Brian Windhorst on the Short and Long Term Outlook for the Cavaliers – Sports4CLE, 2/19/24

Brian Windhorst on the Short and Long Term Outlook for the Cavaliers – Sports4CLE, 2/19/24

Windor um ESPN national columnist I’m talking about the short-term and long-term view of the Cavs moving forward this from uh ESPN’s NBA Countdown they they 16 and two JB bicker staff is a chancef for Coach of the Year Donovan Mitchell is probably going to make the all-nba team again Jared Allen

Should be on the all defensive team they’ve played awesome that’s great then you look a little bit farther and you see what the real challenge is tonight and going forward which is Jared Allen and Evan mby sharing the court together they are extremely talented both are playing well but they just aren’t

Affected because the Cavs can’t spread the floor when they’ve played together this year the Cavs about scored opponents by 38 points that’s really good when when Jared Allen has played with Dean Wade who was the replacement starter while Moy was out the knee injury almost plus 200 they don’t work

Well together and as well as they need to and that is an issue because the third layer is that this summer yes you’ve got the Donovan Mitchell contract that’s a big thing for the franchise but also Evan Moby and Jared Allen are contract extension eligible and you’ve

Got to figure out if you’re the Cavs if they going to work together if you’re going to give them nine figure extensions look that right there you working it I wouldn’t be surprised though if the Cavs make it to the Eastern Conference Finals Chris those are all valid points

The one thing I’d say about Evan Mobley he’s what 22 years old and coming off an injury his game today isn’t going to be the same it is next year even come playoff time but you hear at the end would you be surprised if they make it to the Eastern Conference Finals I

Mean they’re in the two seed well Dave I think it depends on matchups I think this is a team that that where they go how far they go is going to depend on what seed they get and who they face up with in in the first round of the playoffs then the

Second round of the playoffs and ultimately um if they can get to the Conference Finals I think it’s going to be dependent on the path that they have to take in order to get there and I’ll say this like being in the two seed theoretically should be advantageous for

This team um because if you think about it coming into this year there was so much conversation about okay whoever you had in whatever order it was Boston Milwaukee and Philadelphia the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference write that in pet oops that hasn’t been the

Case um in saying that because you had that feeling coming into the year you were thinking okay Cav’s in the four five or six so that means maybe a collision course with New York in the first round of the playoffs maybe a matchup with the Indiana Pacers in the

First round of the playoffs um whatever the case may be you you felt like that first round matchup was going to be a little bit more challenging from the Cavs perspective right and and now you’ve got a situation where they’re the two seed and they would be playing the

Seven seed in the East like theoretically that’s a better matchup for them and being in the two seed also means avoiding playing the Boston Celtics potentially until the Conference Finals so they’re in a good spot here to potentially make a Deep Run if they can hang on to the two seat I think

Everybody in the East if they want to compete for a championship and represent the east in the NBA Finals the best path is going to be avoid playing against the Boston Celtics for as long as you possibly can and right now as it stands the Cavs would avoid doing that until

The Conference Finals the the part that we heard about Allen and Moy together Mo’s game is evolving um it needs to evolve to where they get a little bit better in that point differential on the court correct yeah there’s no doubt about it and there are complications um for JB

Vicker staff when it comes to deciding what to do in end of game situations this year that just did not exist last year Dave if you think about it like just look at how JB has been handling the minutes between both bigs since Evan Moy came back now yeah part of it is

That Evan is on a minute restriction and JB has to be cognizant of that the other part of it is Tristan Thompson um is still on a suspension so Evan Moy is technically both the starting power forward and the backup center and that requires JB to stagger Jarrett and Evan

Break up their minutes a little bit more throughout the course of the game but I think that’s something that JB wants to do anyway I I think the Cavs believe that they function at their best offensively Dave when they’ve got four Shooters around one big and this is no

Offense to Evan Mobley who has evolved as a shooter he’s shooting it with more confidence he’s got more arc on his outside shot he’s made more threes since coming back from this injury than he did all of the first half of the Season before got injured but like his game is

Still primarily predicated inside and there are spacing issues that come with playing Jared Allen and Evan Mobley together that just don’t exist when the Forman is either George Nang or Dean Wade or Max stru in a small ball lineup or something along those lines um so

Because JB has a few more options to go to to get a little bit of an offensive boost by splitting those two guys up um it it’s something that he’s going to have to consider especially in end of game situations now obviously the reason why you have Evan and Jarrett together

Is because they’re so dominant on the defensive end of the floor and the Cavs are so Elite with both of the guys out there together but if they can gain something offensively while at the same time not taking a drastic step back defensively then is something I think JB

Is going to continue to explore

Dave Bacon and Chris Fedor respond to what Brian Windhorst had to say on the outlook of the Cavaliers.

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