The East is WIDE OPEN for the Cavaliers next season after the Tyrese Haliburton Achilles injury

The East is WIDE OPEN for the Cavaliers next season after the Tyrese Haliburton Achilles injury

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— season. I have no idea because they didn’t put it out. Yeah, I’m just curious. They certainly would have been in the top 5. Celtics have to trade, uh, — somebody they have
— to. They’ve said they’re going to, — they’re going
— to new ownership. This would be their 3rd year in the 2nd apron, which brings on the ultimate penalty tax. They would literally lose a first round pick and their new owner, you know, their new owner said I’m not. Paying all that. I’m just surprised they’re not in the top 5 without even knowing what they’re gonna do. — Like right now they’re
— Tatum’s out from the — Halliburton knock
— the Celtics and they would have been — in the
— top 5 and the Celtics were and what they did in the top 5. So that’s what I want to start with real quick. Next season you have the uncertainty of the Celtics with what they’ll do with their roster. We know Tatum’s gonna miss, if not the entire season, most of the season. The Pacers, who lost in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, will be without Tyrese Halliburton for most, if not all, of the next season. You have the uncertainty in Philadelphia with well whether Joel Mbi can stay healthy or not. Paul George. The Cavs open up the season with the 2nd shortest odds to win the title, the best odds in the Eastern Conference. G. Bush. Has there ever been a better opportunity for a team looking to get over that hump than the current landscape of the Eastern Conference for the Cavs right now? It’s as wide open as I could possibly imagine. You know, I was joking yesterday. We was on y’all was on the text and we was, y’all was having a nice little conversation back and forth about the finals, and I said, look, Halliburton got hurt. Um, look, did the Cavs need to make a trade now? All of a sudden y’all looking like y’all pretty good. I, but I, I gotta stick to my guns a little bit and say this. To me, I don’t think you can, you can, you can look at your team based on what other people don’t do or what other people will. Like I gotta look at my team and I gotta overdo it. I’m project stockpile. I, I’ve been losing in the second round and I’ve lost to the, in the 2nd round to multiple teams. You’ve lost to the Knicks, you lost to the Pacers, and, and, and you lost to the Celtics. So I’m looking around and I’m looking at the Orlando Magic and learn no magic of saying, oh, the East. is wide open. I if you think Evan Mobley’s gonna take a little step, we think Paolo Bay and Carol is gonna take, and Wagner is gonna take a step. We feel like we got the same um uh same core as you guys, so they’re looking at this thing like, hey, we could be back. The New York Knicks are like, listen, remember Cat Cat was, they just went to the finals in the East. Cat has been there what, a year last year, this will be his 2nd year. Everybody looks better. The 2nd year they’ll figure it out with Brunson and and they added a lot of pieces. So for me, I don’t look at this as like, oh the Cavs are going straight to the finals. Nah, bro, there’s a lot of other people that, that, that’s gonna be looking around that’s gonna say we better or that make me might make moves. So for me, I’m still looking to tweak my team. I’m still looking at Dean Wade, Isaac Akoro. I’m trying to get under the tax and try to figure something out and look, I’m even looking in the draft. I gotta find some people like I, I get the fact that. There’s a 2nd round pick. They got a 2nd round pick. Two of them, — 2 of the 2nd round
— picks. I, I, I need you to do something with them. I figure something out. It is they’re long shots, but that’s your edict on those 2nd round picks. The hit on them picks, bro, you better hit. — But
— that’s like buying a scratch off it is your tank. You go in, you’re like, yeah, give me one. I mean, yeah, you might get your money back if you’re lucky, but um I’ll take it, but it’s really hard to, to, you know, Mike went through, I think one day last week. And read the second round picks in the NBA draft the last like 10 years you’re like, OK, there was one. Yeah, there’s a couple that have hit. There was one notable hit. — Jokic is I
— mean he’s the guy that you’re not gonna get a guy that changes your franchise. — That’s that’s once every 50 years that
— changed the NBA. It did change the NBA. He’s a top 15. — And also the way
