Why isn’t Donovan Mitchell getting more MVP hype & will the Cavaliers make a trade at the deadline?

Why isn’t Donovan Mitchell getting more MVP hype & will the Cavaliers make a trade at the deadline?

What is up ladies and gentlemen welcome to the second episode of the ultimate Cav show Mikey McNuggets Jason Lloyd is Donovan Mitchell legitimate MVP candidate will the cby buyers or sellers at the deadline plus who has been the biggest surprise of the season in 2023 2024 for your Cleveland Cavaliers will

Answer all those questions coming up on the ultimate Cavaliers Show And we are back Jason Lloyd Mikey McNuggets here Jason how you doing the first episode was a success I’m glad you’re back for round two clearly they should be sellers right they have no chance of winning anything sell them all Trey Donovan I’m kidding I’m kidding

Guys gez there is the Grinch as always coming in hot uh we got a couple things we’re going to talk about this is also our first LIVE edition of the ultimate Cleveland Cavaliers show which means we are still kind of learning some of the features in this system so we got the

Live chat going we’re going to try taking some questions at the end I have some videos and some stats I may throw up so bear with us if it gets all convoluted and confused and you see something pop up on it’s not supposed to we are a work in progress as we continue

To try and give you some team specific content moving forward let’s start with our first topic of the day though Jason the Cleveland Cavaliers have won 14 of 15 and the NBA released its MVP ladder nba.com does that weekly and Donovan Mitchell was not in the top five he was

Not in the top 10 he was in the others receiving votes category and I’m gonna be honest it kind of pissed me off it really did usually I don’t get offended by mid-season award list and all that but here are the 10 candidates who nba.com has listed as the top 10 MVP

Candidates as of today 2624 number 10 Devin Booker number nine Kevin Durant number eight kawii Leonard seven Damonte sabonis six Luca donic five Jason Tatum four Giannis three embiid who’s hurt he’ll continue to fall two SGA of OKC and one nicoa yic of the Denver Nuggets and here’s why I’m kind

Of pissed off and I’m gonna I’m gonna lay you out the Donovan Mitchell case as to why he should not just be in the conversation but a legitimate top five Contender right now I think there are three factors you consider when you’re looking at MVP team success value to

Said team and then numbers you have to have a combination of all three you can’t just have two of the three because there will be another player in the NBA who checks off all three categories Let’s go Team success first the Cavs are 19 and four in the last 23 games they

Are second in the Eastern Conference right now not their middle of the pack they are second they’re the hottest team in basketball right now and over the last month and a half they have been playing better basketball than the Boston Celtics who are currently first now during that stretch they’ve done it

Without Darius Garland they’ve done it without Evan Mobley they have completely shape-shifted their offense and moved Donovan Mitchell’s primary focus from being an off ball scorer to a on-ball playmaker who also is scoring 30 points a night he’s averaging 31 points per game since the turn of the calendar

Which is a career high for a seven-week stretch uh in his entire career dating back to his days in Utah so you look at Value we all talked about when they were in the nin seed on December 15th no Moy no Garland it might be time to hit the

Panic button well value is not of Mitchell put on a second superhero cape he’s now Batman and Robin by himself and yeah Jared Allen I’m not taking anything away from him but it’s been the Donovan Mitchell show offensively as the lead dog and they flourished and then you

Want to look at the numbers he’s averaging a career high in points he’s top seven in the NBA in scoring he’s seventh right now yeah he’s behind SGA and some of those other guys but there’s nothing to scoff that averaging 28 points per game he has a career-high and

Assist he’s shooting 46% from the floor he has the numbers to back up that he should be a legitimate MVP candidate he has the the team value he helped this team Corral itself when they lost two of their four core four guys and the Cavaliers are also a very good

Basketball team hottest in the league second in the East right now so I don’t get how you have two different players from the Suns in a most valuable player list you have sabonis who none of these guys are bad by any means they’re all deserving but you can’t tell me without

Donovan Mitchell the Cleveland Cavaliers are 19 and four in the last 23 games you can’t tell me they winning they’re winning 14 or 15 games without Don Mitchell upping the ante of being that lead Alpha Dog in the capacity he has there’s no way it’s a disgrace he’s not

