Live Thread Cavs @ Pelicans
2021-12-28The Cavs travel to The Big Easy to take on the New Orleans Pelicans in a “Hybrid League Showcase” (h/t Adam Cathcart!). There was some good news on the illness/injury front, with Isaac “Ice” Okoro and Evan “the Professional” Mobley upgraded to questionable status before tip off. Unfortunately, the Cavs have lost their best offensive player, Darius Garland, to Health and Safety Protocols. Luckily for the Cavs, Kevin Love is playing some of the best ball of his career, and Ricky Rubio is never one to shrink from a challenge.
The Pelicans aren’t without their struggles with health missing a slew of key guys and of course superstar Zion Williamson. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has completed his full heel turn as a David Stern disciple, forcing this season through hell or high water.
Tip off is scheduled for 8:00PM ET and will be broadcasted on Bally Sports Ohio/Great Lakes, GO CAVS!
Recap up
Again we are not trying to find a guy who can score 20/game (although that would be nice time to time), we just need a vet who can handle big moments and lead this young crew as the season gets long and other contending teams start to round into form.
Another viable guy is Jeff Teague who has started majority of his career and was just on the Bucks team that won a title. He’d be in backup role which he’s been handling lately and is shooting really well this season. Guys been an All Star before and played on contending teams. That might be ‘easiest’ way to right ship and not have team stumble for too long.
TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU LEO
LEO WAS THINKING THE SAME ON DRAGIC—-ALTHOUGH FOR SOME REASON HE HASN’T PLAYED HARDLY AT ALL FOR THE RAPTORS—–AGAIN ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT WE ARE GIVING UP TO OBTAIN HIM—-DO NOT TRADE THE FUTURE AWAY FOR JUST TRYING TO MAKE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR
i read Raps were doing a buy out so it wouldnt cost anything for Cavs…he’s not Rubio but the drop off isnt THAT much and he’s a savvy vet who can at least hold ship above water.
I think we want to stay under the tax line. Though if we can stay under next year, it will not matter. (Repeater tax can get nasty).
DG probably out a few more days, but curious how the Cavs will roll with Rubio now out for season just like Sexton. I’m not sure what teams thoughts are on Pangos, do you risk playing him more minutes, or try to get a vet like Dragic who can settle team down. This next month will be interesting for the team as they navigate halfway point/All Star break and possibly additional Covid cases/injuries. Last year when injuries happened this team completely fell apart. Hope JB and staff know how to handle differently this year. I think its in best interest… Read more »
I am voting with pretty much everyone about sitting tight, hoping to get into the playoffs for experience, but mostly working things out for next year.
I would certainly not go looking for a major trade.
However, if a major trade is offered, we might have to kick the tires.
For me:
Virtually untouchable = 3. Garland, Mobley, Allen. I mean, Giannis for Mobes? OK. Or Jokic for Allen. Beyond that kind of thing, nope.
Touchable = 6. Pangos, Davis, Rondo, Windler, Stevens, Wade. Not saying I want to get rid of these guys. Or that they cannot help us. Or don’t have potential. But if we need salary filler to make an upgrade happen, I am OK with that.
Interesting decisions = 6. Sexton, Markannen, Okoro, Cedi, Rubio, Love.
Rubio is the easiest. Try to sign him to a moderate, multi-year deal. Has a lot of miles, but only 31. No trade value with the injury/expiring contract. Top 5 player on team when healthy.
Okoro. Hold him. We need to find out if he is a starting level guy or not. Under contract for multiple more years. If that shot/handle improve a little, we have a hellava player, and a core 4. Plus, what we learn on Okoro informs the Sexton decision.
Love. Easy for me. Keep. He is ballin! His PER & Win Shares/48 are at top 10 in the league levels (not enough minutes to qualify). We’ll never get equal value. No contender can fit his salary in (unless you want Russ?). He likes JB & Rubio. Revisit next year. If he is still ballin’, try to extend on a discounted deal. Shooting & rebounding age well.
Cedi. On a reasonable contract. If the shooting is real. He is valuable for us and other teams. I think there will be interest. Right now he is the only reliable wing shooter we have. I keep him unless the trade deal is super lopsided for us. Markannen. Find out if he can play SF long term or not. I have my doubts. That contract is an overpay. Not sure he has a lot of value. But he is a big who can space, so he has some. He is the rotation guy I’d be most willing to part with.… Read more »
Sexton. That is the big one. If Okoro looks like a long term fit at SG it gets simple. If Sexton is willing to be a bench scorer type, then bring him back & see if it works. But I have my doubts. Both due to Sexton’s contract demands and his lack of court vision & defense.
