Year End Mailbag

Justin and Carter react to the Nuggets winning the 2022-23 NBA Championship and open the mailbag to answer some listener questions!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This crowd rises to its meeing what Carl slam it?
Oh Carl left wing reball perfect Darlin, Then HELI block
the shot at the rim?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
How with the left hand and a fowl. Welcome to
the Chase Down Podcast, part of the kas Media family.
I'm your host, Justin Roan. The Chase Doown is presented
by Fubo TV. Watch over one hundred channels of live
sports and TV for half the cost cable. There's no
contract and no commitment. Try for free at FuboTV dot com.
The twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three NBA season
is over. Big congratulations to the Denver Nuggets. I love

(00:35):
seeing a team win its first championship. Love seeing Jamal
Murray win an NBA championship, Oh Canada. Indeed, awesome performance
from them. I think the best team won. And if
I'm not mistaken, Carter, I think this was our title
pick for both of us going into the season. I
know it was mine, at least.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
It was mine going into the season. I think I
went with the cowards way out for the postseason, where
I believe the Bucks were my whoops but other but yeah,
I mean, uh, they were not only my pick. They
were the my hopeful pick too. You know, I just
love the way they play basketball. You know, we we

(01:13):
spend so much time complaining about the way certain teams
in this league played basketball in a way that really
grinds our gears. So like when a team does the
exact opposite, and even when they're killing you, you just
cannot help but appreciate the teamwork, the skillfulness, the the selflessness.

(01:34):
And then you know, Yoka just the best player in
the league and my favorite player to watch in the league.
So it's it's easy to root for a team like that,
and you know, very happy, a good fan base. I've
always been fond of Nuggets, Twitter, Adam.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Marras and everyone at the n v R. They do
really really cool stuff there.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, so it was just cool, and it was cool
just to kind of I don't know, and frankly justin
it was nice just to be right, you know, like
I was like, my says Nuggets in four. My the
Heath Zombiess had Nuggets in six, and but like you know,
like all Davis Proseas, I'm like, this team is better.

(02:18):
I'm pretty sure they should win, and then they just
did not win. So like it was kind of nice
just to hit a chill We're Better than You series
where where my understanding of the game jibed with what happened.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, and again, I think I don't want to take
anything away from any of these matchups, say any of
the rounds that led to this point, but it kind
of does go to show you a little bit what
shooting variants can do in today's game. Because Miami was
not a good shooting team throughout the season. They got
unreasonably hot for the first two rounds in particular, and

(02:52):
then that just kind of regressed back to normal, right,
Like they're shooters, guys like Max Strus and that came
back down to earth and Nuggets just had too many options.
I remember when we lost to Denver. I believe it
was the game in Denver, and we were just like
man Yo Kich when he's got this many weapons around him,
I just don't think there's any defending them. Like, I

(03:13):
just don't see how this team loses unless someone else
kind of, you know, plays to a similar level and
takes advantage of the opportunities. But we want to end
this season with a mail bag one because we try
to do draft coverage today and that didn't work out.
We'll do that next week. We'll get someone that knows
what they're talking about. So this is always the easy pivot,

(03:35):
but it is fitting now that the season is over,
the build up for next year, the twenty three twenty
four season is underway, and I want to kick off
the mail bag with an appropriate question, given that the
NBA Championship was just claim last night. Joe Asks ranked
the last five postseasons, so twenty nineteen through twenty twenty three,

(03:55):
as your favorite to least favorite. Do you want to
go first or do you want to hear mine card
because you're not going to be surprised by mine. Okay,
I'll hear yours. This one's my favorite. The Denver Nuggets
winning is my favorite title. I'm not just being prisoner
of the moment. Some of this had to do with
I wasn't able to watch a ton of twenty twenty one.
I was on a trip. It also felt like in

(04:16):
twenty twenty one, the way that I knock it a
little bit is it felt like Giannis was the best
player in the league, but it didn't feel like the
Bucks were necessarily like the best team. They just you know,
you had the KD foot on the line type thing.
There was a lot of kind of moments along the way,
and it just looked like John's kind of overcoming a
lot of those flaws and issues with the roster. Plus

(04:38):
it was just a weird COVID year. So twenty twenty
three gets the nod. Twenty twenty one. I'm going to
go twenty twenty even though it's the bubble and I
know it was weird, it was kind of nice to
see Lebron win, And especially when you have to consider
the context of the previous or last year, which is
the Warriors winning, I'm never going to enjoy that. It
is what it is. Then my least favorite title is

(04:59):
twenty nineteen Toronto. What more do I need to say? Like,
after the Calves had their window of excellence run up
against the Katie Warriors and not getting a lucky break
throughout that entire time, to see Toronto catch every single
lucky break and just the weirdest championship ever, that's always
gonna be one that's going to grind my gear.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
So that's my list, Carter, what's yours? I will agree
with your starter with twenty three. I just think the
basketball was awesome. I think it was crazy, which was
also fun. The Calves were in it, which even though
it was not a fun series, it was cool that
the Cavs were in it. So I will start with
twenty three. Then I'm actually going to go twenty. I

(05:43):
thought the basketball in twenty twenty was so good. You
got to remember how good even the conference semis were.
You had Celtics beating the Raptors in seven, you had
the Nuggets beating the Clippers in seven. Was just so
darned fun. It was also all the.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Time when we really needed basketball, was like we need
an escape.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Absolutely remember the Luca series against the Clippers when it
was just Luca just gunning against Paul George and Kuhi.
They lost in six, but it was like, oh Luca's
arrival versus Jamal yep. The Conference finals were dope. You know,
heat Celtics was a war. Lakers Nuggets was, in my opinion,

(06:27):
a lot closer than the four to one indicated that
Nuggets run. No one saw a conference finals run for
the Nuggets that year. So I think twenty would be
my next I would say twenty two would probably be
after that. Just I thought even though it was a

(06:51):
all the teams I hate finals or conference finals other
than the MAVs, I still thought that basketball was really good.
One I would say after that year, the fluky Gray
Young conference finals run that never felt real. Then you
also had like, do you remember the Clippers made the

(07:12):
conference finals that year? They like limped into the conference finals.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Oh yeah, yeah, I do remember that.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Like I said that, that was just such a weird
year that even though I was really happy, you honest
won the title, it there's.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
A lot of weirdness around it. And then twenty nineteen
because just any Katie year was just not fun for me.
The Cavs were bad and just the Warriors felt so unfair,
and then the way they lost was just literally every
player got hurt and the Raptors barely won anyway. Yeah,

(07:44):
so I think that would be my order. I thought
twenty twenty bubble basketball was nuts. People sleep on how
good everyone was when they didn't have you know, eighty
feet of depth perception messing with their jumpers.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, and also just you know, not travel, not any
of that weird stuff. I'm actually looking forward to now
that it looks like the Sea Bears and I'm jumping
ahead here now that it looks like they're pretty good.
They make the playoffs. Man, they do host city, kind
of like NCUBLEA where a city hosts the tournament all
the playoff rounds there, single elimination basketball. I'm excited for that.
Winnipeg's trying to bid for next year, so I'm really

