Can the Cavs still win a Playoff Series? The Junkyard Pod – A Cleveland Cavaliers Podcast (NBA)

Can the Cavs still win a Playoff Series? The Junkyard Pod – A Cleveland Cavaliers Podcast (NBA)

Mitchell has his head up Tak get that we Stu out of Here welcome to the junkyard pod I’m your host Tony pesta joined once again by my co-host Jackson Flickinger and just to provide an update on our third co-host Cory Walsh he is still very much alive he’s still kicking he’s still part of the Pod uh he’s recently bought a new

House and has a lot of other things going on he’s rooting for the Celtics of course as we all know he’s the biggest Boston Celtics fan so Cory will be back when he’s available for now you’re stuck with me and Jackson I actually want to start off by just tossing the ball to

Jackson and letting him go ISO because as a longtime supporter of a certain Sam Merill I think he has earned this Victory lap so Jackson take the stage thank you thank you and just to take the listeners behind the curtain here uh Tony the other day was pitching me on

Ideas for segments for the Pod and I and I said Tony why don’t we do the Sam Merill minute and Tony said yeah we’ll do that and then he he never he never gave me the chance so we forgot and but he keeps doing these tweets of the week

So it’s not like he’s not listening uh and this week it’s a truly awful tweet so um keep that in mind uh you have that so um anyways like so the biggest thing about the Sam Marill thing is that it really showed me that nobody values my basketball takes because I have been

Telling you guys that Sam Merill is good at basketball for a while and then people were just like yeah yeah you know whatever and every time he got he got into the game or made one three in like a couple minutes people would just text

Me and say oh you must be so happy you must be a proud dad and it’s like well I’m happy because everyone likes to be validated it but it’s like he’s just good at basketball like he does good basketball things and when he plays he does more good basketball things he’s

Somebody who just needed a chance to show what he could do on a consistent basis and he’s never gotten that and now that he’s getting that you can see what he can do like any shooter Some Nights the ball’s not going to be going in you

Know we saw that with Kyle corver you know you’d get Kyle corver games and then the next game he’d go you know over for six and he’d spend more time on the bench than not and that’s kind of how Sam Sam Merill is when he was with the

Charge those games he would just stay out there and still do other things besides shoot but with the Cavs he’s not going to you know get extended run during those minutes but when he has it going he’s an absolute Game Changer and that’s what we saw you know we saw that

In overtime against the Hawks where he broke the game open and then also just made things so open for everybody else and then you know his 27 points against the Jazz you know that’s like when he has it going that’s the type of game that he can have because he’s he’s an

Absolutely lethal shooter money Merill is as legit as it gets uh right now well prior to yesterday’s game he was shooting a team High 45% now Isaiah Moy has taken that Crown because he made a three-pointer last night and he’s one for two so technically he’s shooting 50%

But for all intents and purposes Sam Merill is leading the team with a 45% clip from downtown he’s shooting 47% on catch and shoot three-pointers which is the 10th best in the NBA for a minimum of 50 attempts he’s also eighth out of 200 NBA players to attempt 63p pointers

Or more he is eighth in percentage so there’s no doubt about it that he can shoot the ball I think you know every other Cavs fan might have been surprised to see Sam Merill take the stage but Jackson wasn’t because Jackson has been calling this for at least a year now he

Saw it this was just part of the vision for Jackson and so you definitely deserve the Victory lap there um but Sam Merill I mean his gravity just creates openings we saw it in the Utah game there was a couple plays I know Tristan Thompson got a a wide openen dunk just

Because two jazz players jumped out to guard Sam ml I believe Caris lever got a wide open three through the same type of play and he’s just he’s a smart basketball player not only is he a great three-point shooter but he knows how to use his gravity as a weapon to open up

Things for other people and even on the defensive end he’s smart enough to stay in position and not really get put into these weird situations where he’s getting punished for his lack of size or athleticism he’s just a smart basketball player and that’s why he’s able to be an

Impactful guy uh during this stretch where the Cavs really need someone to step up so one of the things that I think is really interesting is that like I feel like everyone goes on like everyone who sees samural play a lot of basketball they kind of go through this

