The Cavs NEED to be tougher (The Junkyard Pod – Cleveland Cavaliers Podcast)

The Cavs NEED to be tougher (The Junkyard Pod – Cleveland Cavaliers Podcast)

Mitchell has his head up Tak get that we Stu out of Here welcome to the junkyard pod hosted by Tony pesta Jackson Flickinger and Cory Walsh today we have a rough one the Cavs embarrassingly dropped the ball to a depleted New York Knicks team Cavs themselves were dealing with numerous injuries but this was the type of loss

That sent Cavs Twitter into a spiral and that kind of happens in every loss but this wasn’t the usual frenzy this one triggered some PTSD from last year’s playoffs and even I couldn’t overlook this probably being the worst loss of the season one of the few that I would

Consider genuinely troubling so I think it would be fitting for us to start off with our concern level for this team uh Jackson Corey which Defcon level are we on with the Cavs Defcon one is the worst DEFCON 5 is the best I’m at one I think

That’s pretty oh so it’s Doomsday yeah I mean this is nuclear warfare is right around the corner is what you’re saying the Cavaliers if you listen to them talk this whole season they’ve been talking about everything that they’ve done to change who they are so that this

Wouldn’t happen again to them in the playoffs specifically to a team like the Knicks and I know Donovan Mitchell wasn’t there that changes everything but the Knicks were without four starters and their best player for you know basically the whole game and and nothing changed at all if you didn’t if you

Didn’t know any better you would have thought this was game six of the 2023 first round and it went just like four of the other five games went the Knicks like I guess it didn’t go because they didn’t really beat the Cavs up on the boards but they beat the Cavs up in

Other ways the C spacing was cramped when they were running the two big lineups they weren’t getting the advantages of having a two big lineup up everything just seemed like all right we’ve tried to address these problems and hey they’re still there so I mean I don’t if they’re all still there what

What have the Cavs actually accomplished this season that would make you believe that you know the next time they get into a playoff series things would actually go differently yeah I think stylistically maybe that’s not the right word I think you’ll get what I’m trying to say though

The way they lost the Knicks last year they got pummeled on the boards they turned the ball over a bunch and they just couldn’t score the only one of those factors that really showed itself in this game was they just couldn’t score they took pretty decent care of

The ball if I remember they didn’t turn it over a bunch and they did lose the rebounding battle but they didn’t get crushed I know Josh Hart had a whole bunch but they were all defensive and it it wasn’t really like they were losing because they couldn’t grab a board they

Were losing for different reasons but the one thing that remained was that they just got punked I mean it looked like they were being outworked usually I would say 90% of the discourse when people say oh one team’s sof or the other team just wants it more it’s kind

Of just ridiculous it’s kind of just fluff but with this Knicks team like I don’t know I I think the Cavs just don’t have enough animosity towards the Knicks as the fans do for sure it seems like that fire that you want and this is what’s uh reminiscent of that playoff

Series is when their back was against the wall in game five they came out pretty flat it never felt like this Cav team was really revved up for the playoffs and against this Knicks team we’ll talk a little bit more about the actual roster that was out there for the

Knicks but it it was more of the same to me Corey how are you feeling what Defcon level are you at I’m probably at a two I would say because it’s the whole next thing too to keep in mind is like the team that they just lost to yesterday

Wasn’t even like remotely close to the team they lost to in the postseason half the more than half the players weren’t even on the team last season but it literally felt like it just picked up right where it left off so it’s just the T like Tibido knew exactly how to attack

The Cavs and just did it with a different cast and crew and that’s problematic because then it’s not a player problem it’s they’re attacking your scheme and you’re just refusing to fix it you would think that at some point there would have been some adjustments overall in the lineups but

It felt like we kind of were attacking the same way we have in this post Allstar break stretch and I didn’t really see anything differently for looks for how JB was handling it I mean I feel like when Brunson got hurt originally obviously injury stink but

Then I feel like that was kind of worst case scenario because then the Cavs didn’t even know what they were going up against offensively either and it was evident that they just couldn’t figure out who was going to be the guy to beat them on a given possession and it really

Just as like ESPN or just Doris Burke because apparently only Doris Burke did the broadcast last night highlighted like it was a team effort just to beat the Cavs and we couldn’t even replicate that team effort on the way back it felt like no one could take the Reigns which