In the top five conversation for MVP right now I don’t disagree he’s certainly got the numbers uh he’s played you know I wrote it for today he’s played the best basketball of his career in Cleveland that’s indisputable he had a he had his best year last year and

He’s been better this year his assist numbers are up he’s had to be the playmaker when Darius was out extended period of time he was the one that kept this thing going and not only keep it afloat but really had this team thriving so I agree with everything that you’ve

Said I think he’s deserving I think he should be in there I think I know why he’s not in there and postseason success I think he’s being punished by the fact that he did not have a good series last year against the Knicks they went out in

Five it’s two years in a row that he’s been bounced in the first round and I think that’s being held against him fair or not you can disagree with that you can say that’s that shouldn’t count it’s a regular season award I’m just telling you having been involved in the NBA

Awards voting before Donovan was six last year I just looked it up just to be sure I thought he was top five but he wasn’t he was sixth he finished sixth in MVP voting last year and he’s having a better season this year so what’s changed well since he finished six in

MVP voting they won one playoff game and he did not have a good series and I think he’s developing a rep that sort of reputation because of he struggled in the postseason and that’s something he’s going to have to shake this year he’ll have every opportunity to do so and I

Think you know the Cavs are starting to it it’s probably taken longer than it should have but they’re starting to get the attention of people nationally and so you’ll probably see him start to float up some of these lists over the last couple months of the season but I

Really think that the fact that he’s lacked the success in the postseason is going to punish him when it comes to the League’s most prestigious award I just I hate that idea because Joel embiid hasn’t done anything in the postseason and he was your MVP last year and yeah I

Know he’s won more than one game but Donovan Mitchell has won series before that’s not his only playoff Escapade he was phenomenal in the Bubble Series against Denver going toe-to-toe with Jamaal Murray he’s had playoff success he just hasn’t had it in Cleveland Jo difference for me embiid’s numbers were

Off the chart I’m just saying yeah and and embiid was deserving if you want to say yic deserved his third last year sure I’m not really going to argue that point and I’m not saying it’s necessarily Apples to Apples but I have a I think you’re right if it’s close

That’s going to be the tiebreaker at least to me I I think that’s gonna be the tiebreaker and he’s not gonna win it nobody’s arguing for him to win it but he should be higher than what he is I just think he gets punished for two teams now two different one West one

East and the same dude knocked him out both times Jaylen Brunson yeah yeah I hadn’t really thought of that but you are you are accurate with that it’s just it’s such a subjective value versus best player numbers numbers across the league are inflated now like we’ve never seen

There’s like 47 different guys I checked over the weekend it may have changed but there’s like 47 different guys averaging 20 points there’s multiple 30 point per game scores like that hasn’t happened in the last decade essentially it’s now jumped up you have Luca averaging 34 points and he’s not leading the league

In scoring because embiid’s averaging 35 and a half like I heard a number today Ryan rilla was talking about it on his podcast Denver’s offense was second last year in the NBA in points per 100 possessions they’ve gotten better from last season this year it’s a higher

Point per 100 possession they’re down to eighth in the NBA so offense across the league is just Skyrock it’s nuts so you have to take every offensive number with a bit of a grain of salt and teams are shooting more threes you’ve seen the Cavs who are the perfect example of that

They have never attempted more than 33 threes per game under JB bicker staff this season they’re averaging nearly 41 per game it’s almost eight more attempts per game and they had ever done under JB and part of that’s Personnel they have Shooters now that they’re bringing Shooters Off the Bench who are letting

It fly but you know it’s it’s a value award like I do think value does play a large part of that and another thing Donovan’s been relatively durable this season he missed those four games with the the illness but he’s played in the majority of games for the Cavs he’s not

In in danger of missing the 65 Mark that you have to hit to be eligible for these postseason Awards and some of the guys on that list haven’t been embiid Hal Burton’s another guy Durant missed some time I think Booker’s missed a little bit of time too I I could be wrong don’t

