Are Donovan Mitchell & Cleveland Cavaliers real contenders? | Nerd Sesh

Are Donovan Mitchell & Cleveland Cavaliers real contenders? | Nerd Sesh

The Cleveland Cavaliers actually just beat the Clippers and they have been reeling off wins as of late 10 of their last 11 and they’ve done that without Evan Moy for all of those games until he just returned for that game against the Clippers and they’ve done it without

Darius Garland for that entire time are they a serious threat out east to you no I I I don’t I don’t really have the Cavs in my contending here since 2024 started they are 10 and2 like you noted without Mo or Garland they’re number two in defensive rating over that

Time they’re number two in net rating I mean the Cavs have been dominating but what it comes down to me is that it’s going to take what this stretch has really shown to me is that Cleveland needs to put Shooters on the floor next to Donovan Mitchell and Darius garland

That has been the most evident thing to me is that ironically without Evan Mobley great defender all-time Defender uh they’ve had more spacing right it’s been a little more open on the court and they’ve had a really hot shooting stretch they are six and three-o percentage since January 1st Dean Wade

Is shooting 47% from behind the air georgees Nang is shooting 44% Sam Merill is shooting 42% It’s like are these guys going to get 20 minutes a night during a playoff run because they’re going to get cooked on the other side of the floor if you

Really need these gu like they just need more two-way highlevel complimentary guys and to me they just it shown me that they have the propensity to get hot during a playoff run but I also saw two months of basketball before to this where all this doesn’t go together and I I don’t like

Their wing dep their size again I think Nang and Wade do one thing on the court they’re kind of big chunky guys who can shoot a little bit but they’re not athletic they’re not going to be able to defend well they’re not going to be able

To rebound well they are guys who I’m going to pick on if they are on the court same goes for Sam Merrill he can have that he on him it doesn’t matter you’re going to pick on him in the playoffs so I don’t like the wing dep or size

This has been a red hot shooting run and I still think they have issues with their starting fives construction like doesn’t this set off a red flag for you without Garland or Moy they’ve been better that’s weird man that’s weird so there’s some chemistry stuff there’s some lineup construction stuff that we

Have talked about for so long that they have to fix and they just need more two way guys Max dreu georgees Nang Dean Wade and Sam Merill are basically the same guy to me you shoot you stand there and you do this hey guys I’m open

Passing the ball let me hit a catch and shoot three that’s all they do for me I no I I I don’t maybe the Cavs win a series I wouldn’t pick him to win a series but no they’re not real contenders to me I have no Eastern Conference Finals expectations or

Anything further for them I think the Cavs are frauds I will say when you lump all those guys together stru to me is a level above I think that he’s the best defender out of that group and I think that he’s the best playmaker out of that

Group so he can have some impact even if he’s not shooting at a great clip which by the way all year it’s not like he’s been lights out from deeph but I do agree with what you’re fundamentally saying which is Max stru is not going to be the best wing on a

Team that is making a Conference Finals or a finals run in today’s NBA the league is in many ways dictated by what your wings can do on both sides of the ball attacking mismatches offensively knocking down threes defending at a high level and ideally in a versatile Fashion

On the other side of the ball and the Cavs just don’t have those dudes because they’ve built a team with two small ball handlers and on ball shot creators and with two highlevel Rim protectors who are just lacking in offensive skill and you’re exactly right Logan When You

Subtract one of those small on ball perimeter creators and you subtract one of those unskilled defensive bigs you can actually get better because they are shooting the ball better and Jared Allen has been awesome as the lone guy in his role and they’ve been a dominant rebounding team second and rebound rate

Without Evan Moy over those last 15 games and Donovan Mitchell alone has been carrying the load as a scorer and playmaker quite nicely he’s averaging eight assists per game over his last 15 so it’s just not essential to have all of their star guys out there but of

Course without one of them they don’t have enough Talent Elsewhere on the wings in those supporting roles because they’ve invested in this fourstar lineup so the fundamental limitation for me is that their offensive rating when Jared Allen and Mobley play together is 108 which maybe doesn’t sound crazy low but

That’s because offensive rating is leaps three points every year that’s seven points below their normal offensive rating which is six 16th in the league so if your quote unquote best lineup with the core guys out there who are going to make you an elite defense are one of the worst offenses in

The league you’re just not going to compete at a high level like that you have to be able to manufacture consistent good offense in the half court to contend and those two playing out there together are holding them back I do want to shout out some of their

Fines on the margins because Sam Marill legitimately has that strap on him bro 44% from Deep on eight attempts a game since Garland got hurt and he started getting more minutes 13 points per game best Mr Irrelevant since Isaiah Thomas so shout out to him now I do agree that uh he