(08:22):
really hoping that we get that for next year. Next question, though,
is from Toby. He asks us, who would you who
would you rather see make a leap next season? Isaacle
Corro Dean Wade to me, this is really easy. I
think isaacle Coro is the clear choice. Like we've already
seen two years in a row now that isaacle Corro

(08:43):
in the starting lineup, different starting lineups, but those lineups
have been really good. They've been really, really good in
the regular season. And I think if isaacle corral were
to make a leap and you know, take another level
in his game, I think that that would be something
that could really pay dividends, would solve a lot of
the issues because we're still trying to figure out how

(09:03):
we can translate regular season success to playoffs. I think
in a core leap, alongside the progress we expect the
core to make would be a big time difference maker.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
I think, yeah, I think it's a no doubt that
that's what it is. You you kind of just look
at what the more impactful leap would be and if
and I think for either of them, a leap really
is no doubterer good in a playoff rotation. Guys, I
think that would constant a leap to me. And if

(09:34):
Wade does that, then we have a third big If
O Coro does that, then we have a fifth starter.
And I think I'd rather have the ladder than the former.
So yeah, I think it's definitely a coral.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah. It also kind of ties into what our buddy
Mac Perry asked us shout out the It's Cavalier podcast.
What would constitute a breakout for Isaac Ocorro in your eyes?
Carter done, playoff player, get guaranteed playoff player. Like I
know a little. I want you to elaborate just a
little bit more on that. Sure, I really just think

(10:11):
it is he needs to be such a capable offensive
player that there is marginal doubt about at best about
whether JB would keep him in the jumper is good enough,
the finishing is good enough, the secondary and tertiary playmaking
is good enough, and you know, and he's not going

(10:33):
through you know, weeks at a time where he's just
you know, averaging six points a game. I think that
is a leap to me. Or you know, he just
makes more threes, like you know, like I mean making
more threes at the same rate would probably also constantly
because I really my bar is is he a no

(10:53):
doubt rotation guy in the postseason or because if there's games,
if there's entire series where JB is just gonna have
to go man might not be for ice, then I
would say he has not taken a sufficient jump forward.
That's fair to me. The three pointer, like it's almost uninteresting,
Like he he attempted three point seven per thirty six

(11:14):
this year. And I think if you're expecting progress from
the guards, progress from Evan Mobley, Jared Allen still to
be a focal point of this, Like I just don't
know how much more volume you're going to see, Like
maybe if that gets up to let's say five, so
you know, not a crazy improvement in terms of volume,
but another one and a half per game, and he

(11:34):
shoots the percentage he did after missing you know, the
first twelve of this season, so you know, shoots thirty
seven to thirty nine percent, five attempts per thirty six.
I would be happy with that. But to me, a
breakout would mean him starting to fill the box sheet
in more ways. And this is something that our buddy
David Zavak has mentioned many times. But like, there's just
too many times that you don't feel him. We've already

(11:55):
talked about him becoming an event defender, you know, getting blocks,
getting steals, that sort of thing. I want to see
him round out his game and fill in more of
those gaps. And I know we're repeating ourselves a little bit,
but it's the off season. It's going to happen. I
would like to see him go out there and get rebounds.
I'd like to see him, you know, make the right pass,
be disruptive, get those assists, the type of glue guy

(12:17):
stuff you see from your guy Bruce Brown and other
players like that that go up.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
If only the Cavs use ice better, he'd be Bruce Brown.
That's what the discord tells me.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Okay, that's thank you for your honest representation of that argument.
But I'm miss representation. Like I think that that is
kind of what you want to see. You want him
to see him be that glue guy beyond just stand
in the corner and get jump shots. And I think
they started to build out more of his game. But

(12:49):
I guess maybe it even comes to what we had
talked about in the past, which is the skill development
getting to the point where the coaching staff feels comfortable
using him in different ways, using him as a screen
or using him, you know, as a cutter, and a
bunch of creative ways that kind of showcase whatever growth
he's had in his offensive game. So I just want more.

(13:10):
I want a little bit of more of everything for
my sacle corep And I think that that's what a
breakout would be because there's no scenario where he's going
to be a lead option in a lot of these lineups.
But I do think as a glue guy, there's gaps
that he can fill to make them a more complete team.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Absolutely, Buddy. Let's move on to Vinnie, who asked which
player do you expect to have the most productive season
next year? So that's a tough one. I guess, like
from a scoring standpoint, I think Donovan Mitchell is going
to be the leading scorer for the Cavs. I think
he's going to be the leading scorer in the Caves

(13:48):
for as long as he's here. Productive though maybe if
we're going to define it as maybe like increase in production,
I think it's going to be Darius Garland. I expect
to take the biggest step next year. Like I think
Evan Mobley obviously has more, you know, room to grow
between where he is now and his ceiling than Garland does.

(14:11):
But I think Garland's ready to take that next step.
And I think we can see him going from All
Star snub to legitimately in the All NBA conversation. And
I think that he's a guy that has more experience
than a lot of these other guys on the roster,
and when you're talking about the young guys now, I
expect him to really kind of use last season and

(14:32):
how it ended as fuel. So I'm going to say
Daris Garland. I think if you're asking who's gonna have
the most productive season, you're probably still kind of in
a way asking who the team's best player is going
to be. I still think it's going to be Donnie,
you know. I just think he's the He is the
most productive player last year. The Cavs should be making

(14:54):
off season moves that make his life even easier in
terms of looking to add shooting. You know, I feel
like Donnie more than Darius benefits from his situation, you know. Uh,
and you know doesn't, you know, as a as a
volume scorer. So yeah, I think it's got to be

(15:15):
Donnie until one of the kids takes it from him.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Okay, well listen, Actually, let's just pivot here and go
with some of these Garland questions, because I do think
you're right, like I think Donna Mitchell is probably going
to be the best player on the team next year,
although it does Let's let's go with Tony's question. Our
our buddy, Tony passed out asks how high is Darius
garlands ceiling and what does another leap look like for him?

(15:41):
And I want to get your thoughts on that car.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
First up, Tony has been wild and on Twitter recently,
He's just been making He's been making some big, bold,
loud takes for the for the people.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
You know what, I respect it. I haven't been on
Twitter that much lately. Mat for you, it's good for you,
It probably is very good for my mental health. But
it's just so hard to use it now even but yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
I've missed a lot of the discourse, so h But
either way, you know, I feel like in terms of leaps,
it's just going to be you know, I just feel
like it's so hard to discuss a leap in the
constant Darius because it's not like his skill development has
a crazy long way to go. It's going to be
in the form of being a more devastating, high volume

(16:29):
pull up three point shooter. It's going to be in
finding better angles to finish layups. It's going to be
in manipulating the pick and roll even better, getting stronger
and more physically mature so we can hit those spray
out inside out passes with a little bit more zip.

