Nòmades D'en Ricky. The Grey Havens.

[Jamaaliver]

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[El Hespiritu]

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Giannis is indeed a great guy and he's often honest and direct at press conferences.
And funny.

Shout out to J.B. and the coaching staff.

I've seen plenty of Giannis games and I struggle to remember another one when he looked so overwhelmed by a collective defense.

Lots of coaches try double team... few lineups can sustain it with execution speed, focus and consistence Cavs did yesterday. He barely could take Afro JA or Moble man to man: each time he tried, either Kokoro or La Mar closed on him so fast and tough he never had a chance to open the ball.

When he got a switch and asked for the ball at the paint on mismatch he was either surrounded by our Bigs or locked (at times even thrown to the floor) by La Mar's hustle.

It's just one game but we raised a PO red flag to anyone who wanted to see it.

I haven't noticed Kevin doing anything special to cope with his back this season. Maybe he's finally in a good place with it? If so, it took years.

I've seen put on a compressive belt when he's at the bench.

RRubio misses three or four games per season due to back spasms almost every season since he injured (1st time) his knee. Annoying but apparently not specially worrisome. I hope Gar's issue doesn't go farther than that.

I bet J.B.would like to have RR I or at least a more integrated RR II in order to work some Load Management on Darius.
This machine they were using on him during last game I think gives both massage and heat over the affected zone.



Since they are not focusing on the spine zone but in the kidney's zone I'm guessing it's not a disc problem but I know nothing.

[El Hespiritu]

More than trap game, DET game was a TTP (Tanking Team Prank... all tankers take a couple of those every season. They think are funny).

Aside that, we're probably not so good as we seemed vs MIL but by no means so soft and low-energized as we looked today.

Learning from it and moving on I guess.

[JonFromVA]

More than trap game, DET game was a TTP (Tanking Team Prank... all tankers take a couple of those every season. They think are funny).

Aside that, we're probably not so good as we seemed vs MIL but by no means so soft and low-energized as we looked today.

Learning from it and moving on I guess.

Oh, we looked plenty energized in the first quarter. I wouldn't dismiss the loss, fact is "wanting it more" only carries a team until they come up against another team that also wants it. Maybe it was the Cade .vs. Mobley thing (it sure wasn't the national TV audience), but the Pistons wanted this one.

[El Hespiritu]

TTPs tend to be random. Agree DET wanted it more.

If you only look energized one quarter you're not energized at all.
Same with toughness... not only physical toughness but far more important: mental toughness.

I badly miss RR I there. He knows how to play that non-bball part of a game smartly and to lead the team on that understanding referees' habits (good and bad).
I can see Garlandas has potentially that skill as well but he's just too young and inexperienced on it (none of his fault).

RR II should know it as well but he doesn't entirely hold the command at court yet. It's easier to be abruptely landing into a new team and start producing immediately if you are a fake PG playing combo-like: you just drive, shoot, and (at times) double the ball so you don't need much of an adjustment.

A true Point Guard needs to have completely internalized the systems and a deep knowledge about all of his teammates to be capable of making some impact. That takes time.

Work in progress I guess.



Reminded me last game vs. Bulls: they over-hustled us and those are bad news because Bulls and Pistons level of physicality is but another day at the office when PO.

And officiating will be foreseeably worse there (young team, no super-stars, lacking the so-called referees' respect....).

There will be teams hitting and punching our guys each and every possession while referees just look at it calmly, whistle in their hands and if we try to retaliate, they will hysterically call us for fouls and Ts just because we're staring too aggressively the attacker.

It won't be a matter of talent but a matter of toughness. We need to learn playing through that.
This guys proved they can be so tough as anyone. They just need to prove it more consistently.

There will be blood.

[JonFromVA]

And officiating will be foreseeably worse there (young team, no super-stars, lacking the so-called referees' respect....).

There will be teams hitting and punching our guys each and every possession while referees just look at it calmly, whistle in their hands and if we try to retaliate, they will hysterically call us for fouls and Ts just because we're staring too aggressively the attacker.

This is to be expected with a new playoff team, but a couple things in our favor is we rarely commit fouls. Once the refs recover from Covid they will eventually get used to this and we will benefit (some opponents think we already do). Also it's all relative to our opponent and their reputation with the refs.

It won't be a matter of talent but a matter of toughness. We need to learn playing through that.
This guys proved they can be so tough as anyone. They just need to prove it more consistently.