Is what the Donovan Mitch list Cavs have been pretty much all season yeah I think it’s also worth pointing out that I feel like teams get disheartened and I feel like teams also get energized when they have a game plan and like a strategy that they believe in and they know that

Works and I feel like that’s what you see every time that the Knicks play the Cavs is like hey we know how to beat these guys it doesn’t matter what five guys are wearing Nick’s jerseys because we know what we’re going to do we’re going to you know we’re going to make

Allen and Moy make quick decisions in the short rle we’re going to make you know we’re going to pressure Garland and Mitchell we’re going to make them not a like keep them from driving inside the paint keep them from doing what they’re comfortable doing and then the Cavs on

The on the other hand don’t they they’re better in their process I feel like I think I think we saw like Isaac ‘or was a great example of this where he doesn’t have those record scratch moments he’s always is really assertive now when he’s attacking and he’s been great and he was

Great last night but still like overall as a team it just feels like they don’t know what to do in these moments and that’s really troubling because this is all that they’ve thought about since you know last April every time Donovan Mitchell talks postgame he always talks

About this is just a regular season game we still have to prove it in playoffs he’s talking about the Knicks series multiple times he’s brought it up in games that they’re not playing the Knicks like it’s something that’s always on his mind and I again I know he wasn’t

Out there but like that’s on this team’s mind and they came out and they just they showed that as much things have changed they really haven’t changed yeah and to that point so I would say I’m probably at Defcon two maybe three anywhere in that range uh

And everything that you said I just want to add on to it and I want to be very clear that this is not any excuse I’m not excusing the way the Cavs played it’s the worst loss the season they absolutely need to be better the energy

Needs to be higher like I said there needs to be more animosity towards the team that just kicked their ass in the playoffs but to that point injury games are weird both teams were dealing with some weird injuries this was not the full strength version of either team I

Think for the Cavs it’s really easy like I just look at it from a fan perspective of like I was super hyped up to see the Knicks and Cavs play each other again at any point the season and so far we like just haven’t seen it happen they they

Haven’t been healthy in any of their matchups and so if as a fan that’s kind of deflating me I would imagine as a player you’re getting revved up to rematch the Knicks and then the only guy out there who was in that Playoff Series last year was Josh Hart and hartenstein

I believe because uh Brunson goes down right away too and then any I’m sure most of their game plan was centered around Jaylen Brunson then he goes out right away so it’s kind of this weird thing where the Cavs themselves talked about that that kind of deflated them a

Little bit which again not an excuse that’s not something that you should allow to happen but then on the other hand the Knicks used that as a rallying point and so I think if I’m trying to find any optimistic angle it’s that maybe in a playoff series when both

Teams are healthy you would hope that the Cavs would come out a little more fired up and those injuries won’t make it as weird but nonetheless it’s obviously uh just a very bad loss for this Cavs team and one that they shouldn’t feel happy about everyone on

The team should be pissed off again all over again a reason that kind of oh now you go Jack no no go for it Cory I’ll just keep talking I I feel like I’m pessimistic about this series in general because even though it’s been kind of injury riddled on both sides throughout

The series I feel like the Cavs for the most part have been the healthier team through that series and you would think with health would be more continuity and it doesn’t matter what crew the Nicks are throwing out there the roster in general has had so much turnover in this

Season alone and it doesn’t matter what players Tibido throws out it’s the they play almost identically and they still find ways to beat the Cavs and the Cavs have pretty much the same roster going out every night and they can’t find ways to beat this scheme whatsoever so it’s

Disheartening and we’re trying to let like when Mitchell’s not on the lineup I feel like the Nash like the uh pretty much the general fan perspective is well this will be a good opportunity to see how Garland handles life without Mitchell maybe we’ll see 2021 2022

Garland again and I don’t think we have seen cases where that’s really showing up whatsoever and you’re kind of getting like double negatives from those games then you’re seeing that there hasn’t been growth since that Nick series despite unhealthy Knicks and you’re not seeing Garland take advantage of the

Nick Skeleton Crew as well I have nothing to add Cory was right right on everything what a rare occurrence that was a really good point the fact that the Knicks have been changing their personnel and still the blueprint has remained the the same I think the one of course I’m being The

