Podcap: Hornets 124, Cavs 97 (or, Rocketing to Retirement)
2019-04-10Welcome to CtB’s 200th podcast! On Channing Frye’s last night as a Cavalier, in the last quarter of the last game of the season, the smiling big man fired off one last flurry of fireworks… scoring 10 points in just seven minutes. He left the court to chants of “MVP! MVP!” from the adoring crowd at the Quicken Loans Arena Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (ay yay yay). The Cavs still lost by a wide margin, but you’d never guess given the rousing ovations bestowed upon Frye and his teammates.
To recap Channing’s launch into retirement, Nate and EG fired up the podcast rocket and climbed inside. We don’t just stop at his retirement celebration, but span the rest of the NBA to hit the DWade parade of long goodbyes in South Beach and the sudden (yet pretty expected and classy) Dirk Nowitski sayonara in Dallas. We also shoot over to Los Angeles where Magic hit the ejector seat button without apparently telling anyone… including LeBron, and examine the nearly final playoff picture. Stick around to the end to catch Nate’s story about his very own Kobe experience… in of all places, his elementary school girls basketball team.
Blast off with us and check out all the good stuff below, on Anchor.fm, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Tunein, and Spotify.
Thank you Coach Drew. You definitely had a difficult hand but made the most of it. Your 1 year losing record is still a better coaching exercise than Lue’s career here. Best of luck in the future.
Get Hammond here asap please.
Thanks to Larry Drew for the last several years, and especially this season.
PRTETTY MUCH SAW THIS COMING —-MAN THE ” DAY AFTER ” PROFESSIONAL SPORTS LAST DAY IS A “MASSACRE “——THANK YOU LARRY FOR HOLDING THE FORT DOWN DURING A CHALLENGING SEASON—–THINK THE CAVS WILL GO AFTER A YOUNG / ENERGETIC COACH / WHO CAN COMMUNICATE WITH THE YOUNG PLAYERS / HAS GREAT DEVELOPMENTAL SKILLS —- THE TACTICAL MIGHT BE “ON THE JOB ” TRAINING —-THIS IS WHAT HE —( BLATT ) — WAS HIRED FOR ” PRE -LEBRON “
Someone give David Blatt a call.
https://twitter.com/cavs/status/1116451224113557513?s=19
Ok then. You sort of knew what you had in Drew. Not a bad transitional/development coach. Now they really have to hit it out of the park. Go for Messina. Throw money at him. Or some other up and comer assistant who is a good communicator and tactics guy. Whoever it is they have to nail this.
Sounds like the Kings may go after Messina…rumor is that Messina is interested…
I get it. Young and up and coming team with a young and very promising core in Fox, Bagley, and Hield.
Nice podcap, guys. Still working my way through it. I think it’s worth acknowledging that one thing that made this year more fun was the train-wreck of the Lakers. Last time LeBron left we had to deal with both the crushing loss of our favorite son, but also had to watch his team take the Eastern Conference. That’s one reason why this year was much easier to handle, even with the bad record. While I wasn’t caught up in the schadenfreude, and I loved Magic Johnson as a player, at least we didn’t have to deal with the envy of… Read more »
Ah man, Larry Drew out.
Not sure if anybody said this yet but draft order tiebreakers will be determined tomorrow. Cavs have tiebreakers with Phoenix and Portland.
https://twitter.com/oldseaminer/status/1116444364056735745?s=19
AND YET DIVAC WAS JUST AWARDED A CONTRACT EXTENSION/ HIGHER POSTION IN THE ORG.———-WHERE ARE THE PICTURES VLADE……AND WHO ARE THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURES
Former CtBer Patrick Redford pulling no punches.
“If there’s a tiny silver lining here, it’s that Divac at least doesn’t have a draft pick to screw up this year, because he gave it up to acquire cap space, which was then used by Monta Ellis and Wes Matthews as leverage to sign better deals elsewhere… prepare for him to give Harrison Barnes $200 million.”