Sure, they can get rough, maybe even provoke the refs in to calling a game tighter; but for now our bigs are rather light in the britches compared to their length and opponents are having some success driving through them.

[El Hespiritu]

Our tall and nimble front court has strengths and frailties, no doubt.´
If you're longer and faster, you're probably less massive. Powerful Centers and sturdy PFs might take some advantage.

We can tactically make up for it and when not, we always have La Mar silver bullet.

EDavis can lend a hand as well.

It's not perfect but I'm fine with that.

[El Hespiritu]

We worked a very needed Load Management on Garlandas against Pels.
So Goodwin could play the game of his life.

La Mar impacting the game again both ends.

If he does it once, it's hazard.
If he does it twice, it's coincidence.

When he does it thrice we should all start thinking he actually has it despite all of his frailties.

Addendum:

11 players have scored 20+ in a game for the Cavs this season:

Darius Garland
Collin Sexton
Ricky Rubio
Isaac Okoro
Cedi Osman
Lamar Stevens
Kevin Love
Lauri Markkanen
Evan Mobley
Jarrett Allen

...and now Brandon Goodwin

Not sure if is some record but pretty impressive.

[El Hespiritu]

Trailing by 3, two minutes to go... so we decided turn the ball over four possessions in a row.
Brilliant.

We have no PG.

RRondo should be it but he keeps struggling to take control of the game... and if he can't control the game, he's not good enough as a shooter or driver to make up for it.

Goodwin is not a pure Point Guard and he will never be: he's a very short combo not specially killer from 3...kinda Grocery Shop's Sextonto.

Nobody trusts Kevin Pescados.

So J.B. tries even with Ce Dios, out of desperation.
Against Ingramless Pels, we barely made it.
Against healthy HOU, we didn't make it at all.

Either RRondo's game does 'click' or Garlandas recovers well from his back soreness.
Else we're done and no trade can fix that.

We can't ask La Mar to be the underdog star on a daily basis (plus I bet he's dealing his own back issues: he sits over a special cushion and wears a compressive belt at the bench).

[JonFromVA]

Trailing by 3, two minutes to go... so we decided turn the ball over four possessions in a row.
Brilliant.

We have no PG.

RRondo should be it but he keeps struggling to take control of the game... and if he can't control the game, he's not good enough as a shooter or driver to make up for it.

Goodwin is not a pure Point Guard and he will never be: he's a very short combo not specially killer from 3...kinda Grocery Shop's Sextonto.

Nobody trusts Kevin Pescados.

So J.B. tries even with Ce Dios, out of desperation.
Against Ingramless Pels, we barely made it.
Against healthy HOU, we didn't make it at all.

Either RRondo's game does 'click' or Garlandas recovers well from his back soreness.
Else we're done and no trade can fix that.

We can't ask La Mar to be the underdog star on a daily basis (plus I bet he's dealing his own back issues: he sits over a special cushion and wears a compressive belt at the bench).

Yep, it was great we fought back in the game, but we really lack anything resembling a closer with Garland and Rubio out.

[toooskies]

Trailing by 3, two minutes to go... so we decided turn the ball over four possessions in a row.
Brilliant.

We have no PG.

RRondo should be it but he keeps struggling to take control of the game... and if he can't control the game, he's not good enough as a shooter or driver to make up for it.

Goodwin is not a pure Point Guard and he will never be: he's a very short combo not specially killer from 3...kinda Grocery Shop's Sextonto.

Nobody trusts Kevin Pescados.

So J.B. tries even with Ce Dios, out of desperation.
Against Ingramless Pels, we barely made it.
Against healthy HOU, we didn't make it at all.

Either RRondo's game does 'click' or Garlandas recovers well from his back soreness.
Else we're done and no trade can fix that.

We can't ask La Mar to be the underdog star on a daily basis (plus I bet he's dealing his own back issues: he sits over a special cushion and wears a compressive belt at the bench).

Goodwin is no Garland or Rubio, but he has a 3.8 A/TO ratio (better than Garland/Rubio), 7 assists per 36, and his assist percentage is higher than his usage by about 10 points. That's in line with a lot of the non-star PGs in the league. There aren't many pure PGs in the league period, but Goodwin can and does deliver the ball to other guys a lot more than he takes his shot. More assists than shot attempts last night. (Translation: stylistically he looks a bit like Sexton, but he's much better at finding the open man.)