Optimist as always but I think the one good thing is that despite all of this they they could have won this game they were still in a position to win and it’s kind of how you felt about a lot of those playoff games too where it’s like

They played so bad and somehow they still aside from that one game where they got blown out they were still in position to win so hey maybe Donovan Mitchell changes it maybe he doesn’t but I think we all want change we are not the only ones saying this JB’s got to

Figure out the rotations he’s got to figure out who belongs on the floor each night uh as much as the formula to beat the Cavs didn’t change it certainly doesn’t help that George Nang and our beloved Dean Wade also had a pretty disastrous performance but let’s talk about these rotations because it has

Been a talking point for a while now everyone seems to think it’s this big complicated thing and sure it’s there there is some complexity to it you don’t want to be playing a 10-man rotation for example I think we agree The Simple Solution is to cut George Nang from the

Rotation alog together uh as much as I I think he seems like a great guy he’s funny a fan favorite in that regard off the court but on the floor I I’m not sure he has many many people on his Island anymore I would like to say that

I think George yangang was a fan favorite in the preseason I think the minute that the ball touched the hardwood the fan favorite label has been stripped off I have not seen a player be mfed on Twitter more often outside of Jackson with than George Nang George

Nang just is not getting any love from Cavs fans whatsoever to the point that he even brought it up pretty much today in that like Postal Service meme that was going around for a little bit but no I just I am dumbfounded at this point that neang gets minutes I know the whole

Point is and me and Tony I feel like have beaten this dead horse when we talk about Nang is like he has one trick and the trick is that he shoots threes and he’s not even shooting the ball well but at this point you have so many other

Players that even if Dean Wade’s not hitting a shot the amount of other opt like other skills he brings to a floor is infinitely more than Nang I don’t know if JB feels because of the contract that he has to be feel obligated to play Someone he’s paying the money he’s

Paying him and Dean have similar contracts so but I just I I’m dumbfounded with theang I think and for all the people that will be like oh well Merill needs to get out there too but we can’t because we play Nang Merill is an infinitely better shooter than Nang he’s

A movement shooter and if you want to argue that his defense gets in trouble sometimes because the knck did like for three straight possessions go at Sam Marill he pretty much neutralizes that as well by a actually playing defense and B he generates three-point attempts better than anyone on this roster I will

Say Hart is probably like one of the worst matchups for for Merill I think we saw this in like the Clippers game where like Russell Westbrook was trying to bully him as well yeah like bigger guards like the six yeah like the 62 63 bowling ball

Is not like is not really something that Merill can really like handle really well but I think even like Hart I think it was still completely fine because he was providing so much on the off I wanted to ask about Merrill’s defense because the Knicks definitely made a point to Target

Him what did you guys think about how did he hold up because to me the it test like sure he was vulnerable but I didn’t think he was like breaking the defense in the way where you’d be like oh you just you can’t play this guy in a

Playoff series I I think they could get him out there I think it was fine one of the things that we really saw in the G league and obviously the G league and NBA are very different um but when it like everyone wants to Target Merill because small white guy equals this guy

Obviously can’t play defense so one of the things that you really saw is that when teams would try to Target him it would really like slow down their entire process kind of like a hack of Drummond where it’s like yeah it works but it you know like disrupts the flow so by the

Time like and Merill does a good job of fighting through a lot of this and being in the right position and anticipating it that by the time you try to get that mismatch you’ve already wasted 16 seconds of the shot clock and at that point you’re probably not getting a

Great shot off anyways so I think that’s one of the things that Merill does well is he does a good job of switching avoid those switches avoiding like getting through screens well so that he’s not in a position to be super vulnerable and if he is he’s going to put up enough

Resistance where where the rotation can come and he does a good job of running out of those rotations as well to find new open man that rotated over to cover up that weakness so I think that a lot of those concerns are a little overblown especially when you have a backline like

The cads do that always relies heavily on rotating anyway even if the defender’s in the right spot because it’s not like even when okoro is guarding his guy it’s not like Mo and Allen just kind of wall off their guy and just stay where they are no they