Like cycle so like when I first started you know he came to the charge at the beginning of last year he was the number one pick in the g-league draft and the g- League’s weird so like the g-league draft Works basically like guys who get

Cut uh at the end of training camp they enter like this pool uh and the charge had the first pick because they were truly awful the year before uh and they selected Sam Marill um so like I didn’t know anything about Sam Merill before

Uh he came to the charge I knew that he was the last cut for the Kings uh Mike Brown decided to go with um Matthew delova instead um which is a very Mike Brown thing to do but like so I didn’t know anything about him and when you

First watch him play you’re like um when you first see him on the court you’re like okay he’s just like the typical shooter he’s just going to do like shooter things he’s going to space the floor he’s going to get taken advant of on defense cuz he’s not like the biggest

Guy he’s not the fastest guy he probably can’t really like take it to the basket and then you’re like okay well like the shooting is real and then you see the movement you’re like well he gets it off so quick but he just has it going tonight and then the more you see

Him the more you see that like even when he doesn’t like have it going for like a 27o night he’s still like I think that I think the game against the trail Bladers was a good example of this and Donovan Mitchell talk about afterwards how how mad Sam

Was because he missed his first couple shots he’s somebody who he can come in not really like like Miss a couple shots and then like it can just start to snowball so like that so like that first quarter against um against the Hawks sorry I was blanking on the name of the

Team the first quarter against the Hawks like he misses first two threes it looked like okay well he doesn’t have a going tonight and then the beginning of of the second quarter he hits three threes in like three minutes and then that’s like nine points that just kind

Of changes the momentum of a game and that’s the type of player that he is that he’s a he’s somebody who needs to be in in a rhythm and once he gets into that Rhythm he can just change the game there were so many games with the charge

Where he’d finish with 17 points and he’d have you know 12 of them within like a two-minute span and those 12 points those four threes just absolutely change the game and then after that the defense is just overreacting to every movement that he makes which just makes

It so much easier for everybody else to play I really want to see him play When the Cavs have both of their centers like I want to see him it’s great to see him you talked about Tristan um getting a wide open dunk there I’d like to see him

Play in second unit lineups with Moy or Allen where you know there’s a couple times where Tristan got it on the roll and like the defense shifted over to kind of contest him at the rim and Tristan is not really an above the finisher um but like if you have Allen

If you have mobl those late contests they’re finishing through that are drawing fouls so like I just want to see Sam play with a more complete team and I want to see him keep getting those minutes and runs because sometimes he’s just not going to have it you play him

For four four or five straight minutes he just doesn’t have it it’s not worth keeping going down that road but it’s like when he does have it or when you kind of sense that little spark that he’s going to provide it’s like keep him out there you know he’s not taking like

He’s putting more on the table than he’s taking off I do want to go back to that point you made about Merill building a rhythm because I think you really saw that in the Utah game where I he had five three-pointers in the first like 12

Minutes in that game of his playing time and it starts off with you know wide open Catch and shoot Corner three which I haven’t checked recently but I know he was shooting 60% on corner 3es to start the year it’s very low volume of course but he’s just a lights out shooter and

He he hit like those first two easy shots and then all of a sudden you see him pull one off the dribble with the defender right in his face and it’s like when he builds that confidence all of a sudden defense is recognized very quickly that hey this guy can shoot the

Ball that’s why in the second half of that game there were so many openings because even something as simple as just slipping a screen and and popping out to the three-point line causes two Defenders to go after him even if it’s just a half second of indecision from

The defense that gives the other guys on this team the half step Advantage they need to make something out of it and so that’s where a guy like Sam Merill becomes very valuable I do want to talk about the rotation and so I think this is a good transition into our tweet of

The week because look no I’m the biggest aoro fan that you know okay but this tweet this is a scorching hot take that burned my eyebrows off so so the take is hot take or not aoro needs to be starting over Max stru the reasons he gives us more playmaking better defense

S inside the paint overall will help you start the games out better now like I said I’m the biggest aoro fan that that’s on Earth but I’m just going to say no to all of that um I think I’ve been pleased with the way aoro has been

