Podcap: Boston 110, Cleveland 88 (or, Still Fresh. Still Pure.)
2019-12-10Our subtitle doesn’t have much to do with the game, but as we took a tour of what ails the Cavs and the NBA we tooted our own horn a little bit that we’re still here, and still fresh since 2008. In an era where the media, players, and the Association itself seem flawed and unable to protect the game and their brand because of their inability to be honest with themselves or look beyond the hot take du jour, we’re still here unadulterated and unsponsored speaking our minds, staking out uncomfortable opinions, and not caring who we piss off. We’re still pure… and completely full of ourselves.
Drunk on laughter and scalding takes, we three blowhards, Ryan Yankee, Nate Smith, and Tom Pestak, gathered in the podcast booth for our most disjointed podcast in years. As Tom and Ryan dropped in and out we took on an array of subjects: the game, Kevin Love, Depression, Pickup Basketball, Sexland, the Cavs’ lack of size, the ridiculousness of the National Teambuilding Association, officiating woes, the scourge of flopping, and so much more. We had a long talk about the NBA’s ratings plummet and what ails the Association and even forced ourselves to name a couple things we love. Tom spun a tale of home improvement disaster and Nate and Ryan tried to pick the Cavs’ best starting lineup.
As for the game, it took a bit of a back seat as the Celtics ripped the Wine and Gold and Sexland pitched another stinker as they combined to go 8-25 with five assists and 17 points. They were -30 and -31 on the night. Meanwhile, Kevin Love struggled and looked very passive, but at least got the ball, even if he didn’t do much with it, shooting 3-12. Tristan Thompson led Cleveland with 17 and 12, while Clarkson came off the bench to drop 19. Kevin Porter Jr. had four huge dunks and Collin Sexton got blocked four times and had his double digit scoring streak broken.
For Boston, Daniel Theis set a bunch of illegal screens and Tatum, Kemba, and Jaylen Brown combined for 61. After building a 29 point lead, Cleveland came back on the Celts, closing the third strong and going on a 14-0 run before Boston righted the ship. At least Cleveland competed, even though someone needs to figure out how to help Kevin, and how to shoot. The Cavs made 36-91 from the field and 7-31 from three.
Cleveland takes on the Rockets Wednesday who will be salty after losing a buzzer beater to the Kings last night. Until then, don’t forget that Adam Silver is a feckless weiner, and go Cavs.
Listen below, on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Tunein, or Spotify.
Oops. Forgot to ask, does anyone think things could get so bad that coach B could be in trouble this season?
If so, what does that bad look like? 10-40? Worse?
Really think that depends mostly on what Dan thinks of him. We don’t know for certain whether it was more Koby or more a Dan hire. In any case, I don’t blame Beilein for much this season. They could have Pop and the Ghost of Red Auerbach coaching and they wouldn’t win 30 games.
But if they get their doors blown off by 30 with frequency, he might get canned whether his fault or not.
Well, if those reports are right, I hope all the Love-bashing stops. Knight has a legit beef. He is likely our best two-way guard, and never plays because Sexland + KPJ. JC is a bit surprising. He is having his best year in Cleveland in my view. Looks like he is trying to fit in more.Sexton just comes off as a clueless egomaniac. What is he upset about? Not getting sent to Canton? I would keep Love, TT, LNJ, Windler, & Porter. Probably Henson & Delly at reduced rates. Too early to give up on Garland. Everyone else can go,… Read more »
Well, it’s also possible Love was one of the gripers…he seems pretty fed up on the court lately, but that could be a matter of playing with Sexton/ Garland. I really hope the experiment of playing those two together is over. Garland has a better chance of finding a groove if he’s actually playing (and defending) PG…same with Sexton, really.
The Chase Down pod had Chopz on the other day…they brought up who the ‘Chatty Patty’ guys on the team might be. Chopz said he had a source he considers trustworthy tell him the guys who were griping were Knight, Clarkson (no surprise here, I assumed both of those guys), and…Collin Sexton. The hosts more or less said they had heard the same names. Appreciate how hard you play, Collin, but you’re a long way from knowing it all about the NBA just yet. Cavs can’t trade JC soon enough. He’s one of their most effective players, but he’s also… Read more »
I’ll take the info on the sources with a grain of salt. But if it is true, it does not bode well for Sexton ever being much of a team player. He already won’t or can’t pass and shows little understanding of how to play the game at this level. I hope he doesn’t think of himself as “the man.” Because he is light years away from being an efficient number one option. Knight wouldn’t surprise me considering he’s been stuck to the bench. Clarkson does a little. But regardless he seems to have tried to fit within a team… Read more »
THANK YOU NATE FOR THAT ” DANTE ” POST—–YES HE UNDERSTANDS ALL THE INTANGIBLES OF BEING A “COMPLETE / TEAM PLAYER ” WHERE AS OUR DRAFT PICK OF LAST YEAR —WHO WAS TAKEN WAY BEFORE DANTE SEEMS INTENT ON 1 ASPECT—SCORING —HOPE THIS COACHING STAFF IS DOING THEIR JOB AND TEACHING HIM WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A COMPLETE PLAYER …………..HAVE TRIED TO AVOID THE “ROOKIE WATCH ‘ OF THE PAST 2 YRS …..AND STILL TRYING TO STAY OPTIMISTIC —/ HOPE I AM WRONG ……BUT THE CAVS MAY HAVE “WHIFFED ‘ ON 2 TOP 10 DRAFT PICKS
Finally reaching end of podcast (children and interruptions…), just had to mention our similar experiences to Tom’s, having bought an old house earlier this year. Through all the renovations, we’ve been shocked at the crappy way so much of the house was put together by the original owners. Lucky to have had some quality tradespeople identify problems, saved me touching live wires or walking on tiles that couldn’t have held a cat. Respect for Dad Talk.
