What’s next for the Cleveland Cavaliers after being ELIMINATED by the Pacers in 5 games

What’s next for the Cleveland Cavaliers after being ELIMINATED by the Pacers in 5 games

Jason Lloyd, Mikey McNuggets coming at you on Wednesday, May 14th. It is 8:01 a.m. Jason. And in a million years, in a million simulations, in my wildest dreams, I did not expect us to ever be sitting here on Wednesday, May 14th, talking about the end of a disappointing Cleveland Cavaliers season. Maybe we would have had this discussion in a couple weeks in June, ideally. Well, ideally, they win the whole thing. But on May 14th, I did not anticipate us sitting here having to unpack one of the more disappointing playoff runs in the history of the NBA. Never. It’s a disaster. There’s no other That’s what I wrote this morning on The Athletic. There’s, you know, the stat that you first turned me on to and then I confirmed it on on Statad last night. I I’ll put it a different way. Before this year, 14 teams won 64 games with a average margin of victory of at least nine points. 12 of them won a championship. 12 of the 14. The only two that didn’t, the Spurs in 2016 and the Warriors in 2016. Every other team won the championship. Cavs didn’t even make it out of the second round. Yeah, they had injuries. U that’s not even close to an excuse. And uh they got a lot they got a long off season now to figure out where they’re at and where they want to go from here. Yeah, we’ll unpack the game first, then we’ll look at some big picture stuff. But in the game last night, Jason, I did not think it was an effort issue. Game four, I thought Cleveland lacked the effort, the desperation, the intensity to compete in a playoff matchup. Last night, I didn’t think it was an effort issue. I thought it was an execution issue. They couldn’t make a shot. Yeah. Ty Jerome came in late in the third quarter and hit two threes. That was their second and third three of the entire game. Donovan made three in the fourth quarter alone. But for the majority of the game, particularly in quarters two and quarters three, the offense went completely stagnant. They were missing bunnies. They were missing halfway decent looks. They were forcing the pace. I thought they played through Evan Mobley in the bigs early on and generated some easy looks playing inside out and then they kind of deviated and went away from that offensive philosophy and it led to some mind-boggling offensive possessions and against a team like Indiana only takes them like that to catch fire. Hallebertton hits those backto backto back threes and next thing you know a 19-point first half lead has evaporated into a one-point deficit and at the end of the day the Cavs didn’t have the legs didn’t have the horses didn’t have the shot creators or the shot makers to overcome going down to an Indiana team that fullcourt press the entire game and once they sniffed blood in the water Jason they released the hounds and they sent the dogs and the better team won last night but from an overall game five specific persp perspective. I didn’t think last night was an issue in terms of effort and softness. It was an execution and a team that just did not have the legs to make shots when it was needed. It was the legs. And I I I shake my head when I say that because it shouldn’t be a valid excuse. Like let’s the the Pacers are a great team. I probably did undervalue them going in. I didn’t think that I did, but I probably did. But can we stop acting like it’s the 2017 Warriors that they just lost to? I mean, not at all. They’re they’re a good team. They’re not elite. And to act like the Patriots ran him off the floor and it’s hard to come up with the reason as to why. And why were they out of gas? And you know, when when Donovan has usage ratings over 50, as he did in one game, it’s I had his usage rates for the whole series. You want them real quick, Jason? Yeah. Yeah. Game one, 42.5% usage rate. And what was it for the regular season? Uh, for the regular season this year. That’s important context. One sec. I can pull it up. But this season, Donovan Mitchell had a usage rate of Scroll down. Scroll down. Usage rate of 30.9. Yeah. Which is in the top 15 of the league. Not crazy high. High, but not crazy high. So 30.9 is the baseline. Game one, 42.5. Game two, 50.1. That’s crazy. Game three, 36.7. Game four, 33.8. And game five, 39.1. Donovan’s played in 63 career playoff games. Jason, all five of those in the top half of his career in playoff usage rates, including number one, number eight, number 16, and number 20. Four of those five games are in the top 20 of Donovan’s all-time playoff usage rate. So, it’s easy to see. And he’s doing it on one leg. So, I I I give him a little bit I give him a lot more slack than I do everybody else. You’re going to hear all along, all all morning, all day, all for all the offseason, Donn Mitchell’s never made it out of the second round of the playoffs. I think he knows it. And I think it I know he knows it. He told us last night he knows it. and he you could tell by his reaction in his 8minute press conference last night uh how much it bothers him, but at the same time, who’s going to blame him for their burnout? I mean, ultimately, he’s the he’s the leader of the team. Uh but he just didn’t have anything around him in this in the series. And and I’ll go back