lopez at
this point in time, and he gives Giannis a natural
pick and pop partner. He's a guy that is gonna
(09:35):
get into action with Giannis and pop to the top
of the key, and it's going to be a way
to start the offense. And he's a decent option to
throw the ball down on the block against mismatches. Like Miles,
Turner did a lot of mismatch hunting with Indiana and
the postseason last year, especially in the first three rounds.
Gary Harrison a Mere Coffee are perfectly fine bench role
players on the wing. Again, given their situation, I think
(09:55):
the Bucks did fine. I think their best chance to
succeed in the short term is basically to lean entirely
into Giannis with shooting. I would start Kevin Porter, Junior,
Gary Trent, and AJ Green instead of Kyle Kuzma as
I talked about in our player ranking series. I really
want to see the Bucks at least double Jannis's pick
(10:17):
and roll volume. I think he ran somewhere around like
three hundred and fifty last year, but it was one
of their most productive play types. He just got great
stuff almost all the time, and towards the end of
the season he was just picking teams apart with it.
I'd lean into a steady diet of inverted ball screens
with guys like aj Green and Gary Trent slipping out
to the top of the key picking pops with Turner.
(10:37):
I think it's a great way to quickly get the
defense and rotation. I think they'll get a lot of
downhill Yannis screaming into the paint type of stuff out
of that. And then again, this was the best catch
and shoot team in the year in the entire league
last year, so you're gonna be spraying out to some
really high quality shooters there. I want to see Yannis
seven hundred and fifty picking rolls this year if he's healthy.
(10:57):
I think that would be a good hallmark of the
right offensive approach for this particular team. For the second side,
Kevin Porter Junior had some really natural ball handling, like
chemistry with Giannis. He plays with good pace, he does
a good job of getting the ball to Giannis in
the pocket. I think he'll similarly be able to have
(11:18):
some success with Miles Turner and pick and pop, so
like if you actually dig into the numbers, Kevin Porter, Junior,
Gary Trent, aj Green and Giannis. When those four were
on the court last year, albeit a small sample, in
two hundred and twenty four possessions, they were plus forty
two point four net. They had a one thirty nine
offensive rating With those guys, It's something that I would
(11:39):
lean into. Lean into what you're great at. Right Like,
you don't have good back court ball handling, you don't
need to be given everybody else the ball. You don't
have good perimeter defense, So lean into protecting the rim.
At least be good at what you can be good at.
This team can be good at protecting the rim. Well,
they have to give up a bunch of threes, yes,
(11:59):
but they can be good protecting the rim. If they're
good at protecting the rim, and they give the ball
to Giannis on offense and they have him run a
ton of inverted action in ball screens with Miles Turner,
they're gonna be a team that can win some basketball games.
Are they gonna go out there and win sixty games? No,
but you'll get into the playoffs as a middling seed
and you have an upset shot against anyone in that
(12:21):
conference because there are four top tier superstars in the NBA,
three of them are out West, you have the other one.
The only other guy that can reach that level is
Embiid in Philly, and I think it's highly unlikely that
they survive this season long enough to actually put that
sort of confrontation in front of Giannis. So yeah, I
(12:44):
think they did about as well as they could under
the circumstances. It's going to be kind of like Giannis's
twenty eighteen Lebron year, very little chance to win the championship,
but an awesome chance to just flex your muscles and
show how good you are in this league. Giannis has
shown a ton of growth as a player maker on
the ball. I think he's got a good roster for
him to accentuate that specific part of his game. I
(13:05):
think him and Miles is a very strong defensive foundation
in the front court. I think they have the potential
to be at least an interesting team this season. Today's
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one eight hundred gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
or Virginia. Next to the Detroit Pistons, another impressive offseason.
(14:52):
In my opinion, you lose Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway
Junior and Dennis Schroeder are all three guys that played
big roles for you last year, but you bring in
Duncan Robinson who can replace some of that shooting. And
by the way, I think Duncan's a better playmaker than
both Malik Beasley or Tim Hardaway Junior, so I actually
think he'll be a really useful offensive player in Detroit.
He had a lot of two man game chemistry with
bam Adebayo and was really good at making reads off
(15:14):
the way the screen defender was guarding him and could
get the defense into rotation coming off of action. I
think he'll help a lot. Karris Lavert and the return
of Jade and Ivy will replace Dennis Schroders ball handling.
Karris in a lot of ways is like a bigger
version of Dennis. He's like a three level scorer who's
also a good perimeter defender, like just a good backup
guard in this league. I think that's a good pick
(15:34):
up there, And obviously you're returning Jade and Ivy, and
Jade and Ivy before he went down with injury last year,
was putting up eighteen points, four rebounds, four assists on
fifty seven percent through shooting. In his last five games
before going down with injury, he averaged nineteen point two
points per game on sixty percent from the field in
twenty one for thirty six from three, which is sixty
(15:55):
two percent. So, like, I mean, that's that's the main
storyline to start the season, and as we're getting Jade
and Ivy back, let's see what this guy can do. Right,
we always talk about your rebuilding pathway. We were just
talking about it yesterday with respect to Portland and Utah. Right,
you need your foundational superstar, and you need your supporting star,
(16:15):
and then from there you need a mix of role
players that fit the skill sets of those two stars.
