NBA Today | “I see Cavs as favorites in East right now” – Danny on Donovan Mitchell sweep Heat

NBA Today | “I see Cavs as favorites in East right now” – Danny on Donovan Mitchell sweep Heat

But last night there was avalanche. After winning game four by 55 points, the Cavaliers, they outscored the Heat by 122 in the four-game sweep. That’s the largest scoring differential in a series in NBA history. This was also the 11th time in Cavaliers history they swept an opponent in the playoffs, but it was the first time that they did it without LeBron James on their roster. LeBron led the way on the previous 10 sweeps that they’d had. And Miami has now lost seven straight playoff games, extending the longest losing streak in Heat postseason history. They’ve lost those games by a combined 190 points on an average of 27.1 points per game. That’s the worst point differential in any sevename span in NBA postseason history. Here are the heat on looming off season decisions. It was humbling. You know, this series was humbling. These last two games are embarrassing. Um, but we won whatever we won. They won 65. We’re as irrational as we usually are thinking that we have a chance to win this series. Tough, you know, last two two games for us. Both 40 point 50 point losses. Really, no excuses for it. Uh, it’s embarrassing, you know, and uh definitely humbling. You know, a lot of work to be put in. It’s going to be a lot of changes this summer. Uh um just from my point of view understanding how you know the guy with the silver hair works. Yikes. All right. Now joining us front office insider Bobby Marks. Bobby, where do the Heat stand heading into the off season with a motivated Pat Riley as we just heard. Well, I’ll give a little bit of positive news right now from Miami. There there is a foundation in place when you look at Tyler Herro, Bam Adabio, and Khil Wear. Now, here comes the hard part. How do you add a first, second, floor, and a roof without touching your foundation? Right? When you look at where Miami is going into the offseason, they’ve got the 20th pick in the draft. If they had missed out on the playoffs, they would have had a lottery pick. They’ve got 7 $65 million in potential expiring contracts. Terry Roier, Duncan Robinson. Is the picks, two of them inh 2030 and 2032. Is the picks and expiring contracts good enough to go get yourself a star player without without trading hero and out of bio? I don’t think it is, but Malikica, there’s a lot of work to do in Miami and certainly those these two losses certainly confirms that. Yeah, bleak is the word when we were speaking you used time and time again, Bobby, in talking about the decisions that Miami has to make here. Danny, what’s the biggest change that you think the Heat need to make as they plan for this off season? I mean, with what Mr. Marks just said, Bobby, how you doing? Thanks for marks. I love it. It’s hard to find. Make me sound old. Danny Green, you’re still young, Bob. You’re still young. But with what he just said, what they present, they don’t have much to give, but their best bet is to try to find a big star in the offseason. You know, people talking about Kevin Durant. Giannis really, if they hope that the Bucks lose and that Giannis once out, obviously Dame is hurt now. That was a guy that they were trying to get before who is going to be out for next season. The only guy they can really can get is it Giannis or KD and this is the target. But it’s hard to get Giannis with the pieces you have. Milwaukee is not going to want Tay Rosir, DaVon Mitchell, or is it is it hard, Bobby, or is it impossible? It seems impossible cuz they’re going to have to give up Bam or Tyler Herro. But Bob, you can have more information than I do. So Bob, you you let us know. I I I think I I think either player is is going to be a a challenge. I think they’re going to probably be in the back of the line of teams that have more available. You know, certainly we’re talking about maybe Houston as one of those teams that have young players and and draft picks here. I think the big question in Miami, and this is not their DNA, would they ever use the R word, which is rebuild? I think that’s something that h it’s it’s very hard threading the needle. They’ve been a playing team consistently the last few years. Would they ever consider taking a step back, potentially taking the Oklahoma City approach? I know that was a lot of pain doing so and basically build this roster through maybe you get a a core player back and draft picks and going in that direction here because it’s going to be hard basically they’re going to be where they are right now a a year from now if there are no changes here. So it might have to be taking a step back and not have to go and start chasing. Bobby, there’s actually two Rwords