CLEVELAND, Ohio — In this episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Ethan Sands, Chris Fedor, and Jimmy Watkins break down why the Cavs’ offense looked disjointed and overly isolation-heavy in their season-opening loss to New York — a far cry from the motion-based system they’ve been preaching.
Takeaways:
1. The Offense Won’t Be the Same for Awhile
The Cavaliers’ offense in their opening game was described as “clunky” and a significant departure from their intended system. The numbers supported this, as the team ran more isolation plays than they had in any game over the past two seasons. The resulting offensive rating of 105.7 would have ranked as their third-worst offensive performance of the previous season. Furthermore, their shot quality was ranked in the 8th percentile, indicating they were not generating good looks. This stagnation was attributed to a combination of missing key players and difficulties executing the new, faster-paced offensive philosophy, causing the team to revert to unproductive one-on-one basketball.
2. The Evan Mobley Experiment Had Mixed Results
A key preseason goal was to empower Evan Mobley and make him a focal point of the offense, which the team attempted in the first half. While Mobley was aggressive, the offense struggled, posting a rating of just 95 with him as the primary option. This inefficiency led the coaching staff to move away from the “Force Feed Evan” strategy in the second half. The speakers noted this highlights the central challenge for the Cavs: finding the “modulation” to develop Mobley’s offensive game and build his confidence without sacrificing the team’s ability to win games in the present. The process of integrating him as a primary creator will likely be uncomfortable and inconsistent.
3. Absences of Key Players Crippled Offensive Flow
The absence of Darius Garland and Max Strus had a profound and measurable impact on the offense. The podcast highlighted that the Cavaliers’ offensive rating was 123.2 with Garland on the floor last season, compared to just 114 with him off. Without his elite playmaking, the offense loses a primary engine. Similarly, Strus’ value as a shooter and floor-spacer, which contributed to a 120 offensive rating when he was on the court last year, was sorely missed. Center Jarrett Allen was noted as being particularly affected, as Garland and Strus are his most effective pick-and-roll partners who consistently get him the ball in positions to score.
4. Perimeter Defense and Point of Attack Remain a Concern
The podcast identified the Cavaliers’ perimeter defense as a significant weakness. Without a dedicated point-of-attack stopper like the departed Isaac Okoro, the team struggled to contain dribble penetration from players like New York’s Jalen Brunson. This forced players like Jaylon Tyson and Tyrese Proctor into difficult defensive matchups. The speakers noted that this vulnerability will be further tested by unique offensive players like Karl-Anthony Towns, whose ability to shoot from the perimeter will pull one of the Cavs’ big men away from the basket, placing even more pressure on the team’s guards to defend and rebound in space.
5. Donovan Mitchell’s Game 1 Workload Raised Red Flags
Despite it being the first game of an 82-game season, Donovan Mitchell played 36 minutes and had a massive 37% usage rate, numbers described as “Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder-esque.” This heavy workload, which led to Mitchell cramping in the fourth quarter, was reportedly not well-received by the coaching staff. The hosts found this ironic, as coaches had commented just before the game about their surprise at other teams playing their stars such heavy minutes on opening night. It signals a potential conflict between the team’s desire to manage Mitchell for the long haul and the immediate need for him to carry the offense, especially when other key players are injured.
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Transcript
NOTE: This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and could contain misspellings and errors.
Ethan Sands: What up, Cavs Nation? I’m your host, Ethan Sands, and I’m back with another episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. And joining me today, Chris Fedor, who is going to make the trek tomorrow to Brooklyn to see the Nets and the Cavs face off. But we also have in the Studio, Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com columnist. And Jimmy wasn’t on our reactions podcast last night from game one of the season for the Cleveland Cavaliers because it was a late one. So I want to first and foremost let the floor be had for Jimmy to give his reactions to what he saw and also just what he saw around the league. Because as we know, Jimmy’s been watching a lot of ball over the last couple of days.
Jimmy Watkins: I love ball. I’m so happy the ball’s back, if I’m honest. I’m watching ball while we’re doing this podcast. Yeah, Denver, Golden State’s on. It’s neuted. I’m listening. I’m listening. I’m engaged. Unlike Jared Allen last night. Hey, yo. But I am also happy to be here and I’m also, I just want to salute Chris’s long trek from Madison Square Garden to the Barclays Center. What a hero. We salute him. We honk our horns outside of his house during the pandemic. Nurses hated this. I have a lot of friends who have nurse wives or our nurses themselves. Nurses hated when people honk their horns outside of their homes during the pandemic because they’re heroes. That’s when nurses sleep. That’s when the heroes are sleeping. Leave them alone.
