Cavs are reaching FULL STRENGTH – The Junkyard Pod, Cleveland Cavaliers Podcast

Cavs are reaching FULL STRENGTH – The Junkyard Pod, Cleveland Cavaliers Podcast

Mitchell has his head up takes A get that we Stu out of Here welcome to the junkyard pod I’m your host Tony pesta joined by Jackson Flickinger you can find all of our work for write down uclid and Fear the Sword in the description below the Cleveland Cavaliers can’t stop winning they have routed off eight consecutive wins most of which coming in dominant fashion

Jackson after another game where the Cavaliers didn’t Trail for even a single second what are your thoughts on this team right now I mean they are just playing some great basketball the best basketball of the um season they are coming out and just setting the tone early taking advantage of those teams

That are coming off of the second head of a backtack just really never giving them a chance to breathe just just great basketball yeah I tweeted this but I really haven’t been this lost for words about the Cavs since that 2022 around this time in January where they were

Just decimating teams it’s not that they’re just beating teams because granted their schedule has lightened up they’ve had an easier schedule than what we saw at the beginning of the year and normally when you beat those lesser opponents you don’t take too much from it but they’re not just beating teams

They are eviscerating teams start to finish uh we’ve seen the Cavs at times every NBA team does this they have sluggish starts they don’t come out really firing off the gate yeah uh but there’s no slugs over here anymore because the Cavs I don’t I don’t

Know this off the top of my head but I want to say they’ve led by 20 points in the first half of their last like four games maybe even more than that they’re just it’s it’s not even a contest it’s been really nice writing the recap for

These games because I could start doing it in the third quarter and you know there’s no dramatic Affairs at the end but yeah I mean I’m just I’m lost for words with how well they’ve been playing yeah I mean it’s I do kind of like the

Comparison to the 2022 season uh what I think is kind of different is we kind of knew that that team wasn’t that good especially because their stealing was uh a little lower right but especially at this point they already lost uh Rubio and seon for the season so it was like

Somebody needs to dribble and that was what we were doing like the Brandon goodwi coming in and like stealing a game and then you know LeBron’s doing the Cavs a favor by sending by sending Rondo over so um yeah so it was kind of like you were really optimistic because of how good

Evan Evan Mobley was but you kind of had that feeling that like well they’re not the third best team in the Eastern Conference yeah yeah the like I said the ceiling was just a lot lower back then it just felt like found money at that point but the Cavs have been playing out

Of their minds and as the legend of Sam Merill continues to grow I’d have to imagine Jackson’s ego is also growing because he told us before everybody we’re gonna keep giving him credit for it but Jackson we all know at this point Sam Merl can flat out shoot the ball we

It’s been covered enough let’s talk about his longevity in the NBA his permanent role with this team and really what I want to know is what is it going to take for Sam Merill to be a permanent member of this rotation even when the Cavs are at full strength

I think just more opportunities is what’s really going to do it for him um one of the things that uh I got a chance to talk to Sam a lot last year when he was with the charge and one of the things he kept mentioning is that throughout his career

He hasn’t gotten a chance to just have consistent minutes and really show what he can do that’s why he really liked the you know really like the opportunity with the charge because he could actually like get minutes he was selected 60th overall and 2022 he played on the Bucks the year

They won the title and he wasn’t really getting any minutes because he was on a championship level team um and then the next year uh he gets included uh in a trade to the Memphis Memphis Grizzlies and he was starting to get minutes but really in the beginning of the year he

Tore his ACL so he um was gone for the year I’m not sure if it was an ACL injury but it was a it was a year ending injury so they he didn’t you know he never got a chance to show what he could do there and then uh the following year

He goes into training camp with the Kings and then Mike Brown chooses Deli over him so really he’s just never gotten an opportunity to show what he can do and I think one of the things that you go on when you first see Sam Merill play is you’re like wow this guy

Can really shoot the ball that’s cool too bad he can’t do anything else besides shoot and then and then you’re like well the more you see him you’re like well he can the way he moves off balls just just helps everybody else you know too bad he can’t do anything else

And then you’re like well actually he can kind of he’s not finishing at The Rim but he can dribble and he can pass and he can use his movement to kind of just create for other people and then you’re like well he yeah but he can’t

Hold up on defense and then you’re like well I don’t know if he’s a good Defender that one might be true but it’s yet to be seen still no the thing is he does like yeah we’re not going to say hey Sam why don’t you guard Dame tomorrow but

What you’re gonna do is when he’s on the floor he’s not he puts himself in positions where he’s not getting like picked on like you never like watching him play and you’re like oh no they’re attacking Sam Merill again like because you know we’ve seen Kevin Love how many