Playing I do think he has been offering some playmaking but I still think maxre gives you more of that I think his two-man game with the bigs even if it’s just him and Al is very very useful and much like Sam Merill uh maxre uses his off ball

Gravity in a way that is playmaking in a sense he’s creating plays for other people just by being out on the floor and again something as simple as setting a ghost screen and giving Donovan Mitchell a halfstep Advantage those are the things that Max shw provides that

Aoro just can’t um so I already know how you feel about this Jackson but this is our tweet of the week how is it a hot take to you um yeah yes it is and I kind of get like expecting more from Max dreu because Max dreu like he’s not as good

Of a three-point shooter as you would hope that he is if that makes sense uh he’s currently a 35% three-point shooter which isn’t you know it’s not like phenomenal but he’s somebody who does a lot of things well and he has a he has a very well-rounded game in a way that um

This Tweeter does n uh truly see I don’t think uh especially when you’re talking about playmaking because streu is somebody who’s who operates with the ball a lot more especially like like Isaac when he’s operating with the ball it’s usually like Quick Cuts and his playmaking is like okay the big stepped

Up I’m going to dump it off to Allen whereas stru is somebody who’s actually right he can bring the ball up the court things like that and his shooting is a lot more valuable like even yesterday he missed he was he was bad from three he was like two for 10 or

Something like that um but still it’s like that volume of Threes is something that’s really important for this team obviously that volume is pretty high because there’s no saml Garland Mitchell but it’s like that’s still just kind of gets the offense flowing um so yeah I

Mean it’s a bad take but it happens to the best of us uh I do I do just want to take a very brief moment to say cororo I think has been playing pretty well in the five games since he’s been starting he’s averaging rounding up here 13

Points five rebounds five assists on 58% shooting from the floor and 50% uh shooting from the three-point line forus low volume of course uh you still want to see like he’s not going to be doing this when the team’s fully healthy and everyone’s available it’s going to be a

Way more limited role for him but I think this is one of those uh one of those moments where you get a little glimpse into what a normal developmental path could have been for a quo had the team not accelerated the timeline so quickly um and at the very least I think

It’s reassuring to see him continue to take these very small steps forward and show that there is a little bit of hope there’s still more that you need to see if he’s ever going to be a true like a guy who you can put on the floor in the

Playoffs but as the as one of the biggest aoro fans I’ve been glad to see him uh ramp up his usage a little bit here in the five game since the team has been decimated by injury I think this little stretch kind of just shows how

Like it more frustrates me than it does encourage me um if that makes sense because he is playing good it just he’s getting his points and he gets his assists off of like very specific spots on the floor and like very specific moves we kind of just talked about like

Max Drew’s kind of like a complete basketball player like Isaac okoro is not a complete basketball player but he has the skills to be a compl complete basketball player and this is kind of like the conversation that we keep having it’s like yeah he shoots this

Well from three it’s like okay well he’s shooting in one spot and he’s only shooting off the like he’s only shooting catch and shoots mostly he had that one little jab step missed three yesterday um but it’s mostly like just catch and shoot stuff it’s mostly like his cuts

Are mostly coming like Corner attacking close outs things like that and it’s like I just want to see him like play basketball like I want to see him operate above the break I want to see him run a pick and roll I want to see him like do things like that I don’t

Know if he’s just not good enough at basketball if he’s not like if he doesn’t have the confidence in himself to operate in those areas if he’s being told to just kind of specialize in these certain things because it’s like one of the things especially with this scavs

Defense is I don’t want to take anything away from ao’s defense but the way the Cavs play defense and the amount of overh helping that they do they overh help on every single drive it doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter if you wall off your guy Allen’s still coming over Mo

Still coming over everyone’s still rotating it’s not like it’s not like the Celtics who like okay let’s like switch this all right like we trust you to like we trust you Jaylen Brown to have your guy and we have everybody else so like if you’re playing kind the kind of

Defense the Cavs are what’s the difference between like Sam Merill just kind of staying with his guy and getting blown by and Isaac ooro staying with his guy much better but the defense is still rotating over it just feels like they’re not getting the most out of him on both

Ends of the court I actually do agree with that on both ends of the floor I think like one of the problems with their defense last year and especially in the playoffs with kind I know maybe aor wasn’t fully healthy I’m not sure exactly what happened there but when you