to the legs. You know, we asked Kenny afterwards about like, do you regret now not playing guys more minutes during the regular season? And it’s this funny balance, right? Like Tibs gets killed every year for running his guys into the ground, yet it’s the Knicks headed to the conference finals. One went away from the conference finals. Um, and the Cavs, you know, we thought all along did it right, did it the right way and trying to protect minutes and resting guys and sitting guys and not overextending anyone on minutes and doing everything in their power to make sure everybody was healthy going into the playoffs. And then you get into the series and how many times did Kenny say they were exhausted at the end or they lost their legs or you know whatever form that takes. Uh and Kenny said we try to ramp up minutes toward the end of the season in preparation for this. And he said you know that maybe there’s a night where you’re trying to play Don 39 minutes but we’re up by 20 so it doesn’t really happen. Uh regardless the Cavs did not carry the heavy type of minutes load that you would think that would burn guys out as quickly as it did. And so for me, it all goes back to a toughness issue as well. This team just isn’t tough enough. And sorry, go. No, I was say I don’t know how you It’s It’s not an easy fix because of where they’re at on the cap. Uh but they have to look at It’s not even a fit issue. It’s not even a do Darius and Don fit together? Do Evan and Jared fit together? It’s not even that. It goes more to the fabric of the roster and is this roster good enough to compete when things really get physical in the conference semi-finals, conference finals, and NBA finals. I don’t have a definitive answer either way this morning on whether I think they should and I understand there there’s ramifications. It’s not as simple as saying hit a button, blow it up. So, I I I just from a philosophical big picture perspective, I’m not sure if I have a definitive answer this morning on they should blow it up. They should try and run it back because we did see some really good things in the regular season. You mentioned earlier, Jason, they’re one of just 16 teams ever to win 64 regular season games with a win margin of nine points or better. Historically speaking, that should put you in a category of teams that is not just competing for an NBA championship, but winning an NBA championship. 12 of the 14 teams prior to this season that have reached that threshold won the championship. 13 reached the finals and the 1516 Spurs lost in the Western Conference semis to the Durant Westbrook OKC Thunder. The regular season success is obvious. The postseason success is non-existent, Jason. And you could parse out all the numbers and I got a couple I’ll throw at you in a second. But for everyone who said the regular season doesn’t matter today, you know what? You were right. You were right. The New York Knicks went 0 and10 against the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference this year, Jason or the top two seeds in the Eastern OKC. They’re one win away from the Eastern Conference Finals now, right? The regular season didn’t mean jack crap for Cleveland and OKC. If they had lost last night, they would have been down 2-3. They would have been in the same boat that Cleveland’s in. And we could look at how things work in the regular season and why it does or doesn’t translate to the postseason. But the truth of the matter is this team was more talented than Indiana. 100%. This team on paper is better than Indiana. You look at the players in this series and injuries play a factor, but I don’t want to, it’s not an excuse. Donovan Mitchell is the best player between both teams and Evan Mobley is the second best player between both teams. Moley’s the second team allNNBA guy this season, the DPOI and Hallebertton’s a damn good player and he was the best player on Indiana in this series. But if you’re just looking at the overall construct of these two teams, they had the two best and four of the top six, Jason. And that’s what makes this so disappointing. And that’s what makes this so frustrating. And you can’t teach toughness. I think I’m coming to that conclusion. You can’t coach toughness. It’s something you either have and are born with or you don’t. Some guys have it built within them and you have to bring it out. But I said this yesterday, I’ll say it again. I’m open to anything this off seasonason. I don’t know what the right answer is, but I do know that the numbers now back this this group up that they can be an elite regular season team without elite postseason success. I throw just a couple numbers at you, Jason, just to make that point. I understand it’s a small sample size, 260 postseason minutes. And with the injuries, it’s not necessarily a perfectly clean evaluation, but this is the core four, Garland, Mitchell, Mobly, and Allen in the postseason. In 22 23 when they played the Knicks, that group had a net rating when those four, your four best players were on the court of plus 0.9. So basically net neutral. Mhm. In the 23-24 postseason that combines Orlando and Boston, the Core Four had a net rating of minus 6.3 on the court together. This postseason a minus 11 net rating Jason. So the first year 0 plus 0.9 23 24 – 6.3 24 25 – 11. the Garland Mitchell pairing just those