Chris Fedor: I’m actually not in midtown Manhattan over by msg, which is a rarity for me, but this trip was very, very expensive. There is a lot going on in New York right now, including the Rangers. The Knicks are playing the Celtics, so this week. And there are four nights now instead of just two. Normally we get here, get in the night before, have the game the next day and then out. But because it’s New York, Brooklyn, back to back, it’s a four night stay. And hotel rates in Midtown were in the thousands per night. Thousands per night. So I’m in the financial district. I feel like Leonardo DiCaprio from Wolf of Wall Street. I went to the Wall Street Grill tonight, had a great meal. It was fantastic. I do not belong here whatsoever. Everybody’s in, like their suit and tie and they’re coming from their job and I’m just like, I don’t know, in a hoodie and a puffy vest and I’m just kind of looking around like, yeah, I don’t really belong here, but I’m staying in the financial district because the cool thing about this place is that it’s halfway to Brooklyn and halfway to Madison Square Garden. So I’m able to get the best.
Jimmy Watkins: Of both worlds elite basketball transition here. This is a real thing. It’s in arc. You can check. Last night when I was watching the Cavs. The first quarter of the Cavs game, I started writing. I’m super excited about how aggressive Evan Mobley is acting column. And one of the leads was I was trying to assemble all of the finance bros in the vicinity of Madison Square Garden because I wanted to buy some Evan Mobley stock. We won’t see that because the cap stopped giving Evan Mobley the ball. Why did they do that? They love doing that. I thought the line of questioning that Chris had for Donovan after the game was apropos, where Chris is asking Donovan basically be like, hey, Evan took all these shots, then you took all these shots. What if we both took some shots essentially and Donovan said something to the effect of, well, you know, DG and I had to work out the kinks on that during the first couple years here. Evan and I are going through that now. We’re in year four. I get that we’re in a. We have a different Evan now. And this is another step forward in the Evan development that didn’t totally hit with me upstairs. I wanted that. I feel like we should have a little bit of a cleaner transition on that. Overall, I would say I didn’t like what I saw, but that’s okay. And it’s way too early to really care deeply about any of that. You can tell they missed Darius. That was a tough time for Jarrick Allen to be making a lights or bright joke. And the. The second unit looked predictably stuck in the mud at times. Even though they. Lonzo loves passing. Move the ball around. It’s just a lot of passing to. To what end? To what end? Someone at some point needs to create an advantage as Kenny at Atkinson alluded to after the game, in order for. For all the passing to make progress. So yeah, they’ve been missing three rotation players. It’s okay. It’s okay. It was. It was ugly last night, but it’s okay. They should look much better. By virtue of Brooklyn being much worse, they should look much better tomorrow. I expected.
Ethan Sands: You make good points when it comes to that conversation. J Eddie and Evan and Donovan and we had an in depth conversation about that last night. And I implore those who are tuning into this podcast to also go listen to our reactions from last night as me and Chris went into where the Cavs are to start the season, where they need to improve, the early season, growing pains that they’re going to have to endure to get to where they want to go.
