2026-27 Regular Season

[JonFromVA]

Small sample size overreaction: The Cavs have played 4:17 with Harden/Mitchell/Allen/Mobley/Merrill. They're +91.7 per 100 possessions. (Most of this is the close of the Atlanta game.)

Do other teams struggle so much balancing floor spacing, off ball movement and defense or is it just because we're always shooting ourselves in the foot?

Our starters were -1 in the Bucks blowout ...

We just lack spacing with that starting 5, even with Mobley shooting it 57% from deep through the early part of the season.

I saw a number that all of Mobley's shots so far have been wide open, so, at least when he's actually taking shots he's not actually providing any spacing.

So sort of like Okoro on a hot streak.

[toooskies]

Do other teams struggle so much balancing floor spacing, off ball movement and defense or is it just because we're always shooting ourselves in the foot?

Our starters were -1 in the Bucks blowout ...

We just lack spacing with that starting 5, even with Mobley shooting it 57% from deep through the early part of the season.

I saw a number that all of Mobley's shots so far have been wide open, so, at least when he's actually taking shots he's not actually providing any spacing.

So sort of like Okoro on a hot streak.

Most players shouldn’t take contested threes. But Mobley (and Watson) will drive and finish a late contest more than Okoro or Wade.

[JonFromVA]

We just lack spacing with that starting 5, even with Mobley shooting it 57% from deep through the early part of the season.

I saw a number that all of Mobley's shots so far have been wide open, so, at least when he's actually taking shots he's not actually providing any spacing.

So sort of like Okoro on a hot streak.

Most players shouldn’t take contested threes. But Mobley (and Watson) will drive and finish a late contest more than Okoro or Wade.

There's slots between wide open and contested, and if the player is getting those shots up it indicates a defender is at least in the same zip code and hence the player is providing some degree of floor spacing.

[jbk1234]

My silver lining take after the OKC loss is that Proctor may, in fact, be able to close games for us by the end of the season. We may have to fire our prefers-offensive-lineups-to-a-fault coach, but I can at least see a path towards putting a closing unit on the court that doesn't rely on the other team missing a good shot to get stops.

[JonFromVA]

My silver lining take after the OKC loss is that Proctor may, in fact, be able to close games for us by the end of the season. We may have to fire our prefers-offensive-lineups-to-a-fault coach, but I can at least see a path towards putting a closing unit on the court that doesn't rely on the other team missing a good shot to get stops.

Proctor is slowly trending up which is good news; but how do we get to a functional defense?

Harden can't be on the floor, but what about Mitchell if he's still coasting?

[toooskies]

Norchad Omier back to us on a two-way. No word on who's out yet; Udeh?

[jbk1234]

My silver lining take after the OKC loss is that Proctor may, in fact, be able to close games for us by the end of the season. We may have to fire our prefers-offensive-lineups-to-a-fault coach, but I can at least see a path towards putting a closing unit on the court that doesn't rely on the other team missing a good shot to get stops.

Proctor is slowly trending up which is good news; but how do we get to a functional defense?

Harden can't be on the floor, but what about Mitchell if he's still coasting?

I think you need a coach who's prepared to make it messy in order for it to get better.

[toooskies]

My silver lining take after the OKC loss is that Proctor may, in fact, be able to close games for us by the end of the season. We may have to fire our prefers-offensive-lineups-to-a-fault coach, but I can at least see a path towards putting a closing unit on the court that doesn't rely on the other team missing a good shot to get stops.

Proctor is slowly trending up which is good news; but how do we get to a functional defense?

Harden can't be on the floor, but what about Mitchell if he's still coasting?

I think you need a coach who's prepared to make it messy in order for it to get better.

Yeah, the problem with Harden is that he's got Adidas cred with Mitchell and southern California baller cred with Mobley and Watson, so Kenny can't just bench Harden, even temporarily or at end-of-game-- there's going to be negative feedback from other starters unless he plays it exactly right.

And there's going to be negative feedback on Kenny from the front office that just paid Harden, too.

It's not easy to do the right thing the right way, here, if benching Harden is the right thing to do. Easier to just wait it out until either Harden improves or Mitchell/Mobley/Altman/Gilbert ask for changes.

[toooskies]

Norchad Omier back to us on a two-way. No word on who's out yet; Udeh?

Minix out. Makes sense with Allen's injury, but right now we've got all of Omier, Udeh, and Diop deserving (both for developmentally positive and NBA-readiness negative reasons) of G-League minutes.

[jbk1234]

Proctor is slowly trending up which is good news; but how do we get to a functional defense?

