Let’s Talk Cavs w/ Quincy Carrier! The Junkyard Pod – Cleveland Cavaliers Podcast

Let’s Talk Cavs w/ Quincy Carrier! The Junkyard Pod – Cleveland Cavaliers Podcast

Mitchell has his head up Tak get that we stuff out of here welcome to the junkyard pod hosted by Tony pesta I’m without both of my co-hosts today they have abandoned me Jackson and Corey will be back for the next episode uh and it will be a mailbag

So if you have any questions for us send them in the comment section uh ask at least one samaral question if you want Jackson if don’t want Jackson to leave the show again uh or don’t if you want him to stay away but for today’s episode I have a very special guest Quincy

Carrier is joining us if you don’t know him already you can find all his work on YouTube covering the Browns and the Cavs but Quincy how you doing man thanks for coming on good good this feels like um whenever Evan Mobley or Jared Allen gets a putback dunk and you’re like oh he

Misses it but Jared’s got his back you know I’m just I’m here to get that footb back Slam in for you uh while while your co-host are Elsewhere for the week thank you man I I appreciate it it was perfect timing honestly I’m glad we

Were able to set this up and we have a lot to talk about it’s it’s really a perfect time in many ways because the All-Star Weekend gives us an opportunity to kind of reflect on the year so far it’s not quite the halfway point I think we’re a little bit past the halfway

Point for the Cavs but today we’re going to recap Donovan Mitchell’s impact in Cleveland the year he’s been having so far we’re going to talk about Jared Allen’s season of redemption if it is their season of redemption or not and we’ll end it with a very simple question

Is this Cavaliers team as good as it seems because they have been rolling there hotter than anyone else in the NBA right now but let’s start with Donovan Mitchell he just competed in his fifth All-Star game which wasn’t the most exciting All-Star Weekend ever but as I

Said it gives us a chance to reflect on how he’s been playing so Quincy how important has Donovan Mitchell been this season oh he’s been like everything like we thought the season was over during that point of the Year where um both Evan and Darius went out we were like

Well how is this team gonna survive this and I think even at the beginning of that didn’t Donovan get hurt like the first game that both of those guys missed there was something yeah and he was always in and out the lineup early in the season like for whatever reasons

Um but he stabilized he’s played really good basketball I think you’ve done some great work talking about his playmaking being a lot better this year I think that’s definitely true um you know he’s he’s been his best version of himself in Cleveland both years right he’s been a better scorer more efficient

Um and this year is more the same for Donovan his impact has been incredible it’s silly to me that he’s not higher up in an MVP rankings but I kind of understand it on one level because it’s two disappointing playoff outings in a row and once you get into that cloud

Like some guys get it faster than others where their regular season stuff starts to get tainted because of lack of postseason success um some guys get a long extension on that kind of thing like Joel embiid like nobody ever talks about playoff disappointment got he got

A huge extension on that one yeah and then it’s it’s funny too which teams get the treatment and not because the Cavs have one bad meltdown in the series and like they’re getting the full on you’re not serious treatment and that’s okay that’s what happens once in a while

Right when your team does that it happens to the Nuggets but the 76ers have been such a disappointment for so long in the playoffs like they have this constant rivalry with the second round and it’s like nobody ever go oh yeah man don’t know if I care

About it the Sixers win a bunch of games in the regular season like every year we’re like no the Sixers are going to do this and this gonna be the year for them they got James Harden as if James Harden has been the difference in a second

Round playoff series more than twice in his career so it’s it’s always interesting to me how like people teams get picked and slotted and and labeled and the Cavs have definitely gotten labeled as a team that can’t win in the playoffs you know it kind of reminds me

How like the Atlanta Hawks or the Milwaukee Bucks before um when they had like that 60 win team early on in giannis’s run it reminds me of that but this is a good team um also Boston almost having 50 wins already like kind of takes the air out of what the cats

Are doing um but yeah Donovan he he’s been the engine to this whole thing and for the cat like we would have been happy if the casts were at the same spot that they were last year given everything that happened they are in a better spot than they were last year uh

Given being at the a start break so and Donovan Mitchell’s been the main culprit of why you could say that that’s happened so yeah he he’s been excellent this year um and you know I hope the Cavs are able to keep him long term yeah for sure you hadit on everything that I

