Podcast Episode 89: Raptors, Rants, RAPM, and Reality
2016-02-29https://soundcloud.com/ctb-5/podcast-episode-89-raptors
After taking our lumps as Cavs fans this weekend (make sure you read Robert Attenweiler’s recap of the Washington beatdown), Tom and I limped to the podcast booth to discuss the Cavs’ two point loss to Toronto and their thumping at the hands of the Washington Wizards. We didn’t know what to offer other than commiseration and questions. So we talked about LeBron, Kyrie, Kevin, Andy, “sleepy” Channing Frye, Ty Lue, leadership, and losing the buyout lottery. We spent a long time talking about plus minus stats: RAPM, RPM, APM, and raw plus/minus and came around to what they mean for the Cavaliers.
There’s a lot of links associated with this one. First, there’s Mike Longabardi’s troubling halftime interview where he notes, “our offense is our best defense.”
Then there’s the top five man lineups by RAPM in the NBA this season, by Jeremias Engelmann.
Finally, here’s a bonus pod: Tom Pestak on 1410 Wing AM Dayton Radio from Friday, the 25th, talking Cavs.
https://soundcloud.com/dayton-radio/tom-pestak-2-25-16
As always, we can be found above, on Souncloud, or on iTunes.
Also Mo is out for two weeks with his knee issue. Weird that he was available the other day, and now he’s out. The Curious Case of Mo Williams!
Mo is a curious character; is he going back to Florida for therapy?
Timo is back in the starting line up. Maybe this will help with the defense?
Wonder if this is a message to TT after going for a less than robust 2 pts and 2 rebound in 21 or 22 mins vs Washington. Also, Timo has had stone hands, but at least he is a big body to put in front of the opposing guards who have driven to the basket with such ease. The points in the paint have been the most concerning part of our deteoriating defense.
Brian Windhorst interviewed Jim Carey and Carey said that the Cavs still “have a chance” to win a Championship this year.
Jim Carey or Drew Carey?
I doubt either Carey has seen many Cavs games.
I’m sure Drew Carey watches the games. He’s a huge Cleveland sports fan.
Some NBA teams upset at Heat’s unusual buyout agreement w/Beno Udrih that gets them out of tax:… es.pn/1RBfowU — Windhorst
Udrih took less money to help the Heat out of a tax bind, and got nothing in return? (He’s out for 12 weeks after surgery, so who’s going to sign him?)
Something is fishy there.
To be fair, the Heat aren’t breaking any rules, that we know of. And SAS has done this before also. But I agree, does seem fishy. Not surprised with Riley though.
GOOD MOVE BY THE RAPTORS —-RAPTORS CAN “TASTE ” AN EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP —-BEEFING UP THEIR ROSTER TO MAKE A RUN AT IT ——-IS THERE ANY PLAYER STILL AVAILABLE—BUYOUT / CHINA LEAGUE / D-LEAGUE WHO WOULD SERIOSLY BE ABLE TO HELP THE CAVS ———-EVRYBODY PLAY G.M. AND START THROWING NAMES AT ME
Sure. Anthony Bennett!
Enough said!
(Well played Raoul)
Right on, ransack the Chinese league or call RAY ALLEN
The Toronto Raptors are waiving forward Anthony Bennett to sign veteran Jason Thompson for the season, league sources tell The Vertical. — Shams Charania
Going to steal all his GSW knowledge
We can sign Bennett for all his Raptors knowledge
And the circle will be complete.
Your moment of calm: The Blatt led Cavs lost stretches of 4 of 6 and 6 of 11 from mid Nov thru early Dec. Loses included Detroit, Toronto, and Washington. And in that order. And they were Kyrie-less which equates to 100s less ISOs.
They will be okay.
The Blatt-led Cavs also played much better defense than the Lue-led Cavs. How will they be okay?
Recently, they lost by 2 at TOR and without Lebron. My point is they had a rough slide (6 of 11 bad) and came out of it. You seem a bit panicked though.
Except LeBron played in the Toronto game. And if you think I’m panicked, it makes me wonder what you think of the players who are also criticizing the team? It’s okay to point to issues with the team, without being considered panicked.
They are saying the usual. Need to play harder. Nothing ground breaking.