Harden can't be on the floor, but what about Mitchell if he's still coasting?

I think you need a coach who's prepared to make it messy in order for it to get better.

Yeah, the problem with Harden is that he's got Adidas cred with Mitchell and southern California baller cred with Mobley and Watson, so Kenny can't just bench Harden, even temporarily or at end-of-game-- there's going to be negative feedback from other starters unless he plays it exactly right.

And there's going to be negative feedback on Kenny from the front office that just paid Harden, too.

It's not easy to do the right thing the right way, here, if benching Harden is the right thing to do. Easier to just wait it out until either Harden improves or Mitchell/Mobley/Altman/Gilbert ask for changes.

Not sure that losing your way to permission is smart play, but I don't think that Kenny is the right coach for a win-now team anyway. Sunken costs are sunken costs on the Harden front.

[JonFromVA]

Proctor is slowly trending up which is good news; but how do we get to a functional defense?

Harden can't be on the floor, but what about Mitchell if he's still coasting?

I think you need a coach who's prepared to make it messy in order for it to get better.

Yeah, the problem with Harden is that he's got Adidas cred with Mitchell and southern California baller cred with Mobley and Watson, so Kenny can't just bench Harden, even temporarily or at end-of-game-- there's going to be negative feedback from other starters unless he plays it exactly right.

And there's going to be negative feedback on Kenny from the front office that just paid Harden, too.

It's not easy to do the right thing the right way, here, if benching Harden is the right thing to do. Easier to just wait it out until either Harden improves or Mitchell/Mobley/Altman/Gilbert ask for changes.

Of course they have limited moves short of trading another core player, sounds like a recipe for getting the coach fired but I'm not sure what that will prove. They could slow down the pace and tinker with the defense, but the two bigs who don't space and the two smalls who don't like to defend will continue to make our roster construction klunky.

[toooskies]

I think you need a coach who's prepared to make it messy in order for it to get better.

Yeah, the problem with Harden is that he's got Adidas cred with Mitchell and southern California baller cred with Mobley and Watson, so Kenny can't just bench Harden, even temporarily or at end-of-game-- there's going to be negative feedback from other starters unless he plays it exactly right.

And there's going to be negative feedback on Kenny from the front office that just paid Harden, too.

It's not easy to do the right thing the right way, here, if benching Harden is the right thing to do. Easier to just wait it out until either Harden improves or Mitchell/Mobley/Altman/Gilbert ask for changes.

Not sure that losing your way to permission is smart play, but I don't think that Kenny is the right coach for a win-now team anyway. Sunken costs are sunken costs on the Harden front.

Dan Gilbert can look at the Harden signing as a sunk cost.

Kenny might advocate for benching Harden to Koby Altman, but he probably can't bench him unilaterally and keep his job because it makes Koby's choice look bad. Because if Koby just threw away $100m of Dan Gilbert's money this offseason (plus tax), Koby's on a hot seat too. So they both have an interest in riding out Harden's deal at least this year unless it's clear he can't (and not just shouldn't) start.

And Koby can't really claim he had to do with Harden so that he could trade for Watson, because Watson (despite not looking awful according to eye-test) hasn't produced yet, either. Broken shot, chronic hamstring issues.

Tyson, Proctor, and Thomas are keeping Kenny and Koby employed. And even then Kenny can't keep from jerking around his rotation every night.

[JujitsuFlip]

I think you need a coach who's prepared to make it messy in order for it to get better.

Yeah, the problem with Harden is that he's got Adidas cred with Mitchell and southern California baller cred with Mobley and Watson, so Kenny can't just bench Harden, even temporarily or at end-of-game-- there's going to be negative feedback from other starters unless he plays it exactly right.

And there's going to be negative feedback on Kenny from the front office that just paid Harden, too.

It's not easy to do the right thing the right way, here, if benching Harden is the right thing to do. Easier to just wait it out until either Harden improves or Mitchell/Mobley/Altman/Gilbert ask for changes.

Of course they have limited moves short of trading another core player, sounds like a recipe for getting the coach fired but I'm not sure what that will prove. They could slow down the pace and tinker with the defense, but the two bigs who don't space and the two smalls who don't like to defend will continue to make our roster construction klunky.

That's been our same issue for 6 years now lol

[JonFromVA]

Yeah, the problem with Harden is that he's got Adidas cred with Mitchell and southern California baller cred with Mobley and Watson, so Kenny can't just bench Harden, even temporarily or at end-of-game-- there's going to be negative feedback from other starters unless he plays it exactly right.