Would be attacked and hunted in a playoff series and I don’t think he’s going to play a ton but shout out to him at least because it’s fun to watch a guy emerge like that Craig Porter Jr all year has been quite good he’s got some

Pop to him as a ball handler and streu has been playing quite well but that doesn’t really change their Outlook and so I don’t think that they’re really a threat that lack of offensive skill in the front court and that lack of really good Wings is going to be there undoing

So what do you think Logan do they need to make a major trade and if so who is the guy or the guys who need to be on the Move yeah I do and I don’t know who you choose between with Garland or Mitchell I think both of

Them are studs so I mean my odd man out would be I think it would be Jared Allen and I mean Jared Allen’s been my odd man out for the past couple years Carson we’ve been having this conversation for you were the first guy ever heard on this

Three years I mean when when they drafted Moy you said longterm Moy slides to the five you move Allen and we both thought after one year of Moy after his rookie season that was the next logical step I mean it’s just abundantly clear to me that somebody’s got to go and for

Me it would be Jared Jared’s a valuable guy he’s on a great contract like I I don’t know who the team is like I think about teams that are slight or need another five like I think about the thunder uh the only reason I say Oklahoma City is just because I think

That him and Chad could like coexist he gives you a little more size on the interior slide Chad to the four um try to get back a wing that’s the tough part is finding a team that needs that five and that has the piece that you need

Being a two-way Wing who can defend at a high level who’s long who’s athletic and who can shoot damn man OG anobi would have been awesome in Cleveland awesome would have been awesome it’s about finding that asset and I don’t know who that asset is uh because again it just

Has to line up perfectly Jared Allen’s the odd man out to me just because he’s not super young you’re not going to toss in on Moy I think Moy ceiling is way higher than Jared Allen’s and again I think that if you bit the bullet and you

Move Moy to the five I think you’d have really similar results with Moy at the five instead of having Jared Allen there uh credit to what he does Allen would be the odd man out for me and I’m just searching for that three andd wing let me ask you this is he your

Odd man out and then would you also explore splitting up this guard tandem so Allen would absolutely be my odd man out and that’s in spite of the fact that he has been playing really well lately and has probably had a better season than Mo overall I just think there’s so much

More upside with Mo and he has been disappointed in terms of his offensive progression still far from a reliable jump shooter and that is the one key that maybe could have unlocked this to Big pairing if one guy was consistently effective from the perimeter and could

Space the floor or at the very least it would just be a benefit to this offense to have another dude out there who can be a floor spacer even if it is moy at the five but I think what he does in terms of defensive versatility is on

Another level his ability to guard in space is phenomenal and offensively there’s at least the potential you’ve seen the flashes of him as a jump shooter where it’s like maybe he can get there as a playmaker I just think he has more feel he can just reach an entirely

Different level as a player than Jared Allen so yeah he is the guy who I would commit to and the two big look doesn’t work so one of them has to go and then I would just sit with that for a little bit and I would see how the two guard

Two star guard look is for a while at least because I think it’s really really hard to construct a great team defense with two small guards and maybe the only way that’s possible is if you do then have these two great defensive bigs which is always going to inhibit your offensive ceiling

So maybe it’s just not possible to construct the great all-around basketball team with two small guards in your back court but their issues really have been about offense in the playoff on last year was their offense that broke down they still had the number one defensive rating in the postseason

That’s crazy it’s crazy and they’ve been really good even in the stretch where it’s been Allen as the lone defensive big out there this year so I think that you need to have two Dynamic shot creators and maybe ideally one of them is a wing and then one of them is a

Guard but I would at least say how do things look if we move off of Allen our offense is immediately going to be better how good can we be defensively they need a big Wing who has some offensive skill it’s a specific archetype uh that they’re going to need

Alongside Mobley and Moy holding down the five and maybe there’ll be some bumps and bruises right there’s a couple matchups in which he can get bullied he’s got to be I would say more physical and assertive on the glass than he was in last year’s postseason but you just

Have to go away from this to big setup and I would not be in a rush to break up Mitchell and Garland there are some redundancies there but they’re two great offensive players they’re two Bonafide young stars and if you can’t make it work I think you got to at least give it

A bit more of a trial run

The nerds discuss whether Donovan Mitchell & the Cleveland Cavaliers are true contenders, and if it’s necessary for them to trade either Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley.

Listen to our podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nerd-sesh/id1510923608

Follow us on social media:
IG/TikTok: NerdSesh
Twitter: Nerd_Sesh

Shop the hottest gear in all of sports podcasting: https://thevolume.com/shop-all-new

Learn more about The Volume:
https://www.thevolume.com