Wanted to talk about honestly and you even threw in some 76ers slander which I will always get on board with I like Joel embiid and I I do trust the process and all that but man that guy that 76ers team has collapsed basically every year

And it always seems like they get a pass whereas as you said with the Cavs I think part of it too like the fact that the Knicks of all teams beat them everyone’s so ready so many people want the Knicks to be good for decades now and they finally got like their One

Shining Moment and it happened against the Cavs so I feel like that played a role into it too and it’s like how it happens matters too because it did it just happened that the Knicks beat the Cavs they beat the Cavs in the way that New York wanted them to beat the Cavs

Which is they dominated them physically and kind of like made him retreat in that last game um and that was a horrible look for the Cavs right especially like Jared Allen and you have a lot of these guys on this team who you know they are known for being more

Approachable than most NBA players are and I think that also kind of went backfired on them and went against them because now it’s like oh they’re just nice guys like they’re not gonna be able to do what needs to be done in the playoffs which is something I’ve seen

Them kind of try to address this season as well we’ve even seen Jared Allen decide he’s not GNA this for the Ben Simmons this year he picked an easy Target man if there was anyone for Jared Allen to go at I feel like Ben Simmons

Was the one so you I saw this and I was like you know there’s been a history of him and Ben Simmons like Ben Simmons thinks that that’s the one dude that he can test is Jared Allen because this happened last year remember like where he tried to test Jared and Jared was

Like you know what man I gotta do something because this is unacceptable that he thinks he could test me like I I’ve compared Jared Allen to like he has that golden retriever energy and if you make a golden retriever angry like they can get mad and if you see that like you

Know someone must have done something messed up there’s no reason the golden retriever should be angry and what happened exactly you have to really cross a line to get Jared Allen to shove you but to to bring this back to Donovan Mitchell again I agree with

Everything you said there uh I think we are seeing the most complete version of him um whether it be the increase the improved playmaking the scoring has always been there but it seems like he’s doing it in a more well-rounded way and he’s playing defense this year which I

Think he deserves more credit for I think he’s really been exerting himself to the max on that side of the floor and he’s really been the Catalyst behind all of their success I I don’t want to talk too much about the trade and all that because people talk about it over and

Over again the trade that brought him here but I really think if we don’t make that trade this is a team that’s probably competing for a playin spot rather than second seed in the Eastern Conference so it’s he’s just been huge for them can we talk about the trade

Discourse for a little bit here because I don’t know what people like like like people complain about the trade and like oh you gave up all of that for Donovan Mitchell was like one NBA first round picks are are very different than most other you’ll get them back yeah like

You’ll get them back or you get pick swaps or whatever it is like it usually you don’t really care who the Cavs are going to draft if they’re if they’re playing like in picking in like the 20s like not really outside the lottery like people people tend to make a big deal of

That as if like that is going to matter as much but it’s like also the Cavs traded for Donovan Mitchell in my opinion for a very specific purpose that he’s truly serving right now right like they wanted to be a team that has some playoff experience like not just we made

The playoffs whoop be yay for us like serious playoff experience like we have a home series all of this stuff they wanted to make that leap from a team that could not get out the play in to a team that can uh get to a regular playoff seed and play in regular playoff

Series and they’re at that point point right now even through injuries they at that point and yeah I still hear people talk about how that trade was a failure because he might leave after this year but I’m like how much does a player have to do to justify a trade because that

Wasn’t a trade to me that suggested that the Cavs need to win a championship with Donovan Mitchell in order for it to make sense they just needed Donovan Mitchell to play well and he’s been the best he’s been in Cleveland and that’s the best argument also to keeping Donovan

Mitchell in Cleveland is him playing at a high level him being on the team that’s on a high level and him this being his best basketball option in free agency or when it comes to trade options or whatever it is right so I just I I

Don’t get why so many people hand rig about the TR I saw somebody try to say that it was worse than nudy go trade and I’m like how can you make that judgment I saw people trying to spin that narrative too especially early on this year when the cast are struggling a

Little bit but like I’ve always said with with the way Donovan Mitchell has been playing he came to Cleveland I I don’t think it’s Championship or bust either I think that’s the wrong way to view it but overall like him being on this team has elevated it has raised