Times have we seen Kevin Love out there playing good and then like the other team’s like all right we’re just gonna like Target Kevin Love and play him off the floor like I think of like yeah you know that play in against the Hawks obviously they’re not playing Sam Merill

In a game that big but even when he’s playing te it’s not like teams aren’t trying to go after him they’re just not really like getting him in these is isolation situations so and there’s a reason why it’s not because teams aren’t trying it’s because he’s he does a good

Job of seeing it before teams can actually like put him in those spots so one of the things I think is really interesting is that like throughout his career like at least his professional career teams have always said this is a shorter white guy he’s he doesn’t have

Great athleticism let’s like Target him and he’s kind of when he first came into the league he kind of was getting targeted like that but as he’s progressed he’s found out how to like avoid those situations so is he someone who’s you’re going to be like closing games with like I don’t

Think he’s going to be closing games but I don’t think he’s going to get played off the floor in a lot of different like in a lot of his matchups because unlike somebody like Jetty I think is a really good example of somebody who got played off the floor against the Knicks last

Year because of his defense well Jetty coming up he’s always been like a six s Wing who when he plays for his national team you know he’s one of the better players no one’s picking on him when he’s playing in like bench lineups no one’s like trying to pick on him it’s

Only in like these high leverage spots and he you know guys like that aren’t used to like navigating out of those situations because it’s not something that they’ve done their whole lives like Sam Merill he’s been targeted his whole life he has a lot of experience with

This so I think that’s kind of when you watch him watch how he doesn’t let himself get caught up in that switch or if he does he really Hedges hard to try to like stay up on the guy so that they’re not getting getting like threes

Over him like one of the things that you think of with like Kevin Love is that when he’s besides the stop which you know that kind of makes up for everything but like one of the things when you would see Kevin Love get switched on to a guy on the perimeter is

He kind of would want to not play him super tight because he’s scared of getting beat back like he’s scared getting beat to the basket and he just doesn’t want that Sam is like Sam whenever he gets switched on to someone he’s like I’m gonna not let them take a

Three and we’ll just if somebody wants to try to take me off the dribble I know that the defense behind me is going to be able to rotate over to cover for me and I’m going to be able to provide enough resistance where he’s not like just completely Blowing by without any

Resistance at all so yeah if you can do those things you can you know you can survive I don’t like I’m not as concerned as whether you can hold up on the defense as say Chris Manning in our Fear the Sword group chat who’s very concerned

So that’s where I’m like I get it because we’ve all thought it but he’s better than you think yeah and you brought up a fantastic point that I want to really focus on too which not just his positional awareness and the way that he manages to keep himself out of

Being in bad positions but when he is in those isolation situations or like he’s not afraid of being beat off the dribble as you said and what I think is really really important and everyone should watch for this what I’ve noticed is he’s very good at passing his man off to

Jared Allen and the help defense and then immediately finding where his rotation is I there’s a clip that I have in my mind I can’t think of exactly what it was I’ll try to include it here for YouTube but there’s one clip that I was watching recently where he knew he got

Beat he he helped funnel his man to Allen immediately turns around finds his man in the corner his next rotation and like that’s the type of thing where if you talk about Jetty or Kevin Love they probably don’t make that second rotation as quickly if at all that’s where you

End up getting these Wide Open Swing passes for three-pointers like the important thing with Merrill he might not be the most athletically gifted player he might not be very great at the point of attack but he works hard he’s smart and the reason why that’s important is because if you make it if

You’re difficult to pick on teams aren’t going to go out of their way to drain the shot clock to try and get you involved in actions if you’re going to make them work really hard to do it if you’re going to head screens early if you’re going to funnel man into the

Right positions on the flooor it just really isn’t worth it for a team to go through the process of trying to get you involved in every action if you’re working that hard so when it comes to a playoff series I think really I don’t see any reason why Sam Merill shouldn’t

Be a permanent member of the rotation at this point even if it means the Cavs have to play a little smaller which is something I think we’ both have talked about in the past uh the other thing that I want to talk about with Merill and you can chime in with any other

Takes you have too but I’ve been impressed with his passing genuinely I don’t think he’s like a insane playmaker or anything like that but not only is he a really good shooter but he doesn’t fall into that stereotype of just being a good shooter he knows how to move off

Ball and that’s like an entirely different skill than just shooting not to throw shade this isn’t a dis at all at ammani Bates but you look at someone like ammani Bates it’s like yeah he can shoot the ball really well but he doesn’t move without the ball as well uh

Sam Aral does both of those things and he’s not good at getting into the paint but when you have Defenders scrambling to close out to you because you’re moving around the perimeter it doesn’t matter if you’re a good finisher or not if you get the ball into the paint a