(16:52):
I'll tell you. That's the thing I really noticed watching
this Finals is almost every player who drove, when they
kicked it out to a corner three point shooter, they
were firing that ball out. There was so much pace
on the kickouts, whether it's Jimmy or Jokich or Gordon

(17:15):
off an offensive rebound, and like, that's something I think.
Those are the little things I think the Cavs can
learn from watching the postseason of like kind of taking
that next step. Like the postseason, the closeouts are hard
and on balance, so it's like you can't give them
that extra half step because you didn't put enough zip
on a pass. And those are the kind of things

(17:36):
that you're gonna see with Darius. Like the leapiest leap
would be the volume three point shooting. Maybe some extra
strength that handle the banging of the postseason, but like
I'll go with volume three point shooting for now. And
in terms of his ceiling, you know, it's top five

(17:58):
point guard. I think it's probably fair to say, you know,
I think he's going to be a Team USA point
guard if I don't know about this World Cup, but eventually,
I do think he's got the right pedigree to do
that and the right you know, mental makeup to be
a great player. And it's a decent belt weather since
all the great point guards still are American, So you know.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
I'm gonna fight you man, shake Gil, just Alexander and
Jamal Murray. That is a back quarter for the Ages. Man,
we're coming very good. We're coming for us.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
But yeah, so I think it's a solid belt weather
to say that. If he's in the conversation for being
on Team USA, which I you know, if everyone's playing
as of now, I would say, then you know, top
five point guard is probably appropriate.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
I really like that you brought up the point about
the passes because that was one thing even looking back
on the Knicks series, like the pick and roll possessions,
Like when I was looking at that foreveran mobiley, that
was something I noticed was a lot of times he's
kind of like lobbing it to the corner, like there
isn't that zip, And when those passes are coming, you know,
second and a half late or even a half second late,

(19:05):
that can be the difference between an open shot and
passing up a shot because of the closeout right. And
that's something I agree Garland can get better at. The
whole team can get better at. And like what a
leap for him looks like to me is like you said,
if he adds some strength and he's drawn contact a
little bit better, the defensive positioning that we've seen from

(19:25):
Darius Garland becomes more effective because you can't bump him
off the spot the same way that you're able to
now when he's at a slender frame. That would be
really helpful. Getting the volume three point shooting up like
for me, honestly, I think the reason why I expect
a leap from Darius Garland is because I feel like
there's less needed from a skill development standpoint, and it's

(19:48):
really about him putting it all together, because I think
the high water marks and what he does when he's
at his best are ridiculously good. I think his ceiling
is an all NBA point guard that's in the converse
for best point guard in the league. Like, I think
that that's the type of ceiling that he has. And
if he does up the three point shooting, if he
does add some strength and you know, draws contact, better plays,

(20:12):
better defense, and the passing becomes a little bit more refined,
and the aggressiveness that we've seen at times becomes more consistent.
Just doing what he does more consistently at a higher level,
I really do think can get him into that kind
of All NBA conversation. And that's probably why I feel
most confident about him making another mini leap, because when

(20:34):
you get to this point of your career, those leaps
become cerebral. It becomes about your decision making, the way
that you react to what defenses are doing because you
have more experience. And I guess this also dies into
the last Darius question we have, which is from Project NBA,
and he asks, can Darius at twenty six be better
than Donovan Mitchell is right now at twenty six years old.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
I think yes it and you would think the here
me know, just because of how superior Donovan's body is,
you know, the seven foot wingspan, the above the rim finishing,
the strength, the core strength that I'm not sure Darius'
frame is really built to add. But if you listen

(21:17):
to this podcast, you know I am predisposed to basketball genius,
and I think Darius is a basketball savant as a playmaker.
I think he understands the game at a truly elite level,
and as a result, I think that raises his metaphorical
ceiling as high, if not higher, than Donovan Mitchell's current

(21:41):
game is right now. So I say, yes, what do you?
What say you?

Speaker 2 (21:46):
I mean you know that I'm in on this, that
he can be that good. And I mean this. I
think when you're looking at the theoretical best version of
this Cav's roster, you have Donovan as the leading play finisher,
Darius right up there in scoring along with him running
the offense, Evan Mobley as the most impactful overall and

(22:08):
kind of best player. But I think the guards are
always going to be responsible for the Lion's share of
the offense, even if Mobley gets up to that twenty
point per game range. So I do think that Darius
can get there. I think prior to last season there
was an argument that Darius was as good or as
impactful as Donovan Mitchell had been the previous year. Now,
some of that was Mitchell having it down here, Darius

(22:30):
having a great year as the guy is neck and
neck right, And I think when you're talking about, you know,
selling Donovan Mitchell on reapting with Cleveland, I think the
pairing with Darius Garland, the way that he made his
life easier throughout the season, having a young guy next
to him after he's had all those years in Utah
where that wasn't the case. He had some great vets there,

(22:51):
but he didn't have another dynamic star that made life
easier next to him. I think that's a big, big
part of, you know, what this team wants to be
moving forward, and I think Darius having the keys, he's
a really really important of the Cavs being the best
version of.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Themselves, absolutely, buddy. Luckily it's not a competition. I think
they both compliment each other very very well, especially at
the offensive end. Connor asks, what is the coolest, most
unique piece of memorabilia you have? You want to go
on this because I yeah, because my memorabili I'm not

(23:27):
a memorabilia guy. My parents had a strict no souvenirs
policy on vacation. Really, yes, they were like, it's a
waste of space, We'll never use it, We'll never it'll
there's no points, waste of money, waste of energy. We're
not doing souvenirs. Give shop at the zoo, forget about it, buddy,

(23:50):
We're not going in there. So you know, even at
the game we're getting a hot dog, you know, we're
not We're not getting peanuts and pop born. And that
was not happening, And it wasn't like I think it was.
Really My dad's a real justice guy and he's not
paying you know, nine dollars for some popcorn.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
You know.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
So now whenever I go to games, I splurch. However,
the one thing that did stick is I do yeah,
I do not collect anything. The best I got is
my Acron Beacon Journal front page sent to me by
George Thomas, who's a reporter there the day after they
won the title.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
What was your first autograph you got if you have.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Got, oh, rather, you're gonna love it, Tomato Samuels.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Oh that's good, go aheay God. Mine was from my
first cash game that I ever attended, which was in Minneapolis.
I got a Leon Poe autograph on my game ticket.
Oh hell yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
I went to my first game when I was like seventeen,
I was, I was, you know again, my dad didn't
My dad didn't like sports. So if your dad doesn't
like sports, you don't really go to a lot of
sporting events. Guys and uh and I finally had enough
money to go, and I went, and we we got
there super early for shoot around and went up and
got autographs. I think I had an Andy Somato was

(25:16):
the first one, and then it was like Andy and
I forget who else uh signed, But I've since lost
the jersey, sadly, uh and and and Buddy. It would
have been worth a lot. So so the souvenir I
have is one. Do you have an answer for your
favorite piece of memorabilia?