That ceiling for them and it’s kind of a matter of like hey if Garland Moy Allen if they’re ever gonna be those guys who can compete in the playoffs they better be able to do it to Donovan with Donovan Mitchell alongside them if they can’t then we have bigger problems than where

Donovan Mitchell is going to go in the future because he has put this team in a position where they can realistically compete for Conference Finals run maybe even and so it’s like if those guys aren’t able to get to that point I mean I know they’re still young so I’m not

That’s why it’s not Championship or bus or anything but like they should start showing some stuff and I think they have been we we’ll get into that and everything but I do think a lot of times people view it as like oh well if Donovan Mitchell leaves and we wasted

This whole the last few years but no this should be even if he does leave worst case scenario these guys just got some really valuable experience competing for the second seed rather than potentially missing the Playoffs altogether yeah and development needs urgency right like the the Sixers were

Trying to develop guys where they were terrible for like a very long time and it never worked out because if you don’t have that sense of urgency that sense of we’re playing for something now like this is serious like you need to get in line these guys aren’t going to develop

The way that you want them to develop it’s why like so many people have developed it other teams because now they have that sense of urgency now it’s like Oh no I got I gotta get better right because we’re going to be playing in the Susi I don’t want to get

Eliminated by the seventh seed right like that I don’t want that embarrassment on my name and that people to play better and I think you know if you look at this this trade for Donovan Mitchell and look at it independently of the development of other guys on a

Roster you know I think that’s a wrong way to view it and I think some people just tend to look at it in a vacuum and it’s like no like you trade for Donovan Mitchell you get better you get more out of Darius Garland because now he knows

How to share that back court properly and also like you know just how to play in these big moments like the one game that Cavs won it’s because Darius Garland really stepped up in the playoffs versus the Knicks um and and you know Evan Mobley he needs to get

Comfortable in this spot playing with this sense of urgency especially for somebody as relaxed as he is at times like you know you need that sense of urgency in order to kind of get guys to develop in any sport right so you can’t just be mid-level to oh well we gonna

Make the play and get bounced in the first round anyway so what what really is the sense of urgency I think that’s also something like trading for Donovan Mitchell gave this team in its development a true sense of urgency which I think is important when it comes

To getting guys from okay they had a good couple of years to start their career to they need to become star players they need that sense of urgency there definitely I mean even when you look at someone like aoro or or Jared Allen who will transition to here in a

Second like if this was a team that was competing for a playin spot or out of the playoffs they wouldn’t have forced a cororo to stand in the corner and shoot 1003s and and become the closest to a three 3 and D guy that he can be same

With j Allen if this team isn’t serious about winning they’re not using him operating above the break and him trying to shoot mid-range jump shots like he’s not going to be working on developing that because there’s no sense of urgency for him to do it same thing with the quo

Like the situation that they’ve been put in has forced them to step out of their comfort zone and try and fit what this team needs to win so I think that’s a good way to just transition to Jared Allen in general because after last year’s playoffs I don’t think anyone in

The NBA was clowned more than Jared Allen much of it was deserved some of it was a bit unfair but regardless he has stepped up in the biggest way that you could hope so far um he’s been Donovan Mitchell is the driving force but Jared Allen has been right up there with him

And leading this charge and helping the Cav survive all those injuries early on he legitimately played at an Allstar level whether or not he got into the game doesn’t matter because I mean he was really playing like that dude he was the defensive anchor he’s been showing

Us a lot of growth on offense so has this been a season of redemption for Jared Allen what are you seeing from him absolutely absolutely now with Jared the concern for me is always with the pairing of him and Evan they’re tall but they’re not big right they’re both thinner uh centers and

Forwards so that that’s kind of the issue with Jared that I worry about I think they have some better pieces than like polishing off Robin Lopez like Off the Bench like you run into some bigger opponents like you know eventually when Tristan comes back from this piece suspension I think that’s somebody you

Could throw at somebody for like what 20 minutes in a series to try to plug a problem real quick um but yeah I think Jared was a victim of the lack of death that they had um when it came to bigs last year right I think that was really