100% uh quote me on that but when you look at what makes an MVP value stats durability production I forgot durability when I was going through earlier and Donovan checks the boxing all four and I’m just surprised that a guy with the pedigree of Donovan Mitchell and granted the postseason

Success isn’t there what you said Is Right Jason but it’s not like he just burst on the scene last year right you know he’s been a commodity in the NBA appr proven superstar in the league now for half a decade is still kind of underlooked and maybe

Over overal or undervalued excuse me on the national scale as much as he is because we watch him night in night out and he does miraculous did he really just do that kind of stuff every night you watch him play basketball the pass to himself last night off the backboard was

Spectacular yeah I didn’t see that one coming I texted the group chat I was like that was filthy that was that was and and yeah he does those things he he should be in there I I totally agree he should be he certainly should be higher

On the list than what he is uh speaking of awards Jared Allen was not named the injury reserve I’m not sure if you saw this it came out I did uh just a few minutes ago or about an hour ago but I know you were dealing with your your

Daughter they went to Scotty Barnes who continues to have a troubled checkered pass with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Trey young and we talked about it on the first show that if Rand uh not Randall if Jared Allen didn’t get in initially we thought he’d be one of the injury

Reserves we’re going to talk about it on ucss tomorrow so I don’t want to dive too deep but you’re not on tomorrow were you surprised that he wasn’t one of the two injury reserves selected to make the All-Star Game yeah I was I thought I thought he was an injury replacement

When he made it the first time I thought he would be again now I think it is a snub we talked the first time about is it a snub or not I said I don’t really I don’t he’s he’s worthy and deserving but I don’t know that he should be that he

Didn’t that other people in there that are more deserving you know what I mean it it there others who made it were just as deserving as him there’s just so many spots to go around now it sort of feels like a snub and maybe it’s because you

Know we watch him play every night more so than and and Trey Young’s a great player too but the Hawks are a disaster and and Jarrett has played so well in this stretch when they had so many other injuries I thought he earned it I thought he should have gotten the bid

Over Trey young I actually don’t mind the Trey young one it’s the Scotty Barnes one that really irritates me like you were their second best player before they traded Pascal SE yakum and you weren’t that good when you had SE yakum then you trade SE yakum and you’ve been

Mediocre you’ve been okay not great not terrible you’re not a bottom of the barrel team but Jared Allen I think just continues to get kind of overlooked by the the big picture of the NBA and whether or not you want to acknowledge the little things because they don’t

Show up in a box score he does all the damn little things that help you win and he’s a really really good well-rounded solid kind of intang ible basketball player to what the Cavs want to do he’s helped unlock this four out one in system he’s the defensive anchor and him

And Moy together are great but when it’s just one on the court the metrics even metrics show that Mo uh Allen’s the better technically big big Defender so I I was disappointed for Jarrett because I do think this is the best basketball he’s played of his career

He’s kind of unlocked himself and put himself in a new tier of where you rank the NBA centers and this was a case where for prolonged period he was the guy he was the big for the Cleveland Cavaliers and they played their best basketball when it was him unlike the

Raptors who have kind of been middling the pack with SE yakum without SE yakum and Scotty Barnes is a good player he’s not bad but I just I kind of feel gutted for Jared Allen I thought he deserved to be in Indianapolis with Donovan Mitchell come what’s it two weeks next week next

Weekend yeah next week I think so yeah I think that’s it um yeah you know we talked about it I don’t know if we talked about it on this show last week or ucss but I mean Jarrett had about as miserable of a postseason series as you

Can have yeah and then to come out and say the lights were too bright somehow made it even worse and to the point where you know it became he became the topic of trade rumors they needed move on from Jared and for him to flush all

That and come back and have the season that he’s had and put up the numbers that he’s had is a credit to him and and mental toughness and whatever else you want to call it uh he didn’t play well in the playoffs he knows it we know know

It and he’s come back and had an even better year this year than what he play had last year and he’s a tent pole to what they do defensively they build a lot of their schemes around him Evan Moy gets a lot of the airspace and what we

Talk about defensively and rightfully so but Jared is absolutely a tenant to what they do and when he’s out the whole thing seems to come down so uh I do feel badly for him I think he earned it I think he deserved it I think you should