Defense is going to collapse and he has shown at least an adequate ability to make the extra pass whether it’s a dump off or a kick out to the three-point line so I think there’s a lot of I won’t say untapped potential but I think there’s a lot more to Merrill’s game

Than people are really realizing and as he gets more opportunity we’ll see more and more of that start to show yeah I think he what he does have is a really good awareness of the game and like he knows where everyone else is he knows where all other nine guys are like he

Knows where the help’s coming from and he’s able to like just get rid of it super quickly like he’s not somebody who’s like oh he you know he has great velocity on his passes or he’s just like a really good you know taking people in pick and roll

Situations but what he does is he just under like he just has a really good ability to just read what’s happening and like react right away so like he’s he makes up for his like lack of athleticism by just like processing really fast and I think that’s it’s

Something that’s hard to really talk about unless you watch somebody a lot like how fast they’re processing the game like he just knows where the pass needs to go where the open guy is and I think we see this a lot uh with when he’s playing with Tristan like when he’s

Coming across those screens from him he like before he gets the ball he knows whether he needs to be going up with it or whether this is like a this is a pass off to Tristan or this is a I’m gonna catch it throw it back to the guy who

Passed it to me and I’m going to move again and try to get an open shot that way great basketball instincts I I agree 100 per. and there’s another guy who is flashing some great basketball instincts who I think we all knew he had but let’s talk about Donovan Mitchell he dished

Out 133 assists for the second time this season matching a career high for a single game he’s averaging a career high and assist this season and he’s been deal dealing nearly eight a game since Darius Garland went down with an injury that’s the 10th most in the NBA during

The stretch and Mitchell is one of just four players averaging 28 points and seven assists since mid December all the while his turnovers during this time would be at a career low at just over two and a half per game so Jackson what are your thoughts on point guard Donovan

Mitchell I really like what I’m seeing from Donovan and one of the things that it reminds me of is it reminds me of those Jazz teams that he was on where they would just bace the floor and then they would have you know Rudy Gober to clean everything up on the defensive end

But I think Donovan is a little more I mean I think he’s I think he’s progressing his game just a little bit that he makes it work just a little bit better and this team has a lot better Defenders one through five than I think

Any of those Jazz teams did uh even if they don’t have the shooters they you know like the Jazz didn’t have an Isaac okoro or Dean Wade out there with him all the time I think that really makes a difference so I think Donovan still has some flaws as a playmaker he doesn’t

Have great touch in getting the ball to Allen he’s not like a Darius Garland who’s like manipulating the pick and roll or his Defender with these like hesitation dribbles but what he’s doing a really good job of is he’s recognizing the double team before it gets there and

He’s throwing it to Allen before that can happen one of the things that I’ve really seen is that like he’s getting the ball to Allen before coming around the screen completely like if he catches it and he starts to go around it and he sees that the that the defense is

Stepping up he’s throwing it down to Allen before kind of getting to the free throw line which is not something that we’ve seen from him in the past where in the past he would get around there and then once he would get around there he’s either passing it to the corner or just

Taking it up himself so that’s where that’s where I’ve seen Improvement is just kind of being more aware of where those double teams are coming from and I think that’s a lot easier when there’s more space out there because a lot of times in those situations where you have

Allan and Moy Mo’s in the dunker spot in that situation and then that makes it just that much harder to process things I think so that’s where I’ve really liked to where Donovan Mitchell has developed as a playmaker but I think it’s I think that there’s reason to be

Skeptical about how this is all going to translate once Mo’s back sure I I definitely agree with that he is he’s having a very great playmaking stretch but as you mentioned he’s still not really the best at that interior passing he’s more of a drive and kick type of player but the thing

That has impressed me is just kind of his control of the game and and really just his willingness to get rid of the ball uh whether it be giving it to Allen a little bit earlier and and because of that we’re seeing what Allen can do with

The ball in his hands rather than just setting screens he is now an active member of the offense he has the ball he can hand it off or he can attack on his own that’s opened up a lot of the game for everyone on this team and it all

Starts with Mitchell giving the ball up himself um so I think that’s been the most impressive thing to me is just the fact that he has bought into being more of a playmaker and he’s doing it really well up to this point I want to just

Jump off of that real quick is that when the floor is more spaced out you kind of see his skill as a passer he’s a really you know like he has a lot of zip on his ball when he’s passing it out to the perimeter and when it’s more spaced out

He’s able to kind of showcase that skill like that one pass he had to who was it to wait or Nang uh against the Bucks where it was Nang y yeah it was just a crazy and it’s like that’s what when it’s more spaced out like that’s his

Forte as a passer it’s not like like I don’t think Darius has that skill as a passer like I don’t I don’t see him as somebody who has a lot of zip on his passes or like is just spraying it everywhere to the perimeter what Darius does well is he finds these little

