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NBA 2023-24


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The #Cavs are 18-4 since their “season ended” on December 15th.

They've played an incredibly soft schedule in that stretch. 

In those 22 games, only 8 came vs teams currently in the playoffs.
4 of those 8 were vs MIL (split), and 1 vs LAC.  The other 3 were teams in the 7th or 8th slot.
9 of those games were vs teams currently in 11th or lower.
13 of those wins, and 1 of the losses, came vs teams under .500.

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Well the Cavs just annihilated the Kings from start to finish and take #2 seed in the East, soooo talk all you want about scheduling if it makes you feel better. They just got Mobley and Garland back and are doing better than everyone expected. With Embiid out for a while, they should be a top 3 seed by the end of the season and a defensive force to be reckoned with in the playoffs. 

Edited by Dutchrudder
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31 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

Well the Cavs just annihilated the Kings from start to finish and take #2 seed in the East, soooo talk all you want about scheduling if it makes you feel better. They just got Mobley and Garland back and are doing better than everyone expected. With Embiid out for a while, they should be a top 3 seed by the end of the season and a defensive force to be reckoned with in the playoffs. 

As someone who has watched every femtosecond of Cavs ball for the last few years, it really is astonishing to see this team go nuclear offensively and let it fly from 3.  For the last couple season, JBB's offense was archaic and defense was where the team hung its hat.

Now?  It's bombs away and even supposedly marginal talents like Dean Wade are getting into the act.  The bench squad has been so good that any of the starters are rarely playing more than 32 minutes.

Despite this recent success, a lot of Cavs fans are still skeptical after Cleveland was bludgeoned out of the playoffs in Round 1 by the Knicks.  If that happens again all these good vibes will be forgotten in 3 months.

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I caught them in person Saturday against the spurs. They were really impressive. Great size and athleticism up front with Allen and Mobley. Great guard play from Mitchell and Garland. Strus was such a good addition for them. He fills in the gaps at both ends. I’ve been high on them for a couple of years now. 

It was rather astonishing watching what the Knicks did to them in the playoffs last year. But most of the time young teams need to take their medicine in the playoffs before they learn how to win. 

Edited by Mitch Cumsteen
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2 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

But most of the time young teams need to take their medicine in the playoffs before they learn how to win.

Sure...but to the Knicks?? It would be one thing if the Celtics or Bucks took them down a peg.

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12 hours ago, Message Board User said:

As someone who has watched every femtosecond of Cavs ball for the last few years, it really is astonishing to see this team go nuclear offensively and let it fly from 3.  For the last couple season, JBB's offense was archaic and defense was where the team hung its hat.

Now?  It's bombs away and even supposedly marginal talents like Dean Wade are getting into the act.  The bench squad has been so good that any of the starters are rarely playing more than 32 minutes.

Despite this recent success, a lot of Cavs fans are still skeptical after Cleveland was bludgeoned out of the playoffs in Round 1 by the Knicks.  If that happens again all these good vibes will be forgotten in 3 months.

Yeah, those guys have really stepped up, Merril looked like Klay Thompson against the Magic last week. I'm surprised at the depth on the bench now, they are in solid position for the rest of the season once Thompson comes back and everyone is healthy. I'm not quite sure who their top 8 guys will be come playoff time, because they have several guys that could be in rotation from the bench for other teams.  I don't think any of them will be traded, but there is some good value there with how cheap they are.  

I think Strus has been the biggest surprise, he is doing so well on defense, although his shooting % has declined slightly since leaving Miami. There's a trend in the media to claim that Heat players are a product of their environment or Spo's system, and expect them to decline significantly when going to another team. Strus hasn't experienced that, and he's doing about as well as expected, efficiency tends to drop when workload increases. He has started every game so far this season, and is averaging 32 mpg, while in contrast Gabe Vincent hasn't done anything for the Lakers. Last year the 3 spot was a revolving door all year, no one was consistent enough to trust long term, but those guys moving to the bench really solidifies the team for the regular season. That 3 spot was the hole they needed to fill this offseason, and they got it done for 15m a year. If they can sign Mitchell to an extension, then this team should only get better with time.  

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11 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I caught them in person Saturday against the spurs. They were really impressive. Great size and athleticism up front with Allen and Mobley. Great guard play from Mitchell and Garland. Strus was such a good addition for them. He fills in the gaps at both ends. I’ve been high on them for a couple of years now. 

The vibes are immaculate right now and national guys are only now taking notice.

Of course, the black cloud on the horizon with this Cavs team is - will Mitchell re-sign?  He is signed through 24-25 and, if I'm correct, he will be eligible to sign an extension on 07-01-24.  If he doesn't sign an extension at midnight on that date, the Cavs have to trade him for what they can.  Have to.  They cannot go into the 24-25 season with Mitchell as a looming FA at the end of the year.  Among Cavs writers and those who know, opinions range from "Mitchell is a lock to re-sign" to "Mitchell has no intention of re-signing and testing FA is a foregone conclusion."

I also think this team bears some resemblance to the 08-09 team that overachieved (everyone on that team sucked except Lebron) and then ran into an Orlando Magic team that was built to beat them.  I still have nightmares of Mikael Pietrus, Hedo Turkeyglue, and Rashard whatshisface shooting about 110% from 3 that series.  

The Cavs relatively soft schedule continues through February and then they host the Knicks and Celtics on March 3 & 5 - I imagine those games will be playoff atmosphere type games with those teams jockeying for playoff positioning.