Speaker 2 (25:36):
So I'm no family policy here. I just like, I
don't collect a lot of memorabilia. I'm not I'm not
even someone that really like documents. Like if I'm checking
out nature, I'll take pictures of nature, But I'm not
a big like sit at the game and holding my
phone out all the time kind of guy.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
I was just getting braggy.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
No, no, you live in the moment. No, it's not
even that. It's just I'm I don't think I'm that interesting.
I will say I think the coolest bit of sports memorially.
It took me a while to think about this, but
I think it's the jersey that the cas sent the
last year with my last name on it, like to me,
just kind of as a commemoration of this partnership. I

(26:17):
think it's it's like the coolest thing for me. It's
ridiculous that we still get to do this, that we
haven't had to change what this podcast is. And I
don't know how long it'll be until they get sick
of us, but I think that is going to go
down as one of kind of my most cherished possessions.
So I'll go with that one. Sentimental you know, I'm
a sentimental guy absolutely.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Buddy Wagie asks any surprised non Cavs players you could
see getting moved this offseason.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
I guess we gotta go big names here, right, So,
Like I could see Zion, Like I guess Sham's reported
that the Pelicans are interested in that third pick. I
could see maybe Zion being consideration for that. I don't
know how much that has to do with off court
stuff or well, I guess the fact that he can't
stay on court to begin with, right, I think maybe

(27:09):
that's something that they're considering. Maybe Bradley Beal. Like it's
it's going to be interesting. I'm very curious to see
if some big names move. I know Karl Anthony Towns
has been in a lot of rumors as our reports
saying that he could be moved by Draft night. We'll
see what happens there. But I won't be surprised to
see a few teams kind of shuffle the deck going

(27:31):
into this year. Because the new CBA is going to
be tough from a team building standpoint. I think teams
are going to try to get out ahead of that.
And if you're a team like the Cavs that doesn't
have a lot of assets, but you know, maybe can
help facilitate some of these deals. Maybe there's going to
be opportunities that we don't really foresee. So I'm rooting
for a lot of player movement because history suggests Goby
Altman is someone that teams like dealing with that. He's

(27:54):
very accommodating in these three team trades, multi team trades
and has managed to find value in those spots. So
for a team that doesn't have a lot of cap
space or a lot of first round picks to offer up,
I think rooting for a lot of player movements is
to our advantage.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Absolutely, I'm gonna go I'm gonna have three answers here,
each in increasing spiciness. Okay, okay, the least spicy DeAndre
aid I just think, you know, it feels like there's
probably a lot of scar tissue here and the team
really needs depth. And the role heans that he ended

(28:34):
up playing on that Suns team, uh kind of could
be replaced by you know, Jock Landell sometimes was giving
them better minutes than him. So that's my least spicy,
my medium spicy Tyler hero. I think they might be
going big game hunting for like a Kyrie I think
they knew they didn't have enough offensive talent when it

(28:57):
came to the postseason. And that's an old team that
is only going to get older. Their window is starting
to close, so I think they might try to prop
it open by chasing Kyrie. I think that Tyler hero
first round picks for someone like Bradley Beal would be
something that he would consider. I forget who reported that,

(29:17):
So this is reckless, but hey, we're talking recklessly.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
And then my spiciest take that I kind of think
might happen very Young, Well, that is spicy. I feel
like you don't leave reports about wanting to get out
like you saw reports that were like, if it goes bad,
they'll look to take offers with Trey Like, you don't
do that unless you're pretty one foot out the door already.

(29:43):
And I think we've seen with players of Trey Young's caliber,
sometimes it's better to be earlier than late in terms
of cut and bait. And you find a team that's desperate,
you chase, you know, maybe like the MAVs or someone
like that, and that's and then try to just mind
what you can out of the situation. So Drey Young

(30:03):
would be my spiciest pect.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
I mean, I would like any scenario where we don't
have to play Tree Young four times a year. That yeah,
I wouldn't be I won't be upset out with that. Gardic.
Throw me another question. What we got next? Oh?

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yeah, hey, Justin? Could I get sixty seconds of Sea Bears?

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Oh? Hell yeah, buddy and go. Only two games for
the Sea Bears since our last update, but the first
one was an important one for the Hatred in my heart.
Winnipeg versus Saskatchewan. The Battle of the Prairies was a
tight one, with the Rattlers leading by two points after
three quarters, but twenty seven points from Teddy Buckets and
twenty five points for e j Nisoke were enough to
power a fourth quarter rally, with Gelaney Watson Gale hitting

(30:41):
the Targets score game winner at the free throw line.
Then they came home for just the second time all season,
trying to keep pace with Calgary for the best record
in the league against the one in three Edmonton Stingers,
But turnovers in a terrible shooting night led to Winnipeg's
first stinker of the season, falling ninety seven to sixty
eight to Edmonton, but a pleasant surprise for you see
seeing former Cavalier Chandler Vaudron lace it up for Edmonton. Unfortunately,

(31:04):
he didn't stand out, scoring just seven points in thirty minutes.
The Sea Bears play next Thursday as they host Antoine
Broxy's Brampton Honey Badgers, when people will enter their home
matchup against the defending champs with a four and two record,
currently in a four way time for the second best
record in the league. Oh, very well done. Justin you know,
I watched a little bit of the Edmonton game. It

(31:25):
was my first Sea Bears action and I picked a
stinker man and then I eventually had to move over to,
you know, the NBA Finals. It probably probably a good
call for you, So you know, I'm not out. I
did sign up for CEBL Plus, which is free, and
I will be watching some Sea Bears this summer. Yeah,
I'm excited to have some basketball steal going on. I

(31:48):
know I'm planning on watching a little bit more WNBA
this year. Really don't feel comfortable comment on WNBA, just
because there's so many people that are so passionate about
But I've really enjoyed what I've watched so far, and
i know leak passes so affordable with the WNBA too,
so I'm looking forward to checking out those games. Man,

(32:08):
if I saw a tweet in reply to you saying
that you were ready for the sixty seconds of Sea
Bears asking for Bomberstoc, that would just go off the rails. Man,
we can't talk CFL. I know I need to have
some self control here. That's not a good part of
your brain. I don't like to encourage that part of
who you are. Our next question is who provides support

(32:29):
for this podcast, and that is, of course Zoom support
for this podcast, and the following message comes from Zoom.
Half a million businesses connect using Zoom, a single platform
for a chick phone, chat, workspaces, events, apps, and video.
Zoom enables real time collaboration for teams are on the globe.
Zoom how the world connects you swerve me, buddy, Well done.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Next question from from Cain and the Discord. NBA Twitter
loves mock trades, so we see him constantly. Josin, what
are some actual reasonable in all caps trade expectations you
have for the team this offseason.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
I'm not going to say like any players, because we
really don't know who's going to be available in the market.
But I think you just got to look at teams
that are at different points in their timeline. Like I
saw people talking about the okay See Denver trade being like,
what like a first round pick for first round pick
two seconds going the other way.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
But awesome trade for both both teams.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Made a lot of sense. Denver's trying to capitalize on
their window. Now, okay See gets a future pick twenty
twenty nine, right now is the furthest away that you
can trade a first round pick and that helps them
with future trade offers. So you know, finding ways to
get around the Steppian rule. If you have multiple first
round picks within a year, right, they can theoretically offer
more first in a consolidation trade than other teams. So

(33:47):
looking for those opportunities where two teams have different priorities,
I think it's going to be really important. Do the
San Antonio Spurs with all their young guys, maybe look
from moving on from a guy like Doug McDermott and
you have an opportunity there, or even Zach Collins because
they're drafting Wemby right, Like, maybe there's an opportunity there
to help teams get off the salary. Maybe there's all

(34:08):
those opportunities in third team trades. I don't think the
Cavs are going to be landing a lot of headliners,
right like, I don't know what opportunities are even going
to be available, But they do have some partially guaranteed
contracts guys on valuable kind of lower end deals. I
think looking at those kind of players in like the
seven to maybe even twelve million dollar range is probably

