2023-24 Regular Season

JonFromVA · Post #1921 » by **JonFromVA** » Mon Mar 25, 2024 6:36 pm

Just seems like we're eventually going to find something out about Darius this season that we didn't know before, even if it's just that having to eat food through a straw took a bigger toll on him than we would have imagined.

JujitsuFlip · Post #1922 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Mon Mar 25, 2024 7:31 pm

JonFromVA wrote:Just seems like we're eventually going to find something out about Darius this season that we didn't know before, even if it's just that having to eat food through a straw took a bigger toll on him than we would have imagined.

Yeah, he took a huge step back this season. The lack of games played amongst the big 4 has been disappointing. This was supposed to be the season to really evaluate growth and fit with those core 4 guys, injuries just didn't allow that to happen. It makes this summer all that more difficult.

toooskies · Post #1923 » by **toooskies** » Mon Mar 25, 2024 8:34 pm

JonFromVA wrote:Just seems like we're eventually going to find something out about Darius this season that we didn't know before, even if it's just that having to eat food through a straw took a bigger toll on him than we would have imagined.

Darius was prohibited from exercising while his jaw was wired shut. So not only did he lose weight from not eating, he also lost all his conditioning and was effectively going through a new preseason from a conditioning standpoint during his minutes restrictions.

He has had a minor turned ankle a few times in the past few games.

He had a hand issue early in the season that led to his high turnovers early on, and probably affected his shooting as well.

He is simply not good in transition and has never been, consistently averaging 1.05ppp (league average is over 1.1ppp).

You might want to compare the current stretch to his March 2022 numbers, but be careful because that was also a relatively easy schedule for the Cavs. (Luckily, we get Charlotte, Utah, and Memphis in 5 of our last 11 games).

JujitsuFlip · Post #1924 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:41 pm

https://www.cleveland.com/cavs/2024/03/cavs-to-sign-marcus-morris-sr-to-rest-of-season-contract-sources-tell-clevelandcom.html

Morris has locked up the 15 spot, let's hope Jb doesn't keep him glued to the bench.

toooskies · Post #1925 » by **toooskies** » Mon Apr 1, 2024 7:10 pm

Read on Twitter

If Wade is out for the year, that would be five times in seven years (going back to college) that he'll be limited or out for postseason play. (The other two years, the Cavs had no postseason.)

JujitsuFlip · Post #1926 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Mon Apr 1, 2024 7:35 pm

toooskies wrote:

Read on Twitter

If Wade is out for the year, that would be five times in seven years (going back to college) that he'll be limited or out for postseason play. (The other two years, the Cavs had no postseason.)

The wildest part is dude got hurt trying to ramp back up from missing time for his child being born.

The timing is just odd bc he shouldn't have needed some intense ramp up after missing a few days.

JujitsuFlip · Post #1927 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Mon Apr 8, 2024 5:26 pm

Cavs final 3 games are at home, 1 day of rest after every game. 2 of the teams are tanking. We'll see what seed they end up with. Long as they don't fall into the play-in, just go from there.

Post #1928 » by **jbk1234** » Tue Apr 9, 2024 1:14 am

I'm a pretty big believer in trying to win every game, but if the Magic are still sitting at No. 3, and we'd fall to No. 6 after a loss, there's a pretty good chance that I wouldn't play a single starter in that last game on Sunday.

JujitsuFlip · Post #1929 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Tue Apr 9, 2024 2:25 am

jbk1234 wrote:I'm a pretty big believer in trying to win every game, but if the Magic are still sitting at No. 3, and we'd fall to No. 6 after a loss, there's a pretty good chance that I wouldn't play a single starter in that last game on Sunday.

I 100% agree with this thought. Magic have the Bucks 2 of their final 4 games though, so a lot could change standings wise.

JujitsuFlip · Post #1930 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Wed Apr 10, 2024 1:02 am

https://www.si.com/nba/cavaliers/report-cleveland-cavaliers-openly-questioned-defensive-plan-against-los-angeles-clippers

Starting to see some smoke of players going against jb?