Put jedy out there and you’re overh helping it’s like I just feel like in that series you could have put a qu on Brunson and just said hey we trust you as a Defender do your absolute best we’re going to mostly stay home we’re not going to overh help because we need

To focus on crashing the glass defending the three-point line whatever it may be that was a trend that they did all last season where even if aoro was Walling off his man as you said Allen’s still coming over Mo’s still coming over you’re seeing that happen with basically

Every player on this team and so is it a coaching thing is it I I’m not really sure and then on the offensive end the same question can be asked is it a matter of aero’s confidence that he only operates in these very specific roles or

Is it coaching I’d have to imagine it’s maybe a mixture of both when you look at other NBA teams and any like comparable player to a quo like those guys handle the ball still they still get to run and pick and roll they still get to dribble

Above the Break um even like Marcus Smart is someone who I I could think of like even in his earlier Seasons he would still shoot off the dribble three-pointers like how many off the dribble three-pointers has a quo attemp from above the break in the last few

Seasons I’m going to guess it’s not very many I I do question as much as I would like to see aoro stay in Cleveland I do question how much different and how much better potentially he could look in a different situation with a different roster around him and a different role

I’m not saying he would be an All-Star by any means but I think maybe his developmental path would make a little more sense than how it currently looks do you want to guess how many shots aoro has taken this year that either above the break mid-range anything that’s not

The rim or Corner threes going to say 15 22 okay which which is wild because like that’s what’s that’s what’s frustrating and that’s where if he does go somewhere else which I’m somebody mentioned this today that like with his little shoe deal that like Isaac is very concerned about like money

I think like I don’t think he’s going to turn down like if you know let’s say the Spurs offered him more money I feel like he would go right and that’s not saying that he shouldn’t I’m just saying that like I we could be in a situation where

We could see him Blossom elsewhere and I really wouldn’t be surprised because he has the skills was that a potential H Flickinger firebomb there aoro to the Spurs this Summer that was not that was not I was just breaking news no you mentioned Jetty earlier I have Jetty on

My mind all the time just because he’s gone doesn’t mean he’s forgotten so you know that’s I do have another question uh slated for later in the PO but let’s officially make this uh transition here to talk about the Cavs rotation because I do think once this team is fully

Healthy they have some interesting questions they need to address so pulling up minutes distribution here just so we can look at it as we talk and the main question that I want to ask here is Who belongs in the8 to 10 man rotation now I think JB probably he he

Likes to run that eight-man rotation I don’t know if this is just a a losing effort to say that I would like to see him expand it a little bit to 10 but if you were going to go 8 to 10 people deep who do you play I think for me I’m

Almost convincing myself that you run the starting five you have Carris lever the Sixth Man and then for those next couple spots I’d go maybe go smaller maybe go a coral Sam Merrill and then maybe you play Dean Wade and Tristan Thompson as your front Court players and

Like this is kind of the question that I I feel like I know where you’re going to lean on this but are we getting to the point where like when this team’s healthy do way and Thompson deserve those minutes over neang does he really belong in this rotation especially as

You get closer to crunch time I’m interested to hear what you think this rotation should look like if it was up to me I would have the Cavs go small like entirely small so like I would like when fully healthy I think I think you can really only go eight guys

Comfortably with the amount of minutes that your top four get umh and I would probably just go like you’re starting five and then Levert Isaac and then depending on the game I’d probably go yeah depending on the matchup just because it’s like if it’s a bigger team

Uh and you kind of need a little bit more than Dean but like I wouldn’t give either a him really Long Leash cuz I feel like I feel like you know pretty quickly like okay this isn’t a Dean Wade game um or like this isn’t a game where

Dean Wade feels like he really can shoot the ball or like is confident in a shot enough to kind of take shots when guys are closing out on him you know for like Sam Merill if you play him for five minutes and you’re just not seeing it

It’s like okay put in put in Dean Wade because Dean Wade’s providing something else I agree and also I want to just just to your point that you were making I think you could even throw a cororo in there just because like Sam and Dean are three-point Shooters rhythm is very

