Game Thread | 2021-22 Season | Game #8 | Cavs @ Hornets | Nov. 1, 2021

redscoon said:

If you get up on Sexton, you totally eliminate his jumper and that’s a massive concern for a scoring guard in this day and age. If you can’t use the bounce and step back to free up space for a shot you become so much easier to defend.

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And that’s why the Cavs know they need to play him off the ball. And we’ve already had some success with that.

Garland can hit a step back 3 at a better clip than Sexton, but when does he shoot it? Garland’s ability to create space isn’t as good as it needs to be. Whether that’s due to his lack of size, strength, finishing ability, aggression, or all of the above…I will say he never seems to know exactly what he wants to do when it’s time for him to make a play. Passes up a lot of open shots. Also got Plumlee guarding him a couple times and got nothing out of it.

cavsfever said:

exactly. Really fun to see them winning but dare I ask…do we want wins?

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Dunno. I don't think they even know.

hud11 said:

Can’t imagine what this thread would be liked had the Cavs gone 0-5 on the road trip as most of us expected. They are far from perfect, but they are winning some games, and it’s a hell
Of a lot more enjoyable than the last few years.

windler needs to get burn, only complaint about Mobley thus far is he is pretty weak with ball, he should be playing about 32-35m.

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Honestly, I think the fact that we held up well on this trip makes us so antsy in these games threads. On the latest Chase Down Podcast episode, the guys intimated that the fact that we are so emotional and freaking out after the losses in LA and PHX is a good thing because it shows we are ahead of schedule.

Shit, our schedule to open the season has been downright brutal. No more than one day of rest between games. Six of eight games on the road including a five-game road trip with games in all three time zones. Not to mention how hard much harder it is for youngsters to play on the road. All eight games against teams that made the playoffs last year. We all knew the schedule was brutal at the beginning. After we started 0-2 there were posts that seemed serious about not getting our first win until later this month.

What was the over/under on total wins for us? 27ish? Out of 82? A winning pct of .329? Fucking brutal schedule and these young cats are fucking .500? This team has been so much fun to watch so far, and boy, do I hope it only gets better from here.

Soar said:

That Sexton non take was as bad as I've seen.

You're a fucking SHOOTING GUARD

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No his shot has been shitty since the shoulder thing which has been all season then got worse again after Howard popped it. They clearly took him out at the end because of it.
Luckily Garland stepped up and was not phased at all by the pressure . Impressive

Soar said:

WHAT THE FUCK YOU DONT PASS A WIDE OPEN LAYUP YOU FUCKING MORON

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That was clearly JBB not on Garland at all imo

Lee said:

I am really fucking high, did we really just go 3-2 on a tough early season road trip?

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I feel the same way here. We went 3-2 with some shaky play from our starting backcourt.

Unlike last year, we no longer need explosive scoring from Garland/Sexton to pull out a win. I'm willing to give them both until the trade deadline to get it together.

I think guys are still trying to get used to knowing when and where their shots are coming from which is hard to do during a road trip.

I expect better play from our guys once we have a home stand.

Rich said:

Just crazy to me on a team that shoots like ours that Windler can't get a minute.

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Still injured?

2 For The Brew said:

Obviously this team is nowhere near a finished product but to survive three second half runs to win on the road at the end of a grueling trip says a lot about the character and fight on this team.

Allen was just a beast tonight. $20 million a year is a bargain.

Really, really proud of our team. They are worth watching and we’ll get better.

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Only in America is $20 million annual salary a bargain.

KilgoreTrout said:

I like where your head is at!

Garland, Windler, and Love for Jaylen Brown.

Done and done!

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Salaries don’t work.

cavsfever said:

exactly. Really fun to see them winning but dare I ask…do we want wins?

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Yes. yes we do. There is very little to gain from from intentionally trying to lose or even wishing we lose as a fan.

The roster is not bad enough to have a bottom three record. The new lottery odds do no reward you with any certainty or even strong odds just for being in the 4-6 slot.