The issue for him is that he was in a mismatch they really had no solution around it and he got dominated and because he’s Jared Allen and because he’s super nice and he’s super honest it’s real easy to pick on him when he says something like oh yeah you

Know the lights were too bright he’s being honest it probably was a little bit of what happened there but he became the easy guy to kind of point at and that’s just an unfortunate thing that Jared Allen kind of has to deal with um but this year he’s really respond from

That right because he could have crumbled and nobody would have been really that surprised because that was almost a crumbling like performance in the playoffs but he came back and he’s playing you know the best basketball he’s played since he’s been an Allstar right you can argue even better

Basketball he play he’s averaging three assist this year which is insane um yeah so he he’s been excellent I think this has been a really good Redemption year for him I think he’s a he’s also like taken the the initiative to be a little bit more aggressive too on the offensive side

When it comes to like sometimes he would be hesitant to dunk um when he had a clear lane or when he had a little bit of a congested Lane he’s more willing to take that on and I think he learned a lot of lessons like you know I don’t

Look as much as we didn’t like seeing Mitchell Robinson box him out and move him around all all all series I’m pretty sure he liked it less and he seems like he responded to it all season by trying to figure out how that Cann not happen again because for Jared Allen this isn’t

The first time something like that’s happened remember when he was in Brooklyn he went against Joel embiid in the 76ers and Joel gave him some work in that series as well and it’s it’s it’s not Jared’s fault he’s 69240 Joel is 74 foot 270 really like aot handle yeah

Joel’s a big dude like um and and Jared’s not really built for that he’s more of a agile big Defender so it’s it’s kind of like a unfortunate mismatch that he got caught up in a couple of times and you know he can only do so much with his physical profile but I

Think he’s done what he can do to be able to fix that become a more versatile player on both ends of the field both ends of the Court my bad I’m still in football mode and really be somebody who I’m not concerned about going into the playoffs

Um and you know good for Jared because a lot of people wanted him to trade Jared Allen for nothing and I was I was like yeah you might want to cons like I at the peak of it I was mad at Jarett and I was like maybe you want to consider

Getting bigger at the center position if you’re gonna roll out Evan moley uh because it’s just not a fair matchup sometimes but I wasn’t gonna trade Jared Allen for nothing because Jared Allen was still a productive player and I think that’s what he’s proving right now is that he’s still a very very

Productive player right now 15 and 10 three 1510 and three um in you know his percentages speak for itself so he’s been a really good player for this team who really held it down for the Cavs um in this tough spot yeah him and Donovan really have held it down in a really

Tough time for this team definitely i’ I’d say holding on to Allen this summer paid off uh when everyone got injured and he reminded us of how impactful he can be and hopefully he continues to do that I think it’s very very important that he didn’t just crumble after that playoff series

Because we’ve seen star players and even role players have series defining moments like that or career defining moments like that where they collapse in a series and they can just never bounce back Jared Allen’s number one enemy Ben Simmons is a good example of that granted he had a lot of injuries that

Have pled the last few years for him but he collapsed against the Hawks and it seemed like he never really recovered mentally from that so for Jared Allen the key of course is going to be how he performs in the playoffs uh as much as he has been redeeming himself it is all

Whether it’s fair or not it’s going to come down to does he show up in the playoffs because if he struggles again this is all kind of for nothing right and that’s really the weird position that the Cavs in general seem to find themselves in where it’s like no matter

How good they play in the regular season nobody’s going to take them seriously nobody’s going to give them credit until they prove it in the playoffs and so that’s where I want to transition to our final question is this Cavs team as good as it seems the one number that jumps

Out to me compared to last year is the road record right their road record was I think barely above 500 if not below 500 if it was it was like one game over 500 um no I think it was actually like a game below 500 so their road record was

Terrible last year um this year they’re about as good at home as they are on the road so they’re pretty even team both ways the reason I think that’s important is what the road record reflects is how resilient is your team when it comes to being able to win in different ways

During the regular season because when you have a good road record that means okay you had a bad shooting night but you’re still able to win that game right because that just happens when you have these road trips these backto backs and that’s something to me is like okay when

Everything’s not going the way it’s supposed to go they’re still figuring out ways to win games and that’s what it really takes in the playoffs I remember last year they were playing Philadelphia I think this was like when were battling for the three seed and it was on ESPN