Important for a player like that aoro is the kind of guy you could just put in like he doesn’t even play in the first half put him in the third quarter and you’re basically fine he’s going to go in there and play hard play defense of

Course you want him to be able to knock down the open shots but I think that’s a potential Advantage you could have if you have a cororo in your rotation um but go ahead continue yeah I just think that like this team has a bunch of guys

Who are Specialists and not exactly like great you know like you don’t have a bunch of guys who are like you can’t keep player X off the court you know like it’s not like you know we we talked about Isaac but he’s it’s not like he’s

Like yeah you can’t keep him off the court and like even Caris silver is not somebody you’re like well you just can’t keep him off the court because he’s so good and it’s like if you don’t have those guys then it’s like but you have depth pieces it’s like why don’t you

Roll them out there and even if it was like a matchup where you’re like we need somebody bigger out there and like Dean Wade doesn’t have it throw Nang out there like have quick you know like have tight leashes with these guys because there is enough guys out there like

Where you can do that so that’s that’s kind of what I hope to see and I know that in like the regular season JB really tries to keep it like he tries to keep things as predictable as possible and I know that guys like appreciate the straightforward approach but I think

That really came back to bite him in the playoffs because you saw like like I forget what it was was like that Jetty Osman with the top four players had only played like 40 possessions or something like that all very small when it came time to adjust

It was too late they hadn’t they didn’t have the Reps under their belt to be able to do that like literally they hardly ever played together so it’s like I would like to see varied lineups and stuff like that and varied like let’s see how this all works

Together like oh maybe if you put you know know Mitchell Garland and Merill together maybe that just opens up everything entirely for that group maybe you get Garland moving more you get Mitchell moving more off ball you know like the matchu effect times 10 almost because stru is as you said earlier not

As good of a three-point Shooters you kind of feel I don’t want to get too high on Sam Merill off the Jump here but like maybe you put Sam Merill in there and it really does open the floor the way that you wanted stru to right yeah and it’s it’s very different because

Like likeu adds a lot say Max dreu is a very well-rounded player and like we talk about Merill being well-rounded but we mean like he’s well-rounded enough that when his shots falling he can play because like he’s one of the like his shot difficulty he’s one of the best Shooters alive it’s just

That if he was 67 like Kyle like Kyle corver he would be a very useful player but he’s not 67 yeah I agree I think this is the time to experiment especially with all these injuries you really you got to start getting grade here and I think JB has done a decent

Job of that I think everyone has gotten a crack at the rotation here we’ll see how that continues as the team gets healthy I do want to give a quick shout out to Dean Wade 13 of 21 from downtown over his last four games I would say

This is the most confident I’ve seen him in a very long time maybe ever um as always you never want to get too high on Dean Wade because you you just never know but if he really does kind of settle into this consistent Rhythm and

He can you know space the floor pop out hit those threes he’s one of their only switchable Defenders that would be huge for this team team and I do want to just ask this question because I really it’s something that I was thinking about as much as I you know try to defend

Nang if it was a playoff series again would you would you give Tristan minutes over him I think I might at this point I really Tristan has been very impactful and he obviously brings a completely different skill set but I was just thinking like if it comes down to it we

Need a backup big in the playoffs are is he going to turn to Nang or would I rather just have Tristan out there trying to grab rebounds I know this is a very pointless question to ask but I just think kind of a weird fun this

Isn’t this isn’t a question to ask me cuz I’m I’m just I know where you’re going I’m not the biggest I’m not the biggest nank fan and I think his so like his shooting is very valuable and stuff and I think he does provide some things on the offensive end

But like I don’t really view him as a stretch four in the way that like you would view like a Channing fry or Kevin Love just because he’s not providing that rebounding and he’s not providing a lot of like size or anything inside so like obviously like chaining fry wasn’t

A matchup for every s for for every series because he had limitations but like he has way less limitations just because he still was a big body whereas like Nang is just he nang’s a big body he’s a big body but he doesn’t get rebounds like he’s a big body so I

You’re telling me this guy doesn’t have a big body throwing it around you know what that’s that that is a poor word choice what was that shot attempt this is a very graceful basketball player that’s a great Drive there’s 17 seconds on the shot clock yeah that’s you know