Yep they lost by 2 to Toronto at home. Toronto is good. It happens.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14865943/jr-smith-says-concern-cleveland-cavaliers-extremely-high-another-loss
Here you go… JR: Concern is extremely high
He didnt say anything shocking. Certainly didnt call out names or the coaching. Its typical motivational stuff. We need to play better.
What exactly have I said that is shocking?
I said this isnt the end of the world. You said “How will they be okay?”. Sounded like you disagreed.
Okay, well I was responding to your comment that I was panicked.
Sometimes I honestly think that a CtB collective could run this team better than plthe powers that be.
True, except we would argue all day and not do anything!
Some guy on the radio just said Jimmer Fredette was more talented than Kyrie. Lol!
What show was TV63 on??
https://www.facebook.com/cavstheblog
FOLLOW US and share with your friends?
I’m gone for a couple weeks and we get a Facebook page? Man… I should go away more often… ;)
Big changes!
Nate switched hosting. (hopefully people are noticing better load times)
Nate bought a new mic – so he can torment Cols’ soul with the purity of high fidelity AUDIO DOOM.
I made us a FACEBOOK (glad we skipped the whole myspace thing)
Trying to wrestle the @cavstheblog twitter handle away from someone that doesn’t use it.
Nate’s been working tirelessly on updating the theme so we look less GEOCITIES
Robert’s interviewing journalism students for an internship here.
THINGS ARE HAPPENING
A question? Or asking permission?
More of a: is this how you promote stuff on facebook? SHARING AND SHARING AND SHARING?
Facebook!!! It’s 2016 and they are just getting Facebook. Funny. Is there going to be a CtB dating site too?
It already exists. It’s a geocities site, though.
LOL.
Ouch.
We deserve that, though.
If any women are CtB regulars, they will be real popular!
It doesn’t matter if we beat Indiana or not. If they lose one game at the end of the week we will have a podcast about how the Cavs suck again.
Wins and Losses aren’t really the primary concern – it’s how the team is meeting or not meeting the expectations we’ve placed on them. I’d most people would agree they are a great team that’s not meeting the expectations (that are extremely high – for a reason). Cols, I’m surprised you get so worked up by our takes but you don’t seem to mind the fact that the Cavs organization and players say things that reflect disappointment. You are upset I said “mentally compromised” yet LeBron made national headlines when he said after the Raptors game that the Cavs were… Read more »
I think its the way you guys phrase things. No win ever seems good enough and every loss is a reason to act like this is the worst team in the world. Like I’ve said there are legit things the Cavs should get better at but the ideas that are floated aren’t phrases like that. They are said in a way like there is no way the Cavs are winning a title in the next few years because of a random February loss with LeBron. I really think the Warriors have warped your minds about how NBA seasons play out.… Read more »
I mean – the Cavs defense since Lue took over, went from 5th to 15th in the league. The supposed defensive coordinator is actually saying publicly “we need to make shots” when his team is giving up the most points in a quarter this season. Most coaches, even if THE ONLY THING going through their brain is “Wish we could make some damn shots” will SAY “We need to get stops.” Shit, Mike Brown would be losing 45-44 at the end of the 3rd and they’d interview him and he’d say “We gotta get stops.” It was noteworthy because of… Read more »
If they lose to the Pacers they will be 11-7 in the Tyronn Lue era. The coach that built the win cushion over the Raptors for the “number one team in the East” is in Israel spending more time with his family. It’s funny Cols how you roasted Blatt and gloated about how great Lue was when the team went on that six game winning streak, and now you basically pretend Blatt’s achievements are Lue’s.
Cavs are awesome. This podcast not so much. I can’t believe I wasted an hour of my life
Two hours, Cols. Two hours.
Yeah but I listened to in on 1.5 time
FOR REAL?
Is ChipMunk Nate less grating on your soul than Normal Speed Nate?
For real. The overcast app rules. And 1.5 time doesn’t make you chipmunks. Just speeds things along.
We can all agree the JR Smith is awesome.
Nate hates David Griffin?!!!!! Getting from the disaster that was Chris grant to getting Shump smith Mozgov Frye LeBron Irving. Yeah. What a terrible GM.