two take out the bigs 520 minutes minus 1.66 net rating in 2223 – 4.9 rating in 232 24 and a minus 12.1 net rating this postseason the front court pairing 223 plus 0.8 8 net rating. Last seasonus 3.1 net rating this seasonus 0.3 net rating. It works in the regular season, Jason. The numbers are incredible in the regular season. It’s a complete flip of the script and the complete opposite in the postseason. It’s stunning. Uh I I don’t I said this last year, I’m saying it again. I don’t know how you bring Jared Allen back to this team. That’s where I start. And Jared’s a great guy, really nice guy, very good player. He’s been a zero in the playoffs the last three years when they’ve really needed him the most. And we know about the Knicks series and the lights are too bright. Last year he gets hurt against Orlando. Uh doesn’t return the rest of the postseason. Wrote about it at the time. There was people in the organization frustrated. Uh the whole fiasco over the injection wouldn’t take it. And now this year combined the last two games of this series combined 11 points and I think six rebounds. Six rebounds by the way. Six rebounds. Yeah. 11 points and six rebounds in two games. Not even close to good enough. No. That’s where that’s where I start even before. I mean, I was disappointed in Darius, too. And I know he was fighting the toe. I know it. Uh, but I I to me, it starts with Jared, and I just don’t know how you bring him back yet again. You have three years of evidence now that it ain’t working in the playoffs when it matters most. And, uh, they’ve got some they they’ve we’ll have plenty of time later on to go into it. We’ve talked about on the show quite a few different times, the Second Apron restrictions, what they can and can’t do. Um they got a lot of hard decisions to make and but you know what like also we’re all going to kill them today and all off seasonason and they deserve it but the East is wide open. Yeah. And that’s what makes this a conundrum, Jason. They had a 19-point lead in three of these games at 70% health. Yeah. And they went one and two in games in this series where they led by 19 or more points. They had the epic collapse in game two without Evan and Darius on the court. They were up 19 yesterday with everybody healthy. Game four was the most inexcusable playoff no-show I can remember for a team that I had to cover maybe in my entire lifetime. We know the regular season success is there. They showed glimpses of it in the postseason, but then when push came to shove, when they needed to make just one play, make one bucket, inbound the pass one time, get the ball over half court one time, get one box out, grab one rebound, every single one of those scenarios in not one, not two, but three games went Indiana’s favor. And that’s the part that’s the hardest to wrap my head around. Uh, I’m just thinking back I I’m I’ll go back to the East because we thought it was going to be open and then Jason Tatum tore Achilles and now we know it’s going to be Boston may wide open. Boston may pivot and get under the tax entirely after this. Why would you not? And sort of reset your clock. Uh, you know, let’s see what happens with the Knicks and the Pacers in the East. But there there’s there’s reason to believe that the the Cavs are close. I know no one wants to hear that today. They are they are really close. But I do think that there are problems in the fabric of the makeup of the roster that have to be addressed. But I don’t think that they are that far away. And I think it’s important to make that point. I know no one wants to hear it and I know everyone’s going to be angry and disgusted with this team and rightfully so and they do have to get tougher and Donovan can’t be the only one obsessed and consumed with winning and I think I’m going to explore that a little bit more later on in a piece this week. uh he’s ahead of everybody else right now on the career timeline and you saw it manifest itself in the series and uh you know dragging one leg around and willing to do anything and give everything he’s got just to get out of the second round. But he can’t do it alone. This isn’t LeBron. This isn’t Kevin Durant. This isn’t Giannis. Um he needs help. And the rest of the roster, I don’t believe is where he’s at career-wise in terms of obsession with winning. and they’ve got to figure out how to address that and how to fix that. 100% Jason, today’s Ultimate Cave Show is brought to us by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are in full swing. You can bet on everything with FanDuel from player props, overunders, spreads, you name it, FanDuel has it. If you use promo codefanuel.coms and place a $5 bet as a new customer, you can win $200 in bonus bets if that first $5 bet wins. Head over to fanduel.com/uss to get in on the action today. Jason, to that point, the most unanswerable questions in all of sports is how much time do you give to a group before you make a definitive decision? I go back to the Boston Celtics, the team you just mentioned. They made the conference finals in 17. They made the conference finals in 18. They lost in the semifinals in 19. They made it back to the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to Miami in 2020. In 21 they lost to the Nets in the first round of the playoffs and then they made the NBA Finals the next