Game Thread | 2021-2022 Season | Game #46 | Cavs @ Bulls | Jan. 19, 2022 | 8:00 p.m.

[PIP]

Look, bottom line is this if you want to really get down to it—

Mobley’s improvement in his area at rebounding is far more important than Okoro’s and the reason why is fairly simple….

You can’t start Lauri and Issac and be a championship caliber team cause you simply don’t have not enough overall playmaking….

You’re not putting Mobley on the bench so scratch that…

It comes down to Lauri & Issac…. Issac’s ability and potential on the defensive end is more valuable than Lauri’s 7 foot size which he doesn’t use defensively, rebounding wise or even on the block—- he’s a 7ft 3 point shooting softy….

So Evan NEEDS to step his game up for that interior work and on the glass so the Cavs can find themselves a wing player to replace Lauri that can create , shoot and ultimately defend — cause that’s far more valuable coupled with Issac’s defense than Lauri’s stretching the floor, lack of rebounding (5 a night), playmaking (1 assist) and wasting his size….

To me this is why Evan needs to take that next step cause theoretically Evan and Jarrett should have that paint locked down and about 22-25 rebounds a night between them….

 

[PIP]

Mobley may become that guy, but to me it doesn't look like he's wired that way.

Maybe Okoro isn't either BUT he HAS to be to stick in the starting rotation.

Mobley is gonna be plenty of other things to overcome lacking in that area.

Okoro won't.

If Mobley never manages to grab more than 8 boards a night, he'll still end up making all-star games and getting max contracts.


If Okoro doesn't get mean, tough, and a little dirty, he's gonna struggle to be more than a journeyman.

That’s great, Rich, but I’m not thinking about max contracts and all star games… Hell Porzingis, Tobias, Westbrook and guys like that have max contracts or all star game appearances….

A deluxe 7 footer should be closer to reaching that stuff over a defensive minded undersized 2guard anyways…

In that case the expectations are greater for Mobley…. He has the basketball IQ, the fundamental and the skill— now if he can just get that rebounding down, we are next level…

 

[BimboColesHair]

Keep fighting the good fight PIP.

One 20 year old is on his way to being a better offensive version of Kevin Garnett.

Another 20 year old is never going to develop as a player offensively.

One 20 year old gets a pass for his current shortcomings because improvement should be coming. The other 20 year old needs traded for his.

Fans are too quick to “pick sides” with players, makes the discussion about them suck around here.

 

[PIP]

Keep fighting the good fight PIP.

One 20 year old is on his way to being a better offensive version of Kevin Garnett.

Another 20 year old is never going to develop as a player offensively.

One 20 year old gets a pass for his current shortcomings because improvement should be coming. The other 20 year old needs traded for his.

Fans are too quick to “pick sides” with players, makes the discussion about them suck around here.

You could trade Okoro right now for a fucking coconut and I would be fine…I dont give a shit about Issac Okoro, man…Not at all….

But I’m sure as hell not gonna listen that HIS rebounding is more of an issue than Mobley’s

That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen on here….

 

[BimboColesHair]

You could trade Okoro right now for a fucking coconut and I would be fine…I dont give a shit about Issac Okoro, man…Not at all….

But I’m sure as hell not gonna listen that HIS rebounding is more of an issue than Mobley’s

That the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen on here….

Someone brought it up yesterday in his thread. It was dumb yesterday too.

 

[Ohioplayer00]

Bottom line….tonight showed exactly why we need a player Beal, Butler, DeRozen, PG13, etc…..when the tightens we need a player who can get us buckets

 

[BimboColesHair]

Bottom line….tonight showed exactly why we need a player Beal, Butler, DeRozen, PG13, etc…..when the tightens we need a player who can get us buckets

We have a guy like that. He’s hurt.

 

[foucault87]

We have a guy like that. He’s hurt.

Come back soon Rondo

 

[BimboColesHair]

Come back soon Rondo

I’m talking about Lamar.

Woof woof, motherfucker.

 

[foucault87]

I’m talking about Lamar.

Woof woof, motherfucker.

MVP

 

[The Oi]

I just watched a team fall completely out of contention.

 

[The Oi]

Nice fight from the guys tonight against a contender. They’ll be fine.