That’s been the problem with the Yang is just I feel like he rushes his shot and the whole reason I brought up that uh Tristan question is because when you think back to the offseason I think it’s just if you told me that I would even be

Questioning are we going to play Tristan Thompson in the playoff series over George Nang I would have been like no way now I think it’s kind of maybe you w’t play either of them in a playoff right I don’t think you would play either unless things went bad like if

You were playing the Knicks again from last year you would throw Tristan Thompson in the game and say please trist he would been great help us I thought that was a funny a funny thought that crossed my mind and hey you know what if you do like George Nang

Like our our favorite Twitter user Nang Ms V George Nang I do want to move ahead and oh we I do want since we’re talking about the rotation I do want to mention Ricky Rubio there’s a report here recently so Rubio has been away from the team focusing on his mental health and

It sounds like the Cavs and Rubio are having discussions and trying to figure out a way to potentially move on it looks like Rubio is considering ending his basketball career so I do just want to take a very brief moment to say Ricky Rubio hell of a career he brought a lot

Of Joy to the basketball World especially to Cavs fans that season 2021-22 he really delivered some of the best moments that we’ve seen in a long time for the Cavs so I’m wishing him nothing but the best and I hope that whatever he chooses to do after basketball brings him nothing but joy

And happiness one of the things that’s crazy when you talk about Rubio is it seems like he’s somebody who oh yeah he played for multiple years for the Cavs and he was great he only played uh from the beginning of the season to about right now so like he only played like he

Didn’t was it like a we’re just over like a third of the way through the season season something like that so he’s I think that just kind of shows like how big of an impact he made in his time and just how important he was to

Like changing the view of this team um so you know thank you thank you for all of that Ricky Rubio that’s great um and you know we hope that this gets resolved in a way that’s best for everyone now let’s move into our last topic here and

Since we are coming down I can’t believe 2023 is already almost over figured why not talk about 2024 I’m not sure if we’ll have another pod before the new year or not so I figured why not let’s talk about the upcoming year and what to really expect so there’s a couple things

Here that we want to discuss first off let’s take a look at the standings the Cavs right now 16 and 13 they’re a game back from the four seed which um if we’re setting expectations for what we want to see in 2024 I want to see them

Get in F four or five matchup um do you think they can avoid the playin let’s start there I think they can like their schedule is going to going to to lighten up some um they I mean they need Donovan Mitchell back so whatever whatever whatever illness he has that needs to

Stop um but provided that they do get Donovan Mitchell back soon I think they have a good chance of at least being in the four or five They Don’t Really they can’t get to the three anymore which I think was a goal I mean we thought that

They could be one of the top seeds yeah well we didn’t we didn’t see the Celtics playing like this I mean yeah when we when we when we made those predictions I don’t even think they had made the true Holiday trade yet so so yeah but um but I think like they should

Be able to avoid that at the very least get the six seed and I think if you got the four five obviously last year they were the four seed and they just got run off the court but if you get the 4 five matchup still favorable position you

Should have a chance to win you know if you if you are in the playin you you are not going to win in the first round um yeah so I mean if you’re if you’re matching up against Boston or Milwaukee in the first round maybe you get lucky

And when one of those teams are dealing with injuries um then the door opens up but that’s not ideal even the Sixers at the third seed if you’re if you’re the six seed that would be a very tough matchup for the Cavs getting into that four five I think it’s very realistic I

Wouldn’t guarantee it but I think it should be their goal right now especially if you get to that four seed um home court advantage again of course obviously it didn’t work out last year but that’s a good position to be in um I will note that the magic um hold on I

Had it up here real quick they are two and six over their last eight eight games they’ve been dealing with a little bit of injuries and and some you know difficult schedule but it’s possible that maybe they’re going to be one of those teams where in like November

You’re like oh my God the magic are so good and then you look back and it’s like oh they’re playing team so we’ll see if maybe they come back down to earth I do think the magic are a pretty fun team though so I’m not I’m not

Hating on the magic I’m just saying maybe the Cavs will be able to sneak in there I think it’s a pretty like there’s a lot of bums in this conference for lack of a better way of saying it like after you get past the first three

