Live Thread: Cavs at Grizzlies

@jaymohr37 #jaymohrsports

How about the poor Cavs fans that missed out on seeing Marc Gasol last night? Only chance to see him!

— Bobby Na©hos (@BobbyNachos) December 14, 2016

There’s been an inordinate amount of talk about “Do the Cavs need a backup point guard?” or “How is Shumpert, er J.R. Smith, er DeAndre Liggins, er Kay Felder doing as the backup point guard?”  The reality is the Cavs have played very few non-Garbage-time minutes without either LeBron James or Kyrie Irving on the court.  Tonight might be a bad time to analyze much of anything about the Cavs, with the news that Coach Lue told the Big 3 to stay home, as in, don’t even travel with the team.  (That’s a bold move.)  But if you want to look out for one thing, try to determine how much more difficult it is for the Cavs spot-up 3 point shooters to get any good looks.  I predict an awful lot of forced 3s from Channing Frye and J.R. Smith with Richard Jefferson trying to put the ball on the deck to be a drive-and-kick guy.

Still, it’s a chance for the guys vying for a spot in the regular rotation to show something against the tenacious defense of the Grizzlies.  Former CtB Editor Colin McGowan wrote an amazing piece on the state of the Grizzlies.  [Click anywhere on that last sentence for the link to Colin’s piece] I recommend reading it in full, but here is my favorite excerpt:

If there’s one advantage to using fringe NBA talent as opposed to established players, it’s that guys on meager deals and their fourth team in two years will do anything you tell them to do. Steph Curry, or even Brandon Knight, can get away with some defensive loafing or launching a couple ill-advised pull-ups. Andrew Harrison, who was drafted 44th overall by the Suns in 2015 and played in Iowa last season, doesn’t have that kind of freedom. He needs to heed David Fizdale’s instructions as if his NBA career depended upon it, because it does.

Indeed.  The Cavs enter the Grindhouse and I think they’re gonna have a bad time.