And Philly just decided we’re going to let you shoot threes we’re not going to let you get anything inside we’re just gonna let you shoot threes and the Cavs could not make a three they could not adjust to that to save their lives um and that was a big problem with them

Right if the things went to Cavs way they got some scoring from their guards if if Darius was hot if Donovan’s making threes they’re very dangerous team but the second that stops to happen things start to break down all of a sudden those lobs aren’t there for Moy all of a

Sudden Jared Allen is not getting no all of a sudden all these things that they’re relying on don’t happen for them this year it’s different right they have spot Shooters they’re much better shooting team than last year they’re still a good defensive team um I think this team is better suited for the

Challenge of the playoffs I think JB is better suited for the challenge of the playoffs because they have more pieces to adjust to like the bench scoring last year was atrocious almost all season um you know this year it’s a little bit better you have pieces like Sam Merill

Coming off the bench along with Caris LeVert it’s not just like one guy who could score coming off the bench like last year um and like last year we had to polish off like Danny Green in the playoffs like it was it was not a great

Situation um so yeah I think this is a good team are they gonna live up to the expectations if they’re the two seed in the playoffs I don’t know if they live up to the expectations of being the two seed in the playoffs if we just look at

It from that perspective but I don’t think the Cavs even if they are the two seed are going to have two seed expectations they’re GNA have a team had a really good year but they are the two seed expectations which is kind of what it was last year right get out of the

First round push somebody in the second round to six games or get out of the second round get to the Eastern Conference Finals anything above that is cookies right it’s free money so I think that’s really where the Cavs are I think they are is good as they seem I think

They’re a better team especially when it comes to the postseason challenge um than last year I just think they still have some issues that exist that are going to be blatant during the post season right when they go up against if they go up against a auson or something

Like that like they still have those problems um you know there’s still light in there’s still light at the center and forward position when they’re starting Tristan’s not necessarily like like the god the good answer that you want there but he’s better than like Robin was last

Year he’s at least playable um so you know it’s they still have some things that they need to hurle but this is a young team and you know it’s easy to forget about age in the NBA because these dudes are so young like we talk

About Jared Allen as if he’s like 32 and this is what he’s gonna be he 25 right he’s 25 or people talk about Evan Mobley as if the book is written on Evan mble he’s 22 or 23 years old he’s so young all these guys are so young and Cavs

Team is so young and I think people forget that in the NBA this thing takes a while like the Nuggets were just a fun team for a very long time before they made that run last year and they were still looked at as if a team as a team

That you really don’t take that seriously because what 2020 they’ve been making the playoffs consistently since like 2020 2019 with joic and it hadn’t happened for them um up until last year it took like three years of consistent playoff EXP experience you look at the Sixers like the the the first iteration

Of them took forever to get to a competitive place and then they got a second iteration of them and now they’re on their third incarnation of this team and it’s probably gonna end the same way that it ended the last few times um but or the Milwaukee Bucks same thing right

They were in they were making the playoffs when LeBron was still on the cast they didn’t win that Championship till 2021 um the Toronto Raptors had to like they had a whole thing with Jamar and Kyle and then they had to get rid of him like we don’t know what the

Incarnation of the Cavs that are ready to compete for a championship gonna look like because it’s heavily dependent on what Darius Garland continues to look like what Evan Moy continues to look like um and Donovan Mitchell if he’s on the team if he’s here what he continues

To look like but you know it’s all those things kind of factor in what they’re eventually going to be but they’re a really good young team right now that shouldn’t have Championship expectations but that doesn’t mean that they can’t have a season that people walk away with

Having a lot of fun from and you know look every year you’re not going to win a championship but I think there are years where you could take away a lot from what a team does if they do it in a positive direction and that is some level of fulfilling right like people

Act like sports you can’t enjoy anything like there’s like winning the championship and there’s nothing and there’s nothing else in between but there’s a ton in between that in between between winning a champion what keeps people going in the sports right because honestly like if the team won

The championship it’s like it’s fun for like the first week and it’s it’s like oh well we won and then you kind of two peek and we get another one like it immediately the cycle just begins again like the cast fans enjoyed that 2016 Championship then KD signed there