Ugh. Get it together guys. This podcast is the biggest downer ever. And when you are wrong and the team makes the Finals just like last year you were wrong and the Cavs made the Finals nothing will change. And we will have to go through this negativity again next year.
Enjoy Griff while you’ve got him….I’m betting he’s gone after this season.
Did we say the Cavs weren’t making the finals this year?
If you actually think that then the tone on the podcast and the actual words spoken do not convey anything but doom.
I call it appropriate concern.
I didn’t think it was doom.
Look on the bright side.
If Kyrie morphs into Steph Curry or Prime Chris Paul over the next few weeks/months and the Cavs win the title you will forever be able to mock Nate for wanting to trade Kyrie.
For a Ring, we’ll all accept a future where you’ll have “i told you so” bragging rights.
oh. I wouldn’t say I told you so. The Warriors are really
Good and they actually are a threat to win it all this year.
yeah but if the Cavs DID win it all.
Come on.
You’d pay for http://www.cavstheblogdotcomwassowrong.com
igh. Cavs are not some flawed team.
Ok guys. Please stop with the Warriors love.
Nope. Jordan is better than Curry
And yes. Curry is awesome. Without Curry that Warriors team barely makes the playoffs.
The Warriors are indeed awesome. But the Cavs still have a good chance in the Finals. We did take 2 games from them last finals.
I mean just because you are miserable that the team is number one in the east doesn’t mean the Cavs aren’t enjoying themselves.
I do not see how they are mentally compromised? I see joy in winning lots of games and having the best offense since Jan 25th
I think we can all agree that Mozgov sucks right now.
Maybe Toronto was just angrier than the Cavs? Either way, I don’t see Cleveland playing with much emotion. It’s like they have their love for the game or their fury wrapped in bubble wrap for the playoffs. Obviously Golden State takes the opposite approach; they have just enough pissed-off attitude in combination with the fun — and it is easy to smile at what Steph Curry is doing. LeBron talks a lot about putting in the work and is often transcendent in performance but somehow got overly serious. Maybe four straight Finals runs will do that do you (obviously these… Read more »
Oh. So now Nate thinks a quote during a halftime interview is meaningful. As if the Cavs don’t have LeBron and that the team didn’t become a defensive beast last playoffs.
Leadership???!!! Do you know who the leader is?! It’s the guy who has made it to 5 straight Finals! That’s leadership. It’s getting to five finals in a freaking row.
Can someone post the ‘old man yells at cloud’ headline from The Simpsons?
As requested…
Thanks, EG! Too funny.
They do not need to scrap for their lives right now. Maybe they seem defeated because people
Like Nate go after them if they win or lose.
Marc Stein:
“Important addendum to the stat we shared earlier about LeBron James’ 5-for-47 shooting (10.6 percent) over the last 10 seasons on potential game-tying or go-ahead shot attempts in the final five seconds of regulation or overtime: The league average in that same 10-season span is 22.6 percent.”
So LeBron is maybe not as terrible as we might have assumed in those situations, but still less than half as good as the league.
He’s still literally the worst person to be shooting the ball in that situation
And he’s literally hit the two biggest buzzer beating shots in Cav’s playoff history….
Hey you two! The Cavs are in first place. Listening to this you’d think we were the lottery team of old.
Thx for pointing out the Cavs are in first place for about the 10th time in one blog. We didn’t know that.
Bill Livingston on Lue and Lowry Friday night:
“The puzzle was why head coach Tyronn Lue, formerly the team’s defensive coordinator, didn’t act like one and run so many guys at Lowry that he had to give the ball up.”
Oops, I didn’t mean to interrupt a Cols live blogging.
The takeaways??
That Cavs are guaranteed to make the Finals. Oh god. Now Tom brought up like Walton. Nate is probably salivating.
LMAO
Kicking myself for not finding a way to shoehorn Aaron Craft into this podcast.
Haha. Oh man. That might make me die.
Tom rules. All Nate wants to do is bash the Cavs.
You know Tom thinks Andy doesn’t suck, right?
Yeah. Tom is wrong there though.
Oh gees. Now Nate says the Cavs play like they hate each other. I do not see how he this this. And also the whole Andy thing is annoying. Fast forwarding.