Have got you make it a very good case for Scotty and for taking Jared over Scotty really either one of them I think Jared’s more deserving than both of them I just have a hard time looking at a guy like Trey young who puts up these absurd

Number I mean Trey Young’s numbers are video gamees and it’s hard to even get the numbers he puts up in an NBA game if you’re playing 2K on on Pro mode but they’re a bad team and there are guys who put up big numbers on bad teams and

They’re not conducive to winning and at some point I think you have to sparse out these numbers truly mean something and impact the game in a way that 27 and 13 in a 14 40 to 123 loss doesn’t right and what Jared does in my opinion at

Least is directly correlated to the Cavs winning he doesn’t take bad shots he doesn’t take many shots to begin with every time he touches the ball there’s an reason and an impact and a direct result of him doing something that leads to typically a good result for the Cavs

And do we want to try to get something crazy real quick Jason you want to give me a sec to try something here sure Steve Beck Steve Becker you’re gonna get mad at me for this I’m just want to test out we’ll never do it again if it works

I just want to see if this will work so like this is a play Yesterday let’s see if this works Steve I’m sorry an apologies in advance here I with Allen and Mitchell which leads to a Levert three and Steve Becker I’m sorry you get mad at me I’m I just I

Need to try this to make sure it worked so we can do it later I know I supposed to play this but watch this again I’mma Play It Again watch this give and go Allen A Mitchell great back door pass kicks it to the corner the defense is

Scrambling wide openen Levert 3 the meal play came right before I’m going to play this one more time Allen catches here that’s a dime do you see where that pass is going through two Defenders Jared Allen wasn’t making those passes a few years ago this is the evolution we

Talked about it last week The Connection Allen Mitchell how has this whole thing worked without Moy and Garland it’s because those two guys that is a dime Donovan Mitchell MVP yeah he could shoot the layup there right not a bad shot what makes the Cav so good this year is

Kicks it to the corner Nang not a bad look you got Keegan Mor closing out give up a good look get a great look boom Caris wide open three you cannot guard that you can’t guard that and then well we’ll do this because we already played

One we already broke the rules we’ll do it twice I’m sorry Steve I love you I’m sorry I’m sorry do it again this is a we’ll run this back just watch this little action that JB has kind of set up here Mitchell comes off the Allen screen

Merl’s in the in the paint Malik Monk Is guarding Sam Merill he cin sets a little back screen for nang’s guy you see can you guys see my mouse I don’t think you can see my mouse Jason can you no Malik monk is pointing at nang’s Defender hey

I’m slagging off I’m helping I’m helping I’m helping Jared comes over sets a little screen Mitchell finds Merill wide open Cash Money That’s a layup for anyone else in the world it’s all the little things like those things don’t show up necessarily in oh look I got it

To work those things don’t necessarily show up in the Box Score but it’s that kind of little detail that Jared Allen does that makes him so valuable to this Cleveland Cavaliers roster and what they’ve been doing lately uh Donovan Mitchell deserves the most credit Jared Allen deserves the second most 100%

Agree those two guys together and they’ve developed pick and roll chemistry just the chemistry of being on the floor together they’ve been together a year and a half now they know where each other likes the ball They Know Each Other’s movements now and you’re seeing

It play out in real time good job on that I’m so happy it worked Steve’s gonna get so mad at me Steve I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry why can’t we play those we can play those no we can’t well maybe the NBA rules are different we can’t tell

The NFL is the only Psychopaths out there that don’t allow well if we can do that we’ll start doing that every week I love doing that kind of stuff NBA yeah NBA you can do that well Steve Becker don’t be mad because we can do that and

We’ll do more of it if we’re allowed permission speak other shows speaking of the Browns G Bush at his first ever ultimate brown show on Monday make sure you go check it out him and Leroy horde talked about Ken dorsy press of the ultimate 216 show with ER the Pearl

Launches on Thursday we talked to Earl today about what his opening Topic’s going to be and I cannot wait wait to see the response it’s going to be a banger make sure you tune into that Jason the trade deadline is coming up here on Thursday it is right around the