Getting value for him is tricky, too. He only makes $6 mil, so getting a well compensated player (Lavert, etc) is gonna require more guys. Plus he just did his knee. He cannot play this year. And could bolt for nothing next.
For me, I’d want to avoid bad long term contracts. If he seems willing to potentially accept a bench role and/or more moderate contract ($ or length), then I keep him.
If we wants to be a star/focal point, I trade him for whatever I can get. With some of the touchables or Markannen.
YOU MAKE SOME VERY GOOD POINTS JASON ON WHAT CAVS SHOULD TRY TO ACHIEVE REST OF THE SEASON———I WOULD ADD IN WINDLER —GIVE HIM THE MIN’S –CAN HE PLAY AT THIS LEVEL OR NOT———CAN VALENTINE BE COUNTED ON TO CONTRIBUTE–CONSISTENTLY—–WILD CARD —IS THERE A ROLE FOR JUSTIN ANDERSON ON THIS TEAM SPOT MIN’S –9–14 MIN’S // GAME ——-I GUESS YOU PRETY MUCH SAID THAT WITH YOUR “ROTATIONAL ” PLAYER POST
Agree on Windler.
I mostly want to use this year to evaluate what we have.
Valentine is gone. He is in the Rondo deal.
Some help on the wing would be great.
I like Goodwin more than Anderson. If I can only have one, I want Goodwin. Anderson seems a bit redundant with Stevens/Okoro. I’d rather give those minutes to Windler.
Hate hate hate the Rubio news, sucks! Just need to maintain and develop this year though, no need to panic do anything
Brutal news. Hopefully can sign a veteran to handle backup PG duties
TIME TO CALL DELLY UP OR THE MIGHTY QUINN
NOOOOO!!!
SO ARE THE CAVS “FORCED ” TO MAKE A TRADE——JUST DON’T WANT THEM // KOBY TO “MORTGAGE ” THE FUTURE JUST TO BE COMPETITIVE FOR A PLAYOFF SPOT THIS YEAR ——OPINIONS
I agree…fill the guard role as best you can for this year and get ready to run it back without changing pieces next year. Dont worry too much about playoffs. We have a decent head start thanks to Ricky’s heroics to get us to a play in game
No. It was unlikely we were a title contender this year anyway. I am not trading anyone in the top 9 (DG, YB, LM, EM, JA, RR, Ice, CO, KL) who wants to be back.
I do 3 things the rest of the year.
1) Develop the chemistry between and individual games of our core 3 (DG, EM, JA). Just how good can they get individually & collectively.
2) Evaluate the semi-core pieces to see ehat we have. Are Ice & LM the answers at SG/SF or not? Is Cedi’s improvement real? Is Love back?
3) Are any of the other guys players we want to keep around? Rotational or 11-15 types or not quite good enough? The guys on rosyer plus whomever we get to fill in for RR & YB.
If we make the POs, fine. It will be great experience. If not, maybe we get some litto luck. If we did, LOOK OUT.
Wholeheartedly agree. Extending JB actually might turn out to be really important. He is not longer coaching for a contract and can coach like he knows he belongs…playoffs or not we have a large enough sample size of his system working like gangbusters with this current roster.
This will be a big test of Altman’s feeling about his own job status though. Sitting put with a home court playoff series well within reach (and the extra $ that could mean for ownership) might prove too enticing not to reach for
D.A.M.N……….” MORE FRIGGIN BEER PLEASE “—-PRAYERS WILL BE WITH YOU RICKY ON A COMPLETE RECOVERY
Team needs to rally. Ricky is a huge loss in leadership and steadying the ship, Love needs to step up more than ever and DG going to have to grow up fast. I think both are capable to do so. Ultimately I believe Allen is the team leader, again he’s going to have to stand taller than ever. Go Cavs
Need to add like 5 more PGs just to get thru the season
No surprise, but this sucks so much.
Brutal.
PD: Cavaliers sign guard Malik Newman from Cleveland Charge to 10-day contract
Opportunity of a lifetime. Here’s hoping he runs wild with it
Signed him yesterday, before Rubio went down.
