Poor three-point shooting spoils Donovan Mitchell’s return | Cleveland Cavaliers podcast

Poor three-point shooting spoils Donovan Mitchell’s return | Cleveland Cavaliers podcast

Coming up on today’s show Cavs bucks Donovan Mitchell’s back but bad shooting in the third and bad shooting overall cost the Cavs let’s talk about it are locked on Cavs your daily Cleveland Cavaliers podcast I’m Chris Manning we have a special guest today Jackson Flickinger you can

Find him at right at n you can hear him or see him on the Junkyard Dog podcast with Tony pesta who’s going to be on the show next week as well you may be wondering is Jackson glitching is something wrong just he is in a Star

Wars movie that was shot in 1970 so if you see some camera stuff that he’s just paying a mod to George Lucas Jackson my friend how are you thank thank you thank you for having me on and the first Star Wars was released in 1977 Chris I expect

More from you what did I what did I just did I say like you said you said like 1970 in the 70s I’m just telling you 77 come on everyone everyone shot in like 75 really so but should ALS should yeah that’s right should also know Jackson

Biggest samaral Defender I know on the internet and in real life um I should have called you big dog and Amash the Tiger Woods meme going around cuz you’re big guy what’s up big dog and uh the world’s big IAL cor hater which means we’re mortal enemies and that’s fine but you

Know it’s we we’re bringing take we’re pieace in our time is what I would say is what I would say I just want to know who’s number two on like the Sam Merill biggest fan list and like what’s the distance between me and him it’s you and

Mitt Romney and you could just like shoot Mitt Romney at DM and like find out is what I would say you know okay Willard Willard do you do you have a binder full of Sam Marill stats to talk about and you could go from there one of

The things that’s kind of weird is that like all these Utah State people are now showing up in my like four um utab just because they keep liking my stuff so I need to I need to figure out how to navigate uh this whole Twitter thing but

That’s we’ll take that offline no one knows how to use Twitter that’s that’s X whatever it’s called all right Cavs bucks Cavs lose 119 to11 and donov Mitchell Donovan Mitchell’s return He has 34 Jared Allen has 30 and he again playing awesome we’re going to talk about him in segment three this game

Jackson as you know you were there I’m em in home battling some illness like Donovan Mitchell uh they lose to the third quarter 40 to 21 the buck shot 65.2% in the field that quarter the Cavs at 41.7% and 12 a half% from three in that quarter nice third quarter comeback all of

That but Cleveland loses and to me it’s it’s about where things went off the rails in the third quarter what did the Bucks do what did the Cavs not do in your opinion that that caused the discrepancy in that game so I think this was a really good game by the Cavs and

It just kind of comes down to if you take a lot of Threes And you miss all of them like things like this are going to happen where you have a quarter where you lose 40 to 21 it’s just really hard to play defense when you keep missing

Threes like that and runouts happen and it’s like I don’t you know if they make a couple more threes if some of them just fall I think it just changes the whole complexion of this game like they dominated the first quarter and they were one for nine from

Three I believe in that first quarter but it’s really hard to keep that going when you’re shooting that many threes the the Bucks are this team where I think they provide some obviously issues for the Cavs and they’re they’re for the most part very good that third

Quarter just also just felt a little bit like I you have to find ways to keep up with Damen lannis at times and and Cleveland maybe just doesn’t have the horses for that in this current health situation Mitchell like they didn’t shoot well as a team in that quarter but

It wasn’t Mitchell or Allen in this game that was like the issue right like Mitchell plays nearly 10 minutes of the quarter he’s five of seven 11 points Allen has eight on four or five shooting but it’s stru is 04 pretty bad stru game amid a a cold run from coro’s only one

Of two lever o of two Merl’s 0 of two n’s 0 of two and it it goes on they just it felt like to me in that quarter you don’t have the horsepower to keep up with those two guys when they get rolling and and they weren’t even

Rolling in in this like insane Way by any stretch of imagination right it’s like okay Giannis is six to seven he’s two2 from the line Dame’s Four seven but Dame gets to the line five times and they’re seven to seven from the line the Cavs are 02 from the line in that

Quarter it just felt like this accumulates and right now and I think even at their best there’s still to me some questions Jackson about like how how what the horsepower of this Cav’s offense get like how fast can they go can they be a team that can get into

