Cavs: the Podcast

The Cavs ran out of gas against Orlando for the second game in a row, Wednesday. A consistent theme of this game was injuries, as the Cavs were down six guys going into the night, and could be down seven after an ankle injury to Dameyan Dotson limited him to just 15 minutes. But the worst injury of the game came on a fairly innocuous play in the first quarter when Markelle Fultz blew his ACL driving on Isaac Okoro. It was a heartbreaking moment for the kid, and the Magic took it out on Cleveland for the rest of the night.

This game wasn't as close as the final score. Cleveland was down 19 by the end of the third quarter, and as much as 23 before garbage time started. As on Monday, Cleveland just didn't have enough scoring and competent NBA bodies to compete with Orlando's depth. Cleveland was running two center lineups and giving major rotation minutes to G-League rookies.

Ryan Yankee and Nate Smith broke it all down in the podcast booth: Andre Drummond's foul trouble, Cedi's bad shooting (0-7 from three), Collin Sexton's superior scoring (21 points), the Cavs' defense, Javale wondering where he was on the court, icing out Ice Okoro, and so much more. Finally we went through the list of current NBA free agents and debated whether the Cavs should dump any of their end of the roster guys to pick up some old Cavalier friends. It was a fun one!

After a late scratch by Joel Embiid, the Cavs boat raced the unsuspecting Sixers Sunday, and posted another monster second quarter (35 points) to spring to a 14 point halftime lead. They won the final two quarters as well, with their lead ballooning to as much 32 points in a game that may open some eyes around the Association. If there is one thing that has excited Cavs fans in this 3-0 start it's the play of Darius Garland, whos' been absolutely scintillating averaging 19 points and 8.3 assists a game, and leading a team that is second in the NBA in assists.

But the real revelation has been Andre Drummond who is playing like a defensive player of the year candidate so far, and whose gravity around the basket is opening up the entire offense for the rest of the Cavs. He's got five blocks and eight steals already in three games to go along with 20/15/4 averages.

There's so much to love about this Cavs team so far, and in many ways, it's all falling into place in a "best case scenario" way most of us didn't expect. To break it all down, our own EvilGenius returned to the podcast booth with Ryan Yankee and Nate Smith. We talked about the game and how the Cavs ambushed the Sixers, as well as how the Cavs players all seem to have improved significantly since last season. Cedi, Collin, Darius, Andre, Larry, and more all seem better. Only Kevin Love seems to be struggling to return to form.

Given that, we dared to dream about whether this is sustainable, and if it is what the Cavs should do with Andre Drummond. Do they think about extending him? Do they make any trades? Who do they pay? It's an interesting and fun discussion as we dove into a pretty deep analysis of all the Cavs' players.

Frohe Weihnachten, Cavs fans!. It's a Christmas Miracle! Ben Werth joined Nate Smith in the podcast booth after a three year absence! Ben, a resident of Germany joined us from Berlin, and we talked all things Cavaliers. The biggest discussion: what will the starting lineup look like. We both concluded that if the Cavs want to win, they'll start Cedi and Okoro over Sexton or Garland (we were split on which one to bench). But since they likely don't want to win, the Cavs will end up starting a pair of tiny Elves at the guard spots.

We snuck down and rattled the presents under the tree as we went through the Cavs roster and gave our thoughts on the coming NBA season: who starts, who sits, who makes the rotation. We also weighed in on all the Cavs youngsters: Sexton, Garland, Okoro, KPJ, Dylan Windler, and our not-so-tiny Tims at the end of the bench, Dean Wade and Thon Maker. There was a lot of Cavs to talk through before we even got to the NBA as a whole and walked through a season preview for the East and West.

We broke down who finishes at the top, who finishes at the bottom, and how they get there. We tried to to track some of the many movements in the NBA offseason. It will be good to open some of these presents when the NBA tips off on Tuesday, when we get to watch some real NBA action in empty gyms around the league. It's a fun listen, for Elven and Human ears.

Isaac Okoro has captured Cavs fans' imaginations with his stellar play so far: the economy of his game, his defense, his ridiculously overbuilt NBA body, and most importantly, his ability to make winning plays look effortless. As such, the winning slogan of the 1952 presidential election is also the titular theme of this podcast.

Ryan Yankee joined Nate in the podcast booth to gush over the young rook and break down the Cavs preseason so far. (Though Nate stressed small sample size). We walked through the most recent preseason games, and analyzed the likes of Dylan Windler, Darius Garland, Cedi Osman, Andre Drummond, Thon Maker, and Dean Wade. We also made fun of Tom Thibodeau, puzzled over the Pacers, and gave big props to J.B. Bickerstaff.

It's a fun walk through the Cavs preseason and we can't wait for the the regular season to Kick off.

Tom, Nate, and Eli make a long awaited return to the podcast booth! This was a fun one, as we discussed a whirlwind NBA offseason, the Cavs' draft and free agency, and all the news from around the NBA. Tom Pestak has been decidedly out of the loop when it comes to NBA news, so we added a couple games to make the proceedings more fun, and to get Tom up to speed. Tom took a swing at the game made famous by the Chuckster on Inside the NBA, "Who He Play For," as Tom tried to  guess some of the NBA free agent moves. In "Real or Fake" he tried to figure out if some of these NBA names like Facundo Campazzo were real or made up.