Still help so I think that some of these Merill defensive concerns are way overrated especially with how much he’s giving you offensively I agree with Jackson I feel like people kind of look at the Merill thing and they’re expecting like that Marl is going to be surrounded in the

Playoffs by like Garland and others defensive liabilities like JB isn’t going to stack the lineup where the team is pretty much playing with three non- Defenders and then maybe like Moy Allen or cororo in some variation like of Merill is out there they have they just have to have the defensive support for

Him on the floor as well they wouldn’t leave him on an island with just because like it’s like the argument you make for Garland like no one’s gonna sit in the playoffs but Garland holds his Zone in the postseason we saw last year that Knicks were attacking him pretty much

All the time they were trying to find ways to hide Garland during the playoffs like they can do the same thing with Merill if they really need to find and he’s been Pro he’s proving he’s just so much more valuable on the floor than just throwing him out in situational

Play so it’s just a case of how are you gonna make it work come postseason time don’t let this Nick series Nick’s game just tell you like yeah no I’ve seen enough for Merill even though he led the team in scoring I’m good one of the

Things that I will say with this whole rotation thing is that he doesn’t need to take minutes from Nang like even if we like we all agree he should but like there’s minutes to be had there’s 240 minutes in a basketball game a lot of those are coming from the back court

Does Max streu need to be playing 32 minutes a game does Caris LeVert need to be playing 25 minutes a game I think it’s like 27 but that’s the injuries throughout the year have kind of complated a little bit but and it’s like and it’s like does Darius scarland need

To be playing as many minutes as he is it’s like I think those answers are all no so it’s like he doesn’t need to you don’t need to like oh we’re going to give Merill all of theang minutes and now now we don’t have any power forward

It’s like no there’s plenty of guards that are in this rotation that Merill is deserving a minutes of and obviously I think this should be matchup dependent like I said the Clippers game I thought was a very bad matchup for him because teams that can really switch everything

On the perimeter really make it hard for movement Shooters to be as effective but how many Clippers are there out there you know like so I think this was you know this was a good example as to how effective somebody like Merl can be especially in an offense that was what

Did they have they had a 88 offensive rating with Merill off the floor yesterday so it’s it wasn’t great yeah so you know it I think what he what he brings to the offense definitely outweighs any defensive concerns to me because I don’t think he’s just a

Complete negative on defense I think he can fight to make himself at least not someone who’s easy to pick on and then when you add in how valuable he can be on offense like I think it’s just clear that he belongs in the rotation I agree

With your point that like sure I don’t think Nang should really be getting any more minutes I would probably say wade and aoro should just exclusively exclusively be playing like Wing minutes Wade plays backup for AOS the backup three maybe even a backup four if you

Want to go small and then those minutes between streu and lever you can you can find some space for Merill in there like they don’t need to play the amount of minutes they’re playing certainly they’re important in their own ways but I I think it’s listen

It’s JB’s job to figure it out so and I did misspeak uh they had a 81.6 offensive rating yesterday so L worse not 88 yeah how dare you I think that uh what Merill kind of pointed out to me was I think what how Merill played yesterday was how they were expecting

Stru to like expand this off offense the movement shooting aspect because the way Meo played last night was the way that we were kind of like throwing darts at the wall in the playoffs last year hoping someone was just going to get hot and give them a 20-point game one night

And we were just kind of in the situation where we were crossing our fingers for like the jetty type of performance to hit and Merill was proving exactly that’s how it could be but streu for as it’s been the whole year except for the Dallas game where you went absolutely nuclear has just

Been an up and down shooter pretty much the whole season so I feel like it’s definitely a valid case to remove minutes from streu when he’s not necessarily hit like firing on all cylinders the way Merill is and I do want to say that streu has been good so

I don’t want to I I feel like there’s some people online who have been like stru has been a waste of money and it’s like no has I saw a tweet today I saw a tweet today sorry to interrupt that said the max TRW signing was significantly

Worse than the George signing and that was almost the last straw for me I almost had to just deactivate Twitter because like I know C Twitter can be a little outlandish sometimes but like guys there’s a line okay there’s certain things that we don’t have to argue about

So I didn’t even quote tweet it I wasn’t going to give it the the time of day but I had to get it off my chest that was crazy people think that basketball is a one aspect sport it’s like you either shoot well or you don’t and that’s it