Chris Fedor: I just think, you know, there are other things that stand out and now we have more numbers to kind of like back it up. What we actually saw last night, and the numbers are not pretty. The Cavs had more isolations in in last night’s game against the Knicks than they had in the two previous years. It was the most that they’ve had in the two years. I mean, that’s a lot of isolations and that’s just not who they are. That’s not how they play. And I think there’s an understanding that there are going to be isos at times. DeAndre Hunter is going to get those opportunities. Evan Mobley is going to get those opportunities. So Kenny Atkinson is just going to have to suck it up and understand that there are going to be built in ISOs more so than what he’s probably comfortable with in the past just because of some of these changes that he wants to make. It was also they had an offensive rating of 105.7 and that would have been their third worst one of the games last year doesn’t count because it was the last game of the season and everybody was resting. So it was essentially their third worst offense. It would have been their third worst offensive performance all season last year. And it happened in game one against the Knicks. So as you start to dig into these numbers and you look at the things that matter to the Cavs. They were also in the 8th percentile, 8th in shot profile, shot quality. That’s terrible. So I understand what you were saying earlier, Jimmy, about why did they start to ignore Evan? You know, part of the reason why they went away from the Force Feed Evan thing is because they weren’t successful doing it. Like he was the focal point in the first half of the game against New York. And in the first half, the Cavs have an offensive rating of 95. So, like, that kind of style, it’s not who the Cavs are. It’s not what these players are used to, and it wasn’t working. And I think Kenny said before the game, yeah, I have to be big picture. I do. But we’re trying to win basketball games here. We’re competitive. This is opening night. This is New York. We won an opportunity to make a statement on all these different things. And I think because the offense, in Kenny’s own words, was so clunky, running through Evan, Kenny was like, let’s try something different and let’s see if that can kind of like get us out of the mud. But when you have shot quality that was as low as the Cavs was, if you have all of those isolations the way that the Cavs did, I mean, it was going to be hard for them to win that game last night with with those things working against them. Because as much as they say defense is who they are and that’s their backbone, it just hasn’t proven itself in the Kenny Atkinson era. So if they’re not brilliant offensively, they’re probably going to have a hard time consistently winning basketball games.
Ethan Sands: Yeah, that’s absolutely right. And actually kind of gets into our first question on this week’s episode of hey Chris for the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. And from Chris in Lakewood, can you explain why the offense looked so stagnant last night? I realized they were missing key contributors and that they’re trying something new with having Evan Mobley initiate. But it seemed like guys were confused at points or weren’t moving as much as I admittedly someone that doesn’t really understand basketball X’s and O’s thought they would. Given the intent to have a fast, smoothly flowing offense. And after a preseason of preparation, why did the offense seem to get stuck at points? And Chris, I think you got into it briefly there. The isolation heavy offense is what the Cavs were trying to prevent or get away from this season. That’s why in the training camp during the summer they were giving points to getting the ball up the floor quickly, getting to spots quickly, to getting ahead of the defense before it could get set right. That’s how they knew they were going to be able to score. And obviously what we know Deandre Hunter is a great isolation scorer and that’s probably one of his biggest roles when plays break down. But without him on the floor, the Cavs needed to lean on their flowing, get up the floor and transition offense more so. But also the problem with that was last night they were allowing multiple offensive rebounds and couldn’t get in the transition because they weren’t finishing off defensive possession. So I do think that the isocentric offense had something to do with why this looked so stagnant. But Jimmy, I’m curious and what you think about what happened last night when it came to the offensive flow and Kumbaya Kenny, of what happened last night.
Jimmy Watkins: The word in my head is modulation. When Evan McQuay catches the ball in his head, he’s hearing Kenny Atkinson and Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garner. A lot of people in his head saying, shane, shoot, shoot, shoot. That’s what they’ve been instilling in him now for two years. So you know what he’s doing on Wednesday? He’s shooting. He shot a little too much, and I’d rather him err on that side. I think Kenny was careful to posture himself that way as well. He’d rather Evan forced a little bit too much than have to reign him in. Right. But Evan’s going to learn as they give him more opportunities to be the focal point of the offense, how to modulate the shot pass palette, whatever you want to call that. Right? Like that decision tree that’s going to happen. The Cavs can modulate between saying clear out for Evan. And just like Evan can be the focal point of the offense and not need to break stuff down. You know what I mean? Like, you can run stuff through him. And they’ve done this in the past. That’s not an easy thing. That’s an easy fix, right? When it’s not working with Evan Donovan, Cavs as a whole. But I’m thinking Donovan, like, there has to be something between Evan Mobley takes, you know, 10 shots in a quarter or whatever it was in the first quarter last night. And then, okay, we need to get away from this a little bit because we are getting a little bit ISO heavy. And then Evan Mobley doesn’t really touch the ball with any consistency again until the fourth quarter. Right. So modulation across the board. That’s really my biggest takeaway. ISO, they were trying to do things intentionally with new rotation players. The new rotation players were going to be a little less accustomed to playing in the slowy style anyways. And the incumbent players were not used to playing with them. They know where Max likes to to be. They have pet actions for these guys that they don’t that they’re still working through with some of the new guys. Right? So that part will get ironed out to me. What I was watching was in real time, the Cavs navigating how to empower Evan Mobley and also try to win basketball games, which, as we’ve been saying on this podcast for a long time, there are going to be two different things. @ times. I feel like they pumped the brakes pretty hard last night. Ooh, this is uncomfortable. This. I don’t like this. It has to be uncomfortable for a little while. This is going to happen again.