Shootouts and win and right now they kind of have to play the certain way with with the guys they have and it’s looked a certain way and the offense has largely been efficient but in these moments there’s that gear that even with Mitchell back I think it’s just hard for

Them to get to and even with a great fourth quarter comeback and the toughness it’s just hard for them to keep up I think ultimately you’re shaking your head is this is this unfair I mean I think it’s when you look at that third quarter you you listed off

The guys that you know played in that third quarter that didn’t do anything that were besides Mitchell and Allen those are all mostly three-point shooters or guys who mostly take their shots from Beyond the arcet it’s like yeah you know that’s they’re there to take threes and they’re there to make

Threes they just weren’t making them and it’s not like you know the guys that were taking them are guys that you wouldn’t expect to make threes you know you had Miss threes from you know streu in this quarter was was 0 for two Merill

0 for two Nang 0 for two like you don’t expect them to go o you don’t expect those three to combine to go 0 for six very often and I think this is where we could talk about kind of how some of the Cavs depth

Pieces can only score in one way or at least they’re primarily good at scoring in one way we saw that Craig Porter Jr really didn’t he only he played less than two minutes in that third quarter and he’s a guy who gets downhill attacks the basket they needed another guy like

That on a night where it just wasn’t falling from three so maybe you could say uh JB should have put in Craig Porter Jr earlier but I don’t think there’s a problem with trying to shoot your way out of it when this team kind of shot their way back into a game that

They had no business winning on Wednesday and kind of did the same thing on Monday against the Bulls so it’s like this is how the team’s going to win when you’re down Garland and Moy so when they lose in that way I’m not going to be too

Concerned like yes if they were in a playoff series with the Bucks and this was their team then it’s like yeah you know they only have one way to play and that’s an issue but I think this is a versatile team if they can actually get completely together when all the pieces

Are back and that’s that’s a much broader question and something that they haven’t shown that that they can do yeah and I think you’re I think you’re you sold me on this I think you’re you’re more right than than I am here I think that you can you can take that you can

Yeah you can take that to your grave I may never SE I’ve never actually heard you say that before so this is going back to going back to our Larry Nance conversations Larry n your conversations you never said that yeah look we’re we’re we’re we’re we’re we’re bending

Fences here we’re we’re bring the the thing that I I think that that ultimately this is getting at that I think where this team is at and it goes back to the moves they made I think you’ve hit on this it’s like they brought in guys who are not exactly one

Note but they’re kind of one note like nang’s certainly I think one note stru really isn’t but his utility often times is to take threes and like they do very active sets to get him looks this feels like in some ways like an evolution that I actually support in

Terms of how they’re shooting right now amid all these injuries because the offense had to get better to get evolve from last year they just needed another gear and there certainly just is some variance and I would suspect that JB bicker Stef probably like deep in his

Soul is like I would like us not to take 433s and like maybe just like take 35 and like somewhat dial it up but this is like the extreme version of that and you kind of just have to play like this right now I think ultimately I think

Ultimately win or lose and they’ve more won the not in this stretch you probably just have to play like this right now and I think certainly with Mitchell back that’s how you should play if Mitchell is your league Creator he’s not a great creator for others but he is a guy that

If you design sets and you play a certain way and play with Tempo you can get guys clean looks based on how Mitchell attacks and and the reads he is super capable of making I think that’s where We’ve Ended up here more than anything else is just you kind of have

To play this way right now and I guess we’ll see what carries over and what doesn’t when when Garland’s back from his JW more more than Moy frankly right I do think there’s an interesting conversation to be had with Donovan Mitchell uh but especially as like a

Playmaker I think we’ve I think we saw some good things today and we’ve seen good things during the stretch especially like four of his nine assists went to Jared Allen which I think he’s showing a lot more comfort with getting Jared involved and kind of running that

Pick and roll and that’s something that he has not been particularly strong at especially last season so I think there’s a lot of positives there but kind of more on the three-point front they’ve taken the highest percentage of Threes in the past six games not not I’m counting today um

The highest to the highest percentage of Threes of 45.6% of their shot attempts in their previous six games have come from Beyond The Arc that’s insane so that’s something that I don’t think you want to constantly live that high but that’s also steps in the right direction