CtB’s Ben Werth called this a year and a half ago.
LOL
Don’t see how Blazers can go forward with Lillard, CJ, and Love contracts. Just makes no sense. I don’t see it.
Great thread
Current NBA is trash.
Too many teams playing clueless youngsters. Tanking. Every game is a 3PT shooting contest or ticky-tack flop contest (amongst guards anyway). Officiating is terrible.
Been watching since mid-late 70s and this is the worst I have seen. By a mile. Though Bad Boy/Knicks 90s was tough. Had MJ, Shaq, Dream, Magic, etc to get bye.
The very early 2000s and late 90s were ugly. At least teams could score a little in the early 90s even with all the rough housing. The late 90s and early 2000s the hand-checking was truly out of control. You still had the beat-em-up inside play as well, though not to the extent of the late 80s and early 90s dirtiness. In 1998-1999 you had one team that averaged 100 ppg.
Great podcast guys, I was laughing like a crazy person stuck in the evening commute. With all the sh#t going on in the world it’s a luxury to listen to some hometown boys shooting the sh#t instead of spreading it. The Cavs suck, but the CtB community is first class.
Thanks!
I crave the podcasts over all else. I’m not sure these guys understand how amusing they are, or how good their analysis is.
Thanks guys, and I defintely agree about the ones I’m not on (hard to rate myself and not feel lame). I gotta super bummed about some bad Cavs losses a couple weeks back and so went into the CtB archives and listened to the podcast from the night of the ’16 podcast. Helped cheer me up and regain perspective. Anyways, I look forward to doing more of these, especially knowing people lusten and enjoy! (I waa a musician for long enough to be used to people hearing, but not listening, heh). And I like Nate’s idea of welcoming other guests.… Read more »
Thybull killing it for Philly right now. This seems unfair.
The Cavs could have taken him. He wasn’t some top secret prospect. That’s why franchises stay terrible.
Unfortunately he was an unlikely pick at 5 and he was gone before 26.
I was really hoping tge Cavs were going to have a shot at him at 26.
To anyone that has followed prospects. Are any there prospects above 6’6″ that seem a lock for the top 5 other than Wiseman and Ball?
TheStepien is the best website for draft coverage now.
None of these guys other than Wiseman do much for me.
We lack shooting, size, defense, rim protection, and good PG play. In short, we stink. I agree Sexland needs split. But the options are all problematic. Delly can pass, initiate offense, and has slightly better suze. But his shot is AWOL & I doubt he can play big minutes. Porter cannot shoot. Clarkson has better size & can shoot a bit, but is awful on D and a chucker. Knight can shoot and initiate a bit, but is still chuck-ish and small-ish. We have 2 or 3 starting quality players. All of them are natural PFs/small Cs. Love wants out… Read more »
We’re bad. I’d like to see if a lineup change does anything before selling so low on Love. It won’t hurt either guards development to get around 25 minutes off the bench. It probably would help Garland. But the Sexton Clarkson pairing could be problematic. Hell, throw KPJ in there if necessary. Try anything. Keeping this experiment going is totally disheartening to me from an organizational level. If it’s the coaching stubbornness it’s bad. If it’s a mandate from the front office, it might be worse.
Others are calling for a change.