— you, the way the league, the way teams look at players and, and how they can make a difference. I, I, um, I agree with G Bush exactly. Like on the surface, you’re like, OK, we got two big hunters from two of the big dogs that are hurt next year. The problem is there are other teams that are lurking, man. And, and, and so what we know about the league now is you wash rinse repeat in 3 years, not 5 or 7 years like it used to be. Now I know that on paper, OKC looks like, I don’t know how anybody competes with OKC next year, barring an injury to SGA. That’s the only way that NBA gets opened up next year. If he stays healthy next year, they repeat. Other than that, 7 games against Indiana. I know they did, but they, to me, I, that was an Indiana team that was just their fairy tale ran out. It struck midnight last night when Halliburton got hurt. They’re a great team, but you know, I, I’m trying to figure out, OK, how close are the Cavs? Well, one way you can figure out is how do you do against the league’s best competition. The Cavs this year, regular season and playoffs were 3 and 8 combined against the Thunder and the Pacers. Guys, that’s not close. That’s not, you know, like if it’s one thing if you’re 4 and 5 or you’re, you know, you’re 6 and 5, you’re 3 and 8. That’s a gap actually hear something about the Pacers matchup. The Cavs 10 games at home. They went 5 at home against the really is an incredible anomaly and the Pacers beat the crap out of the Cavs. Like that’s nothing against the Pacers. They lost 10 home games all season and 5 of them came to Indiana. Mike, I think that this is one of those classic examples how in boxing styles make fights. This is just Buster Douglas against Mike Tyson, and I don’t mean they’re that big of an underdog. Buster Douglas’ fight approach was Mike Tyson’s kryptonite. He just, and now that doesn’t mean that he would win. He’d probably go 6 and 4 against the top 10 heavyweights in the world. He wasn’t a great fighter, but his style gave Mike Tyson fits and it shocked the world. And I think the Pacers style is the absolute kryptonite for the Cleveland Cavaliers because one, Indiana plays their tail off every second of that game is max effort where the Cavs, I think, take some stretches off and they just don’t have that heart and passion — like the Pacers
— when you watch the Pacers, right, like, and I’m not, I’m not, I I know Halliburton is a great player, but I don’t think the Pacers are gonna fall off like that. These young dudes them hard. Well, you don’t think he’ll be back in the finals, do you? I, I don’t. — I
— listen, the way they play defense, I mean, he, he, he could be back by the playoffs. — I
— mean, I would be, well, there’s no, — there’s a chance that
— he could be. If you got, it’s usually 12 months and you got Naismith, and you got Nimhard, those guys are gonna play more. The thing that gets me about the Pacers is the physicality of the on the ball defense, the toughness. When you look at the Oklahoma City Thunder. Unless they change the rules, hey, the Thunder, the Thunder play like it’s 1987 and they let them play like that. They got hands on you at all times. Dor is just Jaylen Williams. They just Caruso, just they’re everywhere and then they got SGA who you cannot touch. You can’t, you can’t breathe on them. This is the 80, this the 8889 Bulls. You then, he, they get to this mid-range game. Fall on SGA when it was, it was, it was out of control. It was the breakaway they were talking about was, was it a travel? Was it not? — He barely touched
— him. I, I hated that call. — That was
— a terrible and you know I it was a travel too, by the way. — It wasn’t 100% of and
— you know what, I think that they were looking at the game and they were like, let’s, let’s let’s keep it close. I mean, not that that bucket kept it close, but It was a travel and that was not a foul. And under normal circumstances, I think both of those would have been called the other way. But I, I get what you’re saying on SGA. Usually if you look cross eyed SGA, you hit the whistle. Now here’s what I will say though to Mike, we got to take into consideration if they don’t move him, when is Darius Garland coming back? Mid December, December-ish. I gotta tell you, I just got an alert on my phone that said the fanuel oddsmakers were busted for being high. This is, this is the only thing that makes sense to me. The idea that this fraudulent Cavalier team would be the second best odds to win an NBA title is the biggest joke. They are, the Cavs are the James Harden of NBA teams who trusts them in a big sport. Can I, can I make, in their defense, and, and I, I slightly, I, I, I kind of get what you’re, what you’re saying. Here’s what I think they’re thinking is. The Pacers were the team that stopped them in the East. I think that they think, and, and most people think that the, they usually in any sport, as soon as the game is over, the championship game, the odds come out. It’s almost always the team that just won it. They’re the best. They just proved they’re the best. So I think they get the nod. I think the Pacers would have been #2, but I think they looked at, OK, so who else, you’re not gonna put two teams in the West, — particularly when