And I think that we saw kind of the benefits of that today where the Cavs um they what was it they made 82.1% of their shots at The Rim today and it’s like that a lot of that has to do with how spaced out they had the bucks so

Even though even though they made six threes when you shoot 43 of them people are going to cover you it’s the Marcus Smart effect um but I mean the C have better Shooters but you know like so there’s a lot of benefits that shooting that many threes has overall and we saw

That today it’s just yeah if they made nine of 43 from three we’re probably talking about a very we’re we’re I’m talking about this game very differently yeah and also just maybe take more closer number of free throws that the Bucks did ultimately another well that’s I mean that’s when you

Have when you have two guys three guys on the team right now that can attack the basket comfortably and this is where I think when we talk about where the casts have issues they have very few guys who can do all three of pass dribble and shoot they have guys

Who can pass they have guys who can dribble and they have guys who can shoot but they have like not many who can do all three and that’s where you know when you don’t have guys who can do that that’s you’re not going to get to the free throw line

You know you can complain about officiating all you want and say oh they shot you know they shot 28 free throws and we only shot nine that’s bad officiating it’s like no they have guys who can dribble get to the basket the Cavs have one

Uh two really if you count C Porter Jr so it’s like yeah one one and a half one and a half depending on how you feel about Caris lver but he doesn’t really try to get cont yeah you know when he feels like it uh today he wasn’t you

Know today wasn’t feeling like it with zero free throws um but that’s where if you want to poke holes in the caves that’s where it’s like yeah they don’t really have a lot of versatile guys they have a lot of Specialists to go around they’re four star who are also

Specialists so kind of kind of an issue coming up next let’s get into game awards that’s MVP stat of the night and play of the night today’s episode is brought to you by our friends at eBay motors and our partners at eBay motors have teamed up with locked on fantasy basketballs Josh

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Flickinger who’s your MVP can I we pause for a second uh so I want to go with Donovan Mitchell just because you really saw i m i muted no no no I just muted you for that ad it turned out 34 points and 10 assist uh nine assists are like really

Good you’re good uh so and just two turnovers I think we you’re being very conscientious and that’s great but you’re good I just muted better game than maybe we would have expected to see from him after getting sick uh after the game he was coughing throughout his postgame press

Conference so um all the people the shoulder conspiracy people that’s a tough that’s a tough look for them or Don really good thing is that a thing the show so like I’m just like offline right A lot of the time honestly so like is that a thing is that some people are

Doing yes yes that is I I don’t know if they’re still doing it but it’s definitely something that they were doing so um so yeah but that’s a tough look for them but you know I think that’s the thing about conspiracies you can anything’s a win if you really want

It to be so um Good Luck to those guys but really I think we saw one of the things that I wanted to see with Garland out is I wanted to see Mitchell kind of run the team more as more of a playmaker because when you look at Mitchell what’s

Holding him back from being from taking the step is really his play making he’s a very he’s a good I think he can be a good passer he’s just not a willing passer and he doesn’t I think a lot of times he drives with the idea of okay

How can I score in this way and that works out very well in the regular season but you can run into problems like we saw last year in the playoffs so this is a time where I really want to see him grow and I think we’ve seen some

Improvements there and I think today was another good example of that um as I said the four assists to Jared Allen that’s a good sign because him driving and kicking the three-point Shooters as we mentioned is always good you like that but that’s the Easy Pass

For him to make it’s a lot easier for someone like Mitchell to really you know see the health Defender coming when they’re coming from the three-point line and for him to just kind of whip it out there that’s what we saw with the Jazz that’s kind of what Snyder wanted him to

Do but getting the bigs involved that that’s something that is a skill that he doesn’t naturally have so seeing him kind of exercise that more today I think is really good yeah he’s he’s a good Creator but like in in the sense that he knows how to make the reads that present

Themselves and feed bigs when he wants to it’s it’s like he it’s just it’s like the layers sometimes I think are not are what holds him back from being different than like a the elite elite guys kind of at his spot or that are guards all right

Let’s go for mine it’s it’s Jared down we’re going to talk about him in detail in segment three but again 30 points he had 12 boards six assists he’s blocking shots he’s kind of everywhere and he’s playing 40 minutes and the Cavs are in a rut over this last stretch without him

So to me I just would have become way just very very impressed with him all right my stat of the night uh the Cavs took 20 more shots in the Bucks and lost that’s just like kind of 23 more shots to be exact that’s kind of hard to do to