And that’s where the term like it’s a make or Miss League I think kind of Strays people the wrong way where they think if you can’t score you’re just worth and Max truce is like the embodiment of hey my shots not falling but I can contribute in so many different aspects

That even though I’m going like three for 11 from the field I’m still providing a ton of effort on the defensive end and he’s one of our best ball handlers with The Bigs like he has chemistry with the two of them like no one else really outside of Garland and

Mitchell have with this roster stre is just a great is just a great a reminder that the Cavs have like very few people on the roster who can pass dribble and shoot so he’s like one of three four maybe so it’s like so it’s like yeah you

Know that’s like stre isn’t the problem here guys unless you want to throw a cororo in that list too maybe we got five we don’t wanna we don’t want to do that yet ourselves well I think like the problem with aoro is that he feels like he can’t venture out of his little

Sandbox and I think he could pass more than last year but he’s still he’s upgraded to a bigger sandbox right like I Big Boy sandbox I’m really I’m really impressed with what I’ve seen from ooro but I I still think there’s like okay there’s there’s still more to

This so I think the mostal thing about aoro from that Nick series Nicks game yesterday was when the game came down to it it didn’t matter that aoro played one of his best games of the year the minute Garland cut to the basket aoro was as

Open as he ever was in that Nick Series last year like they did not care how well he was playing they left him in his own ZIP code and Garland didn’t even look his way in those situations well I think the problem with that is more so

Garland can’t make that pass in a way that Donovan Mitchell can so like true it’s very if you look at if you look at Garland’s where where his assist go it’s like 80% of them are two-point field goals which is why he gets all the turnovers because it’s really hard to

Fit the ball into some of the tight spaces that he tries to he doesn’t have the ability to get those passes out to okoro or guys on the corner like Donovan can which so I think that’s that’s more so like that may be more so like the Knicks understanding Garland more than

Kind of not like like the point the point remains but I just I just want to I just want to say that there is something there with Garland not being able to make that pass too yeah those are both good points I think the good thing is that aoro did continue to shoot

Even when they started well they left him open for most of the game but he made them pay and he did start to draw them out a little bit throughout that first half especially second half they kind of just left him open and he kept pulling but he made three threes in that

Game and throughout that entire Nick Series last year he only made four so I think aoro has definitely come a long way I want to make one last point on the rotations and then we’re going to transition to talk about Darius Garland but I want to get probably my biggest

Concern for the Cavs and JB bigger staff in particular when it comes to the rotation I do not want to see a repeat of last year where we get to the playoffs very quickly we realize okay all the rotations we had in the regular season those are going out the window Jetty

Guess what you’re playing with the starters now I know you only played 17 minutes with them all year I it was it was more than that but you it was like 32 I think yeah it was very low I don’t want to see him have to make that just

Where he his hand is forced and he has to make a change the only benefit this year is that like if Sam Merill is forced to be out there it won’t be as bad as Danny Green being forced to be out there after not playing it all down

The stretch because Sam has actually had an opportunity to play with this team I mean for obvious reasons it’s better than Danny Green but it would still just the just the principle of JB stubbornly sticking to his rotations and then being forced out of them in the first two

Games in the playoffs that to me would be like instantly he’s getting fired this off season regardless of how far they go in the playoffs which if it goes that way I would expect they’re not going to make it too far in the playoffs but hopefully that doesn’t happen that’s

My biggest concern with that yeah I mean I I feel like if the playoffs started today and the team was fully healthy it would just be the same eight basically that it was at the start of last year except Max except for you have Max dreu

And there now instead and it’s like I don’t know if any of the lessons that needed to be learned maybe they were learned but they weren’t but they’re not going to be applied so I don’t know I’m just really like even I know the Knicks

Really know how to beat the Cavs in a way that you know the magic don’t just because they’re not game planning for the Cavs the same way that the Knicks have but if they played the Magic in the playoffs what what confidence do I have that the magic who are actually better

Suited to play the Knicks game plan like what would make me think that the Cavs wouldn’t you know fall into the same traps against a team like the magic who’s not good either or even like a team like the Pacers who are a very different team than that I feel like