Chris Fedor: I mean, I think the other thing that you cannot overlook and it’s not an excuse, but when you don’t have Darius Garland and you don’t have Max Strus, two of your pathways to offensive success are pulled out of the equation. Consistent pathways to offensive success. I mean, for all the questions that we have about Darius Garland, a playoff performer and Darius Garland as a defender, he is an elite offensive player. And last year when Darius was on the floor, the Cavs had an offensive rating of 1:23.2. With him off the floor, it was 1:14. That’s drastic and that’s on a team that had Ty Jerome finalists for six man of the Year. They don’t have Ty Jerome. Ty Jerome’s not going to be running the offense. Ty Jerome’s not going to create advantages. He’s not here anymore to do those kinds of things. So I think Kenny is still searching. I think the Cavs are still searching. And Max stru for again all of his flaws, all of his streakiness. He just provides a dimension to this offense and that is really, really important. Last year with him on the floor, their offensive rating was 120. Like he’s that kind of weapon. And it doesn’t always have to be shots, it doesn’t always have to be scoring, but everywhere he goes he’s a threat. He can run a two man game with Jarrett Allen. Think Jarrett missed Darius and Max? I think so. Those are the two guys throughout the course of the last year that have consistently found a way to get the most out of Jarrett and involve Jarrett on the offensive end of the floor. And Kenny talked earlier today at practice about what the Cavs points per possession are when, when Jarrett catches the ball on the roll. And it’s something like 1.33. But that doesn’t happen as much with Donovan. It happens with Darius. So if, if Jarrett’s primary pick and roll partner, Darius is not going to be available, who’s going to get Jarrett the ball? And if Max isn’t going to be available, who’s going to get Jarrett the ball? When they’re not running those two man things, you know, it’s. Sam’s not comfortable doing that sort of thing. So I just think the Cavs are working through a lot of stuff. I think it’s okay that they’re going through stuff and they have to try and figure these things out on the fly because I do think it’s going to benefit them. The other thing that I would say is like to the wonkiness on offense, New York had something to do with that. The Cavs could not get by guys like so much of what they want to do is 2ft in the paint, kickouts or 2ft in the paint, random cuts, something like that. But Kenny said earlier today, I don’t know if he’s right on this. I haven’t had a chance to look this up. I mean, I don’t get the same information that he does. But he said that the Cavs had eight shots at the rim, which, which seems outlandish and, and I can’t believe that that was true. But they really had a hard time getting past Mikel Bridges, getting past OG Anunoby, getting past Tyler Kolek, who’s still doing this with his head over and over and over again. So, you know, if, if you don’t have that dribble penetration where you break down the defense and force them into rotation and stuff like that, it’s just not going to look against a good quality defensive team. It’s just not going to look as good as maybe what fans have grown used to in the Kenny Atkinson era.
Ethan Sands: Chris, we talked about it a little bit yesterday when I alluded to what you talked about with Jared Allen. Like he’s not going to have a true point guard generally on the floor with him at any time, because when he’s on the floor, Donovan Mitchell’s there, he’s the de facto point guard. So you have that conversation of how are you going to get him the ball, how are you going to make him feel involved? But the biggest thing for me when it comes to Jared Allen and the conversation that we’ve been having is you cannot be attached to your defensive intensity, to offensive production, because that’s not necessarily your role on every given night. And the biggest question for Jarrett isn’t that he’s going to come back and have 10 rebounds against the Brooklyn Nets and all these different things. It’s about having those types of games against more physical, more high intensity, more effort driven opponents like the Knicks, and particularly in the playoff scenarios. But Chris, you also mentioned the Max Drus commodity when it comes to his game and how difficult it is to replicate. I think Sam Merrow does it pretty well, but he doesn’t have the same passing game as Max. But when it comes to the shooting, I think every team needs a guy who shoots the ball. Like he doesn’t know he’s allowed to miss. Right? And that’s kind of what J.B. bickerstaff instilled in Sam for a certain point. And then you got it Kind of shifted to, okay, we believe in you. We’re going to allow you to do what you do. And then you see in games like the New York Knicks season opener in the second half where he just goes ballistic. 5 of 7 from the field, 4 of 6 from 3. 16 of his 19 points in that second half where because he was like, somebody has to do something in the offense. And I trust my shot more than anybody else. And I think Sam’s ability to stretch defenses emotionally, like you can feel invisibly see defenders panic when he lets it fly or comes around a down screen. Because his ability to fire without hesitation keeps the offenses from freezing. Right? Because you need to keep the water flowing. You need to make it seamless, you need to make it flow. Because we saw when the offense got stagnant against Knicks, it wasn’t productive. I know we haven’t talked about Sam Merrill as an X factor for this offense, but with him on the court, it feels like the Cavs have a ready opportunity and a ready player to make a difference when it comes to half court situations.