Pockets to get it to moy or Allen up top and that’s what Donovan doesn’t doesn’t have at all but this more space out version just he’s just been phenomenal and I kind of want to see him like with the second unit when everyone’s back like with Allan and kind

Of this type of Team around him I think that would be like allowing him to kind of take this and do it into like you know 101 15 minutes a game yeah and I don’t want to jump ahead to the return of Garland Moy but I do want to mention

Something on that point is that when Garland and Moy do return the Cavs can still play this brand of basketball in spurts you’re not gonna have the starters playing that entire game together so you will still have moments where you can have Mitchell spaced out with a bunch of shooting and hopefully

Every lesson that they’ve learned right now carries over into when they’re fully healthy but yeah I mean Mitchell playing with this space I think he’s done a great job of picking and choosing his own shots uh he’s doing a really really good job of manipulating in that space

His crossover his sham God dribble is just unreal the way he gets the whole defense going one way and then somehow brings right back and now all of a sudden the opposite corner is open and he’s just doing a great job of finding the open shooter there’s just not many

People in the league who put that much Rim pressure from the point guard’s position like when he drives everyone has to collapse because you can’t you can’t guard him oneon-one at least most teams can’t guard him one-on-one so that’s something that really very few point guards in the in the M League can

Do even you know even you’re thinking about the best ones they’re not they’re not putting that much pressure on the rim so when he puts that much pressure on the rim it’s like Dean Wade has time to like you know take a drink of coffee before he before he puts a shot up

Because it’s just you know there’s nobody near him so that’s that’s one of the things that I think is like really impressive and you’re just like whoa like that that level of being able to bend a defense is just not something that you know you see

Often yeah I you know I I wouldn’t put Donovan Mitchell in the MVP conversation but I do think the way he’s responded to what the team needs from him uh it’s been really special and I think that it should be getting a whole bunch of attention from everyone who loves

Basketball because there’s just not many point guards or just players of Donovan Mitchell’s size who put that much pressure on the rim who are that good of shooting at shooting off the dribble and now he’s doing with the playmaking too while also being a pretty good Defender

As of late I think we’ve said this a couple times but Mitchell’s been solid on defense this year I think the defense is a really interesting conversation because I think the defense is worth a deep dive at some point but it’s really interesting how the Cavs are playing

Like they’re not playing the same type of defense that they were with the two bigs they’re really there’s a lot more accountability they’re they’re helping a lot less and they’re like they’re only helping from one side and it’s it’s just a lot different and I think this type of

Defense kind of Suits Donovan Mitchell more whereas a defense that’s always kind of like Allen and Moy are always crashing the basket to like protect kind of allows you to get lazy knowing that like it doesn’t matter if I get beat I have Allen and moley there to

Clean things up so I think it just kind of like forces him to to use his skills on that end and he has an incredible I don’t I don’t have his wingspan off top of my head but it’s like insane you know that’s why he’s able to do that the

Whatever that’s called that dribble oneand rebound Yeah well yeah the one hand rebound and like the dribble over oh yeah I don’t know what that’s called either I know what you’re talking about and that’s like like like I’m Craig Porter Jor is always like I want to try

That and it’s like yeah well you’re like 6’2 so and you have six2 arms you don’t have like seven foot arms so you can’t doesn’t have that Spider-Man reach right yeah I mean that’s why that’s why he’s able to get away with making bad shoes that I buy apparently that not

Apparently yeah I think we should do a full Deep dive into their defense at some point here soon because it it’s not just that when you have Allen and Mobly there that it’s like well if I get beat they have my back but it’s also the more

You have to rotate as a defense like each new rotation you have to make is just another the the the gap for you to have it breakdown it just opens up wider and wider because most teams can make one rotation once you do two three whatever like you’re gonna there’s going

To be a hole somewhere in your defense and so having an individual accountability and not forcing everyone on the def defensive end to rotate when someone is defending in isolation it just makes all the difference and I do think yeah like I think that’s why you’re seeing Donovan Mitchell get a lot

Of uh steals too because he’s just great at playing the passing Lane and when he’s not out of position and help he’s able to dive into those passing lanes and come up with I where is the in terms of steals is he number one he was he was

Second last week so I have I haven’t checked um he had four I think against Orlando right so he may be getting up there but one of the things that I think is uh I was listening to the chase down and they’re big people that they’re big

Fans of like shooting luck and we’ve talked about this a lot I don’t I don’t believe in three-point shooting luck at least not to not over a large sample size like one game I believe in three-point shooting look but like you know over 10 15 20 games kind of if

Teams keep shooting well against you it’s because you’re allowing them to shoot well against you and one of the things that you’re seeing during the stretch is that teams are not shooting well from three against the Cavs and it’s just because they’re not they’re not making those rotations the same way