Just get that much more volume and and still lose it just speaks to how off of a shooting that they had particularly from three you mentioned their shooting numbers at The Rim just wasn’t enough ultim to overcome that the math of three-pointers Jackson what’s your stat I know it’s adjacent to this

So um the Bucks outscored them by 18 from the three-point line by making six more threes and the Bucks had 12 fewer attempts um which is not a winning formula if you’re you know if you want to ever win a basketball game in the NBA you can’t shoot that many more threes

And then get outscored by that much from three um so that’s my side of the night all right play of the night we’ll do these quickly for me just Isaac Aur drove pannis and scored in the second half of this game there’s other ones that are more exciting Donovan Mitchell

Did some cool stuff whatever uh isoro just continues I think to do real life adult NBA Wing stuff and I mostly also wanted to just get a reaction out of Jackson if I’m I’m being honest so for me I just quite enjoyed what he uh was

Doing what he did in this game and as his physicality and and his part in The Comeback here so Isaac aoro congratulations you scored on one of the best players alive with a drive and I did know you had that in you sir what’s your play Jackson I too didn’t know he

Had it in him but I really like how you know of his three made field goals you had to really choose between one of them so that’s like choosing your favorite child if you had a child uh I mean I wouldn’t really know but that’s what they say so congratulations to you for

Um being able to choose between those three um my play of the night is uh Craig Porter Jr’s 3 with 50 seconds left um just Craig Porter Jr is not somebody who is comfortable shooting threes and it was a night where the Cavs missed you know about 40 threes so him kind of

Having the confidence in himself to take that three and make that three in that moment to cut it to four um like the Cavs were still in that game if they get a stop and can actually you know go down and get another three so that’s you know that’s what you want to

See from great Porter Jr we talk like we talked a little bit about um you know him not playing much in the third quarter and I think part of that reason is because he is not somebody who can shoot to three or not somebody who’s comfortable shooting to

Three and him doing that is just really you know it’s really important for his development and just another good minute performance from Craig Porter Jr he was not the reason why they lost today yes or no before we go to break Jackson uh is Craig Porter Jr good

Enough already where that you don’t think that Cavs need to go trade for a or sign or find a veteran point guard to replace Ricky Rubio like is he just good enough already I don’t know if he’s good enough all already but I think for this team it

Makes more sense to have a shorter rotation with Caris LeVert as kind of the deao backup point guard yeah so I would say yes for this team but if you were to say in a vacuum you’re backup point guard has to play I would say you would maybe like to have

Somebody a little more polished the only thing I would say to in to that is that I just do think that if they’re going to make a trade at the deadline and they don’t have a ton of assets really I would rather spend it on like some kind of another wing option

Then I would a backup point guard I would go a four five you just got to get rid of those you got to have somebody besides George Nang who can play those minutes yeah and that’s that’s I know that I know that when moob comes back Dean Wade could replace Nang in the

Rotation but I still would like somebody else because we know how Wade can sometimes when he’s not feeling it you kind of don’t see him like today did Dean Wade play today like I know he did but it didn’t really feel like it that’d be a good Twitter account honestly did

Dean Wade play today did Dean Wade do did Dean Wade take like more than one shot in a game you know I mean he took three but it didn’t it didn’t feel like he took right like he played he he played 17 minutes and I’m thinking it’s

Like well do I remember his 17 minutes and it’s like not really so that’s where no and you know and George nank you remember his 15 minutes so and that’s not always for the right reason so it’s like that’s a position where I I think they desperately need help so like the

Backup point guard it would be great but I don’t think it’s like you know I don’t think it’s gonna break this team whereas you can convince me that this could break the team but yeah that’s fair all right come back let’s talk about Jared Allen let’s talk about Evan Mobley how

They work together amid what Jared Allen’s doing right now today’s episode is brought to you by our friends ad game time which is the best way to buy tickets for your next big event you don’t shouldn’t have to worry about buying tickets when you want to go

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Account redeem our code Lo k o n MBA for $20 off your first purchase so Jackson Jared Allen has been I think not Revelation is maybe strong but he has been quite good over this run and I think the way he’s been good is really interesting because you’re seeing him