https://deadspin.com/dont-worry-the-sacramento-kings-are-still-dumb-as-dogs-1833975506
congrats to james jones –( another solid vet —like channing )—who added invaluable locker room presence ——OOOOPS——-YES MIKEO–AMICO HOOPS WROTE THAT UNCLE DAN LEAVING COACHING HIRE UP TO KOBY
https://twitter.com/oldseaminer/status/1116401365801164801?s=19
ALOT OF ‘DOWN ” TIME RIGHT NOW——ANOTHER QUESTION TO THROW OUT——KINGS ARE PROBABLY GOING TO FIRE JOERGER—-SHOULD HE BE IN THE ‘MIX ” FOR CAVS POTENTIAL COACHES
Really doubt it. I bet the Cavs either keep Drew or go young/ development guy, like Fernandez. I forget where I read it, maybe Amico (if so, take it fwiw), but supposedly Gilbert is leaving the hire up to Altman. Hard to know what he values in a coach, but if I had to speculate I’m betting he’s looking for a younger name.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing. It doesn’t seem like hoerger was all that well liked by the orgs in his last two stops.
Yey he did do a good job. Especially is Sac. Getting Memphis out of Grit & Grind was going to be tough as Randolph & Allen aged out, and the Chandler Parsons gambit failed.
Sac fired Mike Malone & look what he did in Denver.
I would have Joerger in the mix. Fernandez seems a good fit. But I also love the Pop tree. In this case, Hammond and/or Messina.
Aim high and go for Messina. Throw money at him. Almost certainly not likely to jump, but can’t hurt to offer.
The big question is usually high floor vs high ceiling.
I usually favor taking high floor ‘can’t miss’ guys who are rotation level guys at worst and could blossom into more. These kind of guys are usually high character guys as well.
But if you are well stocked with those types anyway, sometimes a big swing is a good idea. Especially if FA is not an likely boon for you.
And I sometimes favor the big swing with a lower pick. Nuggets with Porter last year.
“IF ” REDDISH HAS AN AMAZING SHOWCASE AT NBA COMBINE / WORKOUTS —-DOES HE NOW BECOME A PROSPECT OR ARE THERE STILL DOUBTS WITH HIS GAME / ATTITUDE/ ETC —–MANY SCOUTS STILL ARE CONVINCED HE STILL HAS THE BEST OVERALL TOOLS / TALENTS –( MAYBE OTHER THAN ZION )–FOR THE NBA GAME —JUST HAS SHOWN IT YET —-COULD BE ONE OF THOSE —” DAMNED IF WE DO—DAMNED IF WE DON’T “
I think I would need to see it another year at Duke. He has great tools, but his inconsistent shooting is problematic for me. We just didn’t get to see him get to spread his wings this year. Maybe he has it, but I don’t think you can judge that based off the combine. A team might see something different in a workout, but we as fans won’t be privy to watching that.
So as of now he slots somewhere in the 6-10 range for me. With him you would almost entirely be drafting on potential.
Trevor Magnotti sai earlier this season that Reddish’s mostly likely NBA outcome was as a taller Iman Shumpert, and that seemed so spot on to me. Not that that would be a terrible player, but I think the comp is good. Reddish is a guy whose game indicates he should stay in college another year, but he’ll be drafted high, so he shouldn’t. I hope the Cavs do not take him.
I would disagree with the comp based on shooting and size/length alone. I think Trevor Ariza is a better one.
Ariza would probably be his best case outcome, but yeah, I could see him as a mediocre version of Ariza. Just talking about most likely outcomes, not best or worst.
Same here… He’s 4 inches taller and a way better 3pt shooter than shumpert at the same point in college and entering the draft 2 years sooner.
My fault, just recheck numbers (I’m on cell) looks like slightly better numbers on slightly more volume.
He stinks.
IT WILL DEPEND WHERE THE PING -PONG BALLS LAND FOR THE CAVS —-IF THEY GET TOP 3 –THEN OF COURSE IT IS ZION / MORANT / BARRRETT ——AFTER THAT THEY REALLY NEED TO DO THEIR HOMEWORK / SCOUTING / PROJECTING OUT WHAT THEIR NEEDS REALLY ARE ———REALIZE IT WAS ONLY A FEW GAMES —-GOING INTO THE NCAA TOURNEY / EVEN INTO THE FINAL 4—I LIKED CULVER OVER HUNTER ———-HAVE CHANGED MY OPINION –( LIKE I THINK MANY HAVE )—THINK HUNTER HAS PASSED CULVER—–PROJECTS OUT TO BE A BETTER PRO——GAMES REMINDS ME SOME OF DEROZAN
And the rockets drop all the way to 4th in the West after being in second 2 days ago. Right now the their pick would be 25th though I think where you finish in the playoffs is a determining Factor. Let’s all root for a first round exit!
