Links to the Present: Cavs Alternate Universe Playoff Edition

After a rare day off, yesterday the NBA playoffs continued its relentless run with a series of Game 3s in the semifinal round. Links to the present follow, with attention to the teams that are now out of the hunt and preparing for next year, and a few notes on our favorite team. The post then concludes with a narrative that is an alternative history for the end of the Cavs 2021-22 season. Through that unorthodox lens, we revisit the Chris Francis & Nate Smith debate about the question of “stealth tanking.” 

Links to the Present

– The NBA draft order will be determined on May 17. The Association has a run-down of percentage probabilities of the top pick for teams 1-14.

-The NBA draft will be held on June 23. If this is the final calendar move that brings the NBA universe to pre-pandemic scheduling equilibrium, long may it be welcomed. The name TyTy Washington seems to come up the small number of Cavs 2022 draft posts already written up (like this one for ESPN), but I’m sure the organization is casting a wide net, as ever.

The 2021 @NBADraft Class balled out this season 🏀

Watch the best plays from this season's #NBARooks! pic.twitter.com/m1bEVBLaaS

— NBA (@NBA) April 30, 2022

-The Charlotte Hornets fired James Borrego and are looking for a coach. Local journalists have roasted team owner Michael Jordan for mismanagement. The Hornets were both exciting and infuriating to watch this year and a fun match-up for the Cavs. Kevin Love’s game-winning free throws in the “let’s just get out of here alive” game capped one of the wildest games of the year. Borrego was a Greg Popovich protege, hired in May 2018. In that, he’s about two years ahead of J.B. Bickerstaff on the timeline (J.B. got his first proper head coaching contract with the Cavs in March 2020). Since Borrego’s regular-season performance was generally solid, it seems he’s taking the blame for the Hornets crashing and burning in play-in games two years in a row.

Malik Monk apparently had negative reviews for Borrego from his time in Charlotte.

More ATO goodness from James Borrego as Malik Monk sends it into overtime — DHO 3 that Monk rips after a great screen from Zeller, lifts above Bam for the triple pic.twitter.com/KdoAR5n3Id

— Brian Geisinger (@bgeis_bird) February 2, 2021

-The Los Angeles Lakers are looking for a coach, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James are still on the roster, and interviews continue. Is Mike Brown, an assistant coach with Golden State, available?

The #Lakers coaching search is underway! 🔍@RealAClifton, @billoram & @DanWoikeSports discuss the latest updates on an all-new episode of the #LakeShowPodcast.

Full episode: https://t.co/sbRimbljTh pic.twitter.com/A0qbRShjiz

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) May 5, 2022

-Larry Nance, Jr. had an excellent first round with New Orleans Pelicans against Phoenix. He ended up plus/minus +17 cumulatively over six games, and had only a poor performance in Game 3, where he fouled out and went 1-8 (0-4 from three) from the field. Will Bjarnar’s deep dive on “unlocking Nance,” written just prior to the playoffs, is worth a read on the Pelicans’ SB Nation site.

I heard it from @CJMcCollum first https://t.co/k9wi6hk0jH

— Larry Nance Jr (@Larrydn22) May 6, 2022

– Senior NBA reporter David Aldridge suggests that there may be mutual interest between former Cavs big man and human hustle machine Isaiah Hartenstein and the Brooklyn Nets, at the mid-level exception level.

Isaiah Hartenstein made big improvements this year but the Nets should not be using their MMLE on anything other than a versatile wing. https://t.co/IoG6KDYqlw

— Billy Reinhardt (@BillyReinhardt) April 29, 2022

– Andre Drummond might end up anywhere next season, making something like $10 million. Believe it or not, there are NBA bloggers suggesting Drummond might be a fit for defense-challenged Charlotte should they move on from Montrezl Harrell and Mason Plumlee, along with potential new addition Russell Westbrook. Profoundly strange but always possible.

https://twitter.com/HeadbandNikola/status/1476717078803468289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

– Kevin Love lost out in the Sixth Man of the year competition to Tyler Herro, as expected, but he did so with class.