Kyrie wants out because he’s tired of Nate and Lebron yelling at him. Brad Stevens will give him the nurturing he needs. Bill Simmons will ‘adjust’ him from a selfish, good stats/ bad team guy to the next Oscar Robertson.
Would Boston give three players and three top picks?
My “getting sick of KI” meter has been rapidly.
I don’t have the same problem with Love. I think he tries, but is not that good. A well designed O can get a lot of bang out of Love, and a good D can hide him.
A BIG WELCOME BACK TO EVIL !!!!!—-WE MISSED YOU—-HOPE YOU AND FAMILY ARE DOING WELL !!!—( YES THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS THAN WINS / LOSSES BY THE CAVS )
Thanks NOMAD! Good to be back…
Very true, NOMAD.
Welcome back !!!! A gaping hold in write-ups and in-game commentary without you. Thanks for all the fun and smarts you bring to this blog.
I’m sure Kyrie is a dear friend of Stephen A. The Cavs can trade KI to Boston for Isaiah Thomas this offseason – Ainge gets his superstar, and KI can get out of this terrible situation.
Nice to see you, EG.
By terrible situation you mean a situation where you are guaranteed to go to the Finals?
You heard Stephen A…..he’s not happy. He’ll be much happier in Boston.
Thomas?? I think not. Can get a lot more than that for KI.
OUR “BELOVED ” STEPHEN A AT IT AGAIN——” HAVE SPOKE TO KYRIE PERONALLY …..HE WANTED OUT OF CLEVELAND LAST YEAR ….NOT HAPPY THERE “…….OH REALLY STEPHEN —–ESPN HAS REALLY LOST ALOT OF THEIR ONCE CREDIBILITY
Yeah, he wanted out of Cleveland last year, that’s why he signed a 5-year deal to stay. Okay….
Haha.
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But there may be something to it. Don’t know if I buy that Kyrie wanted a trade last year.
But Kyrie signed his deal thinking he’d be The Man for the Cavs. Then 10 days later he found out he wasn’t, when LeBron returned.
After Blatt was fired, Windhorst said there were still issues in the locker room. He pointed obliquely to LeBron and Kyrie.
I think the issue is, is that “Screamin’ A” has appeared in too many gastric relief commercials.
Believe me, I hit the mute button or change the channel when he comes on.
I change the channel when Stephen A comes on the air.
Tremendous pod guys! I feel like Tom could teach a college level course on advanced stats…
Good to be back… and good to see that Cols never changes…
He did change though. Did you see how he’s panicking now? The Cols Panic Meter is Rising, like Batman!!!
Great to have you back, EG.
Yay!!!!!!!!!!!
We’ve missed you.
Thanks guys!
Okay, Cols… where are you on this scale?
He’s at defcon 420.
I’m at we are 100% guaranteed to make the Finals.
He’s somewhere between 6 and 7, but he’s acting like he’s at 2.
I’m at ‘The Warriors are going to roflstomp everyone, barring injury, so whatever’
Same place I’ve been at for at least 6 weeks.
Could an injury even derail them? Only to Steph imo. Maybe Draymond. Anyone else on that team could be out for the season and it wouldn’t matter. Andy’ll start draining 3s or something.
I think any injury to a starter would make them at least vulnerable. They were much more beatable with Barnes out earlier this season, and I don’t think much of him, particularly. If Klay, Green, or, of course, Curry went down in the playoffs, I think they’d have big problems. They can take some hits to their bench, though, for sure.
No one doubts that GSW is having one of the greatest years ever. So far. But in all sports there are plenty of teams that looked unbeatable, who wound up losing. Obviously that is not the way to bet, but don’t be telling us there is no chance.
There must be a lot of bedbugs in Oakland!
Haha Thanks, EG. Glad to have you back, my man.
And no, if I taught a college course on advanced stats I would get exposed faster than a Kyrie/Love pick and roll.
Thanks Tom! Good to be back
I’ve said this before, without Lebron this team would not even be a .500 team, let alone a playoff team.