We were mad for like two weeks but we beat him on Christmas and was like all right man we still got 2016 like it’s it’s one of those things where it’s like it’s not all or nothing like this team can achieve a lot you can feel

Really good about it you know what if they like if the Cs get in the second round and they do something like they eliminate the New York Knicks we could get beat by Boston in five games that next series and we gonna talk about that like the miracle of Richfield

Like yeah no I I agree you gotta you gotta enjoy the process man that’s literally like listen we had LeBron James for 11 years and we got one Championship out of it Like It’s just tough to win championships dude like especially in all sports really it’s just it’s such an impossible thing if

You’re holding your team to that expectation every year I mean hey if that’s how you want to watch sports that’s how you want to watch sports but it’s just going to be hard to really enjoy it because especially this Cavs team right here like Donovan Mitchell is

Our best player and he’s 27 years old that’s the same age LeBron was when he finally won his first ring so it’s like Donan Mitchell’s still young the rest of this core is still really young if you’re putting those expectations on them this early you’re kind of setting

Yourself up to just not be able to enjoy this team for what they are because this has been a very fun iteration of the Cavs one of my biggest concerns entering the year was that not only would I be disappointed if they were a disappointment but I would be sad if we

Had to blow this team up because I really enjoy the group that they’ve put together they’re really fun group and I want a root for them uh hopefully we’ll see I think the Cavs I think they are as good as they seem I don’t think that means they’re going to win the

Championship I think if they can get out of the second round that would be a huge huge win really I just want to see them get out of the first round that’s that’s like the bar for me but you know like when you look at basically any advanced

Metric or whatever the Cavs they’re just killing it they look like a title Contender and that’s how it looked last year too I think the difference and maybe this sounds silly but I really think if you just watch the games it it just looks completely different just

Looks like a team that actually it matches the eye test and the analytics they’re playing a style of basketball that the offense looks more like 2024 than 2007 they’re taking three and they have guys who can actually make them they’re really good on defense but they’re not relying on turning every

Game into a rock fight they can take on a Sacramento Kings and beat them in a shootout they can beat Milwaukee by 40 points they can they can really turn it on when they need to on both ends of the floor which is something I don’t think

We saw last year yeah and it’s one of those things too where it’s hard to describe it especially for those of us who want to like talk about things in a more tangible sense but there were times last year where you could see the Cavs wen’t really ready for the type of

Moments that they were going to be put in right where it’s was like okay there was that Clippers game where the Clippers came back from like 10 points in like two minutes I was like oh my goodness like we don’t we don’t understand the sense of urgency right

Now that we need to be in to close this game out but then this year although they did not complete it out they came very close to winning that game um I forget who it was against but like recently they had a game where they came

Back like pretty much in the last minute of the game from down like seven or six um and that to me was like okay this team like understands it better this year they get it they they saw what happened to them in the playoffs they saw what happened to them over the

Course of the regular season they’re like okay what needs to happen for that to never happen again when are the moments where we’re like this is important we need to score we need to go on a run right now because if we don’t they’re GNA get hot and we’re going to

Lose our lead right like they kind of understand these things better they don’t blow of these massive leads that they used to blow last year um so I think just like mentally this team seems to have a better understanding of where they are and what they need to do and

When they need to step up that sense of urgency um and step up that intensity and flip the switch but yeah I think that I think that’s a fair assessment of them also did it make you feel old to realize that 27 year old LeBron James

Was a very very long time ago because it made me feel very old to think about like when people talk about LeBron being old I feel so ancient because I’m like he’s always 25 like youngest to get to these Point totals always there um and now he’s like legitimately like what is he

309 he’s the oldest player in the NBA every time I hear that it stuns me every single time I hear it it surprises me he played in the league with Gary Payton man he could be playing with his son pretty soon man it’s it’s truly wild

Did you see like the somebody did a video I think Dom 2K did a fun video about like guys who LeBron entered the league as like playing and it was just like all these guys who coached and like you forgot played like Jack Von you’re like Jack vgh play like all of this

Stuff and you’re like man LeBron is ancient like he is so old he’s older than like some of the guys who coach in the league now which is nuts like it’s nuts to think of LeBron as a old dude and somebody who grew up knowing LeBron