Chris Fedor: I, I think it comes down to this. Max isn’t going to be out there for a large chunk of. Of the beginning of the season. And, and Darius, who knows? There’s so much uncertainty surrounding that. Darius continues to drop hints about being close. Da da da da. And Ty Jerome is no longer on this team. And if Ty rescued the Cavs multiple.
Jimmy Watkins: Times, Darius has taken this. He’s treating this injury like an album rollout.
Chris Fedor: Just saying every conversation that he has with somebody different, he was like, I’ve got a date in mind. I’ve got a date in mind. But I’m not going to tell you what it is. You just have to pay attention. Get to my TikTok. Get to my Instagram. You know what I mean? Like, it does feel like that, Jimmy. It does feel like he’s teasing something. But I think the question is, and it’s a question that I have for Kenny going into tomorrow’s game against Brooklyn. Look, Brooklyn aside, Brooklyn’s terrible. Going to be one of the worst teams in the NBA again. But generally speaking, what do we consider a successful offensive night for this iteration of the Cavs? I think we have to figure that out so that we can set expectations. And we have to reset expectations right now because they were historically great last year. It was the second best offense ever. That. That’s obviously not going to be the case, especially early on in the season. But I do think we have to answer our own question of what is A good night for this team on the offensive end of the floor, given the state that they’re in right now. I mean, is it 115 points? Is it 1 10, is it more how the offense functions, what it looks like?
Jimmy Watkins: Like what is, I would say, opponent dependent and process driven. Tomorrow you should look pretty good. And let’s see the machine churn. Let’s see a little of that. Let’s get two feet in the paint, let’s drive, let’s kick, let’s swing the ball around a couple of times. They shot the ball well, that’s good.
Ethan Sands: And obviously we’ve talked about it before, but when the offense isn’t kicking like we’ve seen in past years, how is the defense going to respond? And that gets into the next question from our subtexters. Chuck from Youngstown asks, is it me or do the Cavs struggle defensively on the perimeter, stopping dribble penetration and offensively struggle to get by defenders off the dribble and finish at the rim? Obviously we answered the second part of that question a little bit earlier, but Chris, Jimmy, what do you think about the defensive approach and the aggressiveness that the point of attack defenders are playing with and the potential that that leads to more drives? Because if you reach some people like Jalen Brunson are going to teach.
Chris Fedor: I mean, I think you just have to ask yourself if you’re playing against the Cavs and you’re trying to find the perceived weak links, who are they? They’re the guys out on the perimeter. Donovan, Darius when he’s healthy. Sam. Even though Sam I think is a better defender than what he’s given credit for. Yeah, I do think the Cavs at times are going to struggle guarding out on the perimeter. I think they’re going to struggle guarding in space. I think they’re going to struggle guarding at the point of attack. Isaac Okoro was an elite point of attack defender. He’s no longer around. Lonzo Ball is a different kind of defender. I think he’s an impactful defender, but he’s more get in the passing lines, deflections, use his brain to be one step ahead. So I just don’t know who takes on that role of point of attack defensive stock. Is it Jalen Tyson? That was a tough ask in the opener to put him on Jalen Brunson. There aren’t too many guys that have had success guarding Jalen Brunson. From a Cavs perspective, whether it was in the playoffs three years ago, during the regular season, there weren’t too many guys that the Cavs could say, all right, we feel good about this matchup, whoever it is, we’re going to put on Jalen Brunson. So that was a tough ask for Jalen Tyson to get into the starting lineup and then take that kind of matchup. But the Cavs want to test Jalen that way. They want to throw him into the fire. It was tough for Tyrese Proctor and his NBA debut to spend possessions guarding Jalen Brunson, but I think it all goes back to Kenny Atkinson is trying to figure out what can guys do, what can’t they do? And when you have more answers and even if the outcome isn’t what you want it to be, and even if the answer isn’t what you want it to be, you still have an answer.