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7 hours ago, Fastbreak said:

How soon until they fire Doc in Milwaukee? Before All-star game?

I still contend that they never should have fired Bud, but it doesn't matter if they hire Bill Belichek at this point. That defense is going to be leaky as long as Dame is in the lineup instead of Jrue Holiday. Their entire offseason was a major overreaction to a rather fluky first round loss against a really good Miami team when Giannis was hurt. 

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On 2/6/2024 at 7:17 AM, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I caught them in person Saturday against the spurs. They were really impressive. Great size and athleticism up front with Allen and Mobley. Great guard play from Mitchell and Garland. Strus was such a good addition for them. He fills in the gaps at both ends. I’ve been high on them for a couple of years now. 

It was rather astonishing watching what the Knicks did to them in the playoffs last year. But most of the time young teams need to take their medicine in the playoffs before they learn how to win. 

Truly young teams with no playoff experience rarely win more than one series and oftentimes don't even win that one.  Thunder up next.  Overall they're doing great but playoffs a different animal.  

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Happy trading deadline day. Doesn't look like anything major is going down today but it's always fun when rumors start flying at the wire.

It's a weird time -- most of the contenders (sans OKC and NOLA) are out of assets to deal. There are fewer sellers because more teams are still trying to compete to get to the play in game. There's funky shit going on with the second apron on the new cap. And finally, the 2024 draft looks like dogshit.

That said, here's the first one of the day:

 

 

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20 hours ago, d2o said:

Nique was robbed

He was my favorite player when I was a little kid. He did get fucking jobbed, but the NBA's sole mission at that point was to  suck MJ's dick. Couple that with the contest being in Chicago, and its not a surprise. 

If they have to go to the G league to get a guy for the dunk contest these days, just put that fucking thing out of its misery.

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37 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

did pj washington just get cheaper then? and is miles really not going to be traded? 

Apparently Miles exercised a no trade clause in his contract. Why, I have no idea, but he's gone off (on the court, this time) the last couple of days. 

 

Can somebody please explain this trade to me. I get that Olynyk is going to be a free agent this summer and probably isn't in Utah's long term plans, but why is Toronto doing this? They can't decide if they're tanking, not tanking, accumulating picks, dumping picks, dumping salary, accumulating salary, whatever. And why is Utah baling on Agbaji for a late round pick in this crappy draft? 

 

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1 hour ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Happy trading deadline day. Doesn't look like anything major is going down today but it's always fun when rumors start flying at the wire.

It's a weird time -- most of the contenders (sans OKC and NOLA) are out of assets to deal. There are fewer sellers because more teams are still trying to compete to get to the play in game. There's funky shit going on with the second apron on the new cap. And finally, the 2024 draft looks like dogshit.

That said, here's the first one of the day:

 

 

No idea why IND would do this basically getting nothing for trading Hield to a team they might face in the playoffs.

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11 minutes ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Apparently Miles exercised a no trade clause in his contract. Why, I have no idea, but he's gone off (on the court, this time) the last couple of days. 

 

Can somebody please explain this trade to me. I get that Olynyk is going to be a free agent this summer and probably isn't in Utah's long term plans, but why is Toronto doing this? They can't decide if they're tanking, not tanking, accumulating picks, dumping picks, dumping salary, accumulating salary, whatever. And why is Utah baling on Agbaji for a late round pick in this crappy draft? 

 

Miles would veto any trade because the receiving team would not get his Bird rights.  So unless he went to a team that will have a lot of cap space in the summer his options become limited.   He could only get a big payday from a team with cap space to sign him outright.    He would more than likely only be with whatever team that traded for him for the rest of the season.

Staying CHA can sign anything all the way up to a max or do a S&T to a team over the cap.  The whole league is in play by staying.

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17 minutes ago, Blotto said:

He was my favorite player when I was a little kid. He did get fucking jobbed, but the NBA's sole mission at that point was to  suck MJ's dick. Couple that with the contest being in Chicago, and its not a surprise. 

If they have to go to the G league to get a guy for the dunk contest these days, just put that fucking thing out of its misery.

I'd kinda forgot that MJ missed the 1st attempt on that last FT dunk.   Couple that with the fact that he had already done the dunk earlier there is no way in hell it should have been a 50

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2 minutes ago, d2o said:

No idea why IND would do this basically getting nothing for trading Hield to a team they might face in the playoffs.

It's a little strange, but Hield has fallen out of their rotation and he's an UFA this summer. The Pacers get 3 SRP out of it and take no cap hit, which is more than they were going to get when he walked in a few months anyway. Or they might just be doing him and his agent a solid. Front offices work in strange ways, these days. 

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1 minute ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

It's a little strange, but Hield has fallen out of their rotation and he's an UFA this summer. The Pacers get 3 SRP out of it and take no cap hit, which is more than they were going to get when he walked in a few months anyway. Or they might just be doing him and his agent a solid. Front offices work in strange ways, these days. 

Yeah, I know he hasnt been happy there for a while.   Seems like they could have got a 1st somewhere else and not have to play against him in a couple months.   Who knows.

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1 hour ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Love what the Knicks are doing but boy are their fans going to be pissed when they flame out in the first round against Philly.

They were soooooo upset when Becky Hammon said Brunson is too small to ever be the best player on a championship team. As if it's not 100% truth.

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