CLEVELAND, Ohio — In this episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Ethan Sands and Chris Fedor react to the Cavaliers’ 94-87 win over the Charlotte Hornets, a game that felt more like a maturity test than a confidence builder.
Takeaways:
Cavaliers Show Defensive Resolve but Lack Consistency
The primary positive takeaway from the win was the team’s defensive response following a 32-point loss to Oklahoma City. The hosts noted the palpable effort, energy and intensity the Cavs brought from the start, successfully making a potent Hornets offense uncomfortable and holding them to just 87 points. However, this performance was framed as a “maturity test” and a single data point rather than a new identity. The discussion highlighted that to be considered a true “defense-first team,” the Cavaliers must consistently replicate this level of defensive focus against upcoming opponents, as one strong outing does not erase their season-long, middle-of-the-pack defensive statistics.
Offensive Struggles Magnified by Key Injuries
The Cavaliers’ offense was described as a “slog,” with the 94-point total tying a season-low. This offensive struggle is expected to continue until the All-Star break due to a series of injuries to crucial players. The absence of primary playmaker Darius Garland and key shooters like Sam Merrill and Max Strus has severely hampered the team’s spacing and offensive flow. Without these release valves, opposing defenses can collapse on the team’s stars, congesting the offense and forcing difficult shots. The team’s poor 8-for-40 (20%) shooting from 3-point range against Charlotte underscored the reality that wins may continue to be “ugly” in the short term.
Evan Mobley’s Inconsistency Remains a Central Concern
Evan Mobley’s performance was a microcosm of his season, defined by brilliant flashes followed by frustrating passivity. He started the game phenomenally, posting a double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds) on 11 shot attempts in the first half alone, looking poised for a dominant night. In the second half, however, he became a “spectator,” taking only two shots. A critical late-game possession where he passed up an open look at the elbow was highlighted as emblematic of his reluctance to be assertive. The hosts concluded that Mobley’s journey from showing “flashes” to becoming a consistently aggressive offensive force remains the team’s most significant developmental storyline.
The Heavy Burden on Donovan Mitchell is Taking a Toll
With several playmakers sidelined, the offensive load on Donovan Mitchell has become immense. Opponents are consistently sending multiple defenders at him, using physical tactics to get the ball out of his hands. This intense defensive focus is wearing him down, as evidenced by his visible exhaustion in the second half and a high-turnover game (8 turnovers against 6 assists). The failure of other players, particularly offseason acquisition Lonzo Ball, to step up and provide reliable secondary ball-handling has exacerbated the issue. This leaves Mitchell shouldering a burden that appears unsustainable and is detrimental to his own efficiency and the team’s overall offensive function.
Lack of Reliable Bench Depth Emerges as a Glaring Weakness
The Cavaliers’ bench, once seen as a strength, has become a significant concern. During the win against Charlotte, key reserve De’Andre Hunter was deemed “unplayable” in the second half due to poor performance, forcing head coach Kenny Atkinson to rely heavily on Nae’Qwan Tomlin for energy and defense. The hosts lamented the absence of a reliable scoring punch from the second unit — a role they need filled to extend leads or stabilize the offense. This lack of depth and “killer instinct” from the reserves is a primary reason the team struggles to maintain large leads and close out games, raising questions about roster construction as the trade deadline approaches.
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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. Joining me today from Buzz City Charlotte, Chris Fedor, cleveland.com Cavs beat reporter and we’re coming to you guys after the Cavs latest win, 94 to 87 over the Charlotte Hornets. And Chris, this was an interesting game from the very beginning because it was on ESPN and they were hyping it up like it was rivalry week. And the Charlotte Hornets and the Cleveland Cavaliers have this historic rivalry and the idea was kind of built around LaMelo Ball and Lonzo going head to head. Obviously Lonzo now having a 4 to 2 head to head win record over his little brother. And the point was that these two would go and get the matchup and get to have photos next to each other. They even did an interview before the game together. But Lonno didn’t play and Lamelo was horrible. But in the end, Cavs pulled off the win and the 94 points are tied for Cleveland’s lowest of the season against a bottom 10 defense in the NBA while conversely holding the seventh best offense coming into the game to just 87 points. There’s a lot on this bone, Chris, what are you taking away from this game?