They have the ability to press different buttons that would really hurt the Cavs and I don’t think that the Cavs right now are in a position where they’re capable of making the changes necessary to counteract those yeah I feel like teams say the season sorry I feel like as teams as the

Season goes like towards the end you see the checkered line lineups and uh rot ations usually get cut down I feel like JB just doesn’t subscribe to that theory whatsoever I feel like we’re kind of just seeing like he just plays it straight through plays the starters way

More minutes than they should and then still somehow finds minutes for players like Nang or last year like y Yang Jed or oh my God Jetty Lamar those type of players that we know we’re not going to really see unless it’s a break L bright glass in case of emergency type

Situation and if that happens again for the second season in a row I’m going to probably be very concerned because it just means like Tony said we’re gonna like be in the first game of the season of the postseason be like oh wow Nang played 20 minutes that’s kind of weird

That doesn’t make sense oh they attacked him the whole time well hopefully by game two that changes yeah we we can’t see a repeat of that it would it would just be the ultimate indicator for me that JP is not cut out for but hey I guess the only

Thing left is to wait and see I want to transition here and talk about Darius Garland who probably pretty Easley is having his Worst season of the last three years dating back to his breakout year it’s been a rough one for him he’s really been searching to get it together

Um the two things that he has struggled with taking care of the ball and shooting efficiently those are normally his strengths he just hasn’t really done it consistently this year uh when you look at his impact on the offense when Darius Garland’s on the floor last season the Cavs were in the 92nd

Percentile for net rating and the 89th percentile for offensive rating this year Gary’s Garland on the court the Cavs are just 79th percentile in net rating and the 53rd in offense which is a huge plumet uh now on the bright side after a broken jaw and Recovery post

All-Star break Garland is averaging 19 points seven assists and he shooting almost 50% on eight three-point attempts per game he is turning it over fewer than three times per game during that stretch uh to me he clearly has a pep back in his step uh he looks the most

Confident and effective that he has been this season seon but there’s still a lot of room for him to return to form uh but things will look a whole lot better for the Cavs if he manages to do that and I think Mitchell’s growth as a playmaker

This year is something that could really ensure that this duo will work I think when when donov and Mitchell join this team we we all knew that sacrifice was going to be required for Garland and Mitchell to make this pairing work and maybe sacrifice isn’t the right word but

I think Mitchell has held up his side of the deal on this because he needed to grow as a playmaker in order for this to work the criticisms of Mitchell was that he was a little bit of a ball hog he’s very ball dominant and he just didn’t he

Clearly had a talent for passing but he just didn’t do it the way that you would want him to this year that has changed he has become he’s having the best playmaking season of his career I don’t know if you would consider him Elite or

Where you would put him in that but he has held up his end of the deal for Garland it’s off ball movement and I I want to make it clear because I saw people kind of saying this on Twitter there’s no doubt in my mind that Garin

Is a talented catch and shoot player he is a very he can he can be a deadly off ball threat it’s just he doesn’t move without the ball as much as you would like and that’s his end of the deal that he hasn’t been able to hold up and

That’s one thing that despite the way that it seems like he’s turned a corner a little bit in terms of his shooting and getting his playmaking groove back I haven’t quite seen him move off the ball yet and that’s really the process that I’m still waiting on one thing I want to

Say is that I feel like there was one shot attempt in the Knicks game where he tried to do a movement shot where he tried to like come off a screen catch it and shoot it it was at the top of the arc and he looked really off balance

Like it was in a way that you’ve seen Sam or like someone like Kyle corver do these crazy shots where they’re taking you know coming off a screen and just rising up right away but even when they’re leaning they’re still on balance and Darius wasn’t so I think that

While I am the first one to criticize him for his off ball movement I think that being a movement shooter is something that is a skill that’s learned and I don’t think it he’s ever needed to learn that skill at any point in his career because he’s very good at a lot

Of other things so I think that’s that’s always fair to point out when we’re talking about Garland is that the things that Sam does and makes look easy are not actually easy yeah I feel like I don’t I mean I feel like when I watch Garland I feel

Like he’s still his biggest criticism has been that he’s not as aggressive as he could be and I feel like in this while his stats in the post All-Star break look better I feel like the the level of how passive he plays still kind of resonates through this stretch I mean