Tom topped that off with a Kafka-esque tale of trying to shop health care options, while Nate and Eli expressed their biggest regrets (Nate's involves a planetarium, Eli's a PS5). It was a fun and random ride as these long time compadres celebrated a return to NBA action.

THE CAVS WIN THE LOTTERY AGAIN! Ok. They didn't technically win the lottery. But hopefully all the players I hate will be gone by the time they pick at number five. David Wood, Elija Kim, and Nate Smith live-podded the lottery, and then Jude Elysiam (Ryan) subbed out for David to mock the whole draft. That was just the start of the marathon as we broke down the Cavs roster and figured out who would remain a Cav after the coming off-season and at the end of the next season. Then we picked the current playoff series. WHEW. It was a marathon.

Here's our mock draft. Tune in to listen to us break down all the picks.

Lamenting our stasis and the state of the national conversation, Nate Smith and Tom Pestak jumped into the virtual podcast booth to try to get back into a Cavalier mood. They started out taking bets on whether the NBA would resume this season, and then talked a little about the only NBA topic of late. ESPN's The Last Dance documentary and the Jordan era Bulls spurred a discussion of how Jordan would do in today's era, and then what a lousy teammate he was. It sparked an interesting follow-up: who is the least liked great Cleveland athlete?

For Tom, it's a pivotal member of the Cavs' championship. For Nate it's probably a Cleveland Brown great. We dove deeper into ranks, breaking down ESPN's top 10 and top 40 NBA all time list as we talked about the greats. We both thought Kobe was a leetle high at 9, and that Nash was way too high at 30. That led us down a road of ranking the all-time Cavs and reviewing how our 2014 #CavsRank list holds up. We discussed the rankings and how key guys from the Cavs' championship stack up with the guys on that list. Where do you put TT, Kev, and J.R?

Finally, Tom and I got into some stories of awful salesmen: Tom relayed a tale of a ridiculous door-to-door exterminator, and Nate learning to never give his number to a lending website. Consternation ensued and confrontation ensued. Stay safe everyone, and hopefully there will be more basketball in all our futures.

If you want an in depth discussion around Covid-19 from someone who actually knows what he's talking about, this is the podcast for you. Long time CtB die-hard, Simmo, just happens to be a viral immunologist, and we saved up a couple weeks worth of questions and topics around Covid-19 to bounce off his brain. This is our least basketball-centric, and most educational podcast ever. Buckle up for Covid-19 homeschool. 

We started out with an update on the homeschool situation, the TP situation, and the Covid-19 situation in Simmo's native Australia and what the response there looks like right now (with a sidebar on Australian History and Politics). Then we got into what the curve looks like around the world. Then we plunged into the weeds, man.

Unfortunately, the answer to many of these questions, is we don't know because the virus is so new and that testing and recovery are really hard. But it's an absolutely educational discussion as Tom and I asked Simmo a raft of questions. Then we talked about some good news around the virus and treatment, including.

After all that, we got into some less serious topics.

Thanks to Simmo who put up with our questions like a champ. Stay safe. Stay educated. We're in this for the long haul. Go humans!

We were joined by long time listener, first time caller, Jason as we discussed the TP situation in the Pestak household, what's it like to homeschool, and how we're all keeping sane.

Next up, we talked about the economy and what the new normal might look like in terms of player salaries and the financial future of the NBA. We discussed what the playoffs might look like if they do occur for 2020. We got into our favorite Covid-19 memes, and then talked about the insanity that is the Netflix tour-de-force, Tiger King. After that we got into Mike DeWine, the DeWine family, and Greene county politics. It was a lot of fun. Stay safe out there, peeps.

Wow. What a few weeks it's been for the Cavs, as they've gone 5-6 since the all star break and have played their best ball of the season... a season that likely will be cut short by a global pandemic. Yep. Talk of "the Roni," as some of the kids are calling it, featured heavily in our first podcast in a month. Tom and Nate desperately needed to get into the podcast booth to talk about the surreal times we're living in, and we hope you're jonesing for some content to get you through the long hours of social distancing.

First off, Tom's out of TP. Second, Nate's trying not to horde, but compulsively shopping whenever he can (though not excessively). Don't worry, though, your tapwater will be the same Monday as it was last week, and next week the shelves of your happy grocers will be stocked again. (Pro Tip: check out your local Asian grocery if you're short on supplies. And yeah, we just mostly just had some "WTF is going on, and why has Nate been so OCD about all this?"

We did manage to squeeze some NBA talk into the pod early, as we went over the team's solid play, the tragedy of Delly's resurgence being cut short, Larry Nance, and the polarizing Collin Sexton. We went through the NBA and looked at who was hurt and helped most by the work stoppage (assuming a playoffs will be played), and waded into the morass of the Utah and Rudy Gobert situation.

Then we got to talking about all the distractions of the last few days and the effect social media has on our brains. Tom pitched the book Deep Work and Nate talked about meditation, and his struggles with anxiety and mental health in the last several months. It was a choose your own adventure at that point as we steered towards Jamele Hill, the madness of Twitter mobs, Dan Gilbert, and... trees.