Corner we talked about this on ucss today we don’t have to spend a ton of time but you and I are in agreement and I’ll let you kind of explain why but I think both of us would be pretty shocked if the Cavs made any type of significant

Move or really any move at all before the deadline on Thursday yeah they’re not doing anything I was talking to someone in the organization yesterday’s like we’re sitting this one out and frankly they should sit it out number one any sort of quality player that they would pursue they would probably get out

Kicked in trade packages because they only have number really second round picks to trade they don’t really have a first round pick to trade and you don’t want to cut into this rotation because these guys are playing so well right now you could if you’re not going to resign

Okoro you can look at possibly moving him but that’s a conversation for down the road I think they’d probably like to have him back at least that’s what I think today so you’re not going to move him there’s no one you’re G to cut out of this rotation to trade number two

You’re only $3 million below the luxury tax you’re not going to move into the tax at this point it doesn’t make any sense it leads to the whole repeat offender clock and once you enter the tax that clock starts ticking and it’s not so much about paying the tax this

Year next year because we know Dan Gilbert will pay the tax it’s about when Evan Moy is on a max deal when Darius Garland is on a max deal and those numbers add up quick and Jared Allen if he’s still here in the whole Donovan conversation we can have that later uh

You’re gonna have a lot of high salary guys on this so you want to avoid paying the tax as long as possible to avoid paying the repeat offender because that is a very real tax and that gets very punitive really quickly so uh and plus I don’t know if there’s anyone viable

Who’s realistic who they could go get who’s better than what they have right now and I know there’s a little bit of a danger in that because you know we talked about on the show today Dean Wade at this point last year was playing pretty well and that’s part of the

Reason they moved on from Kevin Love was because they believed in Dean and then Dean completely unraveled and fell apart whether it was the injury the pressure of replacing Kevin whatever it was he was awful down the stretch and unplayable in the postseason well here we are again and Dean’s playing pretty

Well it’s February prior to the trade deadline and Dean’s playing pretty well you would like to think that he’s learned from last year he can continue at this level and this will carry into the postseason but it’s a little bit of a risk but you have to give these these

Guys have earned the opportunity and JB said this last night they’ve he likes playing nine not 10 but 10 guys have earned the opportunity to play so he’s going to play 10 that includes Sam Merill well I would say that these guys have earned the opportunity to take this

Group into the playoffs and see what they can do they’ve surprised everyone already this year they’re on Pace to win 55 games you have to allow guys to make mistakes learn from them and then improve the second time around there are a lot of mistakes made in that Nick

Series so now you have to hope and believe that they learn from them and they will be better about it the second time around is that how it’s going to play out I don’t know nobody knows but they’ve earned that chance to at least have that opportunity I don’t know who

Who’s out there I think they have a really good rotation going right now Sam barill is making everything he throws up there that doesn’t include Craig Porter Jr who probably wouldn’t even be in the postseason rotation anyway when Tristan comes back he’s a big who can listen Tristan’s not gonna this isn’t 2016

Tristan we all know that but if you need three minutes four minutes at the end of the first quarter at the start of the second quarter Tristan can give you that and he’s going to give you some rebounds and some tenacious defense while he’s in

There so they have what they need I do believe they have what they need right now there’s no move out there that’s going to make them marketly better the luxury tax is a real thing they don’t have a ton of assets that’s a real thing

There’s not a great fit on the market I don’t think I know they’ve kicked the tires on buan bogdanovich at the deadline last year with Detroit the price was too high they still like him again but it’s it’s not a it’s not a good fit it’s not a good match every

Team in the league wants shooting I think the Cavs could probably use another backup point guard it’s sort of been a spot that they PEC mailed all year and that was the Rubio spot and obviously Rubio and Ty Jerome has been hurt all year so they’ve really gotten

By with Donovan and Darius and you could they could continue to do that but it would be nice to have some sort of safety net there in case there’s an injury or whatever else again so I think that something they could look at on the buyout Market they I didn’t mention this

They could also uh use that 3 million to convert Craig Porter Jr who’s I believe still on a two-way they could convert that into a full roster spot they’ve got the spot open so there’s some different things they can do with that three million I was wrong I thought it was