Chris Fedor: Well, I think the main thing, Ethan, is that, you know, Kenny Atkinson had questions about how his team was going to respond following the 32 point drubbing against the champs. He even said it after the game, how do we respond? What’s it going to look like? Donovan Mitchell said on Monday, hey, I don’t want this one loss against OKC to deflate us and take away from some of the progress that we feel like we’re making behind the scenes. So to see them come out the way that they did, that was a positive. That was a step forward. There was effort, there was energy, there was intensity. Defensively, it felt like they were making Charlotte uncomfortable. They were imposing their will at the defensive end of the floor. Things were difficult for Charlotte. Passes were difficult, Dribbling was difficult. Shots were contested. So it was just a different approach, different mentality that the Cavs had coming into this game against Charlotte. And I thought it was the right response. It was the right response to the way that they lost against Oklahoma City. A game that showed a lack of maturity, a game that showed a lack of will, a game where the Cavs did not provide the kind of effort that’s required against an upper echelon team. So I thought that stood out to me. The other thing is I just think offense is going to continue to be a slog until the Cavs get to the All Star break. Sam Merrill still needs time to recover from his sprained hand. He did conduct a workout on the court earlier this morning here in Charlotte, so that’s a positive. Max Struse continues to conduct workouts. No contacts, but one on one. Individual workouts, That’s a positive. Darius Garland, we all know he’s going to be missing for the next maybe two weeks, maybe longer than that. I talked to him briefly in the locker room after the game. He said he feels fortunate that it wasn’t a more significant injury to his toe. There are people inside this organization that believed that it was going to be much more serious when it happened. So there’s a feeling of dodging a bullet. But look at the attention that is on Donovan. Mitchell Donovan talked about it following the game that he’s been guarded like this before throughout his career, but maybe not as consistently as what it’s been. This is making everything really, really difficult on Donovan. He’s seeing multiple bodies, he’s getting pushed, he’s getting grabbed. Teams are being physical with him. They’re trying to get the ball out of his hands. There just aren’t as many reliable ball handlers. There aren’t as many reliable advantage creators that the Cavs have. With Sam Merrill unavailable to take some of that attention away from Donovan or Darius Garland unavailable to take that attention away from Donovan. Because it’s just different. It’s just different when Jaylon Tyson is out there. It’s different when Craig Porter Jr. Is out there. It’s different when Dean Wade is out there in the starting lineup as well. So I think those are the two things that stand out to me, is that the Cavs are going to have to do a lot of little things during this stretch to try and win games, and some of them aren’t going to be pretty. And God knows the second half of tonight’s game against Charlotte was not pretty and it was not a good offensive performance from the Cavs. But to me, the fact that they were able to lean into their defense and make Charlotte uncomfortable, a Charlotte offense that is really good, that has been playing really well over the last 15 games. It’s the kinds of things that we’ve been looking for from this team. It’s the kinds of things that they just haven’t been doing, not consistently over the first half of the season. They did it tonight against Charlotte, now they have to do it against Sacramento. Then they have to do it against Orlando, then against Orlando again and they have to start stacking these kinds of quality performances, especially on the defensive end of the floor. It can’t be 136 one night against Oklahoma City, then 87 against Charlotte and then like 120 against the Kings on Friday. You know what I mean? Like there has to be a level of consistent effort, consistent attention to detail the way that they played for the majority of the game against Charlotte. They need to do that basically every single night moving forward.