You’re looking at the magic who were an unproven team and I think they still need like they remind me of the Cavs from 2021 2021 we said and like the Knicks the Mitchell Robinson injury just happened yeah they’re team that relies on everybody the heat they do not care

About this regular season um and then you have the Cavs and then you have the Pacers who have like the worst defense ever constructed and then you have the Nets which I don’t trust at all and then you have the Hawks which have the second worst defense ever constructed but they

Don’t have the best offense so it’s like and then nobody past the Hawks is like oh filing that’s why I didn’t even that’s why I cropped him out right so it’s like you’re getting like the Cavs haven’t played the Wizards yet they haven’t played the Hornets yet you know

It’s like yeah the Cavs have one of the I think top five easiest schedules remaining the Bulls are playing a little better so I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if they lost on uh Saturday um the Bulls are playing better but it’s like there’s not a lot of good teams there and I

Think we were kind of expecting the conference to be just a little deeper so it’s like there’s a huge opportunity if the Cavs just kind of stabilize some like even if they were to go 500 until Garland came back they would be in perfect position to start rattling off wins so I’m not

Like like before the season we were very bullish on the regular season chances I’m not bullish on the regular season chances but like if they didn’t get the four five I think I’d be pretty disappointed yeah so I think you know that our goal really and you mentioned

This on the last pod we were basically like hey the regular season doesn’t matter for this team I think we were expecting it to be a little more easygoing than it has been but really all of our Focus was on the playoffs I think we if I I remember correctly we

All had basically the same goal of like they need to either win a playoff series or be very competitive in the playoffs you know you kind of need to see that this team has somewhere to go there’s somewhere to go up from here um so just

Looking at this just for fun you look at the magic the Knicks the heat if they get into that four five matchup who do you want who do you see them having the easiest time beating I’m going to take this in a little bit different direction

Uh maybe not the best chance but I think the Sixers are low key a pretty decent match up for the Cavs um just cuz the Cavs have two guys they can throw on and beid they have they can absorb fouls against him and they don’t like you’re

Getting in the playoffs and one of the things that we see in the playoffs with him beat is that they don’t give him the same whistle that they do in the regular season so I think that they’re a team that like if the Cav matched up against

Them I wouldn’t be like oh the C have a chance like if they went up against the Bel the bucks or Celtics today I wouldn’t really like their chances um but like in that but in that match up i’ be like you know this could this could

Be something so I’m with you there so I obviously I would rather I’d rather them play the Pacers you know or like yeah or like the ma or like the magic like I think that would be much better but you know I think I would go if I had to rank

I would go magic and then Nick just cuz you know know that Mitchell Robinson that’s a would be a game changer uh if he’s not able to go um and then and then the heat just because they just have another gear for some reason every year

Jimmy Butler has another gear and I just don’t like I don’t like the small back court going against an Eric spolit team and then they you have a small back court and you have a pretty um not skilled front court so it it just seems like something that Eric spoler would

Just put him in hell so like I just I would rather not see that so I think the Cavs are obviously if you play in a regular season I’m not too concerned about a regular season matchup but like the playoffs I’d rather not see that yeah I I agree with everything you

Said there the last thing that I want to hit on very quickly just because it’s fun everyone loves to hear about it the deadline’s coming up in February do we think any move gets made could it be this is the aoro question I wanted to add could it be aoro continues this kind

Of hot streak if you want to call it that and makes gives himself some sort of trade value do they move from him do they move Levert I think as I’ve said a few times I’m sure on this pod the biggest move that I could realistically see them making would be moving Jared

Allen but I don’t think that’s going to happen I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to shake this Supporting Cast up a little bit but is there any move out there you don’t have to give me a specific Target but just look looking at this bench or even one of the bigger

Names do you think the Cavs get active on the deadline or they kind of sit put again I think they’re going to try to do something with that contract uh for Rubio that they have um I think they’re going to try to do something but I don’t

Know if they’re going to do anything major you can convince me that somebody has something for okoro that they want just because he’s somebody that I think they could move whereas like you know where maybe they get something back like a better ball hand ER or something like