season. Lost to the Warriors in five in six. Then they reached the Eastern Conference Finals again the following year and then last year they won it all. So in the Tatum Brown era they made the Eastern Conference Finals three times and lost all three before reaching the finals. It took them five playoff runs together to ever reach the finals. It took them five trips to the Eastern Conference Finals to then win a title in their sex six trip basically. And that was over the course of an eight-year span. Joic couldn’t win the big one until he won the big one. LeBron couldn’t win the big one, right? Until what? Until he won the big one. Nobody can do anything until they do it and prove people wrong. But I don’t know and I don’t feel confident in thinking or saying that the construction of this team from its core has the makeup as it is currently constructed to break through that barrier. The Celtics have to trade Marcus Smart the heart and soul of the team and get Chris Porzingis to take that next step forward. And whether it’s a Jared Allen, a Garland, whatever trade you want to look at, it is more difficult today than it was back then due to the second apron restrictions. And we could dive into that later, but I I’m all for exploring any and all options out there because my one takeaway from this whole postseason, other than injuries playing a factor in this, is that when push came to shove, their offense looked almost exactly like it did against New York two years ago, Jason, and almost exactly like it looked like against Orlando in the first round of the playoffs last year, where it was Donovan and everyone else. Evan Mobley’s usage rate dropped six points from the regular season to the postseason. Jason. And yeah, you could say he missed a little bit, was hurt. Well, it was the same relative usage rate against Miami as it was against Indiana when you sparse it out game by game. Darius once again was hurt. Was not the same Darius in the postseason. Jared Allen once again was a no-show for portions of this postseason. And it happens one time, it happens. It happens two times. You have to start changing your mindset and saying, “If we get anything from these guys, that’s awesome, but we can’t count on them.” Yeah. And when two of your four best players are guys that you hope are available and hope play well in a playoff series, you’re putting too much hope into stuff that’s out of your control. And I don’t know how you pivot from that into something better. And with Darius in particular, Jason, and I’m not I’m not I’m not advocating trading anyone. I’m just want to throw out some numbers. The Cavs defense objectively much better with Darius off the court than it is with Darius on the court in this postseason. Jason, you ready for some wild numbers? The team had a defensive rating with of 127.9 with Darius on. That’s horrific. With Darius off, it was an 87.1. Granted, part of that comes against Miami. Totally understand. But still, that is a gigantic 40point difference between the defensive rating with Garland on and off. But here’s the trade-off. With Garland off the court, the Cavs assist rate as a team was just 10%. Complete isolation basketball. The team’s assist rate with Garland on the court was 36%. Night and day on both an offense and a defensive perspective. when Darius was on, they could score and go tiff fortat with Indiana and Miami. Well, Miami couldn’t score at them, but you get my point. From a defensive standpoint, 127.9 is one of the worst defensive ratings I’ve ever seen, even in these minimal minute situations. Like, that’s just flat out abysmal. Yeah. So, I I hear this. I hear the counterpoints and the sides to both uh blow it up, keep it together, but with the East being wide open and you being so constrained, I just don’t know how creative the Cavs are willing to get to make a move because it’s not as simple. You can’t make the Giannis deal. You can’t make the KD deal because you can’t aggregate salaries as a second April team. Yeah. Yeah. They’re not a player for any of those. It’s not even worth having a discussion, I don’t believe. For a variety of reasons, that’s not happening. The Darius thing’s interesting. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago we were had the whole argument, are they a better team with or without him under this current construction? That’s a ridiculous thing. They’re a better team with him. Um, but when you talk about assist rate when he’s off the floor, well, that’s because Donovan’s the only creator then at that point, unless you count Tide, but Donovan feels like he’s got to do it all himself. And I think that’s why you see the assist rate drop so low when Darius is off the floor because that means the ball more times than not is is in Donovan’s hands. Uh we’ve already talked about you’re exactly right. I actually wrote that this morning that the drive kick swing offense that they carve teams up with vanished and it it came back to wait for Donovan to bail you out. And you can’t live that way unless you have a generational player, unless you have LeBron on the roster. You can’t play that way in the playoffs for four rounds and win a championship of wait for an undersized guard on one leg to bail you out. It just doesn’t work that way. Uh Kenny touched on it a little bit last night about how Indiana was able to make