In the third quarter of that Knicks game he was borderline invisible on the floor he was I just felt like he doesn’t play only one shot atempt when the Knicks were taking over the game one shot attemp in that quarter it’s just there’s some level to Garland that is just

Aggravating because we all know the level of player he can be and I feel like even with the team changing their identity he still finds a way to try to play his style within it and it just breaks up way too much of the offensive system at this point because now all

There’s gonna be like 11 players on this roster that are used to playing one way and one player who is just still stuck in the way of playing like I’m going to try to poke can prod my way through this defense rather than just swing it run

Off ball get open off that off movement rather than being like let me dissect this one-on-one and see who bites so then I can swing it on a different direction and I feel that’s been Garland since the jaw injury coming back it just feels like he’s in an awkward place

Which makes sense because he was out while the team was thriving in a completely different system that they were in when he was like back in the rotation but then you could argue Moy looks better than he’s ever looked in the Cavs offense in this very system

That he adapted to pretty quickly so it’s just discouraging because Garland obviously is talented he’s trying I feel like he is trying but when you really squint at it you can see that he’s trying to make it work while trying to find ways to stick to the ways that he

Knows how to succeed in the NBA one of the things that I think this week has really showed is that Garland isn’t a well-rounded enough ball handler and player to really be the focal point of a good offense at least not right now I think this week he

Did what everybody’s wanted to do he’s took n he’s taken 9.8 threes in his last four games he’s knocking him down at a 54% clip which is crazy but in that same time he’s gone five for 28 inside the ark and 0 for eight at The Rim so it’s

Like you can’t dominate the ball that much and not be able to really score inside the arc or at least not score consistently and I know he’s gotten a lot of assists you know he’s gotten a lot of assists feeding you know mo and Mo and Allen this week in four games 13

Of his assists went to both of them but he’s still in the 36 percentile in turnovers this week and this wasn’t a week where where we said wow Garland’s turning it over like crazy so he’s still like the tra offs between somebody who’s turning it over that much and not

Finishing inside and not able to generate three-point looks by attacking it’s just really tough to build a good offense around somebody like that and I think that’s you know I think it’s fair to say that if he didn’t have the jaw injury this isn’t the player he would be

Because he was finishing really good in the paint in the very beginning of the season but this current version of Garland just isn’t good enough to be the focal point of an offense the way that they need beat him to be and that’s why this three- game stretch at least

Without without Mitchell is probably not going to go well for him it’s um I feel like something people omit also when they talk about Garland struggling in the paint is that the dude lost like 15 pounds of muscle which was the very muscle he built going into the regular

Season to handle contact around the rim and now when you look at Garland Visibly Even from like watching at home I’m like he looks like a mated compared to the version we saw pre jaw injury so having him getting thrown at and they’re not training in it’s games constantly no

Practice really it’s just you kind of rip and go and this guy has no he just looks like if you like if we saw Jackson go onto the floor had to go against NBA level centers like there’s no chance anyone with that frame is going to be able to convert on anything unless

They’re completely open right I think it’s I think it’s fair to criticize Garland but also say that it’s understandable but like at this point he’s not not the lead ball handler the lead initiator the lead focal point of an offense that a team that wants to be a good offense

Needs those are really good points I’m gonna build on both of those I’m Cory you said basically what I was going to say which is Garland the the draw injury like I know it seems like an excuse but it really is a factor when you looked at

The previous however many games he was having the best season of his career finishing in the paint I think it was something like almost 10% better than his previous career inside the two-point range and around the rim so he really was excelling in that in that department

I’m sure the draw injury has been an effect of how poorly he has played the last few games finishing around the rim he just looks like a different player uh but to Jackson’s point I mean as of right now maybe he’ll pick up all that weight again in the off season and we’ll

See him return to whatever form he was at at the beginning of the year but who he is right now this is probably how he’s going to play for the rest of the season and really the main point that I want to focus on is that he’s just he’s

Never been that guy who you can focus the entire offense around he’s going to carry you through his scoring even during his best well I think last year was probably his best season but even during his All-Star season he wasn’t the guy who you could just dump the ball to

And say heyy go win us a game single-handedly with your scoring that’s why they traded for Donovan Mitchell that’s why they went out and got their guy I know there’s always that conversation of the Cavs traded too soon they you know their Championship window wasn’t open yet it’s like no Donovan