Ethan Sands: Yeah, Chris, and you mentioned maturity. And Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com columnist, actually texted out to our subtexters before the game saying that it was going to be a maturity test for this Cleveland Cavaliers team coming into Charlotte. And I think he was absolutely right because the Cavs came out hot with intensity that showed that they didn’t want the 32 point loss to Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday to linger it once again. That intensity didn’t last. Cleveland scored 33 points in the first quarter. They combined a score of 38 points over the third and fourth periods. And you talk about consistency when it comes to game to game. I’m looking for consistency when it comes to during these games as well. And Evan Mobley might be the biggest barometer for this. And you mentioned Donovan Mitchell having defenses hone in on him to a different level on a consistent basis than he’s faced ever in his career. And that means he’s going to need Evan Mobley more than he ever has in his career. And Chris, Evan Mobley came out tonight’s game and was phenomenal. I thought he was going to go like he did when he dropped 41 points, a career high when he was in Charlotte in 2024. That didn’t last either. He had 11 shot attempts in the first half, 13 points, 11 rebounds, a double double in the first half and then in the second half he took two shots. I can’t believe we keep having having to have this conversation about Evan Mobley and it’s exhausting because he is supposed to be the guy that Donovan Mitchell can rely on. You talk about there being a lack of release vows for Donovan. Evan Mobley, you’re supposed to be bringing the ball up. You’re supposed to be at the free throw line extended as an outlet for you to be able to create from there and decide where you want to go. Tonight’s game had something that was just emblematic of the entire Evan Mobley experience down the stretch, especially where the cavs were up 4 and it was like a minute left in the game and Evan Mobley catches it at the elbow and turns and there’s basically nobody in front of him except for Con Knippel. And instead of essentially ending the game, he dishes it off to Dean Wade who fumbled and ends up going into a 24 second shot clock violation. That cannot happen if you’re supposed to be an All Star. I’m not even talking about second team, all NBA. I’m talking about if you’re supposed to be a perennial All Star in this league, that cannot happen. And I think this is just another telling and another showing of what Evan Mobley can be and then also what he reverts back to when he’s needed most.
Chris Fedor: Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. I mean, I think we’ve talked about this a number of different times on this podcast. If you want a barometer of how things are going for the Cavs, just look at the performance of Evan. Look at how forceful he is, look at how engaged he is. Look at how assertive he’s being. The first quarter was all Evan Mobley. His fingerprints were all over that. Offensively and defensively. He was aggressive going to the basket. He wasn’t going to allow the undersized Hornets to deter him.
Ethan Sands: He.
Chris Fedor: He was finishing through contact, and that was just on the offensive end of the floor. On the defensive end of the floor. He was everywhere. He was anchoring the paint. He was coming up to make things difficult on the ball handlers for the Hornets. He was contesting shots on the perimeter. But you’re right, the second half, it was completely different. And it’s not a surprise that the second half was mostly controlled by the Hornets. Now, I think we have to point out that the Cavs won this game wire to wire. They led by as much as 27. The closest the Hornets got was four. And for a majority of the game, it was a double digit lead for the Cavs. But the next step for Evan, the one that so many people are waiting for, he’s just not showing enough. This was a game that he. He should have dominated there. There is nobody on the Hornets that can contain Evan Moakley. Like, come on, they started Moussa Diabate as their center tonight and look, he is tenacious on the glass, but he’s undersized. And look what Evan was able to do to him in the first quarter. Basically played him off the floor. They quickly went to Ryan Kalkbrenner and they went to these other variations of their lineups and stuff like that. But when you go into this game and you See what the Hornets have or what they lack in. In terms of the front court. This. This game pointed to Evan. This game screamed unicorn like game from Evan Mobley. And there were moments, there were flashes, but that’s been his season. Flashes, flashes mixed with inconsistency. And it was unfortunate that in the second half, you know, he was just not as involved offensively. And I think a big reason why the Cavs struggled so much offensively is that he wasn’t involved. They only scored 38 points in the entire second half because one of their most important players was essentially a spectator. Now that’s on Kenny, that’s on Donovan. Donovan, who was the de facto point guard tonight, and that’s on Evan as well. He has to demand the basketball. He has to go get it at times, sometimes rebound and bring it up the floor and initiate offense yourself. So I do think as. As this season progresses and we continue to look for different signs of why this team can be what a lot of people thought they were going to be coming into the year, why this team can’t be what people thought they could be coming into this year. Evan Mobley and like, what he becomes for this team and whether flashes turn into consistency is going to be a major, major storyline. He was awesome on the defensive end of the floor throughout the entire game. He. That was defensive player of the year, Evan Mobley. But. But that’s been there. We know that about it. We saw that last year. The strides that he needs to make, especially with Sam Merrill missing time, especially with Darius Garland missing time. The strides he needs to make are on offense. The questions that persists around him and whether or not he’s a true supermax player are on the offensive end of the floor. His aggressiveness, his assertiveness, his involvement, his evolution. And you’re right, the first quarter, you’re like, okay, this could be the Evan game. This should be the Evan game. It didn’t stay that way. And it’s part of the reason why I think their offense short circuited in the second half.