Run dhos you’re seeing him rack up assists you’re seeing him take mid-range jumpers at times you’re seeing him get to the rim this is all the stuff that if you go back to when the Cavs got him in the first place that Kobe Alin talked about wanting him to do the things they

Talked about wanting him to add to his game to help him evolve there things he didn’t even really do in his All-Star season really there weren’t this isn’t stuff he did then it’s also happens to be I think a lot of the stuff that Evan Mo does it when he’s playing well on

Offense I still think there’s a world you you really like I think any team ultimately that’s at trying to get to the high end is going to have some overlap have things that are imperfect I think that’s just unavoidable but I am just like looking at Jared

Allen right now a little bit and squinting and wondering how do I keep some of this when Evan Moy is back and how do I keep some of this momentum and energy and skill he’s playing with up when he’s coming back like are you where are you at with with how Jared’s playing

And what it’s going to mean when when Moy does come back whenever that’s going to be I think you have to be really impressed with how he played just because I don’t think last season was a particular like was a great season for him thought he was fine uh but I didn’t

Think he was nearly as good as he could have been and I felt like this season was a lot of the same until this Evan Moy uh until Evan Mobley went down so from that standpoint it’s really encouraging to see what he can do that he can be just an absolute monster like

Today he was you know forced to really guard Giannis at times and was also one of the best offensive players on the team you know just attacking Brook Lopez on repeat you know and that’s something that you just really want to see and when you hear Jared Allen talk

About it like how well he’s playing he talks about being more like aggressive and I don’t he needs to be that way but it’s like I think it’s not because when he’s playing with Evan Moy he’s just like oh like I don’t need play basketball anymore because somebody else

Good is out here I think it’s just when you have somebody who does the exact same thing that you do it’s hard to aggressively find your spots and I think the redundancy of both of them is just really coming through in these moments so is there a world where both of them

Can work I I’m more skeptical about that just because I think it’s just you know I’m not somebody who says you know who’s going to pull up the one big four you know non big lineup data and then base my personality off of that I’m not

Like that but I do think there is something to the overlap that these two guys have that makes it really hard for both of them to be the best versions of themselves when they have to be playing with each other I the player I’ve been thinking

About out in relation to moy a lot this year because he’s I think he might just win Rookie of the Year over over Victor wemama as Chad hren and then I was watching after after Cavs bucks ended I flipped on um Thunder nuggets and ched had a play that I’ve

Never he he did something with the ball in his hands on the perimeter and drove and score that I just like have you don’t see Evan Moy do that often and when he does it’s like kind of an unexpected surprise and Chad it just looks like natural and smooth and the

Thunder don’t really have like another traditional Center they’re not playing the same way the Cavs are but I I just think if Moy had a little more of that or he could shoot Corner threes and just had a little more of like an easy button on offense for himself or just a little

More layer like this would just be like a cleaner fit like it just it just would and it and it’s it’s not totally fair to moy I would say too to just say like you have to do this you accommodate this other guy because he’s been thrust into a team

That wants to win right away earlier than a lot of other guys in position one I do think there’s some developmental cost to that I I would say we’re going to find out at some point like if he can supersede it but it is the reality that

If Moy I think had just a little more on offense this would just like look cleaner like it just would work better yeah I really like how first off Chad and Evan have very different games but I do think one of the things that I really

Like about OKC is that they saw somebody who it would have been very easy to say okay we need to get a big traditional Center a yonas valent chunis type of guy who is just a center who you just throw out there with him just to kind of keep

Chet from the beating that guys at Center take but no they said hey we’re going to take the training wheels off we know that you are a center for us to be good you will have to be a center and we’re going to make you just adapt and he has and

I know that Moy plays a bunch with the second unit as the center but it’s different when you start a game as a center and you end the game as a center and you are the center on the team and that’s not what Evan Mobley is and I

Wonder if he would be better served long term if he was just thrown into that position and they said hey you got to figure this out at the same time this team wouldn’t be as good or at least definitely not the last two years if they just did that

So that’s like the balance that they have to strike because what makes them so special is no other team has multiple guys who can defend on the perimeter and protect the paint in in the way that Allen and Moy can that’s why they were so good last year that’s

Why they had one of the best net ratings that’s why they had one of the best uh defenses that’s why they were a great defense against the Knicks in the playoffs even though they were doing some nonsensical things that led to a million offensive rebounds but the offense is like yeah I