(34:31):
your best bet. I guess there's always the outside chance
of a larger sign and trade. I know Chris Fiedo
or had speculated maybe OCORL could be used in a
chip like that. I can't see anything like looking at
the free agents, I just can't see a scenario where
that makes a lot of sense. The only one that
maybe would be possible is Gary Trent Junior. But then
you look at less complicated scenarios where he can just

(34:53):
go to a team like Orlando as an unrestricted free agent,
right like, sign and trades are really really difficult to
pull up, So I think it'll probably be something on
a lower scale.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Yeah, well, I think in terms of reasonable expectations, what
I do think is reasonable is to expect the Calves
to be very, very active on the trademarket, even if
it's just swapping our eighth, ninth and tenth men for
another team's eighth, ninth and tenth men, you know, and
and and finding a team that either has different sets

(35:25):
of priorities than the Calves do right now, or have
maybe players that the Calves like that maybe they're a
little bit out on that. You know, maybe the Calves
send some of the guys that you know that the
other team likes, but they're not so hot on.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
You know.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
I think you got to really be active in look,
because the reality is this things went poorly enough in
the postseason for the Cavaliers depth pieces that you really
don't want to be like, well, we signed one free
agent and then we rolled with four or five minimum
guys and our team is different enough now, you know.

(36:03):
I mean, you might be able to do that and
it might work, but I don't think that should be
plan A. I think plan A should be let's try
to get a little you know, refresh of the surrounding
piece of the roster so we can at least put
in some competition, you know, not you know, I talked

(36:23):
on our bigs review about Dean Wade kind of just saying, like,
you know, he even though I'm not like out on
Dean Wade by any means, I don't think he has
He should go into the season as the as a
guaranteed rotation member.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
What does that mean?

Speaker 1 (36:39):
You have to find players that are good enough to
compete with Dean Wade for that rotation spot. The easiest
means to do that is going to be the mid
level exception, but it's also going to be looking at trade.
So I think Plan A should be an active team
in the trade market, you know, making a lot of calls,
getting a sense of kind of who's available on how

(37:00):
you know, ideally you get a steal like KCP for
your backup point guard high Denver. You know, where a
player is slightly undervalued because the situation they're in, and
you send players that maybe were looking better than they
should have looked because you had Nicola Jokic, which the
Cabs do not have. I can't confirm. So I think

(37:23):
activity is a fair expectation whether something happens or not.
You know, they can't just make a trade to make
a trade, But like I do think activity is a
fair expectation and activity for at least a rotation player
is a fair expectation.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, I expect them to be you know a lot
of kind of rumors and trade talks and in a
lot of these conversations, and we'll see what's possible, right Like,
it's it's possible that they're not able to accomplish every
single objective that they had in the off season, and
maybe you get like seventy percent of the way there
and you have to kind of re evaluate throughout the

(37:58):
season and continue to tinker. But I definitely expect them
to be aggressive. And Chad asks, who is the number
one realistic offseason acquisition to make US title contenders? I
don't think that that exists. As much as I am
high on the kas and that is my brand, I
think we're still probably another year away. I think that

(38:20):
the next step for this team is winning a playoff
series at least one, being really competitive, showing that they're
taking those strides, showing that their game and what they
do well translates to the postseason. I think acquiring shooting
little help, But when you're talking about the number one
acquisition that makes US title contenders, it is an evolved

(38:41):
Devin mobiley like I think it's an evolved Devan Mobile.
I think it's an evolved Darius Garland. I think it's
Jared Allen getting better and taking another step forward. I
think it's the internal growth that is going to take
us to title contenders. And maybe there are those moves
on the margins, like you mentioned Wante Morris for KCP,
Wantay Morris is a really really good backup point guard,

(39:02):
Like I think he's a great player, and that's just
one of those kind of small moves on the margins
that the fit just helped. It was just enough help
for that core of Nicola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, uh,
just the right role guys when it comes to Bruce
Barron and KCP that that helped kind of accentuate what

(39:22):
they do well. But it was the individual growth of
those three guys as well as Michael Porter Junior that
really got them that championship. And I think it's going
to be the same thing with the Calves.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, I do think there's a road to title contention
next year, but it's a pretty unlikely one and and
for this Creer Cavs team, I think it is it
would likely be an amalgamation of moves where just like Denver,
they hit you know, they they took small swings but
still managed it doubles and triples with them, you know,

(39:56):
because it's not like the Cavs have a lot of
big hacks in there in them right now from a
from a roster construction standpoint, So you're gonna have to,
like you're gonna have to get a little lucky and
in win trades or you know, like I think if
they had had a better postseason showing, you could have

(40:18):
talked yourself into the kind of things that happens for
good teams with likable young cores, where you go, you know, hey,
maybe maybe they can sell chairm me Graham coming here
and you try to do like a sign and trade
or something like that, where you like, those are like
the kind of big things. But I don't think the
vibes coming out of the postseason are good enough to
really think about any of that stuff is even marginally realistic.

(40:41):
So I think the answer is there is no move.
But if they hit three doubles with you know, and
that three no doubt rotation players that all play well
in the postseason, and all the all the current Core
guys get better, then maybe that's what it looks like.
But I just don't think there's a single move, you know,

(41:01):
even if they get all of my first choices, they're
probably not a title contender yet. I think again, if
the Knick series had gone better, if they had won
that series and then lost to a tough Heat team,
maybe we feel like they're a little closer.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
But it did not go well.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
It went very, very bad, and thus you have to
kind of you have to downgrade their trajectory just a
little bit based on how bad the first round series went.
Even if that doesn't mean, yeah, it doesn't mean I've
like given up on the Core, but like, I just
think they showed they weren't ready yet.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
No, I completely agree, And honestly, this I feel like
we're already answering one of the questions that's a little
further down from the psychopath Highrum who took a break
from conspiracy theories to ask what our perfect off season
would be or what an off season imperfect world would be.
Halima also asked the same question as well, and like,
for me, really it's finding value in the mid level exception,

(41:55):
getting a shooter there, maybe bringing back someone like Danny
Green that that can shoot, maybe finding another wing on
the trade market, bringing in a backup big like these
kind of small moves in the margins, like you said,
swinging for a single and maybe hitting a double or two.
Because if you get to the point where obviously bringing

(42:16):
back Carris Lavert, I think that's just something that we
kind of assume will likely happen. But if you bring
back LeVert, you get some growth of the starting five
and you find two more wings, whether it's free agency
or the trade market, that you feel good about in
the rotation. I think that puts you in a really
really good position. And here's a really important thing too.