Are the playoffs? I thought even the playoff teams draft was based on regular season.
No. Playoffs have zero to do with it. Nor do TBs.
If teams have the same record, there is a coin flip. Lotto is subject to the drawing, non-lotto not.
2nd round ties go in reverse order of 1st rounders.
That’s not true. Nba champ always picks last
Golden State picked last in 2016.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_2016.html
It’s a bit concerning that people who cover the Cavs have been saying they are targeting a PG…I like White, but I don’t really like him at 3, for example…
Agreed… no way you can take White over Hunter, Culver, or Barrett IMO.
Agreed. I really think they need to target a wing if they don’t get Zion or Morant. Maybe even Barrett over Morant. I dunno. Undersized backcourts kind of scare me a bit.
The playmaking and feel of the game gives Morant the edge over Barrett IMO. IMO Morant’s can finish as well as Barrett around the rim, but sees passes even better while attacking.
But I wouldn’t be that mad with Barrett over Morant… I think Barrett’s safer in terms of size, development, competitively tested.
Agree with you Jason… I’d ranked them Zion, Morant, Barrett, Hunter, Culver, Coby White would be my top 6. Major drop off after that.
I think the scouting reviews I am looking forward to most are for are the guys that could be in the 4-7 spots. There is a very good chance we end up in one of those, which means guys like Culver, Hunter, Reddish, Little, Huichimara, the freshmen guard from Kentucky, and maybe Langford, though I am not real high on him. Hopefully draft express has some good reviews, though I don’t know if they are stilll doing those since Givony went to ESPN.
And I mean Keldon Johnson from Kentucky.
I like PJ Washington better on Kentucky. 6th or 7th is as low as we can go. For me: 1: Zion, 2: Morant, 3: Barrett; 4: Hunter. Then it gets muddy. Culver/Reddish have shooting issues but can defend like crazy. Maybe the PG from Vandy who got hurt. I do not think we take a PG unless it is Morant. Our playable wings right now are: Cedi, Nwaba, & Stauskas. That is our biggest position of need. Other than just overall star level talent (Zion). And people who can defend (any position) and shoot (especially frontcourt guys). Or an elite… Read more »
Washington is an ok prospect, but maybe a tweener defensively, based on lateral quicks and size/length? Probably big enough to be a good stretch four today on offense though. Some of these guys should definitely stay in college another year. Reddish, Little, and Langford definitely should in my opinion. Culver is interesting prospect if he figures out how to shoot and has a higher ceiling than most of these guys in that second tier if he does, but I am not convicted he is going to be a good shooter. Hunter just seems like he will be a good solid… Read more »
I think Johnson has the potential to be a high energy if not super quick defensive guard and excellent catch and shoot guy with a decent handle and slashing skills. He has some explosiveness, but he doesn’t seem superfast and isn’t an elite jumper. I do love his release on his j. Very smooth and fluid. Some people might have issues with his guide hand follow through, but it seems like it is totally perpendicular to his shooting hand and only guides, not pushes any. Not a super quick release, but quick enough for most catch and shoot opportunities. He… Read more »
Anyone know when the coin flip happens?
Haven’t seen a date posted anywhere, I assume it’s pretty close to the lottery…
May 14th according to NBA.com.
May 14 — NBA Draft Lottery 2019 (Chicago)
Vardon said that the “blind-card draw” to break the Suns/Cavs tie will be held “this week at the NBA’s Board of Governors meeting.” The full draft order will be determined by ping pong balls on May 14.
https://twitter.com/H_Grove/status/1115789530781704192?s=19
https://twitter.com/CavsJoeG/status/1115826391273152512?s=19
Jordan is the most “Cavalier” in the D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, & Aramis sense.
Yeah, wasn’t it AC’s farewell as well?
LeBron gets Magic fired 😁😁😁
I’m assuming Magic was referring to Klutch/ Rich Paul when he mentioned ‘backstabbers’. So you’re probably right in a sense. Still, laughably unprofessional on Magic’s side. People ridicule the Knicks, as they should, but the Lakers are the more incompetent and entitled organization.
Only a few minutes in, but if Channing can be shoehorned in as a replacement for AC, that’d be fantastic…