Post #1931 » by **jbk1234** » Wed Apr 10, 2024 4:41 am

JujitsuFlip wrote:https://www.si.com/nba/cavaliers/report-cleveland-cavaliers-openly-questioned-defensive-plan-against-los-angeles-clippers

Starting to see some smoke of players going against jb?

I mean Mobley just fell down. He defends in space well. It was very uncharacteristic of him.

I think a fairer criticism is whether one of those superstar calls PG was getting in the last 5 minutes should've been challenged. The idea that PG was scorching hot is belied by the reality that he went to the line a bunch of times. After his third trip in a row, the Cavs did blitz PG the two plays prior to the final shot, and the result was two made 3s by Coffey.

Post #1932 » by **jbk1234** » Wed Apr 10, 2024 4:43 am

I'd be fine with a 4-5 matchup with the Magic. The East is really tight right now.

toooskies · Post #1933 » by **toooskies** » Wed Apr 10, 2024 3:59 pm

Let's be clear-- no one in the East is playing great basketball right now except for Boston and Philly. As long as we avoid the play-in we should have a chance against anybody in the first round.

Of course, we have every chance of losing to anybody too, especially if we don't have full-strength Donovan Mitchell.

JujitsuFlip · Post #1934 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Wed Apr 10, 2024 4:15 pm

toooskies wrote:Let's be clear-- no one in the East is playing great basketball right now except for Boston and Philly. As long as we avoid the play-in we should have a chance against anybody in the first round.

Of course, we have every chance of losing to anybody too, especially if we don't have full-strength Donovan Mitchell.

I prefer the Magic and Pacers.

100% don't want the Knicks.

I think the Heat are terrible matchup, don't want the Bucks or 76ers either.
But agreed, at this point, just avoid the play-in.

toooskies · Post #1935 » by **toooskies** » Wed Apr 10, 2024 5:14 pm

JujitsuFlip wrote:
toooskies wrote:Let's be clear-- no one in the East is playing great basketball right now except for Boston and Philly. As long as we avoid the play-in we should have a chance against anybody in the first round.

Of course, we have every chance of losing to anybody too, especially if we don't have full-strength Donovan Mitchell.
I prefer the Magic and Pacers.

100% don't want the Knicks.

I think the Heat are terrible matchup, don't want the Bucks or 76ers either.
But agreed, at this point, just avoid the play-in.

I mean, I'd argue the Knicks are the best option to either get JBB fired or know that he has the capability to overcome his weaknesses. Having a clear answer there should be exactly what you'd want from a team-moving-on perspective. The Knicks are the tear-off-the-band-aid-and-face-reality opponent.

(Of course, the excuses will still be there if Mitchell isn't close to 100%.)

Post #1936 » by **ijspeelman** » Wed Apr 10, 2024 5:45 pm

toooskies wrote:
JujitsuFlip wrote:
toooskies wrote:Let's be clear-- no one in the East is playing great basketball right now except for Boston and Philly. As long as we avoid the play-in we should have a chance against anybody in the first round.

Of course, we have every chance of losing to anybody too, especially if we don't have full-strength Donovan Mitchell.
I prefer the Magic and Pacers.

100% don't want the Knicks.

I think the Heat are terrible matchup, don't want the Bucks or 76ers either.
But agreed, at this point, just avoid the play-in.

I mean, I'd argue the Knicks are the best option to either get JBB fired or know that he has the capability to overcome his weaknesses. Having a clear answer there should be exactly what you'd want from a team-moving-on perspective. The Knicks are the tear-off-the-band-aid-and-face-reality opponent.

(Of course, the excuses will still be there if Mitchell isn't close to 100%.)

Its odd, but I agree that I want to play the Knicks so we can either get redemption (even if Randle is down) or told the truth. It definitely feels like a tear-off-the-band-aid type of match-up, but with a series win I'd feel it'd make up for the series last year and the downs of this season.

And I have to assume a loss propels us to make some sweeping changes.

Since I think its obvious we have an incredibly low probability of making the finals, I'd rather just get play-off tested.