That that allows lever to play more off ball um like the biggest problem with we talked about this all last year um the cas you trade Caris LeVert what do you need for a Caris LT trade well you need a better Caris LeVert and who wants to

Give up a better Caris LT for Caris LT so those are kind of like the ways it could go I don’t think you can’t you can’t trade Jared Allen this season just because you don’t have any depth in the front Court we just talked about Tristan

Thompson like and with the Moy injury if you if you move Allen and you’re not sure Mo’s available that’s just a death sentence so I think it’s a lot easier to reconfigure everything in the off season like I think they should have gone out ahead of like if you’re going to move

Off and JB do it in the offseason if you’re gonna break up the Moy Allen pering do it in the offseason don’t like give yourself as much of a Runway as possible with Mitchell to try to make it work um but they didn’t do that so then

It’s like I don’t think doing it in February is going to change anything so yeah I’m with you and if I recall that Yahoo sports uh story that came out recently suggested that the Cavs are still very confident in the core that they have I think even JB’s job uh was

Reported to be pretty much safe for now seems like they’re going to roll the dice this season and you know I still think there’s a reality where they play Above 500 basketball you get Garland and Moy back February March Give Them Enough of a Runway to ramp up for for the

Playoffs maybe you’re in that four five matchup maybe you’re facing the magic and you managed to get a first round Series win one thing I will say is that if the Cavs were to trade Jared Allen I do think the Pelicans are kind of the team that he would go to they’re the

Team that you keep hearing about and I I think there’s a reason why and like yesterday before the game David Griffin was there um so shout out to him um but he was there and just talking with Kobe for like an hour before the game like

For an hour up so like they’re good friends and stuff like that and like after the game Griffin was walking through the C loock room and stuff so like not saying that like oh that means a trade’s coming but more so like they have a really good relationship and when

You have a really good relationship with somebody it’s a lot easier to kind of like make these deals work there’s there’s a there’s always an open dialogue where something could get done yeah I agree I I don’t think Allan I don’t think they make any major moves at

The deadline um I would expect if anything happens to be in the off season if I had a wish list and I’m sure that we’re going to talk more as we get closer to the deadline I’m kind of back on the Move Levert train I do think if

If there was some a moveie Sur is over it might be but you know you run into the same problem every time that you just mentioned it’s like who do you get back from him so I’m sure we’ll talk more about that as we move through January and February it also hurts that

Craig Porter Jr has looked like a rookie recently cuz they need a backup point guard and I just Levert this is probably a topic for another day but like Levert not taking I don’t like Backup backup point guard the verb no and I don’t

Like he was in a good role last year and that role just isn’t there anymore I don’t know and it’s it’s not like they had a backup point guard they trusted last year so it wasn’t like and the the Tai Jerome injury doesn’t help I don’t I

Don’t know exactly where I stand on Tai Jerome but that’s an that’s an Avenue that you haven’t been able to explore that you know people it seemed like the cows were really thrilled the way he was playing in training camp which I mean you hear that every year about the

Various players the dyl special but you know like if Ty jome was healthy and available and he was playing good it makes moving away from Caris LeVert a lot easier because then now you don’t need to replace Levert with Levert you can replace with something else but these are questions that probably get

Addressed in the upcoming offseason as we both said maybe the just absolutely love Isaac okoro they said we want to pair Patrick Williams with Patrick Williams light give us Caruso please yeah that’s that’s not going to happen maybe maybe that’s what they think maybe on draft night they were really going

Back and forth between two and they said we do anything to get our hands on Isaac aoro who knows we can only hope that’s going to do it for this episode of the junkyard pod I want to wish everyone a happy holidays I want to say thank you

To everyone who watches and listens to the podcast we really do appreciate it please consider subscribing and go Cavs I agree go Cavs Brian feel free to correct Us

What goals should the Cleveland Cavaliers have for 2024? Does Sam Merrill belong in the rotation full-time? Who else needs to receive minutes?

Time Codes:
– Merrill Mania (1:00)
– Tweet of the Week (9:45)
– Who cracks the rotation? (18:15)
– Ricky Rubio news (26:50)
– Preview 2024 (28:20)

This episode of The Junkyard Pod is hosted by Tony Pesta and Jackson Flickinger.

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