Series Thread: 2nd Round: 1) Cavs vs 4) Pacers

[WiggyRuss]

They should make a move for Embiid. Garland and Allen for Embiid and salary.

I would not trade anyone. I think this is just the journey for a team- its not like the Cavs are have been a perennial power house without LeBron. Make some changes at the edges and run it back. Boston is going to have Tatum and salary cap issues. No one else in the East is anywhere near unbeatable.

Hope you get some growth- Garland and Mobley will have another year to move towards their primes and hopefully keep getting better.

Blowing it up would be a short-sighted reaction. At this time last year a lot of people were extolling the Cavs to trade Garland for a song.

Its hard to win championships. This team is signed up for a long time. Mobley taking the next step- and getting some decent injury luck could be all it takes.

 

[dtgold88]

Atkinson might have to tell Garland to have a seat for the rest of the night

Him and Strus just awful

Yeah...clearly DG has some serious issues with that toe as not nearly as fast as usual. No idea what was wrong with Strus. Just a bad game.

 

[dtgold88]

I would not trade anyone. I think this is just the journey for a team- its not like the Cavs are have been a perennial power house without LeBron. Make some changes at the edges and run it back. Boston is going to have Tatum and salary cap issues. No one else in the East is anywhere near unbeatable.

Hope you get some growth- Garland and Mobley will have another year to move towards their primes and hopefully keep getting better.

Blowing it up would be a short-sighted reaction. At this time last year a lot of people were extolling the Cavs to trade Garland for a song.

Its hard to win championships. This team is signed up for a long time. Mobley taking the next step- and getting some decent injury luck could be all it takes.

Exactly....Cs, Denver and Bucks have been building around top player(s) since Lebron was here. Likely keep core 4 together, hopefully keep Jerome and maybe Merrill.

Now IF a way to make a clear improvement for core 4 guy? OK. Other than maybe Mobley none of them are untouchable.....but as you said if they listened to fans both Allen AND DG would have been moved last offseason.

 

[dtgold88]

Cavs are just not that good.

They aren't that good on paper, don't play well as a team.

You can see the difference between them losing and the Celts losing.

I mean, the Cs have had their top guys since Lebron was still in Cleveland....and their only title was due to pretty much every opponent losing top players. But sure.

 

[dtgold88]

It is pretty simple. They missed open 3’s they hit all year. Whether it was injuries, fatigue or just crumbling. They lost on a buzz beater with 3 of their top 4 guys out. If they win that this is probably going 7.
Indy played hard defense and hit their open shots. It’s that simple. Gotta give them all the credit regardless of the circumtances.

Right because not allowed to blame this coach.

I kid....I kid. you nailed it.

 

[dtgold88]

Guy was badly hurt with an injury maybe should not have tried to play....of course then the narrative is soft because wont play.

 

[dtgold88]

Garland or Allen got to go imo

Probably more Allen than Garland

Luckily the FO wont care what irrational, emotional fans think.

allen needs to go? I mean, if a clear improvement have at it......or maybe they shouldn't go away with what's working inside and keep chucking and missing 3s? Overall, we were better than them on the boards, far better on offensive rebounds and far better in the paint.

But sure.

 

[dtgold88]

Garland and Allen are as soft as they come

guy plays when he probably shouldn't and is soft....and the guy who was part of a front court that was much better on the glass and dominated in the paint soft?

I get fans like to throw that term around but wow. If we had a game like they did where totally dominated inside and on glass (was Indy soft that game?) OK....totally dominated Bam, too. Bam soft?

 

[dtgold88]

Heard him say it.....last coach would have been killed if he said that. Not the teflon coach.

 

[dtgold88]

Depends how much you believe in mobleys shot for spacing purposes

Allen is a core part of their identity

Garland is a small scoring guard

They need more size on the perimeter and physicality there

Yep...typical reaction to support a previous agenda/narrative. DG was badly hurt. He is a PG who can score and a pretty efficient offensive player.

Untouchable? No......but guessing the all star PG who is 2-3 years from his prime stays.

 

[dtgold88]

We talked about them trading Garland all season and he had a great season….playoffs is a different game though.

It is....but played pretty well until he got hurt. That Mitchell fellow, while he had a good series overall, for some reason cannot make shots outside the paint (especially from 3) since his Utah days.

 

[dtgold88]

Mitchell needs to trust in his teammates though.

It was painful watching him try to be 1989 Jordan.

And they need to cut Jerome. He was a great college player, but ... liability.

Strus too.

Or how about the shooting guard needs to stop missing nearly every shot he takes outside the paint?

No idea when it came to be hardly anyone will be at all critical of Mitchell and just makes excuses for him. But will say one guy will....Mitchell, himself. Unlike our only true superstar that Lebron fellow never held himself accountable and loved to throw teammates under the bus.

 

[dtgold88]

Pretty sure that was Jerome’s first playoffs. If they can get him for cheap, why not, bc they are in the 2nd apron. They can’t get a player close to his value. Kenny just can’t depend on him in crunch time even with injuries

I think maybe Kenny should have gave him one more shot much sooner than he did (maybe at Okoro expense?). I also wouldn't write off Jerome due to a couple bad games (from future crunch time). He did probably cost himself some money which I guess is good for us

 

[dtgold88]

We knew that and why we talked about it

Small guards need to be special to thrive in the offs

You knew he's have a bad injury that made it really rough on him?

 

[dtgold88]

bad timing by him but no issue with the message.

 

[dtgold88]

Cue the "Cleveland needs LeBron in order to win" narrative.

Big win but recent history suggests the story will be more that the "Cavs lost" than the "Pacers won"... Even moreseo if we end up playing Boston without Jayson Tatum.

This is often the narrative of fans just looking to rip the Cavs but while Cavs players took responsibility they made sure to credit Indiana.

 

[dtgold88]

This is very unfair.

Mitchell was arguably the best player in the 2nd round.

He had 1 bad game when none of the Cavs showed up.

Not why Cleveland lost

I can agree not why we lost and he had an overall really good series.

But teams need their all star shooting guard to be able to shoot outside the paint (and from 3) and once round 1 ends this is something Mitchell for whatever reason cannot do going back to Utah days. No idea why.

 

[dtgold88]

i get to go from my extremely talented but underacheiving basketball team to my very mediocre but somehow always plays better than the sum of their parts baseball team.

A definite dissapoint- especially since the league is so wide open. Ill let some time wear off before I do a full post mortem

The baseball team something to do to pass the time until football season.....well, at least OSU football.

 

[shopson67]

Heard him say it.....last coach would have been killed if he said that. Not the teflon coach.

Sounds similar to what JJ said about the Lakers.

 

[dtgold88]

I’ll give the Pacers tons of credit.. they had guys who had an answer over and over and over in these games. They wouldn’t give up, they hustled and grinded. Hats off to them

This series had vibes of when the Magic beat the Lebron Cavs back in 08-09ish… The Magic had Howard in the middle but had 3-4 guys who would just not stop draining clutch 3’s, and a dynamic Hedo Turkoglu at the point. The Magic upset the Cavs 4-2 in the Eastern Conference finals. It would have been 4-1 had Lebron not drained a game winning historic buzzer beater 3 that puts any MJ shot to shame

very good analogy.....and if not mistaken was a 66 win Cavs' team with overall 1 seed.