them so ISO heavy and get them out of what they like to do, but again, let’s not pretend that the Pacers are some defensive monster. They’re a good team. Indiana’s a good team. Uh if you’re a Pacers fan, they are an sort of like the Cavs were all season long. They’re an easy team to root for, man. They play a fun brand of basketball. Uh the way that they press, Kenny likened it to a college team. They pick you up full court and they wear guys down. They wear you down. And the Pacers never tanked. They didn’t do this with real high picks. They made the Hallebertton trade. It was a great trade and they just steadily got better and got better and got better and now they’ve been to the conference finals two straight years. And we’ll see. Maybe this is the year we just we just said it. The East is wide open. That means they could do it, too. But it doesn’t feel like there’s a there’s a a monster that teams have to slay anymore. Um, and and and that’s what just makes it so frustrating from the from the Cavs point of view. They are they should be the best team in the East. And I didn’t think they were going to get past Boston, a healthy Boston, but I wouldn’t have been surpris I wouldn’t have picked them to beat Boston, but I wouldn’t have been surprised. Um, the Knicks, I mean, we’ll never know. But I don’t know, man. It’s just it’s it’s a it’s I feel bad for a lot of those guys in there. um just because you know they’re they are good dudes. It’s a good locker room. They’re an easy team to root for. Just like I said about the Pacers, it’s easy to like these guys. Uh they’ve put so much into this and Donovan committing to the city and going on at length last night about how much he loves the arena and he loves the crowd. Uh it’s just uh it’s unfortunate. But yeah, I I I don’t see the the Boston thing. two best players for whatever changes they made and you’re right removing Marcus Smart and bringing in Borzingis was huge for them and that’s sort of the piece that unlocked another layer but they’re at their core their two best players are absolute monsters on the wing and that’s where they’re different than the Cavs. Uh Evan for the most part still relies on someone feeding them the ball, getting them the ball. And their other two best players are undersized guards and that’s the big difference between how Boston is is made up and how the Cavs are made up. And you can keep running this back and you can keep running into this wall and thinking one of these days you’re going to break through and maybe you will. Uh but I don’t know. I just think they got to take a really hard look at I I don’t want to pick on Jared, but that’s the one to me that I think you really have to look at that and say, is this really working uh or are we better off if we can move that out and find a piece that makes us just a little bit better in a different way. Miles Turner was unquestionably the best big in the series. Like unquestionably the best big in this series. He’s leading the NBA in the postseason in blocks. He got every big-time rebound when the team needed it. The Hallebertton game winner in game two was only possible because somehow between two outstretched arms of Donovan and and Jarrett, Turner got just enough of it to jolt it in the air. And he just outplayed Jared down. Like there’s no other way to put it. Jared in game two played his ass off. And in the other games in the series, particularly games four and five, he was a complete no-show. And the same with the offense. It’s not just Jared. It’s easy to single him out, but you mentioned the the drive and kick offense the Cavaliers utilized all season, Jason, which allowed them to have the second best offensive rating in the history of the NBA. Part of that was because they were such an efficient jump shooting team. They got in the paint, they forced you into rotation. I pulled some of the numbers here, Jason. Drives per game in the regular season for Cleveland, 51.2. Against Indiana, 47.8. So down three drives despite the fact you’re not making any jump shots. paint touches basically even points in the paint regular season for the Cavs 51.3 per game against Indiana in the five conference semiame 52 which is up right that’s good well when you can’t buy a three and I’ll give you those numbers in one second that number has to be like up 12 14 16 to have a chance 70 in the one game they had Jason and they had a chance you’re not going to win and outscore a team like Indiana if your points in the paint are virtually the same in the regular season, but your three-point shooting falls off a cliff. Yeah, in the regular season, the Cavs shot 38.3% from beyond the arc as a team. They made 16 per game. Against Indie, that number dropped to 29.4% from three. They were 11.4 of 38.8 threes attempted and threes made per game. And on wideopen threes, Jason, the most baffling of all the stats, in the regular season, the Cavs shot 42% on wide openen threes. According to NBA.com tracking data, that’s a three when the closest defender is not within six feet of you. Number one in the NBA, 8.6 makes on 20.4 attempts per game, 42%. Against Indiana, Jason, the Cavs went from 42%, they fell to 25.7%. That was 10 points lower than dead last in the league in the regular season. They made 3.6 out of 15 wide openen three-point attempts in this series. And on contrast, the