— OC is the Knicks. What, what’s the argument for the Cavs over the Knicks? That that’s the oldest. Only thing they could have done that I would have said, OK, but look at the drop off between the Cavs and the, the, the, look at the payouts, the difference between the Cavs and the Thunder. One’s plus 220, the other’s plus 660 or whatever. Like they’re telling you it’s not close, right? Sure, but the thing is like the Knicks have done and the Knicks have disappointed at the end against they’ve been to the finals. They’ve gone to the Eastern Conference Finals two of the last three years. What, what are we seeing? Well, they might be looking at it this way. Yeah. While the Pacers have the formula and the team to slow the Cavs, they may be looking, and Mike, you can jump in here. They may be looking at the head to head and think that Styles might not make that fight in favor of the Knicks like it did the Pacers. Yeah, well, that’s the only, the most interesting thing about that is it couldn’t be more wrong because we’ve seen every year. The Cavs have never won a series that mattered, never. has done nothing. They’ve accomplished absolutely nothing. I don’t care. The regular season doesn’t matter. They’ve done nothing in the playoffs. 4 years ago, they got eliminated in the playing round. 3 years ago, they got eliminated in the first round by the Knicks. 2 years ago, they got eliminated in the 2nd round by the Celtics after be their best, their best series win was against the Orlando team that was new. — To the playoffs and that was close and
— that was that was 7 games and was getting blown out on the road. They beat one of the worst playoff teams ever in Miami and then they got humiliated by Indiana. They have proven absolutely nothing and it’s an abs I don’t know what you’d have to — be such a high-level moron to bet on the
— Cavs. Can I ask you one question once again, I’m not even necessarily disagreeing. I’m just asking a question. Prior to last year, the Thunder had won nothing, and they were the favorites behind the Celtics. They take this odds. I think the difference is they have the best player in the league. Well, I, I’m just saying last year the Thunder were the one seed in the last year, like at the end of the year, everybody knew SGA was once again and Mitchell was a nice player just asking the question. — I don’t think if you look at the 2025
— odds last year, if we did the exact same topic number one was the Celtics, favorite to repeat number two was. The Thunder, who had just lost in the 2nd round as the 1 seed in the Western Conference. First, — let me just ask you
— not a good comparison, and here’s why, Mike. The Cavs before this year were already a year ahead of the Thunder in their process, and now they’ve won a championship. They didn’t take them. This is 4 years in a row that the Cavs have embarrassingly fell on their face — in the playoffs
— and, and to, to, to bull’s Point. I mentioned you take the two best teams. They were 3 and 8 collectively against the Thunder and the Pacers. — I’m not I’m just asking
— a big gap between the Cavs and the great teams. I, I think sometimes because we’re in Cleveland and we have a tendency to do this, we overvaluate a lot of our players because when you’re not very good, when you’re not very good, or you don’t have the, the track record of seeing great players all the time, the only, the only reference we have is the 2016 Cavs. In some of the older 80s teams, but they didn’t get it done. So when you look at guys like Jared Allen or Isaac Akoro Dean Wade, there are people on the internet. This is crazy to me. There are people on the internet that still will, will, will say, oh, let’s like, like they’ll defend them and be like, oh they gotta play them more. You guys are so tough on Darius Garland and it’s like, listen, man. Like when you watch the NBA and you go back, you’re like, bro, this ain’t, this ain’t Joe Dumars. This ain’t like, you know, you see what I’m saying, this ain’t we, we rank our guys like they’re all time and I’m like, did you, are you watching these teams? Like, could you imagine the Cavs playing that style? They couldn’t get the ball in court. You know what was crazy last night for a stretch? It looked like and the endJ McConnell was gonna just. He’s the best. Mike, why did they go away from that? Was that something that the Thunder were doing defensively to take him away because he scored 10 straight points for the for the Pacers, and he did it in a variety of different ways. He was blowing by defenders. Most of it was North and South, but I mean he, he ended up with 7 turnovers. He’s, he’s incredible. I love McConnell. Like I, I do too. He’s awesome, but he is. Best in like 3 minute stretches where he comes in, he plays off the wall. There’s only so many times he could do the same little — move in a
