I gotta say, this podcast provides a nice perspective on the team that I feel can only come from fans as dyed-in-the-wool as Rich and Jigo.
I am the quintessential "my teams don't match cities" sports fan, and of them all the Cavs have always been my favorite. It was one reason why I was determined to move here (because in the 2000s, pre-LeBron, living out of market and following this team was about as wild as being a Blue Jays fan before the 2 World Series wins, and even then...).
I consume more Cavs content than any other team. Won't even entertain podcasts for most of the others for the most part, but I can never get enough Cavs. Outside RRJ (side note: I told a Cavs group chat about this pod and they were bugging out over the name -- and I said, that despite the name, the content is more grounded. You would expect the content of Fear The Fro (which is my #1 listened to Cavs pod -- Schmidt is damn near my mirror on the Cavs topic) to be on a podcast with this name), the lowkey pessimistic outlook as exuded by Rich here would be ....not welcomed? Or at least kicked down the road.
RCF is way more JBB-skeptic but not on the level of "Fire JB" Cavs Twitter where I feel the reasons are more grounded in that shitty hand dealt with the playoffs rather than a preference for a certain kind of basketball being played.
So when Rich said "Jazz East" as a concern for the current Cavs run, I felt it a bit. We don't know what teams will do in the playoffs against Strus and Merrill, even if their spacing (and other things) will make things easier for our lineups. JA is balling, but what if he runs into one of his nemeses in the playoffs? What happens when DG and Evan come back? Will JBB stick to what has emerged in the time without them?
I remain optimistic (which is rare, for me). There are still situational issues where I'm always gonna pan JBB. But the changes we've seen in this team in a situation far from ideal are encouraging. Even the thing Rich mentioned about Donovan, how he needs to stick to one role and go into "Butler Mode" when the times call for it seems to be slowly forming.
Also, I think Allen right now is playing better basketball than Gobert did in Utah. While I respect (now) what Gobert is doing in Minnesota, with a team that has a habit of being unserious (himself included), as someone here has noted, JA just has a better attitude for the game right now.
What really puts me into "doom" mode is the CBA and the tax aprons.
Eventually, someone's gonna have to go and it's gonna suck. But for now, enjoy the winning and the better team basketball than we saw at any point in last season.
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