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2016/0229/MinusLBJ.jpg
THE REMAINING SCHEDULE FAVORS THE CAVS—–BELIEVE THE HAVE THE 4TH EASIEST SCHEDULE IN THE LEAGUE THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON—-ALSO THERE WILL BE MORE TIME BETWEN GAMES TO ” ACCLIMATE THE PLAYERS AND THE PROCESS “—-WOULD LOVE TO SEE THE CAVS FINISH LIKE 20-4 —–WOULD INSTILL ALOT OF CONFIDENCE IN US FANS AND ALSO WOULD DO LIKEWISE FOR THE PLAYERS AND MAYBE ALSO HELP IN THE ” FEEL GOOD —LIKE PLAYING WITH YOU ” DEPT .——–GO CAVS !!
My biggest concern right now is the defense, that has disappeared since Lue took over for Blatt. I can’t believe what I’m hearing from the defensive assistant. I know I may be taking this a little bit out of context, but how can you say “Our offense is our best defense.” Huh?!?!?! How does this guy have a job? I don’t really think they have many problems on the offensive side. They can rely on their talent, at least until the finals, for that.
I think what he means by that is when they focus on the defensive side of the ball and get stops, that can lead to to pace, run outs, and energy on the offensive end. Hence, excelling on the defensive end will facilitate for them on the offensive end.
And that doesn’t seem to be improving their defense at all.
All this being said, there are some legit concerns, but it really only pertains tot he Finals
1. Can Irving turn back into the decent defender he was last year? I think so, but it would be nice to see it.
2. Can Moz be playable in the Finals?
3. Can Shump get back to being a huge defensive force? I think yes definitely
4. Can the refs please call some moving screens and not let the Warriors get away with mugging LeBron every time?
Uh oh!!! We know that we are in trouble when Cols panic meter rises.
Ha. Like I said, these are legit concerncs, but it only matters for the Finals. They will make the Finals no matter what.
WE’RE AT COLSCON 4! Down from an 8 year run at COLSCON 5.
COLSCON 5: The Cavs are young and all young players get better / The Cavs have LeBron and can’t be stopped / I Love Chris Grant
COLSCON 4: Can we please be good on defense again? Still making the Finals. / I Love David Griffin
COLSCON 3: OK. The Warriors are pretty good. I guess Curry is OK. But Draymond still sucks. Varejao too.
COLSCON 2: [Fetal position / having a Smeagol/Gollum conversation about possibly trading Kyrie]
COLSCON 1: THERMO-NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST
Nuts. I suck I suck I suck I suck.
FWIW: I haven’t forgotten the lessons of last season. I’m still picking the Cavs to make the Finals.
And I don’t think the Cavs should trade Kyrie or Love unless they get a superstar back.
I don’t think their window closes for a while – they got these guys locked up for a few years. They need to figure out how to play well together and become dominant.
Really?? Then when Nate starts spouting his nonsense about how much he hates the Cavs and love sucky players like BiyOMBo!@#$HJ!@IO$H@#IPU$H
Why don’t you say this stuff on the podcast? Or better yet, call me up.
Guess you missed the part above where biyambo is playing on the SECOND BEST LINEUP IN THE ENTIRE NBA. as Ben said above, he should be playing over Valenciunas.
Didn’t the Raptors go on like a 16-2 run when Biyombo came into the game?
From what I recall, Biyambo outplayed TT in that game. And he makes a few dollars less…
Also, there is only one team that can take us down and that’s the Warriors.
And the Spurs………………………………………………….
Nah. Cavs are much better than the Spurs. We will run them off the court.
They may win 70 games this year.
And the HAwks won 60+ last year. How’d that work out?
It’s much harder to win 70 games. And I don’t remember, have the Hawks ever been to the finals???… oh yeah… no. Meanwhile, the Spurs have won 5 championships in the last 15 or so years. How many have the Cavs won?
I think the Warriors have gotten into everyone’s heads around here. Just because they are playing like an unstoppable force does not mean the Cavs have to play that way in February. LeBron knows how to win in the playoffs. They will get it done.
Oh geez, now Nate thinks the Raptors are so awesome and Biyombo is the second coming. Stop it. He’s averaging 5 points and 8 rebounds and he’s not even playing in half the game, averaging 22 minutes. TT is a much much much much much better player than he is.
Come on guys. Get some perspective. Yes, the Cavs could be playing better. No the Raptors are not better. Didn’t we go through this with the Hawks last year???
Do not unlearn the lessons of 2015.