You're in a better spot than most teams in the
league because you know you have the right foundational superstar.
I thought Kate was incredible last year, and yet it
still feels like he can get so much better. So
your foundation is set. The question is can Jade and
(16:36):
Ivy be the right number two around Kate. I think
he can be, but we need to see more and
hopefully we'll get to see that this season. The set
of role players, it's starting to take shape solely but
surely right Like you have athletic wings who can defend
on the perimeter and a men Thompson and Ron Holland
you have skilled veterans on the perimeter that can help
your young stars on offense like Duncan Robinson and Karis Lavert.
(16:59):
You have big ass kicking centers in Jalen Dura and
Isaiah Stewart. The weak spot on the roster is the
power forward spot like Tobias Harris, and I actually thought
Tobias playing well like he did for stretches in that
playoff series against the Knicks was like a proof of
concept for what an upgrade there would look like. And
I've heard the name Laurie Markinen brought up by several
(17:19):
folks for Detroit, and I gotta say I like it.
In addition to being the type of high volume catch
and shoot player that Kate has always thrived with, he
loves hunting shooters, especially in transition. He's just a bigger,
better athlete, and just a much better all around player
than Tobias Harris. I think it's the kind of move
that would kind of accentuate this era and the timeline
(17:40):
that Detroit is on as Kid is growing faster than
we originally expected him to. But regardless of whether or
not they make a trade or how far they get
in April and May, it's going to come down to
Kaid's development, especially in the playoffs. There were several warts
that showed in the Knicks series, which I thought, overall
(18:02):
was an impressive showing from Detroit. Cad averaged five point
three turnovers, which is too many. He shot four for
twenty four on pull up threes. His mid ranges were fine.
He was pretty good there. He's thirteen for twenty seven.
That's forty eight percent, but his inability to hit the
pull up three really hurt him in that series, and
he was just forty two percent on layups eighteen for
(18:23):
forty three. These are all areas that I think he's
more than capable of massively improving on as soon as
this year and certainly in the coming years. I that
it really showed for the Pistons in crunch time. The
Pistons logged a one to oh nine offensive rating in
the clutch against Detroit, in large part because of turnovers.
They turned the ball over an astonishing twenty six percent
(18:46):
of their possessions in the clutch in those three clutch losses.
It wasn't all Kaid, but kay did have three of
those turnovers. Now, to be clear, none of this is
meant to be an attack on Kde, more just a
reason to be optimistic about the future. There's a reason
why I always talk about young teams underperforming in the playoffs.
(19:07):
There's a reason why Oklahoma City got pushed to seven
twice by two inferior teams when they were a sixty
eight win team and a stacked conference. There's a reason
why Cade wasn't as good in that playoff series as
he was in the regular season. The playoffs present different challenges.
Coaching stabs get to spend weeks figuring out how to
make you uncomfortable. The defenders get to guard you so
(19:28):
many times over the course of weeks that they become
familiar with your moves and they get better at guarding you.
The pressure and the stakes are different than what they
used to be, so for veteran teams, they've been through
it a ton. They've addressed their weaknesses, They've added variety
to their games to make them harder to guard if
(19:49):
a defender sees them for two weeks straight, and they've
learned how to be more collected under pressure. So, like,
I'm not judging the Pistons. I thought they were overall
very impressive in that for run, but it showed the
specific things that Kide needed to get better at, and
I expect him to start getting better at those things
this season. Maybe the ideal trade for a guy like
(20:10):
marking In will pop up and that can accelerate the
timeline a little bit. But if not, this year just
represents another opportunity for Kaid to become a better basketball
player and for the Pistons to learn. If Jade and
Ivy is their secondary star right to learn what tweaks
need to be made in the roster for the future
when they need to make deeper playoff runs down the line.
(20:32):
We're gonna go quicker on these last two. The Indiana Pacers,
they lost Thomas Bryant and Miles Turner and effectively Tyres
Haliburton for the whole season with an achilles tear. They
added James Huff, who I think is a solid rotational center.