They’re staying on the guys that they need to stay on and it’s just it just makes a huge difference well teams just aren’t shooting well in general against the Cavs too so on top of that I I also just want to highlight it’s been what four games in a row under 100 points

This this Cavs team as we said at the top you just can’t exaggerate how well they are playing right now right and it’s not a fluke like it’s not like it’s not like oh like you know this guy we gave him four or five open threes and

You just missed them all it’s like no they’re they’re not they’re suffocating as Jared Allen coin the term it’s they’re suffocating the opponents yeah like they’re not giving up open shots they’re making like especially that like first quarter it was like you know the there was this one stretch where like

Paulo had like a contested mid-range jumper at like two seconds left in a shot clock and like they worked for 20 seconds to get that shot and it’s like yeah they’re just you know like that’s not like the defense like I don’t want to say the C’s defense hasn’t been good

Because it has been good but it’s more so been good because Mo’s a freak and able to just cover up everything like nobody has two legit shot blockers on the floor at all times but this defense is a lot more like connected well like connected I think is

A good way to say because like when we when we talked about like we talked about everyone’s like oh the Cav got bullied against the Knicks and they did but they had to overh help because they were just not there was no Integrity on the perimeter so it’s like they were

They were overh helping like they didn’t need to help as much as they did but them overh helping every time you step up to help your guy slips behind you know so it’s like that’s why Mitch Robinson was able to get so many rebounds because nobody was there so

Yeah I mean the Cavs have been playing great we are going to talk about what the return of Garland and Moy is going to look like and what that means but I do want to get into some news here very quickly before we out the episode with that Garland mooy discussion two

Different members of the cast have been suspended here recently Tristan Thompson has been suspended by the NBA for 25 games after failing a drug test and you know what it kind of all makes sense now TT was having one hell of a comeback season after being on Sports Center for

A year and uh you know the fact that he’s been on Peds I guess isn’t all that shocking All Things Considered but in all seriousness uh I do think it’s unfortunate Not only was Thompson having a good year but I just think it’s important to keep you know mental health

In mind and understand what would lead a player or an aging athlete like Thompson to go down that path in the first place the fact that he felt like he needed to use that uh it’s unfortunate so I really am wishing him all the best and I

Thought it was uh I also thought it was unfortunate that some cast fans on Twitter were kind of taking Victory laps about this but uh Jackson what’s your take on the Tristan Thompson news uh it’s unfortunate especially this time because the Cavs you know when they don’t have

When they when a Moy returns I don’t think Tristan was going to have a spot in the rotation just because you know you don’t need three centers um so kind of the timing of it is unfortunate but it’s also kind of disappointing because Tristan was one of the best stories of

The year for the Cavs just his Resurgence him you know we thought that when he was signed that like he’s just here to be like this team’s James Jones but no he was here to play basketball and be a really good basketball player like he’s been really helpful especially

With that second unit we talked a lot about what Sam Marl is able to do uh a lot of that has to do with Tristan’s screen setting like his ability to just take away space from Defenders has really opened up Sam Merill and really that whole second unit so he’s just been

Phenomenal and it is a little disappointing I hope that you know I hope I think it’s a good point that you brought up with the mental health I’m not I don’t think I’m eloquent enough to speak on that topic but I think it’s important to keep that in mind when you

Talk about things like this because this is something that I’m sure it was a choice to go down this route and um hopefully he’s okay from that standpoint and you know I think it’s I think these next stretch of games that the Cavs have before Evan Moy returns are going to be

Really interesting because they really need what Tristan provides especially you know Damien Jones hasn’t looked very good this year when he’s been given real minutes he’s looked good in garbage time and the gas have gotten a lot of garbage time so it’s given him a lot of time to kind

Of get some reps in and he’s looked good but it’s different playing against like actual meaningful basketball but he’s G to be the guy that they’re gonna be relying on I don’t think I’ve seen people float that maybe they play Dean Wade at the five well let me tell you

Something Dean Wade is Dean Wade is kind of like a 34 he’s not a four5 definitely not a five George Nang definitely not a five um like he just can’t he just can’t rebound enough rebounder like even there were some games where the good Cavs

Teams would try to like K LOVE at the five and you could kind of get away with it just because he could rebound like he wasn’t protecting a rim or anything but he was rebounding and it’s like George nangas and Dean Wade aren’t that level of rebounders so you can’t even

Like you can’t even entertain that for like a thre minute stretch just because if you can’t rebound and you can’t defend the the first action then what choice to like yeah you know it’s not going to go well not only that but like if you’re talking replacing Tristan like