And there's going to be negative feedback on Kenny from the front office that just paid Harden, too.

It's not easy to do the right thing the right way, here, if benching Harden is the right thing to do. Easier to just wait it out until either Harden improves or Mitchell/Mobley/Altman/Gilbert ask for changes.

Of course they have limited moves short of trading another core player, sounds like a recipe for getting the coach fired but I'm not sure what that will prove. They could slow down the pace and tinker with the defense, but the two bigs who don't space and the two smalls who don't like to defend will continue to make our roster construction klunky.

That's been our same issue for 6 years now lol

Except now our backcourt is older and tries even less.

[JujitsuFlip]

Of course they have limited moves short of trading another core player, sounds like a recipe for getting the coach fired but I'm not sure what that will prove. They could slow down the pace and tinker with the defense, but the two bigs who don't space and the two smalls who don't like to defend will continue to make our roster construction klunky.

That's been our same issue for 6 years now lol

Except now our backcourt is older and tries even less.

And barring a time machine, that situation is only going to get worse, not better.

[gflem]

The Harden contract will likely cost Altman his job. Probably Kenny too. They were too committed (scared) to take the opportunity to let Harden go this past offseason. And, giving him a third year was unforgivable.

[toooskies]

The Harden contract will likely cost Altman his job. Probably Kenny too. They were too committed (scared) to take the opportunity to let Harden go this past offseason. And, giving him a third year was unforgivable.

It really depends on how influential Dan Gilbert was in the decisions to trade Garland for Harden and to re-sign Harden. And also who decided we needed to "win the summer" and overpay Harden long-term to get him to take less this year so we could get Watson.

It saved Gilbert a lot of money to get under the 1st apron when we instead could have let Harden go, kept Strus and/or Schroder, and just signed Wade or Kuminga.

[JonFromVA]

The Harden contract will likely cost Altman his job. Probably Kenny too. They were too committed (scared) to take the opportunity to let Harden go this past offseason. And, giving him a third year was unforgivable.

It really depends on how influential Dan Gilbert was in the decisions to trade Garland for Harden and to re-sign Harden. And also who decided we needed to "win the summer" and overpay Harden long-term to get him to take less this year so we could get Watson.

It saved Gilbert a lot of money to get under the 1st apron when we instead could have let Harden go, kept Strus and/or Schroder, and just signed Wade or Kuminga.

Yeah, that 3rd year was the cost of getting Harden to accept less than $40M/year so we could sign Watson. Consider it a sunk cost.

Letting him walk was not an option short of pulling a scumbag move of promising him one thing to get him to give up his option and then pulling the rug out from under him.

So basically ...

- Harden on his option at $40M, we're in the second apron, no Watson
or
- Harden on his 3/96, we get Watson, we're out of the second apron

[JujitsuFlip]

The Harden contract will likely cost Altman his job. Probably Kenny too. They were too committed (scared) to take the opportunity to let Harden go this past offseason. And, giving him a third year was unforgivable.

It really depends on how influential Dan Gilbert was in the decisions to trade Garland for Harden and to re-sign Harden. And also who decided we needed to "win the summer" and overpay Harden long-term to get him to take less this year so we could get Watson.

It saved Gilbert a lot of money to get under the 1st apron when we instead could have let Harden go, kept Strus and/or Schroder, and just signed Wade or Kuminga.

Yeah, that 3rd year was the cost of getting Harden to accept less than $40M/year so we could sign Watson. Consider it a sunk cost.

Letting him walk was not an option short of pulling a scumbag move of promising him one thing to get him to give up his option and then pulling the rug out from under him.

So basically ...

- Harden on his option at $40M, we're in the second apron, no Watson
or
- Harden on his 3/96, we get Watson, we're out of the second apron

Both options suck, tbh hahaha

Not good that Harden is already yelling at Kenny on the sidelines and it's only 8 games in.

https://larrybrownsports.com/basketball/james-harden-argument-kenny-atkinson/777185

[JujitsuFlip]

Norchad Omier back to us on a two-way. No word on who's out yet; Udeh?

Minix out. Makes sense with Allen's injury, but right now we've got all of Omier, Udeh, and Diop deserving (both for developmentally positive and NBA-readiness negative reasons) of G-League minutes.

https://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/releases-riley-minix-signing-261107?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA81NjcwNjczNDMzNTI0MjcAAafHqytvDUftdXiHfF_qovYA9-arm58qhydFqu8lws-Kx8VIHOokmnsQoZuvDA_aem_HGwjnCQe9EGVEQuc8lrhvg

Minix back in and now Enaruna waived.