Ethan Sands: And Chris, I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer. So let. Let me say some positives about this team because there were some of this game, the interior that you referenced with Evan Mobley, Jerry Allen and Dean Wade, particularly down the stretch, where Kenny went to a three big lineup, was successful. They were phenomenal on the interior defensive front. And the other part of that, the negative part of that, is they still had lapses on the perimeter defensively, but in Kenny Atkinson’s terms, they had Some good luck finally, because the Charlotte Hornets, who came into the game as the fifth best three point shooting team in the league, shot 17% from deep. There were multiple times where they had open looks and just simply didn’t make them. Brandon Miller coming over screens, Con Knippel coming over screens, being left open in the corner didn’t make them. And that sometimes, and the Cavs have learned this the hard way, the this season can change games because when you look at the stat sheet, when you look at everything that went down tonight, when it comes to offensive rebounds, okay, you tell me. The Cavs had 60 rebounds tonight. They won the rebound battle 60 to 47. Charlotte still had 17 offensive boards, just like the Cavs. Turnovers. The Cavs had 20 turnovers. Again, horrible points off turnovers. The Charlotte Hornets had 21 points off those 20 turnovers. Second chance points. That’s where the Cavs were making their money. But points in the paint, 50 to 46 in favor of Charlotte. Points in the fast break, 26 to 9 in favor of Charlotte. Richard Jefferson, probably the biggest Cavs fan on any network that is going to cover a Cavs game this season, went into the fourth quarter when the Cavs had a 12 point lead and called it a barn burner. I don’t know about you, Chris, but a 12 point lead should not signify a barn burner by any means. And he was right. It came down to the final minutes of the game. And that is not what we want to see from this Cavs team. And we’ve said it this year. Obviously working with the lead is much more beneficial for this team because other teams have proven that they’re going to come back. The intensity might wane from a quarter, maybe two. Tonight it was the third quarter and teams come back from those deficits. And tonight instead of having to work so hard like the Cavs had this season from being behind, they had a lead. Kind of sounds like what happened a lot last year, Chris, I’m just curious to see what you thought and what your overall perspective has been on the Cavs defense. Obviously on the interior tonight it was much better. But I still think they have a long way to go to be a defense first team like they used to be.