(42:37):
If that's what you find, all of a sudden, you
are in a position to use your twenty twenty four
pick on someone that you plan to keep rather than
shopping that pick, which becomes really really important with this
new collective bargaining agreement having a cost controlled asset. Maybe
you draft someone that's in college for three four years. Hi,
Christian Brown, Yeah, exactly right, Like find those kind of

(43:00):
value guys in the draft. I think that that is
where you want to get to.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
So I think people are not taking a big enough
deal that Christian Brown has won a title five straight years.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Three straight state championships in high school, the NCAA championship,
and then the NBA finals. That's this man hasn't had
a bad year in five years. And I don't even
know how. I mean, how good was his freshman team,
Brian now, horrible? Man. Imagine if he had gone to
a crappy team, he would have been miserable.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
He would have dragged him to a championship. You know this, Carter.
But yeah, if if the starting five plus LeVert, so
that's six, If you go from that and you add
two more wings, maybe Isaiah Mobley steps up as a
rotation big. You find another big man, he would maybe
the bi annual exception, or maybe even a trade with

(43:56):
some second round picks or whatever the case may be.
I think all the you're in a position where you
really do have depth. You kind of do that thing
that we've seen teams do after they make a consolidation trade,
which is another transaction cycle really helps them round out
the roster, and all of a sudden, you're in that
position to start developing some other guys, picking players that

(44:16):
fit what you've kind of established what works with this team.
So I think that that would be my goal. That's
my ideal off season. No major shakeups, but that's what
I'd like to see.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah, I mean the ideal of season. I'm going to
talk in terms of kind of transactions, and then I'm
also going to talk in terms of archetypes transactions. I
think you're looking to sign a really helpful player with
the mid level and the bi annual and find one
minimum signing that is like, Oh, this guy's way better

(44:48):
than you thought, So you're looking at that. I'm hoping
they find a way to add three helpful players and
free agency and make some sort of trade. Really want
to see a lot of I want to see them
be super intentional with this roster this offseason in terms
of just adding players who fit exactly. We have an

(45:10):
entire season of data now to know exactly what this
core forard needs to thrive. So I want to see
them really try to cycle in a lot of folks
who they can fit that Bill, you know. I want
to see them add an elite shooter. I want to

(45:30):
see them add a three to four wing, big combo
that can challenge Deean wait for minutes and I want
to see them add a four to five that can
can help, that can help that that's maybe a bit
of a bruiser that can grab some offensive rebounds, spring

(45:50):
something a little different without making them sacrifice their entire identity.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Oh is that all? Yes?

Speaker 1 (45:58):
I was asked ideal? I know, I know, no and
so so so that's what That's what I'm hoping to see,
you know. And I think if they do that, then
you are not so reliant on one of your existing
role players.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
To hit.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Uh, and to really take it take a big jump,
whether it's O coral, whether it's weighed, whether it's rubio
coming back to health, I think I think if if
you managed to nail that stuff, or you know, nail
two but of three, you know, then you're feeling really
really good about where your roster is constructed, and you
know you got a chance. Uh. You know, A big

(46:37):
thing I've been talking about with kind of focusing on
the easy stuff is like I want the onus to
be on the stars. The roster has to be complimentary
enough for the stars on this team to either succeed
or fail on their own merits. I don't think that
bar was cleared last year with with who the Calves

(46:58):
were playing in the postseason, and that doesn't mean it
can't be those same players. They might just have to
play better. But like, I feel like that they have
to knock out the easy stuff and I want to
see some cycling, and you know, I think the way
the season ended warrants an aggressive mindset in the way

(47:19):
I'm talking. But again, you got to be lucky. You know,
it is so much more unlikely than likely that they
add a playoff rotation player for the minimum. You know,
like it's just like or even like a you know,
a tenth demand for the minimum that's really good and
helpful in a situation. So Away's gonna have to do

(47:40):
a good job. You know, he's gonna have to He's
going to have to hit a double or two and
also hit a single, and he's going to have to
minimize how many cuts he takes that don't make contact. Yeah,
and it's possible baseball for me, I'm sorry, Yeah, what
the hell?

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Man?

Speaker 1 (47:54):
It is summer after all.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Like, it's possible that a player that they would target
for the mid level exception isn't available to them or
goes to another team, and maybe they split the mid
level on two players that don't check every box, but
they check enough of the boxes right that where you
feel better about your ability to have options within the rotation,

(48:16):
and you know it's still going to be a work
in progress after this afseason. I don't think every box
is going to be checked, but you just want to
give yourself as many options as you can. But while
we're on the subject of team building, I really like
this question from Bill, who is referencing a Rob Mahoney
piece at the Ringer title the Denver Nuggets were built
to last. His question is I read this article and

(48:37):
I'm thinking about organizational patients. Is it fair to criticize
Kobe for not allowing his drafted core players to develop
more before going all in on a Mitchell trade. It
feels like there's a big sense of urgency to win
now after this trade. And I think it's a really
really interesting question because what we saw in the postseason
definitely kind of exposed where the guys were at interim

(49:00):
of how ready they were for that moment. But I
don't think you get that without adding Donovan Mitchell. I
think that that's really important, and when you look at Denver,
they did prioritize development. But they also did move some
young guys that weren't part of their core to bring
in vets to help accelerate the process. Right, Like, even

(49:21):
when you look at them trading, I can't believe this
was two years ago. It was in the twenty twenty
twenty twenty one season where they traded RJ. Hampton and
Gary Harris, who Gary Harris was the same age as
Lowry when we traded him. That was a guy that
you and I were both high on it at various points.
For Aaron Gordon, it took a couple of years for
that to pay off, But Aaron Gordon was the right
type of guy that helped bring their core to that

(49:43):
next level. And obviously Donovan Mitchell is a larger piece
than that. But even moving Monte Morris, moving Bones Highland,
right like moving some of the young guys.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Just about bad press or poor bones man, Oh.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
Yeah, poor poor guy. But just because you're not developing
every single one of your young players doesn't mean you're
not prioritizing player development. And I think Donovan Mitchell, even
though it ended poorly against the next I think bringing
him in was a recognition that these guys were already

(50:15):
ahead of schedule, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, Jared Allen. They
were already ahead of schedule, and they got their first
taste of what that next level is going to look like.
And just because they came up short this postseason doesn't
mean that's always going to be the case. And I, personally,
I don't have any regrets about the Donnan Mitchell trade.
I think it made a lot of sense. I think

(50:37):
the fit works well. I think the core worked really
well over the course of the season. And just because
it does kind of accelerate the timeline, the timeline's already
accelerate in today's NBA like it's I wasn't expecting to
get into this, but even people worrying about the future
with Donovan Mitchell, I think with every single player you

(50:57):
have in today's NBA, you are constantly trying to sell
them on the vision your team has that we are
going to keep getting better, that we're going to keep
being competitive. Even if a guy is one hundred percent
committed to the team they're on right now, that might
not be the case in twelve months. And I think
adding Donov Mitchell was a sign to Darius Garland, Evan Moble,

(51:17):
and Jared Allen that this team is serious about contending,
and it's also assigned to Donovan Mitchell that, Hey, the
cast team believes in me. They were willing to give
up a lot. They are committed to trying to get
better to try to win another championship. And I think
what we're going to see this offseason is the team
be aggressive and pursue every option because they are very
serious about winning a championship. And I think as long

(51:40):
as you're making those positive steps moving forward, you're going
to navigate those waters of very good players, you know,
maybe looking at other situations or you know, looking for
their best path to win a championship. You're always trying
to sell those guys that that location is where they're at,
and I think Donovan Mitchell was a big step in
that direction.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Well said, I think the only thing I'll add to
that is just that I think it's always fair to
criticize a decision because it's all based on your personal
risk tolerance. You know, this is not going to work
if the players don't do a good job developing, the
coaches don't do a good job coaching, and the get