At this time last year, I think we could say Cleveland had the best record in the NBA since the January trades (whatever that date was). We have absolutely nothing similar to that to hang our hat on here. I honestly doubt you believe that, if the NBA Finals were played today, we would win more than 1 game against GS in the Finals. We would get thrashed. We aren’t improving as a team, and arguments can be made that we are regressing. Defensively we aren’t good and have shown no signs of being good. Offensively, we’re still waiting for… Read more »
What day does the playoffs start? That’s the day. Plus they just blew away the OKC on the road, yet somehow that doesn’t count anymore.
Oh and we blew out the Spurs a week or two ago, yet that doesn’t count anymore.
Does everyon’e memory only go back one game?
Can’t speak for anyone else, but my memory goes back far enough to remember the Spurs game was a month ago…
They didn’t flip a switch the day the playoffs started last year.
Leave it to you to miss the entire point of the podcast and to create your own agenda.
Cols repitition of tired narratives hves moved past amusing into the annoying. Likewise with hijacking threads. I try just to skip over anything he has posted, since you know it will be a varation of 2-3 basic flawed themes.
I guess I should’ve stopped after 35 minutes. Now Nate thinks the Cavs should trade Irving. And they are back to complaining about how awful this Cavs team is. A Cavs team that is far and away the best team in the east.
This idea that they can’t win a title is so bogus. Yes the GSW are really freaking good. But do you think any other western team would’ve beat the Cavs in the Fjnals last year? Nope. And they have this team set for the long term. Stop panicking.
Why do you keep bringing back the past?
I’m about 35 minutes in, and so far it’s not a bad podcast. I’ve only wanted to yell at Nate once so far!
I completely disagree about the team though. They look like they are having fun out there for most games. The Wizards game they didn’t, but it seemed like they just didn’t care about that game.
Cols – I usually agree with your mentality that everyone should “just enjoy watching this great team.” But what you just said – “it seemed like they just didn’t care about [the Wizards] game.” That isn’t a problem for you? How many times do the Spurs or Wizards just decide not to care about a particular game? That’s a huge concern.
I don’t know the answer to your question. But the fact is still that the Cavs are the number one team I the east.
That fact will have absolutely ZERO relevance in April.
I didn’t want Andre Miller, but now that the Spurs picked him up, I kind of want him. If that makes sense. But I want the Spurs Andre Miller, not the Cavs Andre Miller.
It totally makes sense, this comment.
Miller + Pop would be a nice package deal.
“A big part of the Raptors reaction is the spectre of Golden State. Because of GSW, top teams like the Cavs now have to not only beat their rivals, but blow them out. Or else it is somehow a failure.”
Or not get blown out by teams below .500. And not choke away leads to other teams.
It can’t simultaneously be the case that the Raptors are good enough to beat us and challenge GSW, and lthat us getting out scored by them during a 6 minute stretch when they played terrific is us “choking.” We didn’t choke. Raptors are a good team that played well. That is OK. Especially when the result of it was they barely beat us.
Yesterday was bad. I agree there. Said so in previous post.
Well I never said that the Raptors could beat us and challenge Golden State. Funny my definition of choking may be different from yours. When you give up a near double digit lead near the end of the game, you are favored to win, that to me is choking. Although, I think the officiating had a lot to do with it. Regardless, I was responding to your comment about GSW and how we are reacting to GSW, and we are supposed to blow away other teams, how about just beating bad teams? Or not getting blown away by bad teams?… Read more »
Yes. Yesterday’s performance = not good. KI and Love need to be able to keep team competitive against Wiz.