— row, yeah, and but he there for a stretch. He scored 10 straight points, so he’s tied Jerome with Ty Jerome. Jerome, he no, he’s actually you know what, when I was watching McConnell, I said, oh, he’s a fast athletic Ty Jerome. Yeah, guys, the Cavs have had, have one player on their roster that has shown up when the lights have been bright. That’s it. This one. That’s it. Darius Garland hasn’t. Mobley hasn’t. Allan hasn’t. I’m not on a consistent basis. No, they have not. And yeah, I know we got to give Mobley more time. You know, it’ll be 3 years, 5 years from now, we’ll still be saying we got to give him more time. And, uh, so I have no faith in them whatsoever being able to, they, they gotta prove it. — I’m not gonna be
— and I don’t think next year is they prove it because I just think OKC is in the front end of a window. A lot of times teams win the championship on the back end of their window. This has been a six-year rebuild in OKC. Um, and they hit on everybody. you would think that, oh, it’s, it’s 6 years, so their, their windows closing. — No one’s wide
— open. — It is
— just opening. Yeah, but if the Cavs got to the finals next year and lost to Oklahoma City, OK, that’d be a great year. What do you have to do a step. But I, I have no faith that I don’t, I’m not even worried about Oklahoma City. I have no faith, but here’s the, here’s the super cheat card, and this is why you brought up a really great point about the Cavs being ahead of where Oklahoma City was. But the thing about Oklahoma City is. All their, all their, their free agents hit Harenstein hits. Then they, when they drafted, all their drafts hit. The only person I could think that didn’t hit was, was Giddy, and they got him out of there quick. That kid from Minnesota and and Caruso was a great a great Giddy was a hit because you turned him into Caruso, right? Like that was, that was a great move. So here’s so and who’s on the Cavs right now and, and they have no depth if they wanna cheat, if they really wanna get killed. They got, they got 1001st round picks. They can go get any superstar they want. I got one more question. — We’re gonna move to the Guardians in
— the best general manager in the sport too. — Shout out to Emerson basketball
— Sam. Absolutely. I love, I love that they gave an extended did an extended interview with him last night after the game, because honestly I know SGA is the MVP, but let’s face it, if Sam Presty’s not there, this team isn’t that they’re not, — he’s
— the MVP’s in the conversation. They lost in the NBA. — I think
— he’s easily the best. They lost 3 MVPs. — I
— know. How about drafting 3 MVPs back to back to back, by the way, and none of them were the first overall pick, but I got, I got a question for you. This is, this is big picture before we talk guardians. Tyrese Halliburton suffered the cash during in game 5. He had talked about prior to last night saying. It’s game 7. There’s not a, not a, not a world where I’m not out there with my teammates trying to win a championship. We all know what happened. It looked like he tore his Achilles in the first quarter after, by the way, he led the game in 3s made last night. He played 7 minutes, had 3 3s that led the entire game, either team in 3s. It looked like it looked like he was, he was having one of those moments which he had had all postseason where he raised his game to a high level, but obviously now he’s in danger of missing all of next season. When we look at calf injuries moving forward. Do you think we’re gonna change the way teams handle calf injuries in terms of guy strains the calf, — he just automatically out two months like
— not in the playoffs. Yeah. I’m I’m asking a question round of the playoffs, but here’s the thing like. I know a lot of people wanted. I got a couple of texts from friends yesterday and said, you know, what, what was, what was he doing playing? What was he doing playing? It’s game 7. It’s insane. You don’t know that you’ll ever make it to another game 7. — I agree
— with you guys. For the record, don’t, — but I would play
— if it’s game 1 or 2 or even 4, give them the rest you. You see what happens. You tax the Achilles and that thing is gonna snap like a rubber band, — and that’s what he did