He can really shoot the ball and he's got good
size at the rim. James Wiseman, who obviously was a
very talented lottery pick, but he struggled throughout his career
to reach that upside. But he does have upside. He's
(20:53):
coming back from an achilles tear as well, though. It's
worth mentioning. I was listening to Rick Carlisle on the
Zach Low podcast while I was working out the other day,
and he did a nice shot kind of breaking down
the strategy to start next year. Ben Matherin's going to start,
which I think is great. They're going to give him
a ton of touches and they're going to see how
he's developing at this phase in his career. I thought
he showed some real pop in the postseason. He's an
(21:14):
apex athlete who can get to his spots and can
get to the rim. There's real value there. He's also
a fiery competitor. It probably needs to be rained in
a little bit. But you'd much rather have a guy
like that that you need to reign in a little
bit than a guy that doesn't like to fight and
that you're begging to fight and he doesn't want to
fight right. So, like I think it's a great opportunity
for Ben matherin. Rick said he's likely going to go
center by committee. They have four of them, Isaiah Jackson,
(21:37):
Tony Bradley, James Wiseman, and James Huff. We'll see I
would imagine we'll see all of them at various points
in the season. He specifically mentioned the twenty fourteen Dallas
Mavericks is kind of an example of a three center
rotation that he used for an entire year. He talks
about how Andrew Nemhart and Nemhar is going to be
his primary initiator throughout the season, but he's also going
(21:59):
to be the primary guy to guard the opposing best
perimeter player, which is obviously a lot to ask, but
it speaks very highly of Andrew and Emharden. I don't
think the Pacers are gonna win a playoff series this
year or make any real noise, but I do have
way too much respect for Rick Carlisle and for the
guys in that locker room, how hard they play, the
overall basketball culture of the team to think that they
(22:20):
won't be a pain in the ass and probably find
a way to make the playoffs. Anyway, They're probably still
gonna pick up full court. Rick correctly stated that it's
basically impossible to replicate Tyrese's pace, but I'm sure that
they're gonna try nemhard, Nie Smith and Siakam are all
still really good players, and the East isn't exactly full
(22:40):
of awesome teams, right, So I think it's absolutely possible
that the Pacers will win some games, be a pain
in the ass, and if we see them playing in
April in a playoff series, I wouldn't be the least
bit surprised. Lastly, today the Chicago Bulls quick offseason recap.
They lost Lonzo Ball and Taylor Horton Tucker. They addn't
know us say, and the lottery, basically a super raw,
(23:02):
a high upside wing type of prospect. Isaac Accorro is
basically a D and three wing. You Bols fans have
had plenty of experience with that type of player over
the years. They were feisty to end last season. They
went fifteen to five down the stretch. That was the
fifth best record in the league. From March sixth on,
they were top ten in both offense and defense in
that span. Their schedule was kind of weak, but there
(23:23):
was also a handful of really nice wins in there,
Like they beat the Lakers twice, they beat the Pacers,
they beat the Denver Nuggets. Kobe White and Josh Getty
hit a really nice level offensively. Kobe averaged an efficient
twenty six points per game in that span, Josh Gitty
basically averaged a twenty one point triple double in that span,
and they had an insane stretch of clutch shooting. They
hit fifty five percent of their clutch threes in that
(23:46):
span of games, which is by far the best in
the league. And they even hit a half court buzzer
beater against my Lakers in this wild finish of a game.
One of Lebron's worst moments in the regular season season
in his career. It was a fun stretch, but I
don't expect the Bulls to be like hosting a home
court playoff series this year or anything like that. Let's
just put it that way. And it kind of feels
like they're a team headed towards a lot of turnover,
(24:07):
either this year or next. They extended Josh Giddy, and like,
I think Josh is good. I think he's a nice
shot creator. He's really good to end last season, but
I think he's basically incapable of being good enough at
what he does to build your team around. Like his
primary trait is shot creation, and I just don't think
he's nearly as good at it as the best players
(24:30):
in the league. And so it's it's tough. There's a
place in the league for guys like this, But I
just if he's on your team and he's making twenty
five plus million, I just think the handcuffs you to
a certain extent. They have Patrick Williams locked up. Madis
Buzzellis is an exciting and talented young player. We'll see
what Noah Senga is, but basically everyone else is an
expiring contract. Kobe White will be unrestricted next summer. They
(24:53):
haven't extended Idea the Soon Moon. Apparently they were shopping
him around a bunch this summer, so they seem kind
of destined for another full Rebut I soon this year
will be about seeing if Josh Giddy is worth building
around again. I wouldn't personally, but he's gonna get another
opportunity this year. We're gonna see what ceilings guys like
Modus and Noah are actually headed towards what they're trending
(25:14):
towards this point, and we're gonna see what you can
get by trading some of these expirings. There are a
lot of guys in that lineup. Whether it's Ayahasumo, or
it's Kevin hurd Er, it's Nikola Vucevich or any of
these guys, There are gonna be guys in there that
I think teams are gonna make calls on throughout the
season to anchor their lineups as they attempt to make
a run at the championship. And those are vehicles with
which to give yourself more runs at the draft to
try to find who your foundational stars are. All right, guys,
(25:36):
this is all I have for today is always to
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We'll be back on Wednesday with six sports excuse me,
five more teams. I will see you guys then
Host
Jason Timpf
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