Cavs shot 25.7%. Indiana had shot 45.3% on wide openen threes. We could talk about toughness. We could talk about physicality. We could talk about X’s and O’s. We can talk about the 3-2 zone. We can talk about the adjustments Carlile made. We can talk about the injuries. We can talk about the tired legs. The truth of the matter is you ain’t winning jack if you shoot like that from three. I don’t care how talented you are, how talented the other team is. You are not winning shooting 25% on open threes when the opponent, these are open threes, by the way, is shooting 45% on the same amount of attempts. The math just doesn’t math. At the end of the day, I have no good logical reason and I wish we had a chance to talk to Kenny longer because I would have loved to ask his thoughts on why the shooting fell off a cliff. I know he would say legs. I’m not buying that. There’s no logical explanation of the Cavs went from the most efficient jump shooting team in the NBA to the single worst shooting team in the NBA below the Charlotte Hornets, below the every team. Who are the bad teams? the Nets, the the the J like those teams all shot 10% better on wide openen threes. It is inexcusable and frankly I don’t have a good reason behind it, Jason. But that’s why that’s more of why they lost than anything else. They could not make a shot in the series. So everybody knows about the Avalanche, right? Like the it became a thing this year. Did you write about this yet? Yeah. So, everybody knows the Avalanche and uh when they would go on these tears during the regular season and make three, four, five threes in a row, whatever, run teams off the floor. And uh Dan Gilbert really bought into that and loved it. Loved the idea of the Cavalanche. Wanted to get behind it. Dan spent over a half a million dollars to install the Cavalanche machines inside Rocket Arena this year for the playoffs. And the idea was when they were when they went on these incredible tears, ripping off threes, forcing other teams to call timeouts, they would hit a button, snow would fall from the ceiling, and the cheerleaders would have snowball fights with hats and mittens and and all that, and it was going to be a party in in in Rocket Arena. You know how many times they hit the button and used the $500,000 Avalanche machine? Game two against the Miami Heat. Once. once spent $500,000 for one fake snowball fight and we’ll see if they bring that back next year. We’ll see if they do it again. Uh but you’re everything you said is dead on accurate. And you know, it’s funny because that was the stigma prior to the Warriors. That was the stigma of why jump shooting teams can’t win championships. And uh the Warriors sort of blew that out of the water and then the entire league became what it is today. and we don’t even talk about it anymore. But when teams go cold, uh, as the Cavs did in this, really in this entire really since what I mean, middle of March. Yeah. And you know, I joked in the Miami series, does anyone care about the slump now at the middle and end of March, the shooting slump? And kind of laughed, nope. See, nobody cares about it now. It doesn’t matter. Uh, so I it m maybe this is just goes back to being the longest drought in the history of the NBA. I I I don’t know. Um, I don’t know. But when you’re shooting the shots that when you’re making the shots that they’re making, uh, you’re going to have a hard time winning. Max Duce scored as many points last night as we did as you and I combined. You and I combined. I know he was bad last night. I thought he had a damn good series. I thought he was the second best player in the series and last night was a stinker. But overall, like Stru is one of the guys I don’t feel terrible about coming out of this and I can’t say that about for a lot of guys. Yeah. And I’m I’m with you. Uh, you know, I said it during the series. I thought he was the guy Donovan trusted the most for at a lot of turn points in the series. It felt like he was the one guy Donovan could trust and look for on the court. Um, but he was awful last night. 0 of nine, I think. I You go down the list. We’ve talked about Tai, what happens with Tai. We’ve talked about Darius. Uh I was kind of disappointed in Darius. I I do appreciate that he gutted it out and we went on the court after games one and two. Uh but it’s going to be a long off seasonason, man. It is. It is. It is. It’s going to be a long regular season. This next topic is brought to us by Buckeye State Credit Union. They’re the financial friend you didn’t know you needed until right now. They make banking convenient, easy, and they take all the guesswork out of banking because they are there to answer all your questions. Their Cleveland location is in Shaker Height, but Shaker Heights, but they have five locations across the state for more information. Head to Buckeyecu.org. They’ll have all the information you need on why Buckeye State Credit Union is the right choice for you. So, head over to Buckeyecu.org for more information. Buckeye State Credit Union, your money simplified. Jason, you’re on UCSS today. Dustin called out six. So, we’ll rehash a lot of this in a couple hours, but I want to just end with this. Big picture, zoom out as far as you possibly can go. If you had to make a best guess right now on whatever the biggest change is for Cleveland, whether