About two two and a half million but it was a little bit more than I realized because uh they got a good deal on the Rubio buyout the Ricky was pretty generous in what he gave back under the circumstances so they’re actually around three million right now under to the tax

Line so that’s the key number it’s not the cap it’s the tax and where are you in relation to the tax and I believe they got Danny Green on the buyout market last year for right around the pro-rated rate of two million I think or something like that so uh that just

Gives you just a little bit of uh Str um frame of reference for what you would be looking at on a buyout and and I don’t have names we have to get through the deadline to see who would be available whatever whatever decent veterans are left on crappy teams after

The trade deadline those are the best buyout candidates especially guys in the last year of their contracts yeah you said a lot so I’ll make this real quick um I don’t think they have the assets to acquire anybody who would be an immediate and a guaranteed lock upgrade

Over anyone in their top eight yeah and if you can’t guarantee that somebody you’re bringing in is going to even crack your playoff rotation that I’m not sure there’s a move out there if the Cavs wanted to go big fish hunting they can package lever and Dean Wade and some

Picks and that gets you to the 20 million which in today’s day and age is a midlevel contract like 20 million is not what it used to be yeah 20 million doesn’t get you uh cam Johnson like he makes more like it they don’t have a ton

Of salaries to package together if they want to I don’t mean this disrespectful they want to go fishing at the bottom of the barrel they could get a Corey kissper or someone like that for Ty Jerome Damen Jones and a couple second round picks just because there’s going

To be a team in Atlanta that wants to blow everything up that wants to get off contracts Maybe you can take Royce O’Neal off the Net’s hands for a second two second round picks which could be LeBron James pick at some point who knows like they just don’t have a ton of

Things that would entice another team to want to give them something legitimately valuable you have to give up something to get something and I don’t think there’s any we did it on the show today if you want to go back and watch I ran through a bunch of names who were like

Kind of realistic does Corey kissper change the ceiling of the Cavs no no do does anyone on that list really change the trajectory of the Cavs I think at this point with the the current money restrictions they have with the depth they already have like they’re a deep

Team unless you could turn two into one and if I looked around I don’t know who that guy is that Levert and Wade combines into one guy so you have a little more rotation flexibility I I just don’t know who he’s that that player exists out there and if he does

Send him your name like I would love to see it I PJ Washington’s the name I I’ve seen get thrown around a few times I I want more shooting from that extra spot he’s not a bad fit but I’m is not sure he’s a a huge upgrade to get rid of two

Guys to then bring back him I’m not sure he’s the return to package it for so I think I think they’re best off kind of riding with what got them here to this point and yeah it’s a risk because all these guys can fail in the postseason again but who’s to guarantee PJ

Washington or Cam Johnson or sadique Bay or whoever in theory they were to bring in doesn’t do the same thing so that’s kind and on the on the global view of the trade deadline I’m not going to say it’s going to be a quiet year because every year

You say that there’s 25 trades on Deadline day but it I don’t think it’s going to be as impactful and maybe I’m maybe I’m way off but it does it I don’t get the sense that there’s going to be a lot of big names on the move this

Certainly isn’t like a KD deadline deal or anything like that some of the things that we’ve seen in the past with major names on the move of the deadline I don’t get the impression we’re going to see that at all what do you think real quick I’m checking the chat and I’m

Still trying to Fig figure out how to look at the chat and and talk to you at the same time so I don’t even see the chat so it’s it’s on the side in the comment section we’re still still learning this new system but uh Evan 419

I I just they’re arguing over Levert’s value he says Levert’s value’s never been higher I mean what’s Levert bringing back right now like I don’t know the answer he’s on a the two years left of his deal yeah I mean Levert you trying to get a player for

Him um I think I’m just reading the comment as we go along so I think he’s trying to get somebody back but I think Evan has said before Levert as the centerpiece of a package to try and turn two and a one I’m not sure what Levert’s return is I don’t think

Levert as far as a player you can get a first round pick for him but the C that’s what I’m saying yeah you could get a one for him my daughter’s leaving I gotta say bye um but I don’t know that you’re gonna who I don’t know that