Tristan value is the offensive rebounding and Nang and Dean Wade are going to be on the three-point line they’re not going to be down there putting pressure on the offensive class so it’s really a big blow never thought I would say that about Tristan Thompson 2023 but losing him for 25 games

Especially with Moy out it’s Gonna Hurt uh it’s not something that they can’t overcome but it’s definitely not ideal uh the other suspension that we have is ammani Bates I believe there’s two games right so he’s already he’s already served one game yeah so he has been

Suspended for really as far as I can tell there was a fan in the opposing team’s crowd that was heckling him sounds like this fans said something very disrespectful Swani and another charged player entered the stands to confront this person there’s it’s hard to see on the video and I I haven’t

Really heard all the details but doesn’t seem like there was any physical altercations or anything like that just seemed like ammani approached him and they had a conversation now immature decision the wrong decision to enter the St but I’m hoping that this is maybe just a small moment that is easy to move

On from but what is your take on this whole ordeal I think it’s I think it’s telling that it’s only a two game suspension and we didn’t hear anything about it for like two days so I don’t think it’s something to I think there’s like an

Inclination to be like oh this is just like Kevin Porter this is just like a Kevin Porter Jr situation where like some of the bad Kevin Porter Jr situations happened off the court in a very like serious way and were much more serious allegations than going into this

Like when you watch the video he’s not running like he’s I saw people mentioning malice in the palace and then you watch the video and he’s just like taking a stroll up to like be like hey what’s up man from the JB had some quotes about it yesterday it it sounds like this

Was probably more the fault of the guy who was saying things in the stand and was not saying things that are appropriate at all so I don’t think this is worth making a big fuss about and he was he was actually like if you look at

The video this all took place in about like 25 seconds like it looked like he was dribbling it out the buzzer sounded he started to slowly take steps towards the you know towards the Baseline towards out of bounds then it cuts away and then you can see like the coaches in

The background kind of point to what’s happening but they weren’t like oh no Imani’s like punching people in the stands it was just kind of like I don’t think ammani should be like two rows back and that’s where and then it was like by the time they kind of went to

Cut over there he was already back on the on the charge bench so which was on the other side of the court so it’s like like I don’t think this isn’t worth making a big deal about or this isn’t like uh I don’t even think this is like

Uh Imani needs to show more maturity because if this was an NBA game there’s a lot more security that’s oh yeah he would made well he wouldn’t have made it up there but I don’t think the fan would have been able to get away with saying

The things that they did yeah he would have been approached so I don’t I don’t think this is like this this isn’t a stain on his resume and I think if you use it as such that’s that’s foolish and that’s you’re doing your own confirmation bias yeah I actually agree

100% uh like I said it was it the right decision probably not but to me this sounds like he probably got suspended just as a technicality of like hey you can’t go into the stands it doesn’t seem like anything bad actually happened I don’t think it’s a staying on his resume

And I don’t want to speculate but I have heard that the person in the stands was actually mck Perry asking ammani to come on its Cavalier pod so maybe it wasn’t bad after all but uh no in all seriousness uh I mean like I said with uh Tristan

Thompson it’s like I think sometimes we got to remember the athletes are human and you can’t just say whatever you want because you’re in the stands and expect not to have an effect on someone and clearly ammani felt that a line was crossed and he talked to the fan you

Know people talk about immaturity but like in a way way the way he handled it was kind of mature I mean he didn’t rush the stands he didn’t get into a fight we don’t know what was said between the two but not not making too big of a deal out

Of this one I did want to address it though because uh obviously Twitter is Twitter and uh the news broke and everyone went wild so now let’s bring this back to the Cavaliers and discuss what is on everyone’s mind Jackson are the Cavaliers actually better without their best players I’m just kidding uh

Garland and Moy will be back in the fold soon and with how well the Cavs are playing I kind of understand why some fans are worried about tinkering with what’s going on but what is the key to bringing back both Moy and Garland uh you can pick either one and we’ll start

From there I think there’s there’s been a change on both ends of the court that affect both players in different ways I think one of the things that this stretch has showed us is that this coaching staff is able to adapt on the Fly um which is good and I think that

That they will have to adapt again obviously because rotations are going to change the style of play is going to change you’re going to go from kind of a very rangy team to a very small back court big front court with maxre out there as well um so that kind of it’s

Just it’s just different personnel and different Personnel require different things I think it’s a lot easier to get into the mindset of okay we need to be emphasizing the three-pointers that we’re taking and the movement when you’ve been sitting at home for a month watching this play out I think it’s a

Lot easier to get byy in from that standpoint not saying that Darius or Evan weren’t bought into what the Cs were trying to do but one of the things that I think is always important to keep in mind is that especially with young players and Darius is still 23 which is

