There were actual people in here blaming him rather than other guys with much higher usage and responsibility on the Cavs team for them getting swept in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Insanity.

Max Struess was especially in that Detroit series.

Like if I was a Clippers fan who wanted to be sold on, okay, what can Max Struess provide? You're going to find things.

Like if you look at the Pacers series, I think he ended that series in which we got knocked out in the second round going 0 for 9, you know, in one of those games.

But then he'll have a game where he shoots six of 10 from outside the arc, and he scores 25, 28 points, and they win that game.

And bigger than that, though, is the one thing that you can point to on this Cavs roster that I am regretful about Max leaving.

Would you say there's a comp between, I was thinking about this earlier in the gym when I was listening to Fear the Fro and prepping for the show, but maybe he's somewhere in between Nico Batum and Patrick Beverly and what he did for the Clippers?

Yeah

...

but I'm s- I'm sure you've discussed two and three don't have to be guaranteed.

So it, it may end up...

This is...

I, I'm just gonna pitch this out as what I think will happen with Kuminga.

I keep seeing all these stories about, "Well, you know, he wants 20 million a sea-" I don't think he's gonna sniff that.

I don't have an issue with it." How does it, how would, how do you view it from a basketball perspective with Kuminga on the Cavs?

Mm

... and Evan Mobley had shot more than Donovan Mitchell.

Uh, the, the Cavs as a team have generated more free throws than basically anyone in the playoffs, but it's been such a distribution of all of these guys.

And in past playoff runs, I never felt comfortable that the Cavs were, A, either gonna get the whistles, or B, play aggressive enough on the interior to force the whistles, in a way where now I think what you're seeing is you might not get huge scoring nights from a Jarrett Allen, but you're feeling his impact on the offensive end because the manner in which he is scoring feels more forceful, feels more aggressive.

And what he's doing on the defensive end is, I think, the best we've seen from Allen in a Cavalier uniform in the playoffs.

So it is, it is very rewarding to see night after night-You know, he, at least based on on-court results, he always ends up being one of the most productive Cavaliers out there.

And tonight I thought was another night just like that.

And, and I think both of the bigs played their part tonight in getting the offense unstuck.

[laughs]

And I, for me, what I would look at is some of the things I found frustrating in that game is since, since Toronto's gone to this situation where they're kinda switching and blitzing, there's nobody roaming through the middle.

And I understand that in a way they're trying to keep driving lanes clear for two guys who are very isolation-dependent players in Donovan Mitchell and James Harden.

But I think one of the things Toronto's done incredibly well on these three-point shots from the other guys is even when they blitz and they send two guys at the star guards, they have these clear pathways to recover, to still get up good con- like, good contests on threes, what I think are good contests.

I don't, I don't know that the analytics agrees with that.

But to me, you see especially some of the contests that Barnes was able to get while playing as hard as he was, you know, at the level there, was...

Those are the types of things that become harder to do when you don't know where guys are behind you.

Uh, but when Jarrett Allen has basically not only not scored, but not been involved in the play from a ball screen or rim run or any kind of situation like that, like, how do you, what do you do to resolve that if you're the Cavs?