2024 NBA Playoffs - East 1st Round: #4 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. #5 Orlando Magic (CLE leads 3-2)

[JonFromVA]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

You might recall, the Cavs have struggled in the past dealing with various Magic bench players. If they're going to let Mo Wagner, Jonathan Isaac, Cole Anthony, Goga Bitzade, Joe Ingles, Gary Harris, etc, do whatever they want they won't need much from their starters besides keeping Garland and Mitchell somewhat contained.

Which may not be so hard to do the way they've been playing lately.

The Cavs can be pretty special when their top-4 guys are somewhere close to 100%, but they aren't there and the last time it looked like they might be getting there, a whole bunch of guys promptly got hurt. JB Bickerstaff is coaching for his job and perhaps his career and he's going to shorten his rotation and run anyone and everyone he has to in to the ground and his players aren't built for that.

[The Real Dalic]

It's sad to say that after game 1 of this series, Paolo will have doubled his national TV games in his short career.

[The Real Dalic]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

I picked the Cavs in 6 as well as a Magic fan, but the poll is closer than that if you take all options into account. It's 83-80 in favor of the Magic. Still leaning Magic but not as big as a gap.

As far as giving it to Paolo and Franz, yes, you can give them the ball and ask them to give you a bucket and they'll get them for you. Paolo had 40 points again this very team earlier in the season.

Franz is the one whose struggled against Mobley in their careers. I think it would be stupid if the Cavs took Mobley off of Franz to put on Paolo considering how well he plays Franz.

I would put Allen on Paolo and whoever the SF is on either Isaac or Carter Jr. Whichever one starts for the Magic at C.

[Residual-Heat]

Franz can't guard shooting guards, so no, that's not happening.

I wouldnt say that. He can definitely guard some shooting guards. He's not going to shutdown Garland/Mitchell but maybe with Isaac behind him it could be okay. Can Garland/Mitchell guard him? I do want to see the big line up against the Cavs starters at least to see what it looks like.

[bmurph128]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

Agreed except for the Cavs not being particularly good - we dealt with so many injuries, getting to 48 wins shows the opposite.

Now, will that actually translate to the playoffs? It didn't last year and that's what matters. But from a talent perspective, the only team head and shoulders above us in the East is the Celtics unless the Bucks get to full strength.

[BigDan245]

NBA doesn't want me to watch this series....Work until 2:30 on Saturday's and of course they put this series on twice at 1PM on Saturday's lol.

[Potential]

Raptors and 76ers had 3 NBA TV games in 2022

game 3, 5, 6

[jasonxxx102]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

Agreed except for the Cavs not being particularly good - we dealt with so many injuries, getting to 48 wins shows the opposite.

Now, will that actually translate to the playoffs? It didn't last year and that's what matters. But from a talent perspective, the only team head and shoulders above us in the East is the Celtics unless the Bucks get to full strength.

I think the Cavs are very talented but not good because JB is a terrible coach. I think he's fine in the regular season but his plain jane offense sucks in the playoffs. We've seen it 2 years straight and I'm not looking forward to it again

[jasonxxx102]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

You might recall, the Cavs have struggled in the past dealing with various Magic bench players. If they're going to let Mo Wagner, Jonathan Isaac, Cole Anthony, Goga Bitzade, Joe Ingles, Gary Harris, etc, do whatever they want they won't need much from their starters besides keeping Garland and Mitchell somewhat contained.

Which may not be so hard to do the way they've been playing lately.

The Cavs can be pretty special when their top-4 guys are somewhere close to 100%, but they aren't there and the last time it looked like they might be getting there, a whole bunch of guys promptly got hurt. JB Bickerstaff is coaching for his job and perhaps his career and he's going to shorten his rotation and run anyone and everyone he has to in to the ground and his players aren't built for that.

Yea I'm actually feeling pretty ok about the defense overall. Bench players don't really decide playoff series anyways.

I also just think that the offense is also going to really struggle.

Mitchell definitely is hurt, who knows what the heck is wrong with Garland, Strus is coming off injury, Mobley is always dealing with something...

It doesn't really even matter anyways cause Boston is sweeping both teams regardless

[AddiFB]

Asking for a friend...

Magic say they are 100% healthy.

At what percentage would Cleveland be coming into game 1?

[JonFromVA]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

You might recall, the Cavs have struggled in the past dealing with various Magic bench players. If they're going to let Mo Wagner, Jonathan Isaac, Cole Anthony, Goga Bitzade, Joe Ingles, Gary Harris, etc, do whatever they want they won't need much from their starters besides keeping Garland and Mitchell somewhat contained.

Which may not be so hard to do the way they've been playing lately.

The Cavs can be pretty special when their top-4 guys are somewhere close to 100%, but they aren't there and the last time it looked like they might be getting there, a whole bunch of guys promptly got hurt. JB Bickerstaff is coaching for his job and perhaps his career and he's going to shorten his rotation and run anyone and everyone he has to in to the ground and his players aren't built for that.