Still the same age as GRE Porter Jr and you know he’s still a young guy when you talk about players that are that age a lot of times the skills that get you into the NBA or into a lottery pick aren’t the skills that you need

To take the next step as a team and as a player not saying that they both need to just radically alter their game but they will need to come in and kind of adjust how they play to how this team’s currently playing because you can’t see this incredible run that the

Cavs are on and say nothing needs to change about my game everyone needs to adjust to me because clearly things weren’t working beforehand and I have faith that they can do that because I think that they’re both incredibly talented basketball players and I think they’re both willing

To do what’s best for the team and I think it’s a lot easier to do that when you see that hey this actually does work I’m going to have to adjust how I’ve been playing and I think they’ll do that Yep this was a proof of concept if I’ve

Ever seen one uh I don’t doubt that both Garland and Moy want to buy into whatever is going to help the team the most and I think this team’s culture I know culure gets thrown around a lot but it seems like they’re going to hold each other accountable and when Garland and

Moy do return they’re G to try and play similar to how they’re playing now that there’s going to be necessary adjustments but I do think that it’s important to note that the way the Cavs are currently playing is more or less how they wanted to play All Season how

They talked during the off season and what their goal was they tried to play this way but they ran into I think a combination of growing pains some constant injuries I mean even before the big injuries to Garland immobile you had hamstrings shooting hand like all just a

Whole bunch of different stuff was going on Allen missed the first eight games eight something like that and he was far from himself when he returned yes uh and on top of all that they just had some poor shooting which I’m not even saying it’s shooting luck but they just weren’t

Shooting the ball very well so this is how theyve always they werl yeah they wer it’s true they didn’t they wer had discovered Sam Merill Jackson had discovered Sam but the Cav yeah I did Cav had figured it out uh but this is how they wanted to play uh they

Didn’t stumble into this style accidentally I’ve seen a lot of people I’m becoming the JB Defender but I’ve seen a lot of people saying like JB thinks he’s smarter than he really is and he accidentally found out how to play Modern basketball it’s like this this is how they wanted to play it’s

Just now finally coming into shape right in in the preseason he said that he wanted his team to take 53s yeah like they were fully help they’re they’re close to it I think they’re like they’re what like 43 44 threes a game something like that off top my head took like 30

Something last last night the numbers the numbers could have changed but but they stopped they stopped like shooting at like the third quarter yeah Sam did rub it in yeah Sam could have broke an NBA record he he has the does he have the g- league record for thre I don’t

Know he has he has 10 in a game which is a lot okay I know he has the summer league record he’s got to be close to the g-league record if he can get that NBA record hey that how many people can say that nobody the trifecta really yeah

Uh but no um when it comes to getting and moley back in the fold I do think some of the concerns are funny when you talk about like is this offense going to work because like listen Darius Garland is a lot better offensively than aoro and Dean Wade combined I would even say

Mo yeah even even Mobly is much better than both of those players combined so it’s like I get that the fit isn’t the same but it’s like they’re playing this way with aoro and Wade out there you put Garland back into the fold one of the

Best floor generals you put Moy in there who is a very skilled offensive player he may not be All-Star caliber with his offense but he’s still a very good offensive player he brings a different Dynamic to that and so they should be able to make it work the key is going to

Be moving the ball and that again starts with Garland uh he’s near the top of the league and dribbles per touch uh I mean he’s the point guard so it’s understandable but needs to get that ball out of his hands quicker there needs to be motion off the ball and really

The return of Garland just raises their ceiling offensively I think so I I’m not overly concerned there’s going to be an adjustment period but I think that this is a good thing if I can if I can be bold I think the return of Garland and Moby is going to be an

Overwhelmingly good thing one thing I will say is that like the Cavs problems especially like last year even in the regular season they didn’t come with the five guys out there on the court together it came when one of them would sit they would kind of fall apart like

The bench didn’t really have an identity so I think from that standpoint it’s not really like I think it’s easy to kind of overblow it to a certain degree because yes they do need to adjust but it’s also like the starting lineup was pretty fine for the most part especially like even

In the nick series the starting lineup they won those minutes with the starting lineup out there it’s just they got murdered when you know they had to face Obi toppen that’s that’s when things went off the rails so like there will be an adjustment and there will be patience

But like they can still all these bench units are still going to play the same style I think if you wanted to one thing I think is worth keeping an eye on is how Caris LeVert fits into all of this I think Caris lever has been a

Big beneficiary of being being like the lead ball handler in a lot of these bench lineups so how does that look when he’s going to be paired with because Garland Garland or Mitchell are going to be out there all the time so he’s GNA have to be playing with one of them not

Saying that he hasn’t been okay or good with them I but I think it’s worth that’s something to kind of like if you wanted to keep an eye on something that’s one thing I think I I would keep an eye on yeah and maybe this will be an