it’s a coaching staff change, whether it’s a trade player swap, what do you think when we start the 2025 2026 season, we’ll be talking about as the quote unquote big moves the big move the Cavs made? Uh, I think they will I I I I think they’ll move on from Jared. I think that’ll be the big move that we’re talking about. I just don’t know. I know how much they love him. I know they love the fact that he loves being here and that matters a lot to Kobe and this front office. They want guys who want to be here. They want good dudes who want to be here and he fits that to a te. Uh but I just I’ve I’ve seen three years of this now and it’s not getting any better. So I that would be the move to me. I I I don’t know how you bring Jared back. I think that’s the only move they have. Frankly, when you look at teams across the league that need point guards, there’s not a lot of them. Most teams either have a young point guard on a rookie contract or they’re paying a guy the same amount of money as Darius. And if you’re going to try to make a point guard swap, I just don’t know what team would not not that a team wouldn’t want Darius. That’s not what I’m saying. Darius is a very valuable commodity, but he is, but he’s making $40 million. Is he worth $40 million in today’s even in in even in today’s inflated NBA? I don’t I have a hard time paying $40 million for a guy I can’t trust in the postseason. But what other team would want to take that on is my question. I think I think Jared is by far because of his contract, because of the position he plays, because there are more teams that need a center than there are teams that need a point guard. I do feel like Allen is the easiest piece of the puzzle to snap off, but I also am not in favor of just trading Jared Allen for the sake of trading Jared Allen if there’s not right some sort of valuable commodity that you truly believe makes your team better. I’ll keep going back to the Celtics with the Marcus Smart example. The Celtics felt they needed to get Marcus Smart out of there so it could become Jason Tatum’s team. Marcus Smart was never the best player on Boston, but he was the first one there. He was part of the rebuild. He was the alpha dog in the room. He was the heart and soul of the team, frankly. And Boston internally felt that was stopping Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown from fully asserting themselves. And they felt they had to move on from Marcus to allow Jason and Jaylen to become the best versions. They also found a way to turn Marcus Martin to Chris Porzingis, which was an element to their offense they did not have before. Yeah, I have not given it nearly enough thought at 8:36 the morning after the Cavs lost game five to figure out what the equivalent move to that is. But that’s the kind of trade I think Cleveland should be exploring. Not let’s just move Jared Allen for two random wings because we think two random wings would actually make us better. I don’t think the Cavs are that far off. I also can’t argue and tell you you’re wrong if you say they are. I have there is no evidence. I have no proof. The numbers back you up, not me, and say the Cavs aren’t capable of winning at the highest levels as currently constructed. My gut tells me they’re not that far off, but I also know this is three years in a row where it just hasn’t worked in the postseason, Jason, for one reason or another. We can argue what the it in the it doesn’t work is, but the proof is in the pudding. Three years in a row, it hasn’t worked. And at some point, there’s only a certain time span and there’s only a certain championship window on a group before it runs its natural course and you have to pivot. And I’m not sure if it’s this year or next year or two years, but at some point you have to accept reality. And I’m not quite sure we’re at that point today, but I’m also not sure we’re not either. Well, they have two years left with this group. We do know that at the very most they have two years left. I wrote about that right after the Hunter trade. They have this year, which is now over, and then two more postseasons before the punishments of being a second apron team become so punitive that they have no choice but to get out. You can do it twice, you can’t do it three times. And they haven’t done it at all yet. like they, you know, they dipped the tax entirely this year. So, um, they made the Hunter trade knowing they were going to be a Second Apron team and they were okay with that. And I believe Dan would be okay paying the bills that come associated with being a Second Apron team for two years. Um, and that’s about it. Mhm. So that also adds a ticking clock to this of well if you do run this entire thing back exactly as it is and it flames out again. Well, now you’re down to one shot at it. So you do it now and try and give yourself a little bit more time with whatever the new look is or run it back and and then then really put yourself up against the deadline. So, uh, you know, there are ways to get out of the second apron if they so choose, but it involves finding someone to take Isaac Coral’s contract. And I don’t know what team is going to be willing to take on $11 million a year for a guy who’s not really valuable in the postseason and they would have to attach an asset to to dump them and they don’t really have those