 

[KevinLoveFan]

Looks like I missed a dramatic one.

I kinda figured the Cavs would lose this one tbh. But they'll almost certainly rebound (pun intended) and probably beat my OKC Drizzles by 40 in the next game. I mean, OKC just made the Spurs look real good...if Cavs somehow lose to OKC, then I'll understand demands to trade Love, accusations that JA is a Zelda playing drunkard, and that JBB must go. Until then, probably just one bad game against a decent team that I'm not reading too much into at this juncture of the season.

 

[Heat Check]

OK, I'm bummed about this game. The following notes are not in any order of importance, but trust me... I'm gonna vent on pretty much everyone and everything. Let's go.

• I've had it with Love's bullshit matador defense. The absolute refusal of this guy to contest ANY shot or drive right now is outrageous. And don't give me his fucking "OK" stat line. The way Kevin lets people score right in his face is demoralizing as hell and ruins the whole idea of team D. Look man, I know your 3pt shooting is putrid now and you're miffed about it, you're old and broken down and running out of gas. But don't just give up free baskets like it doesn't mean anything. That's insulting. Everyone knows you're the weak link on D, but at least give me a hard foul or put someone on their ass now and then.
  
  And before you say "Love's not that important", are you kidding me? There was a period when he was legit being talked about as a 6MOY candidate. He's still playing over 20 minutes per game and is often the first guy off the bench. That matters. I don't expect miracles from Love, but if he's performing like this, most of his minutes HAVE to go to Wade. It's crazy JBB is just refusing to play Dean, even with Love melting down right in front of his eyes.
  
  
• Probably the worst game I've ever seen from Allen. Maybe he needs a new pair of contact lenses or something, but he's been having a lot of trouble catching the ball and passing it to his teammates for a while now. Just an awful case of the butterfingers. Also missing bunnies left and right and getting absolutely ABUSED by a ground bound Vucevic who's having a shitty season. On offense, JA is clearly the one suffering the most from our lack of spacing. Which naturally brings me to....
  
  
• Okoro. Good god man. 8 points (0-1 from the perimeter) and zero rebounds in 30 minutes from our starting shooting guard (who some people have the audacity to call a "wing")? That is not going to cut it. Okoro has now made a grand total of four 3pt shots over his last eight games. Can't make (or doesn't take) 3's, can't make plays for others, doesn't rebound. Absolutely ruins the spacing. Hey, at least he held DeRozan to 30 points.
  
  This guy is not the answer at the 2 spot and we should stop pretending he is ASAP.
  
  
• JBB's in-game decisions continue to be puzzling, to put it kindly. We had a good thing going early, with Mobley succesfully attacking DDR, people moving on offense, Lauri breathing fire. Then JBB decided to insert a slumping Love & co, which destroyed all the momentum. What's worse, he left that disaster lineup out there for waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy too long until our lead had evaporated and we were totally out of sorts. We were fighting an uphill battle from there on and never really got back in the game. Just awful game management. Why can't he recognize when the momentum shifts in a game? You HAVE to put a stop to that. Take a timeout, a tech, I don't care.
  
  Also, when a guy is absolutely on fire, you need to go to him again and again and again. All game. Sometimes basketball is not complicated. Feed the hot hand. Even if the guy doesn't make all his shots, the defense is forced to react, which opens things up for everyone else. Lauri made stuff happen pretty much every time he got the ball, and he STILL had only 14 shots and 33 minutes. We wasted a great game by him, and Mobley should have been featured a lot more.
  
  
• Their bench tryhards were better than our bench tryhards. Cedi has completely lost his 3pt shot (he's made a total of five in the last seven games), which is a real problem when Love can't hit anything either. Right now, our bench sucks balls. Rondo won't help much there, if he ever does return. Once again - Wade needs to play. He probably needs to play a lot.

 

[Jscc]

These are games where I fear for development of our guys under JBB. Mobley was bullying DeRozan on defense; He should have had 30 and taken DeRozan out of the game from exhaustion by the third quarter. If they tried to help DeRozan, then Lauri is waiting for a kickout 3. Instead he sits Mobley for much of the second quarter.

Maybe it was a bad game for JBB. Maybe not. We will see in the playoffs where attacking mismatches like that is game-planned and executed by coaching.