Agree to disagree about definition of “choking” ;)
In sports, a choke is the failure of an athlete or an athletic team to win a game or tournament when the player or team had been strongly favored to win or had squandered a large lead in the late stages of the event. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choke_(sports)
In sports, a choke is the failure of an athlete or team to perform as they normally would or should due to the pressure of the situation. This is mainly seen in golf or football with kickers, where it doesn’t take much for a swing to breakdown when under pressure. In basketball, free throws are the best example of pressure settling in. Basketball players don’t have time to think, the action is too fast. You rarely see pressure get to players in the NBA. One of the biggest chokes I saw involved Danny Ferry in a playoff game. He found… Read more »
A big part of the Raptors reaction is the spectre of Golden State. Because of GSW, top teams like the Cavs now have to not only beat their rivals, but blow them out. Or else it is somehow a failure. The Cavs led the Raptors on the road by 9 with 6 minutes left after playing a pretty medicore game, and then Lowry went nutso and we lose at the buzzer by 2 (again, ON THE ROAD). And the conclusion from all of this is that the Raptors can beat us in a 7 game series?? I don’t understand it.… Read more »
I’m not saying the Raptors beat the Cavs in a series, I would say it’s not a foregone conclusion. The Raptors beat the Cavs 2-1 head to head, and, frankly, have a better resume against good teams all season. Also, as Ben noted, they aren’t playing their optimal starting lineup, for whatever reason, and that has held them down to some extent. These things, along with Carroll being out, all indicate to me that the Raptors are no gimme in the playoffs.
And, like Arch says below, the Cavs have had some bad losses. They haven’t exactly looked dominant.
As usual, great podcast. Enjoyed Tom’s rant on RPM.
The Raptors are absolutely worth worrying about. When the coaching matchup was Blatt vs Casey, I didn’t lose sleep over Toronto. Now that it is Lue vs Casey, the Cavs are in trouble. Casey is a good dude and leader, but not a great Xs and Os/lineup guy. If Casey were to finally make the move to start Patrick Patterson and Biyombo, the rest of the league would be in trouble. He has finally dusted off James Johnson, but his determination to keep starting Jonas and Scola is undermining the team success. To Casey’s credit, he has varied his defensive… Read more »
Podcasts like this is why I love this site. Intelligent, rational arguments without the usual media narratives / hot takes. Possibly the best one I’ve heard and definitely worth the fangs! Thanks guys. A couple of points. – I think there needs to be a distinction between best players (overall game) and players who you build a whole franchise around. I think Green could definitely be considered top 5. But there are more than 10 players I would take ahead of him if offered my choice of any player in the league to start a team with. The player who… Read more »
If I get to the part where Nate says Green is a top 5 player, I’m done. Hopefully it doesn’t happen until near the end. Although maybe I missed it when I fast forwarded when Nate talked about how awesome Biyombo is. Even though he isn’t.
haha. OK. I will put it into a post. You’re right. Plus I was really shooting from the hip.
I had a panic moment this morning. I started thinking: Wait…it WAS Marcin Gortat right?
I probably got some other things wrong too. I said “regression” one time where I meant “matrix inversion”
I agree, make it a post if you can find the time.
And find Evil GEniunus,.
You found me…
Welcome back, Evil. Hope you’re doing ok.
You were SORELY missed. CtB is a great blog, but it’s an even better blog with EG on it. That yellow mug made me day.
Thanks Mike! I missed hanging with this crowd
Our deepest condolences to you and your family.
Thanks guys. Been a tough couple of weeks, but doing better… Appreciate all the support
Wow, Tom got worked up over RPM. I don’t really disagree, but that was fiery.
I loved it. I also found him to be properly excited. Haha. Tom, defending science with fervor!!!!
The VAST majority of people don’t really understand how these stats work, let alone have any idea how to calculate them(count me in that last group).
Not finished listening yet, but I agree so much about Toronto. The Cavs may well be able to beat them easily in the playoffs, but the Raptors have been better this season. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the Raptors in the finals this year – frankly, I think they’d give GS a better series than the Cavs.
Considering that the Raptors are currently in 2nd place not first place, and the team in front of them is our very own Cavs, I don’t think you can possible say the Raptors have been better than them this season.
They are essentially one game behind the Cavs, and beat them 2-1 this season. They also have just as good or better wins on their resume, and they also managed to compete with the Warriors both games, something these Cavs didn’t manage to do. So they have a very good argument for being better than these Cavs. (So far — they may well take the top seed in the East, too)
1. I do not think it matters if the Cavs are a #1 or #2 seed. LeBron knows he can win as the #2, see last FREAKING YEAR
2. I do not think the Raptors can catch us. They also got blown away last night.
DOES EVERYONE FORGET 2015????
You can’t seriously think this season bears any resemblance to last season.
This team looks nothing like the team that went 32-7 and blew away even quality opponents on a regular basis.
And the time for that to change is running out.
If we would remember 2015 might as well crown GS as back to back champs already