You’re going to bundle him with another player to get someone I mean car the thing that drives you crazy about Harris is just that he’s inconsistent and he could give you 401 night and give you 12 the next and shoot two of 12 and that’s the part that is is just a little

Frustrating with his game but I mean yeah I would agree his value is probably as high as it’s been but I don’t know that that’s reason enough to move a guy you know I’m all I am all for maximizing assets and moving on from guys when it fits when the time’s right

But he’s a really important piece to what they’re doing right now so that sort of feels like uh we met Evan at that at that uh at the event that we did behind the last thing but that feels like a fantasy basketball make a trade

Just for the sake of making a trade I don’t know if you’re really gonna make your team better and one last thing on Carris and we got to get to our last topic before we wrap up but Caris also is not an expiring contract so anything

That would be taking him on has to pay him6 million next year which is not a terrible salary for Caris lever but it’s not like you’re going to get a guy with a bigger contract in a in a direct return tomorrow is Wednesday no Ultimate Team shows but

Thursday Earl the Pearl 216 launches make sure you tap in tune in for that if you’re watching you like the ultimate Cavaliers show make sure you hit us a like button give us a subscribe on the ultimate Cleveland sports show channel if you haven’t already we appreciate

This Jason and I love doing this and if we can show video we’ll do a lot more of that moving forward as well Jason I wanted to end with this because I think there are legitimately five different answers you can go with and if you’re in

The chat I want to see your answers as well who’s been the biggest surprise to you on the Cleveland Cavaliers roster this season Sam Merill Sam okay dude was in nobody uh even in December like you know I me he was here it’s funny because I was I asked yesterday was

Sam not ready for the niick series or was that a miss and not giving him a chance and I think that’s a fair question to ask just because he’s playing well now doesn’t mean he would have succeeded in that series but as desperate as they were for shooting it

Is kind of interesting that they didn’t take a look at him then but they’re took a look at him now and since since he entered the rotation for good on December 29th I think he’s shooting 41% I looked it up last night after the game I think he’s right around 41% from three

That’s unbelievable numbers and you know I was talking to Mike Brown about him I mentioned this on the on ucss today I was talking to Mike last night Sacramento had him in Camp he was one of their last cuts at the end of preseason last season and Mike said he loved him

He thinks he’s legit he thinks he can play and it just came down to a numbers game and they had a couple other guys who were about the same size who could do similar things and they just kind of wanted something different for that last

Roster spot and so they cut him and the Cav snagged him and uh I think he was the first pick in their G League Draft and and the rest is history and now you know credit to Sam for sticking with it putting in the hard work and and taking

Advantage of the opportunity that’s the biggest thing man when you have an opportunity in front of you take hold of it because you may not get another one and he’s taken hold of the opportunity and now here’s this unknown little guard who has forced JB to put him into his

Rotation even though it means expanding the rotation beyond what the head coach wants and what he’s comfortable with and as soon as he starts struggling he’s probably out because JB wants to get it back to nine but JB Saidi got 10 guys that have earned the chance earned the

Opportunity to play so we’re going to go with 10 and credit to JB for doing that for moving beyond his comfort zone and all the credit to Sam Merill for proving that he can play in this league and as long as he keeps shooting like this Cavs

Will find a spot for him that was one of the options I thought you could have I think you can make the case for Jared Allen I think you could make the case for Donan Mitchell taking his game to an even higher level I think you can make

The case for JB bicker staff I know we didn’t really coaches in this but the guy I’m going with is Isaac auro and here’s why this time last year exactly one year ago to the day I was calling my buddies who work in the league asking people around hey what what could the

Cavs get for a curl and a second round pick and the answer was a bag of rocks yeah answer was nothing he had zero value yeah nothing today if the Cavs wanted to and they don’t want to I’m just saying if they wanted to move on from Isaac aoro they’d

Get at least at least the first round pick if not another player on top of that Isaac auro has completely changed my perception of his game in 50 year in 50 in one year 50 games he is their best perimeter Defender he is their best point of attack Defender not just in