(My biggest concern with him is that he's a bit too careful with the ball, so the offense never gets going. Which is exactly what you need from a 13th man but not when he gets bumped to backup or starting PG.)

[El Hespiritu]

I am talking neither about assists nor finding the open man.

Being a true Point Guard has nothing to do with individual numbers; it's a matter of organizing teammates at court, controlling tempo, make the calls, read the opponent's defense and offense, masterize the systems...

He's supposed to run the team (I think you call it like this. At Catalunya we say 'agafar la manilla' -take the handle-)

Kevin Pescados, for instance is far more of a natural PG than Goodwin and Sextonto altogether (I'm not saying a better player, mark you... I'm saying more of a Point Guard).

Since Garlandas is evolving into that same kind of PG and RRubio is epitomic on that, we spent half the season developing a team strategy and tactical resources based on having a true PG at court (RRondo was traded precisely because of that... we could easily get some shorty scorer with some good assists ratio but that was never the point: we needed a game-organizer PG to fill RRubio's void).

Other teams play different systems because they rely on a different style of playmakers (Nuggets, Warriors, Lakers...) or even with no actual playmakers at all (Clippers, f.i.) but we can't change now the systems or structure because would be a wasted season.

Goodwin is so useful for that as Collin would be: an emergency patch in absence of your game commanders but by no means a solution.

[JonFromVA]

The Cavs actually have a strong lineage of point-guards dating back to the 70's up until Andre Miller, but we traded him to the Clippers in 2002 and the closest thing we've had to a true floor general since then were flawed players like Eric Snow, Matthew Dellevedova, and Baron Davis.

I almost included LeBron, but I just can't ... because teammates are there so he can do his job moreso than he's there to help them do their job.

Not just Cavs fans, most NBA fans seem quite happy if their "point guard" can go get buckets and generate assists ... the whole running the team part of the job has almost fallen off the map. It's typical these days for fans blame to blame a creator's teammates for low assist numbers rather than understand the goal of a point-guard is to get teammates shots they can't miss.

[toooskies]

I also think that it's a lot to ask Goodwin to have that kind of command of the team after being here for only a month. Just like Rondo said when he arrived that he needed to learn his teammates' preferences and tendencies and where they like the ball, Goodwin has that challenge too-- but without the benefit of decades of NBA experience to know what definitely will or won't work, and without months/years with the team and coach, or training camps, to at least know the team plays.

Goodwin (and/or Rondo) could be a lot better in those regards by playoff time.

[JonFromVA]

I also think that it's a lot to ask Goodwin to have that kind of command of the team after being here for only a month. Just like Rondo said when he arrived that he needed to learn his teammates' preferences and tendencies and where they like the ball, Goodwin has that challenge too-- but without the benefit of decades of NBA experience to know what definitely will or won't work, and without months/years with the team and coach, or training camps, to at least know the team plays.

Goodwin (and/or Rondo) could be a lot better in those regards by playoff time.

Experience always helps, but some guys are wired for it, some aren't.

There was a game shortly after Baron Davis was traded to the Cavs, where at one point during the game he took Ryan Hollins aside during a timeout, they chatted a bit, and the next play they were connecting on lobs.

Go figure ... there's a 7 footer with pogo stick legs on the team, and nobody thought to run a play to get him some lob dunks until Davis arrived.

[El Hespiritu]

Experience always helps, but some guys are wired for it, some aren't.

Totally agree.

I can't ask BadLoose or Sextonto to evolve into a type of player they are not just out of the blue.
Sure, give them a bunch of NBA seasons and they will grow up on that by pure osmosis and seniority but not in a few games 'til PO.
None of their fault.

I can ask RRondo for that and I do it: he needs to hold his sh*t together and prove he figured yet his new teammates and systems out, so he can finally rule the court.

Ce Dios has indeed some raw point-guarding natural talent. I can see why J.B. tries him, whether is paying off or not so far.

I just pray this Load Management on Garlandas will work, he'll come back in a good shape and we'll all see again the regular powerful CLECaus basketball machine we've been seeing most of the season.

Uh... and I pray too that Open Gym Exhibition (All-Star I guess you call it) not messing with his back soreness.

[JonFromVA]

Experience always helps, but some guys are wired for it, some aren't.

Totally agree.