Jimmy Watkins: It was also tough to watch Craig Porter Jr get usurped by Tyrese Proctor in the rotation during Game one. I didn’t like that. One other thing on the defensive front, Carl Anthony Towns presents a unique challenge in that you have to account for him. He’s a large man and you have to account for him behind the arc at all times, which means the Cav’s too big advantage can be interrupted if one of those guys always has to stay with Cat on the perimeter. Because the thing about Cat, he’s got a great postgame too. So if you try to get away with putting a big wing on him, he’ll mow that dude right over Evan Mobley. I mean, OG Anunoby. Unique challenge. Evan Mobley is still kind of working through that. At least he was on Wednesday. But when you, when you have these guys on the perimeter are going to be the spotlight on them will be brighter when Karl Anthony Towns is on the court. Because that means one of your best rim protectors has to keep track of somebody 25ft from the basket.
Ethan Sands: And it’s a difficult task. And I think the Cavs are still trying to figure that out. And Jarrett Allen is going up against Thomas Bryant in practice for those very matchups, right? So you get used to that and trying to figure out you’re going to be able to grow as a defender on the perimeter, as a big man. Because we know looking back to the Indiana Pacer series, not only were bigger players trying to put their smaller guards into actions, they were also trying to put Jared Allen into actions and get him onto the perimeter to expose him. So that’s definitely something that the Cavs are still working through. But getting into the last question for today’s hey Chris episode From Anew in San Francisco, he says, Chris, are you still mayor of Dean Wade island? And what did you think of his performance against the Knicks? Dean and Evan were the only players to have a break even, plus, minus. The rest of the players were minuses.
Chris Fedor: I thought Dean gave them Dean like things. I think in the third quarter, when the Cavs started to find themselves a little bit more on offense and started to look more Cavsy, Dean was part of that. Sam Merrill was part of that. Donovan Mitchell was the biggest part of it, obviously, but you just need Dean to kind of fill in the gaps. And it’s interesting because Larry Inch Jr. Was talking about this yesterday and Kenny Atkinson was talking about it too. Just understanding what your role is and being okay with doing the things that the team needs from you. And it’s going to be different for every guy. And Dean’s not going to have this enormous role, especially on the offensive end of the floor. But he’s impactful and he’s important. And right now, given everything that’s available to this team, he’s the seventh man in the rotation. He’s somebody who’s going to get 20 to 25 minutes a night, maybe even a little more than that. And he has the kind of versatility that gives the Cavs the potential to have answers to every test that’s thrown at them. Do they play big? Do they play small? Do they go with three guards? Just the way that this roster is constructed, and I think it remains to be seen just how good this roster is compared to last year’s, how deep and reliable this roster is compared to last year’s. But their belief is the way that they constructed this is that different styles, different matchups, different opponents, if they have to play Larry at the 5, they can do that. If they have to play Larry at the 4, they can do that. If they have to play Dean at the five, they can do that. If they have to play Dean at the three multi positional and multi dimensional players, that’s how they built this roster and, and Dean’s a part of that. And sometimes it gets a little bit uncomfortable when you talk about Dean. Wade is the seventh guy in a rotation, but that’s the situation that the Cavs are in right now. And it’s going to be up to him to continue to earn those minutes and continue to try and make an impact however he can. He always likes to say, hey, my role is to take and make open shots, defend my butt off, rebound the basketball, get 50, 50 balls, do the dirty things And I think Dean is fully capable of those things. And I think in stretches in the game the other night against New York, he was doing those things.