Cleveland one of the elite point of attack defenders in all of the NBA his three-point shooting percentage has gone up and granted he’s taking open threes I don’t think he’s a great Sam Marl level shooter by any means he can’t run some of the sets Sam Marl does but the Cavs

Don’t need him to be all the Cavs need Isaac aoro to do play great defense which he does in and out every single night and when the defense leaves the open to go help off on Donovan and other guys make him pay yeah and he’s shooting damn near 40% from three this season

He’s shooting close to 50% on Corner threes this season in the last eight games he’s shooting 47% from Beyond The Arc in all areas the wing top of the key Corner what Isaac auro has done has transformed himself from a guy last year who played in the playoffs out of

Necessity but was an absolute Achilles heel to the Cav success in the postseason everyone kind of crapped a bed but the Knicks didn’t even guard Isaac aoro to an absolutely crucial guy that I think regardless of who else is on the court in crunch time I think auro

Has to be one of the Five Guys and to me that transformation from a guy I thought was virtually unplayable to a guy I don’t think you can take off the court now hell he guards Damen and Palo Banker on back toback nights Jason he’s guarding point guards and centers and

Doing a damn good job stopping them both to me I never foresaw I never saw this coming from Isaac curl I did not know he had this in him Isaac I apologize for doubting you you have proved me wrong and in my opinion Isaac auro is the single biggest surprise of the Cleveland

Cavaliers this season here’s the only thing I’ll push back on he’s got to make him in the playoff or he’s not playable he’s got to make shots in the playoffs all the biggest surprise at this point of the Season Jason we don’t know what’s going to happen in the playoffs to this

Point season fine I’ll allow it but Sam Merl’s up there Jared Allen’s up there I’m doing a quick look of the chat we had auro we had Merill someone said Dean Wade someone said JB for turning the offensive round uh and I think put Craig Porter junor in there too on the flip

Side I saw one person say uh Max Drew is surprised because he’s not making as many shots he was hot yesterday hopefully turns it up Sam’s still making plays to help this team win and one thing on JB I want to point out I tried saying last year in the playoffs what do

You want this man to do they have no shooting I said last year I don’t know if he’s a good coach or not I don’t know I know he didn’t have enough weapons to go into that playoff series and give himself a fighting chance to win when

I’m calling for Danny Green to play who’s got one good leg it was bad but he could at least shoot the ball tells you where you’re at and now look what happens when you give the man some shooting when you give the man ability to space the floor and the team can

Continues to play at the level that they are defensively and now you add the offensive component that the other good teams in the league have it doesn’t look like such a terrible coach does he no it’s funny him and him and uh Kevin sansky kind of same trajectory this

Season guys got hurt and then they have boosted themselves in the overall view of the Cleveland Fan base we said we were GNA take some fan questions but we’re overtime that means bad job out of us Jason when you come in Thursday we’re going to do a separate segment maybe

After the show we’ll tape it and we’ll put it out some fan questions we didn’t get a Time effort these ultimate shows do have a time limit because they go on the fast channel so we’re already a minute over so we’re going to wrap up here we appreciate everyone for tuning

In to the second episode the first ever live episode of the ultimate Cavaliers Sports show appreciate you for tuning in hit the like button subscribe we’ll see youall tomorrow on the ultimate Cleveland sports show for Jason Lloyd I’m Mikey McNuggets we’ll see y’all tomorrow Peace

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the hottest team in the NBA right now and currently the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference, but Donovan Mitchell isn’t getting any type of MVP consideration.

Our question today is — why not?

Mitchell has a case to be not just in the MVP race, but one of the front runners for the NBA’s most prestigious awards for what he’s done this season on the court and for helping the Cavs stay afloat despite numerous injuries to key players.

The NBA’s Trade deadline is in a few days and Koby Altman has to decide whether or not this team will be a buyer on Thursday. The Cavs don’t have many assets to work with, so a major upgrade may not be in the cards, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be sniffing around.

Plus, which player on the Cavs has been the biggest surprise this season? It could be in a good way or a bad way. There’s a case to be made for a bunch of different players, including Sam Merrill, Jarrett Allen, Isaac Okoro, Donovan Mitchell or even Max Strus.