More important than that, just look across the NBA. Far more good to really good to great wings and SF's were taking outside the top 6 than inside:

Giannis, Kawhi, Klay Thompson, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Gordon Hayward, Zach LaVine, Devin Booker, DeRozan, Tobias Harris, Harrison Barnes, OG Anunoby, MPJ, Tim Hardaway, Miles Bridges, Mikal Bridges, Oubre, Caris LeVert, Pascal Siakam, Cam Johnson, Lonnie Walker, Devin Vassell, Reddish, Saddiq Bey.

None of those guys were taken in the top6 of their respective drafts. The list of good to elite wings taken in the top6 or even top10 is smaller than than outside the top6 to top10 and within the top6, it also seem that the bust % for wings taken that high is very high.

cavsfever said:

exactly. Really fun to see them winning but dare I ask…do we want wins?

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After the last three seasons I want the Cavs to win as many games as possible.
This is a young core, not a bunch of vagabond veterans who would keep the team stuck with a low seed for years. and no hope for improvement.
I was thinking 3-5 at best to start the season so 4-4 is a good start.

Cavatt said:

Yeah he can't play these minutes. It says something though. He is impacting the game a lot as a rook



Yeah people complaining are wild. Lamelo is a superstar and the team withstood a superstar going nuclear and they withstood it. This team is pretty good. Need reps.

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I agree except LeMelo is not a superstar yet, he has the potential, but we throw around the word Superstar pretty easy.....Steph, Durant, Lebron, those are superstars.

Cavatt said:

Yeah he can't play these minutes. It says something though. He is impacting the game a lot as a rook

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Why not though?

There's a lot of complaining in here about him playing 40 minutes tonight, but I'm not sure why that's so egregious. He's a 20 year-old kid built like a stretched out Kenyan marathon runner. He's not averaging 40 mpg and he didn't play 48 tonight; he got 40 in a close game against a pretty good Eastern conference team who just beat us a little over a week ago.

And like you said about him impacting the game, he's... Uh... Impacting the game. We're trying to win and he's a huge part of those efforts and I just love to see it. I was bummed that 3 at the end didn't fall but boy was I thrilled to see him have the balls to take it. We're not saving him for "when it matters" at some point in the unknown future; we're letting him play and learn and be a part of actual efforts to win and I think that's gonna be a good thing for his development.

Again, I don't want to see him averaging 40 a night, but I have no problem with his minutes going up periodically for games like this. Stars play a lot of minutes. I want him treated like a star.

narbar32 said:

Why not though?

There's a lot of complaining in here about him playing 40 minutes tonight, but I'm not sure why that's so egregious. He's a 20 year-old kid built like a stretched out Kenyan marathon runner. He's not averaging 40 mpg and he didn't play 48 tonight; he got 40 in a close game against a pretty good Eastern conference team who just beat us a little over a week ago.

And like you said about him impacting the game, he's... Uh... Impacting the game. We're trying to win and he's a huge part of those efforts and I just love to see it. I was bummed that 3 at the end didn't fall but boy was I thrilled to see him have the balls to take it. We're not saving him for "when it matters" at some point in the unknown future; we're letting him play and learn and be a part of actual efforts to win and I think that's gonna be a good thing for his development.

Again, I don't want to see him averaging 40 a night, but I have no problem with his minutes going up periodically for games like this. Stars play a lot of minutes. I want him treated like a star.

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Because it's brand new to him and he's probably never played 40 minutes in a game in his life, nor has he played this many games in quick succession.

So, I dunno, you'd like to see him broken in a little more slowly.

Rich said:

Yea I'm trying to keep perspective.

This same road trip last year I'm pretty sure we went a solid 0-8 or something like that. BAsically went from a .500 team to a clearly awful team.

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I think replacing Larry Nance with a SF who has scoring ability and also obtaining a PF who brings the best of Larry Nance's defense qualities to the floor really raised the floor of this team.

I know his shot isn't falling at the moment, but Lauri has been playing his ass off the past few games. He even looks passable on the defensive end. If his shot comes back, he's such a valuable player for the Cavs.