right now and certainly don’t have any to waste on dumping that money. So, they don’t have any. I mean, they can they can trade two first round picks, right? That’s it. I mean, they have second round picks to trade, but that’s not enough for But you’re not dumping $11 million to give a team a second round pick. That’s That’s what I’m saying. That’s They have second round picks to trade, but that’s not enough incentive for a team to take on Isaac Isaac’s contract. So, I mean, trading Jarrett would theoretically get him out of the out of the tax as well, uh, but depending on what you get back or some combination. I’m sorry, get them out of the second apron. Uh, but we we can we can talk about that later. I’m getting too too far ahead of ourselves, but uh they got hard decisions to make and and the clock is officially ticking. They got two years to win a championship. That’s it. We got super chats, Jason, and then we will be back on UCSS, the main show, talking about this for quite a while today. But our first super chat comes from Barber FN who says, “Allen got to go. He was unplayable in games four and five.” who and he also says also felt like Kenny was JB just trying to coach and adjust. I didn’t think Kenny had a great series. I also thought he was just throwing at the wall and hoping something stuck at the end. Like I think he was just grasping for anyone he could put in there that wasn’t going to be a complete pumpkin. Hey, I I said before this is Kenny’s first time going through this too, guys. And it’s hard on coaches, too. It’s a lot different sitting next to the guy winning the championship as opposed to being the guy trying to win a championship. And he sat next to Steve Kerr and he learned a bunch from Steve. It’s different when you’re in that chair. And it’s different when you’re in charge of making the decisions and adjustments they have to make. He went against two really good coaches in these playoffs. Uh Rick Carile, I don’t think gets enough credit. He’s a championship winning coach. He’s highly respected around the league and he’s really faking good. And you saw the Cavs sort of stifle them with the three-2 zone in one game and Carile said, “Okay, I got you.” And the Pacers came out the next game and just carved it up. So Kenny’s going to learn from this, too. And uh I I think he’ll be better off for it in the long run, but I’m not terribly surprised that he struggled at times just because this was his first time going through it. But uh we’ll see. He’ll be better for it. Jason, this was a sad sad morning. did not want to have a therapy session at 8:40 a.m., but unfortunately, that is the situation the Cavs put us in. We’re going to have a two-hour therapy session coming up in about two hours and 18 minutes. Myself, Jason, and Adam the Bull on the panel today. We have Danny Cunningham coming in studio to break down the Cavs fivegame disappointment in the Eastern Conference semifinals. But that’s going to wrap it up for this morning’s Ultimate Cavaliers show, Cavs and Coffee. a record number of viewers this morning, Jason, and that is not a good sign considering the circumstances of the show. However, we do appreciate each and every one of you for spending some time this morning checking out the Ultimate Cavaliers show. We’ll have much more Cavs content on the UCSS page coming up in just a few hours. But for now, that’s all the time we got for Jason Lloyd. I’m Mikey McNuggets and we will see you guys in two hours and 17 minutes. Peace.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t supposed to lose to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 5 games.

But here we are.

So now what’s next?

Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle put it best in summing up his team’s finishing punch in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“The winning team writes the script,” he said.

The Pacers’ 114-105 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 on Tuesday night was similar to the first two games of the series: Cleveland jumped out to a big first-half lead, but Indiana’s quick pace eventually took a toll.

“I have to give our guys credit; they earned this,” Carlisle said. “This was one of the best teams in the league. I’m sorry their season had to end like this. They had the perfect season, and we came along and were hot at the right time.”

Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points and Pascal Siakam added 21 as the Pacers reached the conference finals in consecutive years for the first time since 2013 and 2014.

Donovan Mitchell, who missed the second half of Sunday’s Game 4 due to a sprained left ankle, led Cleveland with 35 points. Evan Mobley added 24 points and 11 rebounds.

The Pacers rallied Tuesday from a 19-point deficit in the first half and took control after halftime.

They won all three games at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena. It was the first time since a 2005 first-round series against the Celtics that the Pacers won three road games in a playoff series.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers dropped three home games in a postseason series for the first time.

Cleveland stormed out to a 44-25 lead with 8:10 remaining in the second quarter, but Haliburton had five of his six 3-pointers in the period as the Pacers got within 56-52 at halftime.