As the young Phenom like it’s weird to see him at this point um and it’ be even weirder to see a league without him because I don’t think in my adult remembering life uh Lebron James hasn’t been a big part of the NBA like it it’s it’s it’s insane to think about the

Longevity of his career and how long it feels but short at the same time um and yeah you’re right the Cavs had him for 11 years they could only win one Championship but I like to remind fans a lot of us remember that 2018 season very

Fondly right because of the Run he had in the playoffs it didn’t matter that they got swept in the finals that year you know the moments that you get throughout the way throughout the process are important right um for a number of reasons for fan reasons for

Your reasons like we remember this stuff um and it gives us enjoyment so yeah I think Cav fans enjoy the ride I think this Cav team is a bit more trustworthy than they were last year um because they’re just a better team than they were last year and you know I wouldn’t I

Know people are already trying to freak out about like Darius Garland coming back from injury and all he’s been inconsistent like he’s dar’s G he’s averaged 22 points the last two years he’s gonna probably and like we’re gonna look at his last two month split and be

Like oh he averaged 22 points what do we know he might average 24 because he has to get back to average right like okay yeah Darius Garland really good at basketball we’ll we’ll figure that out like I I I’m not really too con Lear about that Evan Moy has looked pretty

Good too since coming back so you know it’s a good team it’s a good team um I do wonder where you’re at with like Evan Mo’s offensive development like are you at the points where you like where do you where would you compare his ceiling

To if you had to compare it to another player in the NBA oh man that’s tough that’s tough um so I feel like I kind of like the demontis sabonis comparison because I like the playmaking potential for Moy I don’t know he’s shooting the lights out from the three-point line recently which

Is like really crazy and like unexpected so I don’t know like what’s going to happen there I think we’ll probably see him come back down to earth a little bit but I always use like free throw percentage as a good indicator and he’s shooting I think 75% so there’s

Definitely something there he has improved as a shooter we’ll see how much that develops but I don’t think I don’t think the Cavs need Moy to be like a 25 Point per game score I think they have this at least this version of the Caps have that covered with Garland and

Mitchell I think really for Moy the leap was always going to be a little bit more difficult to see because there’s only so many reps that he can get on offense there’s only so much he’s going to be able to contribute but if we see him continue to stretch the floor a little

Bit continue to be just I mean he’s an automatic bucket if you get him the ball in the paint if you have Garin or Mitchell that managed to dump it off to him it’s like an 80% shooter in the paint I mean that’s as easy of a points

You’re going to get if he continues to shoot from the mid-range well get himself to the free throw line uh embrace getting Embrace contact I think is one of the big things that he needs to do especially setting screens drives me crazy watching him try to set a

Screen because he just just not like hitting other people you can start doing that that’ll really open up a lot of things for them so I’m still high on Evan Moy especially as offense I think if he was on a team that had no expectations and he was the main guy

Like he was the lottery pick I think you’d see him average like above 20 points per game but what do you think where are you at with him yeah yeah it’s it’s it’s a weird place because like I think so much of it depends on like how

He feels out and develops like as a like physically right because I think he’ll be a much better shooter if he’s just a little bit heavier like it just he needs that heavier base to kind of finish through jump shots or just finish through contact yeah like I think and

His form’s fine like it doesn’t look janky when he shoots it he just like he’s just I don’t think he is at the weight he needs to be at to be able to shoot the way that he wants to shoot um and I think he’ll get better at that as

Time goes on and as he gains more weight um I think he’s going to be somebody to me that’s very similar to Anthony Davis like that’s where his ceiling is I my screen just cut out because my cat’s head button know everything um but yeah

So I think to me the comp for him has always been like kind of similar to Anthony Davis where like he made that Evolution as he got bigger um and stronger and was able to be a more effective offensive player um I think that’s the ceiling for for him

And yeah like I think that that’s where he is I think he also would just always kind of be a streaky shooter too like I think that’s gonna be part of his game where he’s never gonna be a consistent knockdown like Tim Duncan was like a knockdown elbow shooter but he’s not

Gonna be that I think he’s gonna always be have these stretches where he has like good shooting splits bad shooting splits but he’ll be a pretty consistent offensive player Anthony Davis if he doesn’t get injured is like one of the best players in the that’s a great comparison I mean I