Think Evan Mobley can’t really do those things when Jared Allen is in the dunker spot and then you also throw in somebody like Isaac aoro who he played a lot of minutes with last year with Allen who’s also kind of a has has the profile of a center so

It’s like you put those limitations on on him which make the team good but because I as as much I joke about Isaac okoro he actually is very helpful and was very helpful last year so uh 30 38% from three right now just for the record okay that’s when we talk about Isaac

Auro don’t bring up his raw three-point shooting percentage we gota we gotta expand the conversation but that’s that’s not that’s not what we’re going to do today at least I’m willing to talk about it today but that’s I Jackson here’s the thing I back we will do an Isaac aoro episode

Where you just tell me I’m an idiot for loving Isaac ooro and I’ll be like I be like de Dean waiters hurt me you don’t understand I you’re right I don’t so he didn’t because he definitely didn’t hurt me so yeah that uh but yeah so that’s where that’s where I wonder

If like Evan moley would be better served if they just took the training wheels off but that’s all Al the Cs aren’t really in a position for them to do that because hey you traded for J you know you traded for Donovan Mitchell you have to convince Donovan Mitchell to

Resign here you know you got even just trading for Mitchell means like no trading wheels for you evm like it’s over it’s it’s over like you we traded for we gave up Lowry marketing all these picks like you can’t have training wheels and slow things down when you

Make that trade you just you just it’s over at that point well but also that’s what’s put the training wheels on Evan Moy from the center position standpoint because yeah it’s it’s like put it’s put training it’s like said you we have to win so you don’t get trading Wheels but

Also we’re not going to let you make mistakes so therefore there are trading wheels on you it’s like a it’s paradoxal it’s like these two things like smacking against each other with him one of the things that I always keep coming back to is why is Jared Allen on the Cass it’s

Because teams don’t value traditional centers the Rockets would have rather had a late first round pick than Jared Allen who they rightfully viewed as a traditional Center so guys like him aren’t even though he’s really really good and I think he’s worth more than a late first if the C

Were to trade him tomorrow but he’s not he doesn’t have the value his skills sort of demand if that makes sense um just because he needs to be in the right position to succeed you know like not every team needs a Jared Allen so that’s

Why he’s here and you kind of look at like Darius Garland why is Darius Garland here well because he fell because there were questions about him because he’s a smaller guard and stuff like that so it’s just a lot of these guys are in the spots that they’re in

Because they’re imperfect but actually still really good and you know when you keep playing the string out you’re still going to have those questions that allow those players to fall into your lap even though they’re really good it’s a complicated question this roster question will not go away I think

Anytime soon and how they CS do with it and you can gonna be really interesting and like the thing is you can have the same very same conversation with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland can go back to that and I think kind of that Mavericks game when they people had it

With K sex darus Garland before he even got to Mitchell andar like we’ve we’ve had this conversation in like 80 different ways you know right but like the Callin sex and Daris Garland won in hindsight was a stupid conversation so this is a this is a very not stupid

Conversation because they’re both you know Darius hasn’t played good this year but Donovan Mitchell you can you can say he’s one of the best shooting guards in the league top three you know Darius Garland he’s he’s I mean he’s three I would say he’s he’s top three but he’s he’s

Three which is very good you TI which is very good but it’s like yeah yeah for sure for sure just say it three I mean we could we could revisit the book conversation I don’t I mean in the playoffs book was really good to see what did Donovan what

Did Donovan Mitchell just what did Donovan Mitchell just do the what did Donovan Mitchell do in the playoffs in 2019 and 2020 and you know hard so it’s it’s is a context there’s a lot of context because I think Deon Booker’s also an imperfect player I think he’s a

Better he’s he’s a much better passer so I think that kind of gives him a little more leeway but I think Donovan Mitchell like if I need a if I need this person to shoot and score I would probably rather have Donovan Mitchell so um let

Me ask you let me ask you one last question before we go I just want to ask you one last thing about Jarrett is he is he better at any of these offensive characteristics than Evan is like I I think Evan has like better passing Vision but I think Jared’s like a better

Screener I think Jared as a result like might be kind of allow for more a little more oomph on some dhos and some of that downhill action he also Jared just like moves a little snappier sometimes Evan can be a little move a little slow and