Everyone who knows me knows I love Tyler Herro’s game (and swag) – much respect on an incredible 6th man campaign. Best is yet to come for @raf_tyler 📈📈📈 https://t.co/vTTG0PxGEZ

— Kevin Love (@kevinlove) May 3, 2022

Love’s performance in 2021-22 was exceptional. Why he couldn’t get more than 10 minutes (22 seconds in the fourth quarter!) in the final play-in game against Atlanta when he could have matched up with his counterpart Danilo Gallinari (who played 40 minutes) is still a mystery to me.

Love posted a long retrospective on the year on his Instagram; here’s one particularly relevant passage:#

Sacrifice gives back more than it costs. For this team to make a leap – I had to sacrifice and come off the bench for the first time since my Sophomore season in the NBA 13 years ago. I didn’t fight it, I was hungry to have positive impact and produce like I always have. I’m thankful for JB’s transparency and trust. You allowed me to be the best version of myself. It’ll always be bigger than basketball with us.

Numbers don’t lie…so I’m gonna just list a few here. For bench players I led the league in double doubles. Broke a franchise record for 3pt FG’s off the bench. Lead the team with 187 3pt FG’s. Tied as the league leader in charges taken. As for my goal of being available – I lead the team in games played and outside of games missed due to covid – played in every game.

This post might be too much vanity for some because I was “only” the runner-up for 6th Man of the Year but it meant something to me to earn my respect back in a league and game that I’ve dedicated my life to.

We conclude with an unconventional piece of hypothetical journalism, influenced by Chris Lyden’s experimental approach, and allowing us to take one more run at the intriguing possibility that the Cavs “stealth tanked” the end of the season. Written as an investigation-style long read from a fictional alternate universe where the Cavs made it into this year’s playoffs, essentially it asks a variant on that age-old Cleveland sports question: What if?

From the Desk of Koby Altman 📝

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 24, 2022

On March 3 2022, as the end of the NBA regular season loomed, Cleveland Cavaliers executives should have been celebrating. The All Star Weekend had been a huge success, Cleveland was in the playoff hunt, and they had the clear front runner for Rookie of the Year. Instead, the Cavs front office had gathered to discuss what to do about a company secret that had become public. The subject of their meeting was a single game recap by Chris Francis on the website Cavs: the Blog, entitled “Hornets 119, Cavs 98 (or, Stealth Tank Agenda).” The recap, sourcing an idea from the blog’s editor Nate Smith, asserted that the Cavs front office might actually be trying lose games and fall out of the playoff picture altogether, so as to keep a first-round pick from the Caris LeVert trade with Indiana.

As the execs sipped paper cups of filter coffee or nervously toyed with Collin Sexton bobbleheads, Koby Altman stood up and brandished a rolled-up printout of the Chris Francis recap. Suddenly, he stabbed the essay with his index finger, pinning it to the boardroom table. “This needs to be dealt with,” he said. “We either shut this talk of a ‘Stealth Tank Agenda’ down and keep the plan on course, or we make the playoffs.” Participants in the meeting indicated that they had never seen Altman this furious, although those same sources refused to confirm or deny if they had been present during either the J.R. Smith soup incident or the Kevin Porter, Jr. locker incident.

For the duration of March 2022, the Cavs front office proceeded to compile top secret internal memos which outlined the origins and development of the “Stealth Tank Agenda,” as well as laying out steps by the Cavs organization to keep the idea from going viral. In part because Nate Smith had such an extensive track record of filleting previous tank jobs, calling out the “fraudulent environment”, the C:tB tanking thesis struck a nerve. The Cavs front office quickly dispatched dozens of sock puppets to the blog’s comment section (most of them posing as Warriors fans), employed specialists to transcribe Cavs: the Blog podcasts, and even hacked the group’s e-mail chats. Interviews with the group’s bloggers based in Europe, as well as one particularly sharp commenter in Australia, indicate that the Cavs may have sent operatives around the world in search of “kompromat” to use in the last resort, although in some cases Cavs: the Blog commenters freely provided this material in the blog’s comment section itself.