(52:23):
in the front office doesn't do a good job finding
supplementary talent, So an all in move, if it fails,
it certainly is a splashier failure. But you know, I
mean we watched the Grit and Grind Grizzlies make I
think one conference finals and over, you know, like eight
nine years of that team, of that Courus tenure, and

(52:44):
they never made the big splash. And you know, I think,
depending on your perspective, that I think that's about as
good as you can do with it with a team
not having made the splash and not hitting that ultimate
pinnacle like in terms of the vibes. But there's a
lot of teams that, you know, like the Jazz for example,
they didn't make any all in moves with Donnie and

(53:06):
Rudy Gobert and it just fizzled out, you know. So
like I just think, like you can't play the result
here necessarily, like either the front office and the players
are good enough to win a title or they aren't.
Other than that, it's just really about your belief system
in your frankly, your willingness to accommodate stress, because it

(53:28):
is stressful to go all in. I'm certainly more stressed
about this obfseason than I would have been if they
hadn't traded for Donovan Mitchell.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
There's a reward on the other side, right if you're
paid off and yeah, or there isn't you know, this
is all hard and only one team gets to win. Yep. Yeah,
And I don't think we ever sit on this podcast
saying that everything is going to work out, right, Like
we talk about the decision making. It's all subjective. Everyone
has their team building preferences and things like that. But

(53:57):
it's to me, it's exciting, Like is stressful, as you said,
but it's exciting that this is a team that's comfortable
taking some risks and they're going to make mistakes there.
We've seen that in the past. Nobody bets a thousand
going back to baseball there. But this is a team
that has shown that they are willing to pivot. They
are willing to look at all options, right, Like we

(54:21):
had Chris Fiedor come on the podcast last summer and say, yeah,
like there's a core three. Closest thing to a fourth
member that corp is Lowry Marketing, And the only situation
where Lowry moved was to bring a fourth member of
that corps right, And I think they're going to be
diligent in exploring all options. And yeah, there there is
a risk component with all of this, but I think

(54:45):
the number one way to keep a star happy in
the NBA is showing that you're committed to trying to win,
right Like. I think that's what we've historically seen. When
teams stop spending and they stop trading picks and they
stop trying to get better, they are complacent. I think
that's when you see stars get kind of the most
upset in today's game.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Absolutely, buddy, let's get two more ink. Hayden asks possible
offseason wing targets not named Max Truce, Grant Williams or
Royce O'Neill.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
You you missed the coward. He called me a coward
at the end of the I love nice.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
I didn't have the context because you put together the run.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Now. I love that he included Royce O'Neil, who's not
a free agent. And we're just kind of a series
of season of wing targets. You guys, that's that's trade target.
Trade targets fit. I guess some of the names that
come to mind for me. Dante DiVincenzo mentioned Gary Trent
Junior as like your best case scenario sign and trade

(55:44):
kind of guy, Joey, I got a few for you, Okay,
I think you look at I think you made a
really smart point, which is, if their top targets aren't available,
they can either leave the position group altogether and you know,
try to it's like a NASA red or someone like that,
or they can split up the mid level. And I

(56:04):
think there's a lot of solid players that you could
target with you know, like eight of your eleven or
twelve million or something like that where you where you
kind of you're not paying full freight for him, but
they're interesting. Huh.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Someone whose name I'm a little surprised. We haven't heard
much around the Cavs. Bang Bang the Yang. George Yang
is an unrestricted free agent. I haven't really heard anyone
talk about him. I'm not sure he's a full.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Has been in yang guy. I'll give him some credit.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Yeah, I'm not sure he's a full mid level guy,
but I think he's definitely up there. Josh Richardson I
think also fits the bill. There was Ingles. Joe Ingles
fits the bill. So I think there are some interesting
players in that tier below Ruy. I'm sorry, not not
really Tory Craig. I think also would be a good, like,

(57:02):
you know, half your mid level kind of guy, you Dewadenabe, Yeah,
I don't know if he. I think he should be
a bi annual type of guy. I don't think even
though he had a nice stretch in Brooklyn, you look.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
At the numbers and no aig minutes guy. But I
think he's someone that I agree, like, I think that's
someone that maybe that minimum by annual.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
That's a great Dean Wade competition type of signing, you know,
like he fits that kind of bill and that you know, biannual.
So I think there's a lot of interesting players. You know,
it's weird where the middle class of this group is,
you know, kind of makes more sense, you know, like
you're kind of taking a swing on a guy like
Max Strus for the full mid level based on I mean,

(57:50):
look at how the finals went. You're kind of taking
a swing on a Grant Williams, who was out of
the rotation at times for for the ball for the Celtics.
At the full mid level. It's like the middle class
is almost a little bit more appetizing. It just kind
of comes down to from there at the top, like
how much do you believe in those guys and you know,
can you get them to come here?

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Yeah? Yeah, And there's also, as I mentioned before, the
trade targets, right, like, maybe there is an opportunity to
get Doug McDermott or who the Calves had free agent
interested in the past, and we're out bid. We'll see,
right like they're going to explore all of those options.
And I guess there's also the dark horse of Dylan

(58:32):
Brooks Carter. Oh, I'm still you know, I know it's
probably not gonna happen for a lot of you know,
for a lot of reasons. Yeah, people are sleeping on
the fact this dude was second team All Defense, Like
he is really helpful if he's just got his head
on straight. And then the one name we didn't mention
and what we'll probably end up diving into this before

(58:53):
free agency at some point, but the Kelly Youubray name
keeps a lot of Calves. Twitter loves Kelly Ubray. I'm
just not a huge fan of his game, and but.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Like this is one of those spots where it's like
it's more of a basketball taste thing than a I
think he stinks or something like that, and like I'm
always going to be more amenable to signings that conflict
with my basketball taste because it's like I just might
be judging too harshly because he's not my kind of player,

(59:26):
you know.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Judging that Warriors, he or to too harshly, which which
I am.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
I'm hard judging it very harshly.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
Yeah. Yeah. And also just the three point numbers. I
don't Yeah, it's not not not.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
My not my fit, but I get the I get
why you would think so he is a good, doubtful player.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
And also Danny Green, bring back Kenny. I'd be all
aboard on that final question from moy bing a God,
I'm MOI been my god. Okay, as a French Canadian,
this is just awful. I don't know what's wrong with me. Uh,
it's been a long podcast, so I can't talk. How
do you convince cas fans to enjoy next regular season

(01:00:09):
and block out on the noise about this year's playoff
fizzle not looking forward to a wow this doesn't matter
attitude on cast Twitter Next season, hopefully that won't be
the case. Do you want to go first, Carter, because
I think I want to ramble here I do. First
thing I want to say is love the word fizzle.
It's just a It's just a hilarious word. And we
should be working in our vocatulary much more often. Okay,

(01:00:31):
here's my case. This is this is a personal choice
of how you want to engage with the season. That
just like I feel like there is a certain subset
of fandom that likes to identify a fatal flaw. Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
They like to identify the things that will cause things
not to work out. And I think it's for two reasons.
I think reason one it's emotional hedging, and I think
reason two is it's fun to be right and it's
nice to be able to say I said that this
would doom us. And the reality is if you if