— for basketball it’s to Tommy John. You can’t do nothing about it. I listen, I, yeah, it’s the, it’s the it’s the equivalent for you, you, you can’t do nothing, but it’s just, I feel like you got tread on the tire. You got 10,000 miles, but you can also get, you can get it punctured and guess what, you gotta get it fixed. But you never know when your Achilles is going to pop. You just don’t, you can’t predict it. However, there is a, there is a greater likelihood if you’ve got a strained calf, there’s a greater. because it’s just the use and disuse. Like you’re gonna, you’re gonna play as hard as you play, and he’s a hard, he plays hard. What happens is that muscle is strained. It’s, it’s not able to, to, to carry the load, so other surrounding muscles will kick in and, and you put too much stress on one of them and you blow it out. — I don’t know
— what I don’t want to sound like an old dude, but when, when, when we played basketball in high school. It was, first of all, you couldn’t wear no low tops. I know I — I I can’t believe the number of guys that
— wears are now not only they’re they’re, they’re more common. I would say more than 50% of the leagues, more McNuggets we used to have to have tape. I’m I’m with you and you never thought about stepping on the court without high tops. If you didn’t have no, if you didn’t have mids and ta, you had to get there like, are you taped? They’d be like, no I’ go back in there. I don’t know. If there’s a prevalence of that, but when I started seeing people playing out here in these bowling shoes, I said them is bowling shoes. — You out here sliding
— around in them little — you
— don’t see kids playing basketball in Crocs. — That’s crazy
— the first super low it was the man. Oh yeah. You’re right. Kobe was like there were others, but Kobe became the first mainstream. Like, yeah, fashion is very, very big to the players, to their, to their brands, to their, to their empires. But what gets me is — there is no way I’m sacrificing my health so I
— look cool. The little, like, I mean your whole ankle is, — I
— know it players do that all the time in all sports. They do, — they’ll wear to me
— basketball, they won’t wear those, uh, puffy helmets in the NFL — because they don’t
— look good. Well, in hockey when it was. Optional. A lot of guys would not wear the, the cage. I, I would. I would, I would like to hear maybe from an orthopedic person and say, I mean, is there actually? I have to I don’t know I. there’s no, Adidas, Puma. They all make low top sneakers now. They have to. I have to imagine if it was actually like scientifically proven — to be less effective at protecting
— that’s a good question, Mike. I wonder if there was some sort of, I’ll try to look it up by the end of the show. You wear high tops, — don’t
— you? I can’t. I don’t. Is now and it’s funny you mentioned Kobe. Kobe had one year. Which, which they sold wildly, he had a pair that almost looked like football shoes. He like, he, when he tore his Achilles, he came back with these very high tops that were like more than like boxing shoes, yeah, that was up higher, and he wore those for a couple of years, but he went back, eventually retired in the lows again. — So it’s
— funny to me and I’m old enough to remember it. I have a pair. Um, the evolution of the basketball shoe. When you look at Chuck Taylor’s, those were at the time revolutionary. Those that, I mean now people wear them as fashion statements, but back in the day, it was really the first. — Big basketball
— shoe and they have no ankle support. And there’s no, no. It is nothing there. It is the same. — It is the waffle
— that’s flat of shoes real quick, bull, I never asked you, you wore Jordans to Dustin’s wedding. I did. I did. I’m not wearing them today. They were actually, they were a little tight like on the bottom of my toes, like the, the toe box if you will. Uh, but Dustin got them a size bigger because Nike, you know, Jordans don’t, they don’t make wide shoes, but when I first put them on, they were a little uncomfortable, but then as I was wearing them, I, I kind of broke them in a little bit. I see him on the show. — I’ll bring
— him in. I’ll bring him in sometime soon.

The Cleveland Cavaliers now find themselves in a prime position to take control of the Eastern Conference. With Tyrese Haliburton suffering a significant Achilles injury during the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers are facing serious uncertainty heading into next season. Combine that with ongoing questions around the health and depth of teams like Boston and Milwaukee, and the path to a deep playoff run is suddenly much clearer for Cleveland.

For the Cavaliers, this is more than just an opportunity—it’s a pivotal moment. Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen form a core that just led the team to 64 wins and the No. 1 seed in the East. Under new head coach Kenny Atkinson, Cleveland has the talent, chemistry, and structure to seize the moment. In this video, we break down why this injury shifts the balance of power in the East and how the Cavaliers must approach the 2025 season with a championship mindset.

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