Chris Fedor: Yeah, that’s the thing. You don’t become a defense first team just because you gave up only 87 points on one Wednesday night against the Charlotte Hornets. Do you do it over and over and over again? Can that be your pathway to consistently winning basketball games? Can that be the thing that you do better than Anybody else does, you know what I mean? Like that’s the separator. Oklahoma City does it most of the time. The Cavs do it every now and then. The Detroit Pistons do it most of the time. The Cavs do it every now and then. So no, until they continue to show this kind of defensive effort, until they continue to show this kind of defensive focus and intensity and attention to detail in communication and stuff like that, it’s going to be hard to say that they’re a defense first team, they’re middle of the pack in defense. Throughout the course of this year. Detroit’s a defensive first team, they’re second in defense. Oklahoma City is a defense first team. They’re number one in defense. You can’t be a defense first team and be middle of the pack in defense. And if you are a defense first team and you’re middle of pack in defense, you’re not going to be very good. You’re not going to be a championship contender. So, yes, they need to continue to get better at that end of the floor. But Kenny Atkinson went into his postgame press conference and as he walked through the door, he says, there it is, regression to the meme. I’ve been talking about it. I do think there is, you know, a little bit of frustration with the commentary around the Cavs defense and the commentary around the Cavs three point defense, but the numbers are the numbers and we’re more than halfway through the season. This isn’t just a one week blip. You know what I mean? This isn’t just a bad month. This isn’t just a small 15 game sample size where it’s too early to start looking at data and forming conclusions. We’ve got more than 40 games of data that show this team being a middle of the pack defense and this team being the worst defense in terms of guarding the three. And that just doesn’t change the big picture, doesn’t change. Because they held Charlotte to 87 points and and because they held Charlotte to 8 of 47 from three point range, this, if it’s going to be their thing, if it’s going to be their identity, this kind of blueprint has to continue against Sacramento and against Orlando and then against Orlando again and then moving forward into the second half of the season. The other thing going back to the, you know, as the Cavs continue to kind of let leads go, I never felt like Charlotte was going to win. I didn’t. That wasn’t the feeling inside the arena either, honestly. But, but I think what you continue to see is that the, the Cavs depth that they believed that they had coming into this year, it’s not there on a nightly basis. And that’s where you extend leads. Remember last year, Ty Jerome would take a five point lead and then he’d go on a heater, and then all of a sudden it’s 15 or 20. They just don’t have that guy coming off the bench. It’s supposed to be DeAndre Hunter. He was unplayable in the second half tonight against Charlotte. So I think when you have the bench and the makeup on the bench that the Cavs do think it’s going to be, and you have the struggles that they have with consistency on the defensive end of the floor, I think it’s going to be hard on them to finish these games, close out these games and, you know, impose their will and, and show a level of killer instinct. And I think that’s what you saw tonight against Charlotte. Like, every time Kenny tried to go to somebody off the bench, Whether it was DeAndre, Tyrese Proctor, he just didn’t have enough guys that, that he could rely on in this game against Charlotte. And that’s becoming a bit of a concern for the Cavs. I mean, when DeAndre Hunter is essentially unplugged, playable in the second half of a basketball game, alarm bells, internal alarm bells have to go off. When Naquan Tomlin is the guy who’s getting more minutes than anybody else from your bench in a game against Charlotte. Yeah, he’s been good. Yeah. They’re having conversations about giving him a standard NBA contract. But should that really be the case, you know, given the makeup of this team, given the roster construction of this team, and if that is the case, what’s he known for? He’s known for energy, hustle, defense, rebounding, certainly not dynamic offense. So you have to ask yourself, like, where’s that going to come from? Who’s going to provide that kind of jolt when Evan Mobley’s resting, when Donovan Mitchell’s resting, when Darius Garland’s not out there, and when DeAndre Hunter’s unplayable in the second half of a game, that also kind of correlates with only scoring 38 points in the second half? Because the guy who’s supposed to anchor that second unit, the guy who’s supposed to be the stabilizing scoring force of that second unit, is just not there.