Yea I'm actually feeling pretty ok about the defense overall. Bench players don't really decide playoff series anyways.

I also just think that the offense is also going to really struggle.

Mitchell definitely is hurt, who knows what the heck is wrong with Garland, Strus is coming off injury, Mobley is always dealing with something...

It doesn't really even matter anyways cause Boston is sweeping both teams regardless

One of the more disappointing but perhaps predictable things about this season for the Cavs is that in their search to improve their shooting, their defense has dropped off. Early on under Bickerstaff their identity was getting stops and turning those stops in to offense; which of course works splendidly because at least the other team isn't scoring on you. But it just takes a modicum of discipline for an opponent to move the ball and eventually someone on the Cavs will overhelp and give up a wide open shot or dunk. If that's too hard, force a switch and pick on one of our short players.

Oddly in this series on paper at least, Orlando is the much weaker offensive team and the much stronger defensive team. We'll see what happens assuming playoff intensity ramps up.

[RookieStar]

Interesting that the NBA TV series has the second most pages out of the playoff threads

I kinda mentioned that before that we had the nost pages despite posters saying this is probably the nost overlooked series this PO

tbf huge fanbases like the Celtics and Sixers can't comment yet because they don't know their opponents.

Ah... include the Knicks with that. Yeah got it

[basketballRob]

Asking for a friend...

Magic say they are 100% healthy.

At what percentage would Cleveland be coming into game 1?

The Cavs seem more secretive than the Magic on injuries.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

[toooskies]

Asking for a friend...

Magic say they are 100% healthy.

At what percentage would Cleveland be coming into game 1?

Dean Wade has a knee injury and is a crucial piece of the defensive plan against Franz and Paolo. Unknown if he will be available.

Mitchell is between 80 and 100%. Flashes of his midseason form after battling knee issues.
Garland is probably at 80-90% and is unlikely get higher than that. Hasn't been right all year.
Strus is healthy, just not back in rhythm.
Okoro is healthy, just not back in rhythm.
LeVert has been battling stuff quietly. Took the last game off.
Merrill has been out with a neck strain but should be back.
Porter sprained his ankle pretty badly in the finale, but that shouldn't matter unless other guys get hurt.

A lot of unknowns here!

[Statlanta]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

Agreed except for the Cavs not being particularly good - we dealt with so many injuries, getting to 48 wins shows the opposite.

Now, will that actually translate to the playoffs? It didn't last year and that's what matters. But from a talent perspective, the only team head and shoulders above us in the East is the Celtics unless the Bucks get to full strength.

Nobody cares about either team.

The only interesting narrative coming from this series is "Where is Donovan Mitchell going to go?". Speculating that he leaves given the bad record to finish the season is the sexy narrative hence hoping he goes to another team is reflected in the voting

Mitchell's the only player with deep playoff experience. His chemistry with his Cavs teammates during the whole series is going to be the storyline NBATV runs with.

[jbk1234]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

Agreed except for the Cavs not being particularly good - we dealt with so many injuries, getting to 48 wins shows the opposite.

Now, will that actually translate to the playoffs? It didn't last year and that's what matters. But from a talent perspective, the only team head and shoulders above us in the East is the Celtics unless the Bucks get to full strength.

I think we matchup very well against the Celtics. The Heat and Knicks scare me a bit because the delta when it comes to coaching is stark.

[RookieStar]

Deep down even thought is impossible, i want us to.win this series so we can face the Celtics and beat them shockingly and point to Eddie House as the reason.

That meme/gif will live on forever if this happens.

[msmoore66]

Interesting that the NBA TV series has the second most pages out of the playoff threads

I kinda mentioned that before that we had the nost pages despite posters saying this is probably the nost overlooked series this PO

The series nobody cares about, but also needs to tell everyone they don't care about it

[AaronB]

I picked Magic in 4.

I also picked the Magic to win 82 regular games this year.

I don't owe any money if I am wrong, do I?

If not, then being an optimist is free.

[KGDirkTD_Fan]

Kinda wild that Magic in 6 is winning the poll.

Yes, JB Bickerstaff is a BAD playoff coach.

Yes, The Cavs have struggled post all star break

Yes, the Cavs have never shown the ability to win big games

but who the heck is going to score on the Magic? Is Paolo gonna be your offensive engine? Good luck. Franz? He's fine but do you want him running a playoff offense?

I don't think this Cavs team is particularly good and JB has proven to be a terrible coach when it matters but the talent discrepancy is too wide.

Yeah it's more of an indicator that the Cavs stock post-ASB for better or for worse including injuries/inconsistencies/roster issues and all that is at an extreme low going into the post-season...its really irrational because the talent is there and they shouldn't really lose this series but I've been surprised a lot in the East playoffs in recent years.