If Rubio is out for the rest of the season, gotta wonder how it impacts our trade deadline decisions. Lots of talk about the scrub PGs out there we could pick up to back up DG but what about trading CS for a genuine ball-handler/field general? Any thoughts on who might be available? Among the scrubs, I’ll quietly admit I’m intrigued by a reunion with Cavs Legend and Lebron favorite Isaiah Thomas — only because the idea of having three 7-footers behind him on defense could erase his main liability, and the dude can still score. But it’s probably still… Read more »
Doing a little scouring to try to answer my own question on PG trades. Brogdon if the achilles thing clears up? Buy low on Killian Hayes?
Dante Exum in Europe or Australia. I’d make that call ASAP.
If we deal YB, gotta get more than Hayes. Sexton’s salary is so low, it makes it tough. If I had to have someone to boost salary, I’d go Markannen.
for someone of similar size? Why ruin what has been so successful in starting the 3 big men?
agree. some people still seem to think three bigs are a bad idea.
So funny…I had the Isaiah Thomas thought too. This might be the only scenario in the league where he might actually thrive.
whomever it is needs to be a similar combo of shooting and passing (obviously not on rubio’s level passing wise…but there are some who shoot better to compensate). I would love Brogdon on this team…
I think the major issue with Thomas is he’s not a team guy and he doesn’t fit the culture that JB has managed to create. I’m so upset about Rubio I can barely think. Maybe I’m wrong.
Rubio’s injury gutted the team, they didn’t have a chance afterward. I suppose that’s the negative of being such a close team. You can see they all really care about each other. The only positive is this probably will make it easier for the Cavs to resign Ricky, which they absolutely should do. But that’s all conjecture. Let’s hope it’s not season ending and Ricky can be back on the court this season.
HEY BUCKAROO—YEP AS SOON AS I FINISH MY ” MORNING BEER “–AM HEADED UP TO THE “ROCK”—- LACE UP MY CHUCK TAYLORS AND “PUT ON A SHOW “—ESPECIALLY FROM 3 PT RANGE –( LEFT OR RIGHT HANDED )—-WILL NEGOTIATE WITH J.B. TO KEEP MY MIN’S BELOW 35 ……OR IS THAT SECONDS :-)
you can shoot 3’s with both hands?
just learned of sad event.. why was rubes playing 37 minutes in covid-emcumbered garbage game ? yes, injuries can happen anytime, but pushing 31 yr old legs is asking for trouble.. bick just pushed huge number of chips into the pot and rolled snake eyes.. stupido..
I dunno. Rubio hasn’t averaged a ton of minutes this year and 31 isn’t that old. A higher minutes game every once in awhile is to be expected in an nba season. I mean guys averaged 40 plus minutes all the time, even in the 60s when the average Pace stat was around 120 possessions per game per team, roughly 20 more on average than today. They posted a lot, but also ran a lot of fast breaks back then. Injuries happen. If Rubio would have been averaging 33-35 mpg on the season and it was on a back to… Read more »
He’s been a professional player since age what 15? He’s an old guy in mins played. not to mention he’s been in 3 or 4 olympics. It was CLEAR at the end of the 3rd quarter Rubio was exhausted. This is when injuries usually happen. Roll with your roster and win or lose. don’t eek out meaningless wins at the expense of rest for veterans
I hear you, Scotch, but I think this is 20/20 hindsight. If Rubio doesn’t get injured, there’s a good chance we pull out the win with him playing those last two minutes and then we’re talking about how well JB deployed the limited lineups he had. It’s fair to question the minutes, I suppose, but given how much trust JB has built up on this team, it’s hard to think he’s pushing players beyond what they, themselves, want to do.
I have been harping on JB’s lack of expanding the roster the whole season…so I would likely still be complaining lol. It doesn’t matter that we won’t win the chip…it matters that we establish a very non-Thibs style of play that can slot in new pieces relatively effortlessly and can carry us through tired legs and also for God’s sake covid roster blowups.
Agree with wbf. A win would have looked real good last night. If he had sat Rubio and we lost, all the second guessers would be griping about sitting Rubio.
THERE WAS DISCUSSION RECENTLY —I AND OTHERS POSTED ABOUT GETTING DANTE—-SIMMO POSTED HE ALREADY SIGNED TO PLAY OVERSEAS—-I WOULD GIVE HIM A CALL// UP THE ANTE // INTICE HIM WITH AT LEAST A 2 YEAR CONTRACT
yo NOMAD bro.. are you training for your participation in the soon-to-be-announced open tryouts at rocket mortgage field house ? cavs need a savior who can do it all.. you are the hops-man.. get ready.. i am psyched to see old man moses in the scarlett uniform..