JujitsuFlip · Post #1937 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Wed Apr 10, 2024 11:05 pm

I get what you guys are saying but I've seen enough jb to know that the Knicks is 100% a series loss. I also have zero confidence that would mean Koby would finally grow a pair and find a new head coach. By extension i do not believe Gilbert would get rid of Koby if he stands pat at HC.

Post #1938 » by **ijspeelman** » Thu Apr 11, 2024 3:50 pm

JujitsuFlip wrote:I get what you guys are saying but I've seen enough jb to know that the Knicks is 100% a series loss. I also have zero confidence that would mean Koby would finally grow a pair and find a new head coach. By extension i do not believe Gilbert would get rid of Koby if he stands pat at HC.

We obviously aren't the FO, but vibes indicate that JB is clearly out if expectations (getting to the 2nd round) aren't met. I have no idea what they plan to do if we do make it there

JonFromVA · Post #1939 » by **JonFromVA** » Thu Apr 11, 2024 4:09 pm

JujitsuFlip wrote:I get what you guys are saying but I've seen enough jb to know that the Knicks is 100% a series loss. I also have zero confidence that would mean Koby would finally grow a pair and find a new head coach. By extension i do not believe Gilbert would get rid of Koby if he stands pat at HC.

Dan Gilbert in the past expected progress and growth and if we lose again in the 1st round, this will be the first time under JBB that won't be the case. We'll just have to see if post-stroke whether Dan is still that guy who prefers to re-shuffle the deck after getting a bad hand and/or how the organization decides to account for the injury problems.

If a combination of improving health and motivation avoids a complete first round melt-down, then it will be possible to argue the team went further, but that won't be the only consideration.

I don't mind the idea of building an atypical roster like the Cavs have done, but it really relies on the whole organization to get behind the concept. If one of the cornerstones is knocked out (aka the coach) the whole thing could fall apart. If they even wanted to move forward with the same plan, they'd first need to find a coach who actually believes in it and wants to stake his career on it. I'm sure they can do that, but there are repercussions to asking Donovan Mitchell to extend and then telling him we can't get the coach he wants and we want to hire someone with no little to no head coaching experience.

It wouldn't be a bad time to hire a new POBO and give him full decision making powers over everything, but first we'd have to convince someone that Dan Gilbert is at a point he would do that, and then someone would have to inform him he was going to need to pull off this miracle without any first rounders past 2024 until the next decade.

JujitsuFlip · Post #1940 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:21 am

JonFromVA wrote:
JujitsuFlip wrote:I get what you guys are saying but I've seen enough jb to know that the Knicks is 100% a series loss. I also have zero confidence that would mean Koby would finally grow a pair and find a new head coach. By extension i do not believe Gilbert would get rid of Koby if he stands pat at HC.

Dan Gilbert in the past expected progress and growth and if we lose again in the 1st round, this will be the first time under JBB that won't be the case. We'll just have to see if post-stroke whether Dan is still that guy who prefers to re-shuffle the deck after getting a bad hand and/or how the organization decides to account for the injury problems.

If a combination of improving health and motivation avoids a complete first round melt-down, then it will be possible to argue the team went further, but that won't be the only consideration.

I don't mind the idea of building an atypical roster like the Cavs have done, but it really relies on the whole organization to get behind the concept. If one of the cornerstones is knocked out (aka the coach) the whole thing could fall apart. If they even wanted to move forward with the same plan, they'd first need to find a coach who actually believes in it and wants to stake his career on it. I'm sure they can do that, but there are repercussions to asking Donovan Mitchell to extend and then telling him we can't get the coach he wants and we want to hire someone with no little to no head coaching experience.

It wouldn't be a bad time to hire a new POBO and give him full decision making powers over everything, but first we'd have to convince someone that Dan Gilbert is at a point he would do that, and then someone would have to inform him he was going to need to pull off this miracle without any first rounders past 2024 until the next decade.

I see no scenario where another season without reaching at minimum the 2nd round can be excusable/acceptable.

I'm very okay if the redundancy that is this roster is broken up.

I will say, i don't think Griff or Koby were put in easy positions to start their tenures. Griff had to fire his predecessor and his head coach. Koby had to trade one of his star players.