The Cavs organization’s 4th-amendment-oblivious approach to the blogging collective was ultimately changed thanks to an intervention from J.B. Bickerstaff. In a pivotal confrontation before the March 24 game in Toronto, the Cavs’ coach convinced Altman that this mass of surveillance materials (known informally as ‘the C:tB File’) would be more useful to the team as a steady stream of bulletin board material than as fodder for a PR counteroffensive. (J.B. also reportedly told Altman that the File had given him new motivation to improve his out of timeout play calls, but that C:tB’s calls to play Dylan Windler extended minutes were a bridge too far.) Altman agreed and the team began a win streak that would propel them into the playoffs.

Our reporting finally makes clear that the Chris Francis recap ultimately had the effect of blowing the whistle, and then pulling the plug, on the “Stealth Tank Agenda.” The Cavs organization was brought back from the brink of a disastrous path, and the C:tB File would prove indispensable in motivating the Cavs back into the playoffs for the first time since 2018.

Bulletin board material was helpful, but equally crucial to the organization’s playoff push was Evan Mobley. His ankles remained unturned, assuring him of “Rookie of the Year” awards and off-season plaudits. Rajon Rondo’s ankles also remained strong, and the veteran backup guard averaged nearly 50% from three with minimal turnovers and a new life as a one-on-one defender. Rondo’s resurgence was key piece of the playoff push, leading to the fan hashtags #RondoResurgent #RondoResurgency, #RickyRubioReincarnatedaasRajonRondo and then simply #RRRRR, leading fans to “rrrrr” in low rumbling unison whenever Rondo got the ball at home games, and, increasingly, in visiting arenas as the underdog Cavs picked up more fans. #LetEmKnow was nearly overtaken as a result.

Most importantly, the Cavs were able to hang on down the stretch, going full flamethrower against Orlando, Atlanta and Toronto. Lamar Stevens, rewarded with consistent playing time, tortured Atlanta fans with yet another game-ending dunk, leading the Hawks’ TV announcers to blurt out that “Lamar Stevens has gone the full General Sherman on Atlanta again.” (This unexpected reference to the Union’s triumph in the Civil War was a delight for Cleveland fans allergic to the display of Confederate flags, and an equally delightful play on the concept of “Sherman,” which had previously represented tanking, that is, as a reference to the more Ohio- or Michigan-built traditional World War II tank, in years gone by.)

Our reporting finally solves the question of why leaked Powerpoints of Koby Altman’s presentations to board members in early April 2022 included slides asserting that “‘Tank’ metaphors pertaining to the Cavs on all social media platforms were down 92% from the two previous seasons.” It also explains tweets from the organization’s official account showing how Koby Altman’s desk, littered with congratulatory missives and pixellated draft memos, had a sign on it reading “The Tank Stops Here.” It also helps to explain why Kevin Love described the Cavs as being “on a journey away from the bad end of the ‘playing meaningful games vs. the full tank’ spectrum” in a rambling postgame interview in mid-March.

Whatever the reasons behind the surge, Cleveland reached the five seed in late March, and in spite of a late-regular season loss to a Brooklyn Nets team going through extreme Ben Simmons drama, held on to that position in the standings. The Cavs took on the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs, flaming out in Game 7 with a 40-point Caris LeVert explosion in Philadelphia…

So that was fiction. No one at Cavs: the Blog has been under surveillance by the Cleveland Cavaliers organization, nor did any of these fictional meetings take place. But, in reality, is it possible that the Cavs actually “stealth tanked” at the end of this otherwise thrilling year to keep the Caris LeVert / Indiana first round pick? Readers will have to judge for themselves.