Jimmy Watkins: I feel like given everything they have available to them or however Chris raised, that would be something we go back to at the beginning of this season several times. Yeah, Dean Wade was fine. Given everything they have available to them. Given everything they have available to them. The Tyrese Proctor minutes were encouraging. You don’t want to see them that early, but given everything they have available to them, he hung in there. Given everything they had available to them. You loved the Donovan third quarter takeover was fun and necessary, but I don’t care what they have available to them. You don’t like seeing Donovan getting stretched out for cramps in the fourth quarter of game one. Now of course you’re playing at a different speed. Beginning of the season, it’s not that uncommon. Get cramps. But coincide that with a heavy workload. What was it, a 37% usage rates. That is Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder esque. That’s a lot. That’s a lot. And I, I circle back to another preseason talking point that we had which is like Kobe’s already like at Kobe and Kenny’s media day thing. Just joking. Like we’re already trying to raid him in. You know, he’s, he’s in mid season form already. Were you joking? Because he looked like he looked real agro out there and you love to see that from him. Especially when it’s working. It’s so fun. But it’s like long game in mind at his media day press conference was like, I’d rather have to rein it in than ask for more later on. It’s like, I don’t know if I want to hear that in October. I really don’t know if I want to hear that October there’s value in like I get. It’s Madison Square Garden, Donovan’s from New York. There’s a lot there and it’s first game of the year. You know, people are going to be taking a bunch of opinions away from this. But in the future, perhaps against, I don’t know, the Toronto Raptors. If you run into some roadblocks, I’d really like to see Donovan continuing to let go of the reigns. Maybe perhaps a lot. LeBron James back in the day to just be like, how you guys going to handle this? If I’m chilling, I want to see more of that.
Ethan Sands: Just a quick point on the D and Wade thing. I think volume is important for him this season. We Talked about it before the season. Right. Kenny Atkinson wants him to set a new personal best when it comes to shots per 36, 3 of 3 for 10 points. And all of those shots coming from beyond the arc is great, but if you’re having that level of success, I think you should take some more open shots. You should be more aggressive in that mindset. Right. And volume for him is continuously going to be the talking point throughout the season to see where he’s at and what he’s going to be able to always do on the defensive end. But offensively trying to get him to take the necessary shots, even the uncomfortable ones at times. But Jimmy, I think you make a great point about the Donovan Mitchell thing because him and Evan Both played over 35 minutes on last night.
Jimmy Watkins: They played 35 minutes. In a regular season game. GASP.
Chris Fedor: You know, one of the conversations that I was having with members of the coaching staff during shoot arounds leading into the game against New York, we were talking about the, the other NBA games the night before and all they were, a couple of them that I was talking to, all they kept saying was, can you believe Luca played 41 minutes in the first game of the season? And then they were like, KD played 47 minutes. Are you kidding me? I know that went into double overtime, but what it’s the first game of the season. You have to manage the 82 game grind. And then the first game of the season gets New York. Donovan’s out there playing 37 minutes with a usage rate of 37. Like what? That wasn’t supposed to be the plan. And I think there were numbers that Kenny did not like from. From the first game of the season. He didn’t like certain things about their shot profile. As I mentioned, he didn’t like the number of isolations and he did not like, I’m telling you right now, he did not like Donovan’s usage rate. Thought it was way too high.
Ethan Sands: Like we’ve talked about in the past, he took 25 shots. Evan Noble, he had 18 shots we like that felt like ton of one were forced. But Jimmy, you did mention a couple times the Tyrese Proctor and Craig Porter Jr battle for backup guard minutes. And I definitely think that’s something we’re going to have to keep an eye on as the season continues, especially with how Tyrese Proctor just has this size and the pacing and the defensive and offensive IQ that we’ve been able to tap into just a little bit for the start of the season and what Katie Atkinson sees from him because his on ball creation is going to be something that the Cavs might need to avert from the stagnation of the offense as well. And sure, he’s a rookie, but if it’s working, you’re not going to want to go away with it. And Chris said this last night, if Craig Porter Jr. And Jalen Faison aren’t having a good first stint, Kenny Atkinson in his experimentation era might look a different way. But thank you guys again for joining me on today’s episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. But remember to become a Cavs insider and interact with Chris, me and Jimmy by subscribing to Subtext. If you want to get yourself shouted out on this podcast on a hey Chris episode, this is the only way to do so. But to do it, you got to sign up for a 14 day free trial or visit cleveland.comcavs and click on the blue bar at the top of the page. If you you don’t like it, that’s fine. All you have to do is text the word stop. It’s easy, but we can tell you that the people who signed up stick around because this is the best way to get insider coverage on the Cavs from me, Chris and Jimmy. This isn’t just our podcast, it’s your podcast. And the only way to have your voice heard is through subtext. Y’ all be safe. We out.
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