Ethan Sands: DeAndre was horrible tonight, like making just some baffling plays on the offensive end of the floor and then also on the defensive end of the floor looking lost again. But to your point about who was supposed to take over the role of Ty Jerome and be able to lead the bench unit, I’m not saying that we’re going to wait for injuries to be gone because we can’t. So if that’s the point, I think it has to be Jaylon Tyson in that second unit because he’s been the most reliable to be able to do that. Ideally. Ideally, if the Cavs have Max Drew and have the decision between Max and Dean Wayne in the starting lineup, then you have Sam Merrill and Jaylon Tyson anchoring that second unit and coming in and filling in minutes when Donovan, Evan Darius aren’t on the floor. Right? There are supposed to be answers, but again, we’re more than halfway into the season now. Darius Garland has missed multiple games. Max Strust hasn’t played this entire season. I think the broadcast said tonight that Sam Merrill’s missed more games than Darius has. So Kenny has to find a way to use the players that he has available and I think it’s also difficult for him and I want to give him some grace, even though I’m going to get to his speech in a second. But most of this season, Kenny Atkinson has been coaching emotion. He has been drawing up plays. He’s been trying to corral his team to not lose itself mid game. When things go wrong, like you can continuously see when the Charlotte Orrance went on a run, Donovan is like actively like hey, don’t let it get to us. I know they just cut our 24 point lead to 14, but we still can’t let them come all the way back, right? Kenny Atkinson’s doing the same thing. Instead of conceptually trying to put things together, the Cavs players are losing that intensity and energy. And again, we’ve said this on multiple times on this podcast. Kenny Atkinson cannot go out them and force them to play with energy and intensity. He can. He can say all the right things, but at some point the players are going to have to do it themselves. And the New York Knicks are a great example of this. Sure, they played the Brooklyn Nets tonight, but after having a player led meeting after one of their worst losses of the season to the Dallas Mavericks, just one game ago they blew out Brooklyn by 50. That is the perfect example of never letting your foot off the gas, never allowing a team to think they have a chance, never changing your standard of play. With all that being said, Kenny talking about, hey, regression to the mean dog, come on, shot luck has been one of his favorite favorite phrases this Season two. If it’s not that, it’s estimated shot makes and misses and percentages and all these things. The Cavs made the same amount of threes as the Charlotte Hornets tonight. Let’s not let that go over anybody’s heads. They had eight threes tonight.
Chris Fedor: Guys were straight game in single digits.
Ethan Sands: Man, that is insane to me after a season where they never got below 10. So this is a Cavs team that shot 20% from 3 tonight. 8 of 40. They were lucky again, there goes that word 8 of 47 for the Charlotte Hornets. I think that that’s the game right there, right? Whether or not make or misses. And obviously Kenny Atkinson is going to say that they were running them off the line at points, points. They were at points, points. They were missing open looks. And I think there’s this balance of Kenny needs to be better, the players need to be better. And we came in saying that maybe they’re going to put up 1:20 on them. But you look at Sacramento, who’s resting Demontes Sabonis tonight to be ready for the Cavs on Friday. Teams are coming in trying to put not a bullseye on the Cavs back because they’re better than them, but because they can make an example out of them for themselves. The Charlotte Horn has already beat the Cavs this season. You know, they came into tonight’s game with the same mindset.
Chris Fedor: I just think, or I just wonder in the state that the Cavs are currently in, if we’re just going to have to deal with ugly performances for the next week. Two weeks before the All Star break Donovan’s exhausted. Just going to tell you that right now. You could tell second half he looked exhausted. He wasn’t running at the same speed. He looked worn down physically because of all the attention that he was getting from the Charlotte Hornets, the kind of load that he’s had to carry in the first half of the season because of all the different injury absences that the Cavs have had. And you can sit here and you can say, well, he shouldn’t have to do that. They have Evan Mobley, they have Jared L. And it’s true. But so much of this offense, the way that Kenny’s system is designed is with ball dominant pick and roll heavy players in Donovan and that’s how they’re going to function. So he’s exhausted. They don’t have the movement, the gravity of Sam Merrill that congests their offense, that allows the defense to guard them in a different kind of way. They just in this current State, they just don’t have the same kind of ceiling as an offensive team, not consistently. There might be some nights where it just all comes together. Jalen Tyson makes a bunch of threes, maybe Tyrese Proctor comes off the bench and hits a couple of threes, Craig Porter Jr. Might shoot over expected, you know, maybe Evan Mobley makes a couple of threes, Donovan goes on one of his heaters and those nights could happen. But I think consistently until the Cavs get through the All Star break, we might just have to expect ugly, we might just have to expect up and down the way that they’ve played basically for the first half of this season. Because you can just, you can just see how difficult it is on them at times. On the offensive end of the floor, you can see how difficult teams are making it on Donovan. And Jalen Tyson has improved, but is he ready for a more consistent, prominent role? When teams send so much help towards Donovan or teams try and get the ball out of Donovan’s hands, or Evan Mobley’s not as