NOMAD got more hops than an IPA!
Bout to see just how an important part Rubio was to the team’s early success. Going to be tough to find as good a playmaker as he is.
I was thinking today about how one of the things that has made the Cav’s big-ball lineups work is that they pair the 3-towers with really good passing PGs in Garland and/or Rubio.
Cavs made risk of not getting reliable guard/wing when Sexton went down, hoping Rubio would plug the hole. Unfortunately that risk is realized. Hope RR is okay. In the interim, the Cavs need to scour a reliable guard. I’m not sure Pangos is the answer (probably never was) but if Cavs want to have him run with Okoro until Garland is back, might get a little dicey. This was another game where Cavs missed Sexton. Getting out to big lead and then blowing it reminded me of last years team. There are still a few warts on this team but… Read more »
TOTALLY BUMMED ABOUT RUBIO —–COULDN’T EVEN SLEEP LAST NIGHT —WHEN DO YOU THINK WE WILL HEAR ABOUT HIS STATUS
Getting an MRI today, so I imagine later today. Betting it’s an ACL, which could be from a few weeks (rare), to multiple months – two to nine.
We’ll know all too soon,
Agreed, it has all the marks of an ACL.
Fred, Campy, and JB seemed pretty morose after the game. Not a good sign.
As someone who has had a severe lower extremity injury, you know when it is severe.
I am too. I read somewhere today that the Rockets have a pile of point guards and are looking to trade some.
Wall makes $40 million. We’d have to trade them Love + Cedi. No way I do that.
Wall wasn’t even in that discussion. For whatever reason, they have been using their pile of draft picks on point guards, and signed a couple more.
Rubio put no weight on it…held it like he felt something tear like when guys hold after an achilles…ill be shocked if it isnt season ending.
Just completely deflated with what happened to Rubio. Such a freaking bummer.
Seconded. I do not have a good feeling about that. I’d be shocked if it wasn’t season ending.
KD came back strong, but that is still the exception rather than the rule.
and recovery time grows with age.
Hope Rubio is okay, and isn’t out for too long. Looks like we will have to sign a PG to a 10-day deal for the time being.
JB didn’t seem too talkative in the postgame. That looked like an ACL on Rubio, just hope it’s the least severe. Rubio obviously knew it was no joke right when it happened. What a depressing game.
At first I thought he was trying to get a LeBron break.
Boy that was a bad turn of events. We’ll pray for Ricky, but that seemed really not good. Definitely a bummer that they didn’t have a 3rd point guard they trusted.
Kudos to Pelicans for super hot shooting in the 4th.
This is not on JB and minutes. This is just what happens in NBA action. He’s coached masterfully. Anybody would have ridden him in this game with Pangos as your only other option.
Yeah…he was on track to play 40 mins. You dont do that to a 15+ year vet of pro ball ever in a dtupid regular season game. You really dont do it to a guy who depends so much on stuttery cuts and jabs
ouch on the loss, some clutch baskets from Love were not enough — mainly thoughts and prayers for Ricky Rubio
All kinds of bad, but Rubio loss is devastating.
Let’s hope Rubio has a knee sprain, could be back in four or five weeks. Prayers.
What a costly loss, in more ways than one…
Season just went from most fun in decades to probably us falling out to the play in game with this one stupid game. No reason to overplay Rubio. The mins thing has been JB’s worst flaw…really bit us in the ass
It happens. Cannot blame that on minutes. You loose guys if you yank the guy with 2713/9 for Pangos with 2 minutes left.
Yes…it happens…when guys are tired or overworked it happens way more often.
What a turn. Crappy night.
Well, crap. We are screwed now.
That looks like two weeks best case scenario. Ugh.
That did NOT look good
Ran him into the ground this game cuz we dont have a ball handler worth anything. He was exhausted since end of the damn 3rd.
Such BS…
Well shit
OH NO. RICKY
Pels raining 3s. Down 2.
Crap
Jeebus
Pretty tired of watching Temple go scrub Fuego…
We don’t need Wade triples right now.
really missing DG right about now
And Allen.
Might have waited a possession too long to call that to
Missing DG clutch buckets and dimes