Actual take something that I mentioned in my most recent video but like offensively speaking Merill fits better next to one of Garland or Mitchell than Levert does Levert’s a better player maybe we see Merrill in those minutes a little bit more I don’t know how the

Rotation is going to be split up it’s it’s go it’s a whole mess it’s an impossible job to figure out where they’re gonna allocate those minutes I can figure it out you got it yeah just play Sam merell just play Sam merell no I I think you go with the ninan rotation

I think you go yeah the five and then you go you know you go Merill lever aoro Wade and I think if Wade decides he just wants to do cardio out there which sometimes he does that then you gotta put Nang will do cardio he’ll shoot the

Ball and he’ll do some yoga poses if we’re lucky yeah he’ll he’ll stuff it’s he’s playing he’s playing so good right now it’s it’s wild is yeah he been great it pains me to say say that he he defended one of the magic players in isolation yesterday and came

Up with a steal it was great I think it might have been Cole Anthony I don’t remember I missed that oh well I’ll make sure you see it when we’re done to wrap up my uh my takes here on the return of Garland and Moy uh all of

The lessons they’ have learned it’s going to remain uh whether that be them playing this exact same side with the bench lineups or really I think what we’ve seen from Allen even like hey it’s really good that we’ve seen that Allen can actually operate with the ball above

The break and do some things it’s really good that Allen is like punishing drop Defenders not only just with passing and attacking the basket but he’s starting to shoot from the mid-range too and if Evan Mobley isn’t going to take those jump shots maybe you just Swip just swap

Them Mo’s in the dunker spot and Allen the one operating from the elbow now because traditionally we’ve seen it the other way around so I think the Cavs have learned a lot of things here and it’s just it’s really just going to come down to applying those the right

Situations right and I think there’s there’s a lot of ways to minimize those spacing concerns if you have other off ball movement um which is something that we’ve seen especially with these with those bench units thank you Sam Merl um where when there is that movement you

Can’t like you know if Moy screening for Darius Scarlett who’s coming off a screen like M’s Defender can’t be in the restricted area because then you know Garland’s getting away away open three so it’s like there are ways to minimize all of this it’s just can everyone buy

Into that yep and the the another thing that I wanted to say too is that and you you touched on this like we have a sample size of this core 4 working and working really really well even in the playoffs which was their most embarrassing moment a lot of that came

Down to a lack of depth a lot of it just came down to Darius Garland playing very poorly for much of the series Don Mitchell not really playing that great and so listen you you take this core four you add Max stru you add a Sam

Merill you space the floor I think this can work I think we’ve even seen at the beginning of this year sporadically but there’s that Hawks game where they just beat the breaks off of them Hawks might not be a very good team so I don’t know

How much you take from that but they they’ve had moments where this core looks really really good together I know they have overlapping talents even even like the Nuggets game the the both Warriors games which that was before the Warriors really went off the rails to be fair but it may have

Been a sign of I’ll leave that I’ll leave that to you and I’m I’m very sorry about your warriors um hey that’s another I got off I got off the bandwagon years ago shout out to fansided for my start but yeah that’s like I think kind

Of one thing that all those games have in common is Darius Garland playing good so yeah I think one of the things that’s kind of we don’t really talk about it is I don’t like there scarland wasn’t right at the beginning of the year maybe there

Was a hand issue like the dude was turning it over like every time he had the ball turning over not shooting the he was just he was not playing like the Darius Garland we know and for that entire last year I think most of us said

Hey this team kind of goes the way Darius Garland goes and so the fact that now we’re talking about well not us but some people are saying like they need to move on from Darius Garland is Bri and Darius Garland going to mess all this up it’s like

We know how don’t forget how talented Darius Garland is and don’t forget how talented Evan Moy is uh if you can’t figure out a way to make it work with those two guys on the floor that’s that’s a bigger problem than whatever they’re doing right and that’s that’s

What you know was leading to the conversations about JB getting fired whenever 13 to 12 yeah so you know we’ve been there and we might be there again who knows but uh overall Cavs really turn their season around they’re on the same exact Cas as they were last year um

We’ll see how it all goes down we’ll see what happens when Garland and Moy return but that is going to do it for this episode of the junkyard pod please consider hitting subscribe follow both of us on Twitter to keep up with all of our work and go Cavs I agree go Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers can’t stop winning! The hottest team in the NBA is nearing full strength with the return of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley on the horizon.

– Recapping the win streak
– Sam Merrill’s longevity
– Donovan Mitchell at PG
– Bates and Thompson SUSPENDED
– How Darius Garland and Evan Mobley can return

This episode of The Junkyard Pod is hosted by Tony Pesta and Jackson Flickinger.

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