Why the Cleveland Cavaliers are winning despite injuries to Evan Mobley and Darius Garland
Let’s start with the Cleveland Cavaliers though the Cleveland Cavaliers currently are playing the Milwaukee Bucks as we record this show on a Friday night they’re up 14 to6 in the first quarter they look great and part of what I want to talk about here is they’re currently
Sitting at 18 and 13 when Darius Garland went out following the Evan Mobley injury they were sitting at 13 and 12 this was not really a situation that looks all of that positive but they have won five of their last six without Darius Garland and Evan Mobley look it’s
Been a soft schedule up until tonight they’re playing at home against the Milwaukee Bucks if they win that game really good sign but in those five of six that they’ve won recently it’s been the Hawks the Rockets the Jazz the Pelicans the Bulls and the Mavericks beating the
Mavericks uh if I remember correctly on the road was a ridiculously impressive game I I was super super impressed with Caris LeVert in that game particularly I thought he played incredibly well well and the other thing worth noting here is that the schedule doesn’t get that much
Harder here over the course of the next little while if you were gonna have catastrophic injuries this was the point of the season to where it would be okay to have them maybe uh they have Milwaukee that they’re playing right now but then their next games are Toronto a
Back-to-back with Washington San Antonio Brooklyn and Chicago like it’s not crazy that they start this little run here without Garland and Moy nine and four 10 and three something like it that given that they’ve already started five- one over the course of this stretch so let’s let’s start with the positives
First because I think that I do have some general questions about where the overall direction of the Cavaliers is going just given some of their contractual situations particularly one contractual situation that we’ll discuss what have you liked about this little stretch of the post Evan Mobly Darius
Garland injuries so I want to shout out my guy fear the fro a Cavs NBA podcast if you’re a Cavs fan go listen to that that’s my guy Bob Schmidt he does a really good job covering the Cavaliers he’s here in the chat I’m sure he’ll
Leave us once we stop Cavs talk but he’s here at least for this portion and he made a point he text me after your Tweet before we started recording Sam and he said you better talk about Jared Allen and how well he has been playing and he
Absolutely has it sounds like he started off really well tonight but you mentioned Carris Levert I think there’s a few other guys like am I I watched this game the other day I thought Isaac aoro looked like an NBA player I thought he looked like a solid NBA player Sam
Merill had his moment to shine in one of these games um who was the other player I want you know Dean Wade has oh Craig Porter Jr that’s the one that I should have mentioned off the top who has just been incredible and truly looks like at
Least a backup NBA point point guard so yes Donovan Mitchell is insane he’s awesome I’m sure we’ll discuss him in length Allan but some of these other guys like this is how you survive these stretches Sam is you get wins on the margins with these type of players and
Right now they’re getting great production from those guys it’s exactly right I’m glad you brought up the depth guys I think they’re really important I do want to talk about Jared Allen very quickly at the top he’s averaging 18 points 12 a half rebounds on 66% from
The field over the course of those six games he has been kind of everything for them uh during this stretch because Donovan Mitchell has missed a couple of these games as well like Donovan Mitchell did not play against the Dallas Mavericks and they still beat Dallas
Mavericks and it was a big piece of it was Jared Allen going for 24 and 23 and six assists in that game he was Unreal I thought he completely dominated the paint in a way that frankly like I like Jared Allen a lot I think he’s a great
Player I wouldn’t always refer to him as dominant I guess is the way that I would phrase it like I think he works typically really well in tandem with Evan Mobley I think that his ability to play in drop coverage is really high level obviously he is an incredible rimrunner as
Well I thought that in D in that Dallas game he just completely controlled and dictated everything that was happening within the paint uh just a really really impressive game uh from Jared Allen and I’m glad that I’m glad that uh fear the fro here brought him up because Jared
Allen has been terrific in this little run I don’t want to be the hater here I do want to just make a quick caveat and this speaks a little bit more to the Mavs like they were playing Grant Williams as their five during portions of that game so there there was a little
Bit of the they had gotten Dereck and this is his credit but they had gotten Derrick Lively in foul trouble they played Dwight pal some but then they also had to play Grant Williams at the five that’s a little bit more of like man that made me a little nervous
Watching the Mavericks more than anything but to his credit as you said we’ve seen other people not dominate very advantageous matchups and he absolutely dominated so I don’t want to just completely take it away I just did want to add that little bit of a caveat but he’s been incredible Sam they