Take his time to get into stuff but like Evan I think is the better passer with better touch with better Vision but there’s something just a little more Snappy about Jared but is that do you think Jared’s like actually ahead of Evan in any of these skills based on

What we’ve seen I do I mean I think he’s a better Rim finisher he’s a better he’s a better lob threat and when you look for like he provides vertical spacing in a way that Evan doesn’t and vertical spacing on a team that has I mean not

Really right now but in at times has lacked spacing you really see how important that is and I think he is I mean he is a better mid-range shooter like we saw that like he is getting more comfortable with that and you feel pretty comfortable when he’s

Taking that shot at the free throw line I don’t feel that same way with Evan moley even though it looks it looks a lot better than it actually than like the actual result um so yeah I I think Jared at this point like I think he fits into a lot more offenses

Cleaner than Evan Mobley does in am vacuum Evan Mobley is a better ball handler but he still needs to really improve on that if he wants to kind of take the next step I think that’s kind of if I’m looking for one era for Evan Moby to improve obviously it’s a shot

But he’s not he hasn’t shown that he wants to improve there but like if he just had a tighter handle I think that’s where you’re going to see the next Evolution for him but if we’re just talking about traditional you know Rim Running Center stuff like yeah Jared Allen’s the better

Traditional Rim Running Center from that standpoint we’re going to end there Jackson you’re going to come back I’m telling you now we’re going to do an aore episode I guess I worked myself into a shoot and uh we’re going to do some kind of Evan Moy discourse episode

I think we have to do this it’s been it’s good to have you back on it’s been a while um it’s it’s it’s good to chat with you I I hope your hope your X-Wing doesn’t like crash in space that would be cool thank you uh can we work in some Andre

Drummond and Larry Nance Jr Twan game talk uh because that’s the that’s what we talked about the last time and I don’t I have more thoughts my thoughts I’m really sorry I’m I’m really sorry I did that to you I just want to apologize for that that’s like a war

Crime in basketball podcasting if I’m being honest well I thought it was I thought it was good my biggest thing is why didn’t the Jared Allen and Larry Nance Jr lineups work that was that was you know everything could be can be pointed back to that you know that was really the

Start of this conversation you know I I had somethingone point out to me recently too that in like 20 years we’re going to be like on whatever social media platform we’re using then God forbid that I’m yeah right and someone’s GNA I that’s I’m I ask myself that every

Day if I’m being honest and um someone’s going to be like some kid who’s like 16 is going to make a video about how Andre Drummond was in fact underrated and I’m just going to like I’m going to walk into Lake are at that point it’s over for

Me I they’re going to look at the raw numbers and be like this guy should have made 10 All-Star games I’m going to be like you weren’t there you don’t know that’s when I’m going to know that it’s it’s really over it’s I’m already watched but that’s going to be like it’s

Super over what if what if Andre Drummond had hops like if he could get Above the Rim he’d be so good like that like when you like when you like when you don’t watch Andre Drummond every day you’re like oh yeah he’s like a rim Running Center but

No he finishes below the basket all the time he’s like doing scoop layups like that’s why he gets 75 rebounds because he keeps grabbing his scoop layups so if he could finish Above the Rim he would have been really good um and I think that’s when you look at him you think he

Can so that’s why you think oh he’s better than people thought but no no no anyways Chris why are we talking about this because this is this is a Saturday December 30th lockdown Cavs last episode of the Year going out on a heater I’m Chris Manning that’s been Jackson

Flickinger check him out at right down uid listen to him and Tony pesta who will be on the show next week uh on the junkyard dog pod read his work subscribe to his show thanks again to Jake Stevens is always we’ll talk to y’all in 2024

After Cavs Raptors the first game of the year oh

On a new episode of Locked on Cavs (Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023) hosts Chris Manning (@cwmwrites, The Just Basketball Show, SB Nation’s Fear the Sword, Forbes Sports) is joined by Right Down Euclid’s Jackson Flickinger to talk about Cavs-Bucks, Donovan Mitchell’s return to the lineup, the Cavs’ poor shooting, give out game awards (MVP, stat of the night, play of the night) and talk about Jarrett Allen’s play of late and if it tells us anything about how he and Evan Mobley work (or don’t work) as a duo.

This episode was produced by Jake Stephens. The intro music is from our friends at Astral Radio.

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