I can't ask BadLoose or Sextonto to evolve into a type of player they are not just out of the blue.
Sure, give them a bunch of NBA seasons and they will grow up on that by pure osmosis and seniority but not in a few games 'til PO.
None of their fault.

I can ask RRondo for that and I do it: he needs to hold his sh*t together and prove he figured yet his new teammates and systems out, so he can finally rule the court.

Ce Dios has indeed some raw point-guarding natural talent. I can see why J.B. tries him, whether is paying off or not so far.

I just pray this Load Management on Garlandas will work, he'll come back in a good shape and we'll all see again the regular powerful CLECaus basketball machine we've been seeing most of the season.

Uh... and I pray too that Open Gym Exhibition (All-Star I guess you call it) not messing with his back soreness.

Alas, if Rondo can no longer create any offense on his own or via the P&R, he's of limited use to us. Heck, looking at his +/- history he's been of limited use for the past 10 years.

Which helps explain why a G-league PG is starting over an NBA vet with a ring ...

I get the impression Garland could play, but we're hoping we can get his back right. No guarantee some short rest will do it, but hopefully participating in the All-Star game will be no more stressful for his back then traveling with the team.

[toooskies]

Experience always helps, but some guys are wired for it, some aren't.

Totally agree.

I can't ask BadLoose or Sextonto to evolve into a type of player they are not just out of the blue.
Sure, give them a bunch of NBA seasons and they will grow up on that by pure osmosis and seniority but not in a few games 'til PO.
None of their fault.

I can ask RRondo for that and I do it: he needs to hold his sh*t together and prove he figured yet his new teammates and systems out, so he can finally rule the court.

Ce Dios has indeed some raw point-guarding natural talent. I can see why J.B. tries him, whether is paying off or not so far.

I just pray this Load Management on Garlandas will work, he'll come back in a good shape and we'll all see again the regular powerful CLECaus basketball machine we've been seeing most of the season.

Uh... and I pray too that Open Gym Exhibition (All-Star I guess you call it) not messing with his back soreness.

Alas, if Rondo can no longer create any offense on his own or via the P&R, he's of limited use to us. Heck, looking at his +/- history he's been of limited use for the past 10 years.

Which helps explain why a G-league PG is starting over an NBA vet with a ring ...

I get the impression Garland could play, but we're hoping we can get his back right. No guarantee some short rest will do it, but hopefully participating in the All-Star game will be no more stressful for his back then traveling with the team.

Yeah, there's no shortage of guys to bring the ball up in the ASG. DG can get away with 5-10 minutes of court time where the most stressful thing he does is wave to the crowd at his intro.

I'd hope he's playing by then, though.

[El Hespiritu]

We started a two-way guy (ex-10 Days).
We played an 8 men rotation plus a few expendable La Mar minutes.
We looked more focused on Afro JA's options for AS than on Hornets.
We got a YoLo sub-realistic officiating. Not particularly biased... just weird (in Spanish: esperpéntico).

And yet we won.

Good news but I just pray louder and louder after each game for Garlandas to return.

Team is balancing on a very thin ledge.
Applause to its resilience, tho.

[jbk1234]

Experience always helps, but some guys are wired for it, some aren't.

Totally agree.

I can't ask BadLoose or Sextonto to evolve into a type of player they are not just out of the blue.
Sure, give them a bunch of NBA seasons and they will grow up on that by pure osmosis and seniority but not in a few games 'til PO.
None of their fault.

I can ask RRondo for that and I do it: he needs to hold his sh*t together and prove he figured yet his new teammates and systems out, so he can finally rule the court.

Ce Dios has indeed some raw point-guarding natural talent. I can see why J.B. tries him, whether is paying off or not so far.

I just pray this Load Management on Garlandas will work, he'll come back in a good shape and we'll all see again the regular powerful CLECaus basketball machine we've been seeing most of the season.

Uh... and I pray too that Open Gym Exhibition (All-Star I guess you call it) not messing with his back soreness.

Alas, if Rondo can no longer create any offense on his own or via the P&R, he's of limited use to us. Heck, looking at his +/- history he's been of limited use for the past 10 years.

Which helps explain why a G-league PG is starting over an NBA vet with a ring ...

I get the impression Garland could play, but we're hoping we can get his back right. No guarantee some short rest will do it, but hopefully participating in the All-Star game will be no more stressful for his back then traveling with the team.

Allen and Mobley need to do a better job of setting screens. Mobley is clearly disinterested and Allen can do better.