(01:01:18):
you decide to harp on that side, you are more
likely to be right than if you were to come
in looking for reasons why the team is going to
overperform their expectations. That's just how it works. Again, only
one team wins the title. So like you can choose
to experience the season that way, you can choose to

(01:01:41):
to to commiserate with folks on Cavs Twitter about the
shooting about the about the physicality for the bigs, about
you know, Donnie might go to New York or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
It might be.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
You can choose all those sorts of things, and even
if you choose not to embrace those, those might be lingering.
I mean, we talked all year about uh, the Cavs
potential fatal flaws while discussing this team. But I think
both of us, as a general practice, lean towards looking

(01:02:16):
for fun because how can this work out? Yeah? Because
the reality is for me, I on the beat being
right to having fun pendulum and sometimes they are aligned,
and those are really fun times.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
But I rather Scarland leap.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Yes, I would rather, you know, five years into doing
this podcast, I would rather live on the beat on
the have fun side. I don't think you win any
any any intellectual points for for cynicism and UH and
I and you know, I was loud wrong about how

(01:02:58):
the postseason would go, and you know, I guess it
was a little embarrassing. But like the if I spent
all year just being like, well, we're just gonna lose
in the first round, I don't know if the satisfaction
of being right would have given me much. So this
is a fan podcast first and foremost. So I always
recommend that you just take it from a space that

(01:03:20):
feels fun for you as a fan, because I think
fun should be the first priority.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Yeah, I think that's really well said. And how do
I convince Gas fans. I'm not going to really, similar
to what Carter said, We're not going to tell people
how to be fans. And honestly, like, I think what
we always try to do is honestly, I did it
too much last year. I think I just need to stop.
I think I need to stop trying to convince people
to have fun. Yeah, because it's it's so ingrained in

(01:03:48):
some people's identity to complain and some people. Yeah, people
approach fandom in different ways. There's every version of sports
coverage for every team that you could ever root for,
and it's part of a buffet, right, Like you pick
and choose what you want to listen to, what you
want to consume, and like, we're not I kind of
take pride that we're not the type of fans that

(01:04:10):
like just sit there and judge people for having Cavs
opinions that we don't agree with. Like, I think there's
some people in some spaces that'll, you know, just to
attack people for not believing in the team and oh no,
this team's built different. Like I think what we like
to do is outline concerns, outline the situation, what's realistic,

(01:04:30):
and then we always lean towards Okay, well we're rooting
for the realistic outcome that's beneficial for us. Right, Like
even with the Knick series, I think we identified concerns
going into that series that all became reality and that
was part of why they lost. But like if we
were to predict that series, like one what happened, Like

(01:04:52):
we brought up the rebounding that was a major major concern.
But if we sat here and we're like, ah, you
know what I think Donin Mitchell he's going to take
the same shots, the same kind of tough shot diet
that he usually takes, but he's going to miss them.
Evan Mobley's going to go from nineteen points per game
over the last four months to nine points per game.
Darius is going to have one of the worst games
you've seen. Like if we were one hundred percent right there,

(01:05:13):
like that would be like crazy things to admit. Sometimes
weird stuff happens in sports. Sometimes guys aren't ready for
the moment. That's not a reflection of who they are.
But I think what we'll do throughout the season is
try to look at those trends, try to look at
those macro things that we talked about all season. I mean,
look how many times we caught some flak for people

(01:05:36):
being like, oh, you're not high enough on this team,
which is hilarious because we are objectively on the optimistic
side of things. But we'll try to outline those trends
and look at, Okay, well, what could be the reason
why the Cavs lose? What could be the reason why
the Cavs win? Like, I think the rebounding trend was
something that was very concerning when we look at these

(01:05:56):
big matchups. Yeah, it might not necessarily translate to the postseason,
but I still think that there's takeaways I think we're
going to look at. Okay, is the defense that the
Milwaukee Bucks are using against the Calves something that we're
likely going to see in the playoffs, or are they
holding some stuff back. We'll try to look at those
kind of trends, and for me, yeah, there is going
to be that playoff component that we aren't going to

(01:06:19):
know about throughout the course of the regular season. But
I really love basketball, like I love this sport. I
love this game, and it's really fun for me when
my favorite team is going out there and winning a
bunch of games. And that's why I've always compartmentalized the
regular season and the playoffs is two separate entities. Because
the Calves go out there and they win fifty four
or fifty five games. Next season, we don't have a

(01:06:40):
lot of fun for a lot of nights, and yeah,
there's big questions, there's pressure, but there's pressure because this
team has real potential. This is a group that smart
people are still very high on and they've invited skepticism
with how they've played. They've invited criticism with how they've played.

(01:07:00):
But that is part of the sports ecosystem, and you
have your you have the ability to control how much
of that you consume, how much you internalize. And some
fans maybe like they protect themselves, so if they get
too high on a team and they lose, that is
a hurtful feeling, and that's why they don't go on
the optimistic side, and they look for cynicism because if

(01:07:22):
the Cats go out there and they win a championship.
The people that are being cynical, it's not like we're
going to crap all over them, like they're going to
be part of the celebration. They're going to have fun
just like every other Cats fan. At the end of
the day, we all want this team to do well.
We just it just manifests in different ways. So no
judgment here, but we're just going to keep doing what
we do. We're going to keep viewing the way that

(01:07:43):
we view it, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
And the reality is And by the way, I do
think I you know, the I still like to dunk
on the you know, like we make the Browns fan
jokes and stuff like that. Maybe maybe we should just
make us let people fan or they want a fan.
But I'll always say this to anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
The petty retweets will only be people that I'm like
somewhat familiar with.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
It's not going to be random, sure, But you know,
I think the reality is. And my advice to any
fan of anything is if you're not having fun, don't
do it. Don't bother you know, take a break, like
you know, like whether it's Marvel movies or your favorite

(01:08:28):
sports team or your favorite like you know, day to
day hobby if if if you've lost the joy for it,
like you can't just force it. It's it's not fun
or healthy. And we have so many obligations in this life.
We have so many things we have to do that
if your hobby is not fun for you for a
prolonged period of time, it might be time to look

(01:08:50):
at kind of what you're doing. It's like that what
I said to them after the after the hurt of
the posted of like if our wives had a hobby
that made them this this low, oh, we think they
were out of their minds. So, like you know, we
are already flirt with it. But if it's if you
cross that tipping point, you know, so I hope mightb
in that you have a very fun season. And if

(01:09:13):
the noise uh doesn't reflect the fun you're having, then
find different noise.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
Totally agree And to bring this full circle, as Nikoloa
Jokic said, not the most important thing in the world.
We just does not. We just happened to love it.
We happen to love this a lot, and I can't wait.
We are now in off season mode. The stress is
cranked all the way up because we're actually going to
start getting answers to these hypotheticals. So big thanks to

(01:09:39):
everyone that submitted questions. We really appreciated. Shout out to
everyone that tuned in live on YouTube. Make sure you
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(01:10:00):
appreciate it. Make sure you guys are staying safe out there.
Until next time, Go cats,