involved as he needs to be, is Jaylon Tyson ready for that consistent responsibility? You know, is Craig Porter Jr. Ready for a more ball dominance opportunity? All these things that, that you have to wonder about with the current state of this team. So I just wonder if like for the next couple of weeks, no matter who it’s against, if this is just kind of like the Cavs current reality and if that is the reality, is Kenny going to continue to use some more defense heavy lineups? That’s what he did at the start of the game. Jaylon Tyson, Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, Jared Allen, the size, the positional size, the switchability of that group. I think part of the reason why he went with that starting lineup again tonight is because they came in with a focus of let’s make Charlotte as uncomfortable as possible. Look at what Charlotte is doing on the offensive end of the floor over the last 15 games. We’ve got to take that away, we’ve got to pressure them, we’ve got to contest shots, we’ve got to take away driving lanes, we’ve got to contest passes and things along those lines. And look who was used more than any other reserve in the second half. Naquan Tomlin. Again, defense activity, switchability. He has his missteps, he’s still raw, he’s still learning. But I’m just wondering, given the current state, is Kenny just going to try and lean more in to some of these defense heavy lineups the way that he did? Because he understands just the realities of what this current group is capable of on the offensive end of the floor in recognizing that the ceiling is just not nearly as high with what’s missing.
Ethan Sands: To your point about Kenny might having to use a specific grouping, we’re talking about Jaylon Tyson in his second season, arguably being more ready, more mentally ready to take on that load, that workload to help Donovan Mitchell rather than Evan Mobley, who was in his fifth season.
Chris Fedor: Or DeAndre Hunter.
Ethan Sands: Or DeAndre Hunter, who’s been in the league even longer than Bobley. It’s sad to see this.
Chris Fedor: Or Lonzo Ball, who was one of their prime offseason pickups.
Ethan Sands: I agree. I agree. And to your point about Donovan Mitchell being exhausted, this isn’t the first time he’s either looked or said that he’s been exhausted in fourth quarters this year against the Charlotte Hornets, man. And he came into this season saying he was in the best shape he’s been in in a very long time, if not all of his entire NBA or basketball career. And this is what we’re getting. That’s the worry about the playoffs, about how much Donovan Mitchell has been used, how much Donovan Mitchell has seen and what version of the Cavs they’re going to have. Because the Cavs have dealt with injuries galore in the playoffs, and that’s just getting to the Eastern Conference semifinals in five games. What happens if they get further than that, Chris? How much does that wear on them?
Chris Fedor: That’s part of the pain of Lonzo just not even being playable on a night that it was rivalry night against his little brother Lamelo. You know, Tyrese Proctor got the nod from Kenny atkinson. Larry Nance Jr. Got the nod from Kenny Atkinson. Lonzo was supposed to take some of those ball handling responsibilities. Lonzo was supposed to help organize the offense. Lonzo was supposed to initiate some things so that maybe Donovan could be off the ball, so that he could run around screens or he could take some possessions off. Same thing when it comes to Darius. That’s who Lonzo was supposed to be for this team. That was the idea of Lonzo Ball. And, you know, I know that there’s this big picture thing that the Cavs are looking at with his maintenance and not trying to wear him out in the regular season, hoping that he can still be an asset for them when they get into the playoffs. But in the meantime, you know, managing it that kind of way, this. This idea that he’s kind of out of the rotation, there is a domino effect of that. And I think the person who is impacted the most by that has has been Donovan, and I think it’ll continue to be Donovan. And Craig has been good. I don’t want to. I don’t want to short Craig. His passing is up and down. Some of the turnovers are still a little bit too high, and you can tell the frustration from Kenny Atkinson when he tries a pass that either gets deflected or gets picked off or something like that. But for the most part, you know, Craig has, has been effective, but I just don’t know. I just don’t know if he’s ready for that kind of role consistently. I don’t know that there’s. There’s enough like, internal belief and trust that, okay, we’re just going to put the offense in Craig’s hands, you know, for, for an extended stretch. You know what I mean? So, like, where does that come from? Who kind of takes that responsibility from Donovan during this stretch? It’s part of why the Lonzo thing just not working out as planned has been a problem in a multitude of ways, and it’s something that the Cavs really have to explore as the trade deadline gets closer. Like, it might not have been a perceived weakness coming into this year and they might feel like when at full strength, there’s enough to manage that kind of situation. But there’s this thing called protection, there’s this thing called insurance, there’s this thing called depth. And like, one of your most important depth pieces is just he’s no longer in the every night rotation. And it’s something that the Cavs really have to look at as the trade deadline gets closer of like, how can they work through that given the financial limitations that they have? Or can they work through that given the financial limitations that they have? And if they can’t find external help, what are the solutions internally? Does it mean that they have to change their scheme a little bit? I don’t know. It’s all things that I think Kenny is working through and this front office is working through. And I just don’t think there are a lot of easy answers when it comes to that when we’re talking big picture stuff.