Started Craig Porter Jr stru who’s been awesome aoro Wade and Allan Dean Wade got two fouls right away because he took the Luca matchup and that’s what happens whenever you take the Luca match up to start a game they were down by like 20 at one point should have got blown out
And they came back like it was a super impressive performance I also want to give ammani Bates a little bit of a shout out he came in played a few minutes didn’t necessarily make shots but I thought he showed real growth just Distributing the ball he took good shots
For the most part but he had a few nice passes just a quick little caveat and then we can move on so I’m glad you brought up amanii I’m glad he’s you know at least getting to the point where he can get on the court in depth situations
But I I do want to talk about the four guys that you kind of brought up at the start here uh Craig Porter Jr has been unbelievable uh he he has been a genuine backup level point guard in the NBA is a rookie which is really really difficult
To say like he has been better look he’s five years older if I remember correctly than scoot Henderson but scoot Henderson went number three in the draft Craig Porter went undrafted and I think is on a two-year two-way right now which is just completely Bonkers uh he’s just a
Complete adult out there he’s confident he makes the right read consistently he’s averaging 6.3 assists versus only 1.2 turnovers during this little run uh he plays solid consistent defense he contests shots he gets around screens I think he just does a really really good job running the show out there Dean Wade
Is a guy that I have been consistent on this show saying that I think he is a legit rotation player last year he had the shoulder injury that tanked the shooting a little bit but you know he started 17 games over the course of the season now but over those last six he’s
Averaging 10 points on 50 48 100 shooting uh he has just been a solid consistent three and D like kind of comboy fourman occasionally slides up the line up to the three a really really valuable piece for the Cleveland Cavaliers to be able to bring in as like
Their 10th man I think he’s a little bit better than that I think he can be a team’s like seventh or eighth man but you know and the Cavs are starting to use him that way and I’m glad that they are and I’m glad healthy again Health
Has always been kind of the factor for Dean Wade uh the third guy I want to bring up is Sam Marill as you said uh I’ve been a big Sam marrill guy I’ve had Sam Marill on this podcast pre-draft before back in 2020 uh Sam Merill I had
A top 40 grade on him in 2020 pre-draft uh I’m glad he’s finally getting his shot I thought that frankly as I mentioned in the summer he was the best player at summer league this past year outside of Jabari Smith and tar een uh over the course of these last six games
He’s played four of them he’s averaging 13.8 points on 48 4875 from the field uh in like 18 minutes a night he had two monster games like he played incredibly well I think he had like 27 against Houston and 19 against Utah I might have flipped those uh but he was really good
In both of those games uh I think he’s a real guy that can be like a back end of the rotation player and finally again like you mentioned with Isaac aoro he’s really starting to figure it out I think aoro who generous been like pretty solid this year and has been like
An okay fifth fourth guy to have out there over these last six again 14 points 53 42 68 shooting he’s willing to let it fire from three shooting four of those per game four rebounds four assists per game during that time provides energy athleticism defensive capability he takes on tough assignments
Consistently he’s 22 years old still he entered the NBA draft incredibly young in 2020 he is less than a month older than haime hwz and he’s going to be a restricted free agent this summer if he’s able to keep this run of play going this is going to be a guy that like
Teams really try and get out of Cleveland I think because he is so young he’s clearly useful on defense and the offense is starting to come together there have been consistent like gradual steps that he’s made offensively to where you go oh this is clearly something here that he can build upon I
Really really like what I’ve seen from Isa aoro uh over the course of this season but particularly over the course of this last like little two week stretch here I mean I think he’s a guy that a lot of people believed in the defense but you know for Cleveland it
Was you needed a guy that could space the floor around this other group that you had and he wasn’t really doing it but yeah he’s at 38% on over two and a half 71% are Corner threes and he’s right under 40% on those obviously you’d
Want that to be a little better but it’s about the Improvement he’s continued to get better I also want to just give a little shout out to Tristan Thompson like this dude at 32 year old he comes in he’s averaging like one and a half offensive rebounds and how many ever
Minutes he’s getting I’m not saying he’s like the Lynch pined to anything I’m not saying he’s been any better than like Craig Porter jior or anything like that but coming in especially with Moy out right now you need a little bit of depth at the big position and I think he comes
In he plays really really stinking hard he grabs some offensive rebounds I just wanted to give again kind of like the Amman thing I wanted to give him a quick shout out as we go through all of these guys that are just this is really good roster like shout out the front office