https://www.cleveland.com/cavs/2019/12/cleveland-cavaliers-time-to-change-the-starting-lineup-chris-fedor.html?outputType=amp
If we were to take his suggestions seriously, advanced stats say Delly for Garland is the obvious move, but the metrics of that potential lineup are statistically useless. There are also interesting, albeit also statistically useless, lineups involving benching Sexton and Cedi for KPJ and Clarkson, benching Cedi and Love for Nance and KPJ, and benching Garland for Clarkson. But at the end of the day, the actual change that needs to be made is trading Love ASAP. His press scrum yesterday was shameful. Pouting, mumbling his answers, wouldn’t look the reporters in the eye. The stark difference in effort… Read more »
I would rather bench Garland or Sexton for the rest of the season than watch this team plunge into oblivion. They are years away from being any good. And I highly doubt they are ever going to work together at a level good enough to make the playoffs and get out of the first round. At some point one is going to have to go to the bench or be traded. You aren’t ever going to have close to a competitive team with both in the starters. They aren’t Lillard and McCollum. I don’t see the skillset, and combination of… Read more »
watched 2nd half of this game and its the elephant in the room – the Cavs dont have good shooters – even what could be considered their best one (Garland) is too passive and bit small to navigate his way around. Sexton looks like 2nd coming of Clarkson. Love wants to leave yesterday. If I’m Cavs I move Love quickly and then focus on Clarkson. Once latter is gone I move Sexton to bench. Have Delly and Garland play together. Also get KPJ to work on mid range jumper. He is awesome slashing/kicking but has no outside shot. If Cavs… Read more »
Partially a size issue, imo. The guys are too short to get their shot off consistently. Also, sexton’s new stroke isn’t working. Delly fell off a cliff and Cedi is wildly inconsistent. The Cavs best shooter is Larry Nance…
JASON–I TRY TO BE THE ETERNAL OPTIMIST –SO I KEPT HOLDING ONTO THE HOPE THE CAVS WERE A LEGIT RAN OPERATION –BUT HAVE TO ADMIT MY OPTIMISM HAS WANED WITH THE RECENT DRAFTS / TRADES / NOT RESIGNING GRIFF / HOW THEY DO / DON’T HANDLE INTERNAL PROBLEMS / ETC .– HOW THEY DON’T DEVELOP PLAYERS AKA: SIMILAR TO THE BROWNS——-INDIANS IN MY OPINION ARE ONLY CLEVELAND TEAM TO REALLY BE ABLE TO FIND / DEVELOP YOUNG PLAYERS ……WILL STILL ATTEMPT TO STAY POSITIVE WITH THIS TEAM / ORGANIZATION—- MAYBE COME LATE JANUARY ARE FEELINGS AND POSTS WILL HAVE A… Read more »
Good podcast.
We all have to get used to thefact that we are one of the worst run organizations in the league (Knicks, Cavs, Wiz, Wolves).
Hence, rebuilding through the draft, player development, and shrewd FA signings will not work for us.
Looking forward to the day when you guys do a live pod, so we can all google the data you need and post it for you in real time. And give Nate the name of the person he is thinking of.
Love to have you (or anyone interested) on one.
One of my favorite basketball sites, aside from one or two deranged sociopaths who insist on crapping on everyone here. Thanks guys.
Going to avoid the name calling. Someone needs help. I wish he’d get it.
My choice has been to not engage and delete when it becomes spammy. It’s not worth getting upset over a person who is struggling. I’m trying to have empathy.
You’re taking the high road,and that’s great, but I’ve seen loons like this bent on destruction going back to early Usenet days. He’s not going to seek help, he’s going to crap on this site whenever he feels the urge.
Only way to deal with these nuts is to IP ban them.
With VPN tech that’s like whack-a-mole. We may end up having to go to a login system. Which would suck.
Yeah, I get it.
I remember suggesting this to Tom a few years ago. I then got to know WordPress, and realised that it would not be a simple thing. Also a bit exclusive – hard for new followers to just drop in to a conversation before they are “hooked” on the site. Who’s gonna create a login for one potentially throw-away comment (probably my approach first time I visited the site). Difficult issue. My approach has always been DFTT – Don’t Feed The Troll – and give them total silence, since it’s the reaction they crave. I think CtB current approach is pretty… Read more »
We should start Delly and Clarkson!! That’s the level of analysis by dumb Nate.
Get help
Seriously, this is unhealthy. There is trolling, then there is internet stalking…but this is starting to look like a full on mental break.
That time of year. Really. Whoever this is, whatever is going on in your life, definitely reach out to people in your life.
HAVE NOT BEEN WITH YOU GUYS FROM THE VERY START—-PROBABLY JUMPED ON BOARD AROUND 2010 ——CTB IS MY –” MORNING CUP OF COFFEE “—-” MY AFTERNOON SNACK “—–” MY LATE NIGHT NIGHTCAP “………FOREVER GRATEFUL FOR THIS VENUE —ALL THE MEMORIES AND FRIENDS I HAVE GARNERED OVER THE YEARS !!!!!………..ALL YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!!!!………..LIKE THE MRS NOMAD AND MYSELF –( WE HAVE BEEN TOGETHER OVER 45 YEARS …..YES SHE IS A SAINT !! ) ——OUR OPINIONS VARY —PROBABLY STILL ON A DAILY BASIS …..BUT THIS ALLOWS US TO GROW …………SAME HERE AT CTB OUR OPINIONS WILL NOT ALWAYS BE THE… Read more »
Thanks Nomad! Im grateful for CtB as well
Thank you! Means a lot. Appreciate your readership and kinship immensely.
Yeah. Been reading since the Krolik years. By far the most in depth analysis out there in Cavs land.
CtB is awesome. Great analysis, fun and varied voices, exponentially better than the peanut butter coverage done by traditional outlets. Plus the writers do this out of fandom and I’m sure have real jobs and responsibilities.
Echo this. Keep doing what you’re doing. Takes a lot of heart to keep putting out great content in this slog of a season.
Seriously, thank you all.
^^^^this post, so much.
Nate should be cannonized after this season. Full on Cavs Sainthood for keeping this all together day in and day out.