Ethan Sands: Yeah, Chris, I agree with you. And it’s part of the reason why throughout the entire season I’ve been talking about the short leash that Craig Porter Jr. Has had with Kenny Atkinson and the different kind of belief it has shown when it comes to how he’s managed his rotations and his minutes throughout the year because it just doesn’t feel the same level of belief that they have in someone like Jaylon Tyson.
Chris Fedor: Right.
Ethan Sands: And that’s why I look at him. When you talk about someone that might need to step up even more and be more of a consistent threat at the offensive end of the floor, especially on a nightly basis, if opposing teams are going to take Donovan Mitchell away. And obviously we know Donovan tonight. And almost every time Darius Garland isn’t on the floor, he gets put into the de facto point guard role, begins to try and force things when it comes to getting off the ball and passing a little bit more than he usually does, which can lead to a game like tonight where he has six assists but then also has eight turnovers.
Chris Fedor: Eight’s way too many. Eight’s way too many. Donovan knows it, but it was not, you know, a great, great Donovan floor game, let’s, let’s put it that way. And, and when he’s going to be the guy that, that takes that responsibility and has to slide to the point guard spot like that, that can’t be how, how the offense functions. He can’t have that many mistakes. It’s too detrimental to this version of the Cavs.
Ethan Sands: So, Chris, let me end very quickly on a positive Note. Larry Nash Jr. Played tonight. Larry Nash Jr. Has some good minutes tonight. I liked how he played in his 12 and a half minutes. He was a plus 14 on the floor. It was probably the best that he’s looked, obviously, since he’s been back, as it was only his second appearance since being back. But I think Kenny, who has talked about the depth of, especially the front court, finally going back to Larry Nance could be a positive sign. It could have been just something that they knew they were going to need, especially if they were just going to be missing from deep when it comes to the Charlotte Hornets. The other good news that I wanted to mention before we wrap up today’s podcast is with tonight’s win, the Cavs bump up to the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. They’re 25 and 20. They’re now eight and a half games behind the Detroit Pistons in the first seed, and they’re only a game and a half back from the third seed, which is now held by the New York Knicks. As we said on this podcast, there’s a lot more to do for this team. There’s a lot more room to grow, and there’s a lot more season to be played. And as they go home to play the Sacramento Kings and travel to Orlando to play them and then come back to Rocket arena to play Orlando again, it’s going to be very interesting to see how this team and the dynamic of it play out over the next week and then arguably the most hyped up game of the season when Los Angeles Lakers come to town. But we’ll have to wait till we get there to talk about that. So with all that being said, that’ll wrap up today’s episode of the Want and Gold Talk podcast. But remember to become a Cavs insider and interact with Chris, me and Jimmy by subscribing to Subtext. This is where you can send in your weekly hate cruise questions. We’ll likely handle those tomorrow, so make sure you get them in and send in your name, city and state so we can give you a shout out on the pod. But the only way you can do that is signing 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 don’t like it, that’s fine. All do you to have have to do is text the word stop. It’s easy, but we can tell you that the people who sign 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.