Mitchell whatever Championship window they have it’s Donovan Mitchell it he’s the one who opens it up for them they needed a guy of that caliber in order for this team to have a chance now you could argue maybe maybe they should have waited longer maybe they should have

Traded for someone else but the reality is Donan mitell is what a top 10 player in the NBA those guys aren’t easy to get they had an opportunity to get one they pulled the trigger and right now all the pieces around him it it’s just on them

To adapt and that’s what we need to see Darius Garland do that’s what the rest of the season is going to be it’s really important down the stretch I know the regular season doesn’t matter and all that but Darius Garland has to continue to work relentlessly to try and find a

Way to adapt to the new style this team is playing with because he’s a talented enough player to do it all things considered the way he’s been playing he’s still talented enough to figure this out and so it’s important that they continue to take the rest of these games

Very serious I think that this stretch also shows how good he can be like he has Elite skills if he a if he is ever able to unlock them fully just because he’s a 61 guard how many 61 guards have ever been able to just kind of take their guys off the dribble

Consistently and finish in the paint and be the leader especially without explosive athleticism that he doesn’t have right like that just there really hasn’t been any guys in the league to really do that you know so it’s like that’s where he needs to develop his game more but in this in this stretch

Without Mitchell that’s where it’s like that’s where it becomes really dicey because you really need somebody like Carris Levert to come back and step up because there’s just not a whole lot of you know Playmakers on this team we saw I think Greg Porter Jr had his best run

In probably since like November last last game but it still wasn’t like great it wasn’t like you know anything that was going to like change games so you know they they’re just in a tough spot and it’s not a good time to be facing a team like the Celtics who can switch

Really easily and is probably going to make it a really tough game for Merill and then also play a team like the the um Timberwolves that have length at every single position that is also not going to be really easy for Garland so you know this is going to be really

Really tough stretch I think this is a good reminder going back to the Donan Mitchell trade point that when the Mitchell trade happened they kind of established a hierarchy and no one was thinking that this was going to be like Garland’s the Difference Maker for this Cavs team it automatically became like

This Cavs team will go where it needs to go if Moy gets to a certain point where he can get into like the top 15 player conversation I think Garland we’re realiz we realized throughout his Allstar year they were like we know what the plateau of Garland kind of looks

Like unless he takes like some other worldly leap that none of us foresaw I think it’s kind kind of showing how Garland to this Cavs team can play his like way of succeeding next to Donovan Mitchell is the way that Mike connley did with the Jazz as well like if

Garland can play in that Mike Conley mold for this caps team where he’s not looking to take over games but looking to support Mitchell more than being like your turn my turn kind of ordeal then this is but obviously like Garland is better than that version of Mike Conley

But just like the archetype of what Conley was to those Jazz teams and even to the Grizzlies team like that type of player is what I see Garland being for the Cavs going forward and the games like last night kind of remind me that that’s like where his ceiling is for me at

Least yeah I think that’s a good archetype I think that’s a decent blueprint he could kind of be that version of Mike Conley on steroids if when he’s playing at his best so I think the Cavs have a lot of work to do we we’ll leave it at thatth does anyone

Have any final words before we enter this week from hell with the Cavs playing a whole bunch of really good teams without Donovan Mitchell and bad vibes going on uh say get get ready for the fourth seed guys while the power of friendship can bring it home that that’s what I’m

Hoping Craig Porter Sam Mar will save us time well it was Donovan in a power of friendship we’re yeah listen I know I I don’t I hope imman does well if he plays that’s all I agree go Cavs that’s going to do it for this episode of the junkyard pod

I want to thank everyone for watching and listening forgot to mention at the top but if you want to be in our Twitter group chat which is just thriving right now there just a lot of activity going on in there all you have to do is subscribe yeah a lot of

Ang on YouTube Spotify or apple send me proof and I’ll get you added thanks again for watching and go Cavs I agree goaps Brian I’m sorry everyone yelled at you for your two big lineup takes you were right

The Cleveland Cavaliers just got punked. Here is how the team can bounce back.

– Recapping the Knicks game
– Let’s talk rotations
– Darius Garland is searching for his groove

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