Feel like people undersell it sometimes but it’s like hey if Anthony Davis is healthy that’s like one of the five best players in the NBA so and not to chinx anything but Mo’s been pretty durable outside of that knee injury so who knows man yeah but EV Mo that’s been my I’ve

Been on an island with that one for a while where Evan Mobley Anthony Davis comp because I think like they were very similar players coming out of college like super thin really good defensive prospects uh you know some like the the seedlings were there for him to become

An offensive player but so many people caught up in the kg stuff because he’s skinny and they got caught up in the Tim Duncan stuff because he’s like really relaxed um and I think that kind of clouded how people compare him to things and then Bill Simmons got out there

Calling him kg and once you call somebody kg you can’t come back from that and kg is like I think people really like forget how good a young kg was oh Minnesota kg was insane like I I think people are like oh yeah he could

Be like Kevin cuz like we just throw out Kevin Garett cops like it’s not we gave a Kevin Garett cop to New Orleans Noel remember that in 2013 oh man that’s that’s bad yeah yeah that that was the cop going out for him and I was like

What what is going on like I heard Brian Wier say this back in the day and then is we throw out that kg cop and I’m like no there’s one kg right like kg was a different Beast uh but I think he’s somewhere more lines like ad which is

Really really good and if he does turn into that and you have either Garland or you have um Donovan Mitchell with him I mean that’s a championship C team uh but you gotta be patient he’s 22 he is also in a situation where he can’t just be ball dominant right so

There are things he has to learn the one thing that like bugs me about him offensively is he don’t hold on to the ball well like I don’t understand why that is he’s got a loose handle yeah like does he not does he have smaller hands

Like is this a physical issue or is it like grip strength like the ball seem so remember Sasha palovich he seemed to have the loosest grip I’ve ever seen on the ball sometimes like Evan Moy will have Sasha pavlovich s like turnovers where it’s like he just touched you yeah hold on to

The ball I think I think some of it comes down to that not having the frame too I think a lot of times if you watch him like really closely when he’s driving it seems like he’s focused so much on trying to brace for the contact that he

Like loses he takes his eye off the ball almost and loses it because of that so that’s definitely like improving that handle and getting a better grip of the ball is definitely an aspect he has to improve I do I just want to hit on the Anthony Davis comparison one more time

Because in terms of being a streaky shooter Anthony Davis is a streaky shooter but you saw in that 2020 run when they won the championship he got hot at the right time and that’s all you needed and so I’m not going to put those expectations on Moy but it could be a

Case of like hey this dude gives you 16 games in the playoffs where he’s just hitting that jump shot that could make the difference I mean that’s really what it comes down to when when we talk championships like you just got to get hot at the right time that’s why it’s so

Difficult to win these things because some of it just comes down to luck and hitting your stride when you need it most and so hopefully Moy can develop into the kind of player that can put a team over the top like that yeah he would be the back breaker right like

That that’s the back breaker right okay Donovan’s making shots we accounted for that we know he’s gonna make shots okay Darius is making shots we counter for that we gonna make that but if Evan is making little floats jumpers he h three from the corner you’re like yeah it’s like okay

It’s it’s um like rad Lewis when he was with the uh Orlando Magic versus the Cav and Conference like all right dog like that’s it we got nothing for that like we knew Dwight was gonna go off gotta wave the White Flag yeah so I think that that’s what Evan Mo’s role offensively

Is to be I think people look at him in the context of being the number one option on offense he’s not that archetype of player but what he is is the back breaker right which is like okay now he’s like going off we got nothing we got absolutely nothing for

That um and they’re already a tough team to beat when Darius and Donovan or just one of Darius and Donovan are going off so the bones are there for this to be a really good team for sure for sure I agree with that um that’s gonna do it

For this episode of the junkyard pod thank you Quincy for joining the show I truly do appreciate it uh thank you to everyone for tuning in don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Spotify or YouTube and don’t forget to drop your questions for the mailbag episode coming soon but that’s it for me go

Cavs

Quincy Carrier joins The Junkyard Pod to discuss Donovan Mitchell’s impact in Cleveland, Jarrett Allen’s season of redemption, Evan Mobley’s development and an overview of the Cavs season!

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