when I think about teams evaluating after falling short of expectations. It’s not only rebuild, it’s also, okay, maybe if we don’t go full rebuild, maybe it’s a reset. Do they do a competitive reset because they have two players that are expected to be premier players in the NBA and BAM and Tyler. If you add that one piece, which by the deals, it’s going to be tricky. One thing I have noticed is that they’ve been conservative in finding out who that person is. Interested as you mentioned, Danny on Dame KD at the trade deadline, his name came up as information like, oh, potentially could go there. They’ve been patient, but now I think this game, I mean, at one point they were down 60 points, the most we’ve ever seen in playoff history, they have to look hard in the mirror and make a decision because right now after a performance like that, you have to reset, right? But it’s hard thinking that they had that other piece in Jimmy Butler and it didn’t totally work, right? And even Tyler Herro telling Jared Weiss at the Athletic that he knows this series, it could have been different if Jimmy Butler was there. That’s why these are such hard conversations and you know what it happens to folks at times weak moment it happens at times but we like to talk about the victors on this show on the other Cavaliers they were impressive in the sweep here they are on advancing to the next round I was telling Jaylen Tyson man like this is special um I was telling him like this is your first playoff series this is what you’re watching this like this isn’t normal like you know what I’m saying so for us understanding that this is special we’ve been doing special things all year u but we didn’t come here just to to sweep in the first round and get to the second. You know what I mean? So, the goal is how can we, you know, take advantage of this rest, this break, and then be ready to go for next round. Here’s the thing. They dominated the last two games and didn’t even have Darius Garland. They redefined dominance in this series. But the most dangerous aspect of this Cleveland team moving forward into the second round, Bobby, is what? Well, I mean, listen, I think when you look at from a from a Cleveland’s perspective, I think it’s their their depth. I mean, I think when you look at it with with Ty Jerome and and DeAndre Hunter Hunter coming off their bench, I think that being healthy is important. The layoff now with Darius Garland be able to kind of rest here. Certainly missed the last two games here. And you look at the two teams that, you know, they could potentially face likely going to be Indiana. They’re going to be refreshed when we get to a a conference semifinals. Yeah. I mean, I’m with Bobby here. Not only their death, but their maturity. I love the approach that they’re taking. Don’s locked in this. They’re laser focused. They’ve shown a ton of of growth with winning the series. They don’t seem satisfied at all. You know, they’re ready to to win and play. And to me, with how they’re playing and how healthy they’ve been, I see them as the favorites in East right now. Boston is struggling against the Orlando Magic and right now Cleveland is rolling and they’re laser focused. I love what they what they’re doing and how mature they’ve been. Interesting. So, you say that they’re the favorites. We know that, like you said, Boston is dealing with Knicks and Knacks. But when I’m looking at this series performance by the Cleveland Cavaliers, you outscore your opponents by 122 points. You win two out of the four games without your all-star. You’re one of your players has won defensive player of the year. You had in the moment that you needed, your top player, Donovan Mitchell, dropped like 20 in the fourth quarter to seal the deal. Like you’ve checked every literal box on top of being healthy. Like this might be their time. Yeah, it seems like they’ve they’ve are winning in a variety of different ways and that’s the most impressive part. And the one seeds, they’ve been completely dominant during their round one sweeps. The Cavaliers, they win by over 30 points per game. The Thunder by almost 20 a game. It’s just the second time both number one seeds have swept their first round series since the first round moved to a best of seven in 2003. Pretty impressive stuff. Hey, coming up here on NBA Today, we have a couple more series that we need to get to here. They’re the Pistons. They are still seething after game four’s ending. But you know, sometimes you got to channel. Hello. [Music] [Music] Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. [Music] [Music] Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.

NBA Today | “I see Cavs as favorites in East right now” – Danny on Donovan Mitchell sweep Heat
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