There in terms of compiling all of these guys where you can withstand this because really Sam I look at the top three in the East and then I’m looking for the fourth team because listen we love Orlando both of us love Orlando they may start to you know Plateau just
A little bit and then I look at Cleveland it should be Cleveland and then I was like like oh no the injuries but as you outlined they’ve been playing well and they have these other guys playing well they’re really still right in there in the run for that four
Seed I think that they are as long as they take care of business during this little run sure some of the general fundamental numbers here are not like incredible right uh I think that they have like barely a I think they’re like at plus four over the course of these
Last six Gam games per 100 possessions and a team that goes five- one during that stretch should be like more in the like plus eight or nine 10 range typically if you’re winning that many games uh over that much of a sample right so that part is slightly
Concerning let’s say I will also say generally over the course of the full season without Moy on the court the team gives up over8 points per 100 possessions uh minutes without Moy and Garland on on the court the Cavs still have a negative point2 rating even though they’ve won the stretch of games
Here the bigger sample says that this is going to be a problem at some point once they start playing good teams the question is just can they manage the this stretch of games here where they can rack some wins and just have Donovan Mitchell Jared Allen and these depth
Guys just go nuts here for the next three weeks basically get it closer to where Garland and Moy are going to be back and then feel a little bit more confident that hey we might be able to kind of withstand this get hot late in the season and then make a run because
Ultimately what this is all leading to is you have to convince Donovan Mitchell to sign an extension this summer uh I don’t think either of us think that this team is a championship level team this year which means that you’re continuing to build you’re continuing to grow that’s your whole thing
Where that growth has to continue though is with Donovan Mitchell and you need to be able to sign Donovan Mitchell that extension so you can keep going down this road yeah I mean he’s really really good yeah you brought up the numbers real quick just you know looking at basketball reference
Some of the miscellaneous stuff you know just the offensive rating defensive rating you know none of it’s like really top 10 and that kind of surprised me you know like usually there’s something you can pinpoint and nothing none of that stuff really stood out now Donovan Mitchell’s so good
Man he’s crazy talented the start stop the wiggle he just has some stuff to his game he’s just one of those guys that can stop on a dime rise up into his shot like it’s just some nights you watch him play and you just flat out can’t guard
Him no matter who they put on him they can’t guard him this dude is fifth in the NBA and made three since 2017 2018 so he’s up there with curry Harden Hill Lillard those guy I think at the time when I put this in my notes so this this
Might have been a couple weeks ago but he was second in the NBA in transition points only behind sgaa like this Donovan Mitchell is so good I think I only rattle this off because sometimes I forget Sam how good Donovan Mitchell is I think I underappreciate him at times
And so I wanted to take 30 seconds here just to appreciate how good this dude is yeah and I think that where this has to go moving forward and just I’ve seen a lot of people bring up should they trade Donovan Mitchell now should they blow
This thing up my bigger thing is like we talked about uh maybe two weeks ago now I think there’s like a real case to blow up the Mobly Allen combination they tend not to elevate one another I don’t think it’s an accident that Jared Allen’s best run this season has been without Evan
Moy on the court it’s not to say either of them are bad players I just don’t know that they lift up each other’s games in the way that you would hope I also believe though that Donovan Mitchell resigning is the key to everything and I don’t think that you
Can really make a decision especially if you’re good here during this stretch which they’ve been pretty solid now you can’t make a decision on that until the offseason at this point unless they like really start to tank these games and like drop them right like if they lose
To Milwaukee tonight and then drop one of these games to Washington drop a game to San Antonio and drop a game to Brooklyn or something and their net rate drops way too low like where the indicators are okay this is a significant problem I think then it’s worth having the conversation about
Mitchell I don’t think it’s worth having the conversation about trading Mitchell yet I think if they can keep racking wins here like we’ve seen them do without Garland and Moy then I think you let this continue and play forward here throughout the course of the season and then you have to make
Decisions based on what Mitchell tells you in the off seon
#evanmobley #dariusgarland #clevelandcavaliers @cavs
Bryce Simon joins Sam Vecenie to break down why the Cleveland Cavaliers have been able to find success over the last two weeks despite injuries to Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, and why they might be able to make it work long enough to survive until they return.
