What do you make? of what Evan Mobley has put on the resume from when he got into the league to now, and how real do you think this is?

I mean, it is only four games.

Plus, I'm going to tack on last season's playoffs onto this, too, because we were seeing signs of that then.

So it's not nothing.

We still have the whole 63 games of last year where he shot 27% from three to reckon with, and most of his career, frankly.

But the year before that, he was good.

And the year before that, he was good on low volume.

I will now open up the floor to you and see if you still use the pumpkin spice latte reference.

Yeah, when you think about where we are at the defensive tackle position with Mason Graham, Mike Hall Jr., the injuries there, and this defensive front just keeps on churning it out.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And this is like, The defensive tackle, I wrote this after Mason Graham's multi-sac game, the last full game he played.

These are not just like fat dudes plugging gaps anymore.

This position has come such a long way.

It's that dynamic part of the defense.

Do you agree or disagree?

What did you learn about him that you didn't necessarily know before walking into that room?

This is a really interesting time to be introduced to Peyton Watson because this is a young dude who clawed and scrapped his way up the Nuggets depth chart.

And today, his introductory press conference after signing the second contract, it's kind of an I made it moment.

This is validation after a long, frustrating summer of wondering what the offer sheet was going to be, who was going to bring it, the Nuggets dragging their feet, playing hardball, and the league kind of being on frozen while LeBron was making his decision, a lot of moving pieces.

And there's a sigh of relief in some respect for Peyton Watson's day because he did it.

He proved himself as a, in the Cavs' eyes, a starting level player.

forward in this league.

Jimmy, how much could playing alongside Evan Mobley and Jared Allen actually change the way Peyton Watson is able to defend defensively?

Who do you think is better suited to help the Cavs chase a championship this next year?

To me, it's pretty obvious that it's Peyton Watson, and that doesn't mean there's no case for Jonathan Kaminga.

We can lay out both of those here.

This morning, I did a little side-by-side comparison on Basketball Reference of Jonathan Kaminga's best season of his career, which happened to overlap with Kenny Atkinson's last season in Golden State, and Peyton Watson's best season of his career, which was last year, and it's, it plays out a lot like you say, Ethan.

It's Jonathan Kaminga's scoring more.

Their effective field goal percentage is actually the exact same, 56%, but Kaminga has shown and has been given a little bit more opportunity to do stuff off the dribble and flash some talent.

It's alway-- you can always see it in bunches, or bits I should say, with, with Kaminga.

Which one actually makes Cleveland better against the teams it needs to beat in May?

And while I think the trade return was fine, and Jared Verst is a good player, most of the return is not going to be in the building this year.

100%.

And to me, the Miles Garrett trade further blurs a blurry problem that the Browns have had for a couple of years now because of the Deshaun Watson trade, which is their incentives do not match their outlook.

Like you just hired...

You just fired a two-time coach of the year because the owner said that the roster was ready to win more games than it did last year.

And you replaced him with a 60-year-old first-time coach who you better believe Todd Munkin is going to do everything he can to squeeze every last win out of this roster because if it's his first job, it might be his last job.

You only get so many cracks at this in general.

How much of what has happened with the Browns is directly a result of Jimmy Haslam and his influence?

Do you think that is true? Do you think that there are players that even at number 29 overall could come in and make an immediate impact on this Cleveland Cavaliers team, or is this still just a glorified role player that the Cavs should not be looking to put a lot of faith or hope into their roster or into the city or into the organization based on one pick? Where do you land on the 29th overall pick's importance to this Cavs roster?

It's really hard to find immediate contributors in the range the Cavs are picking at right now.

Their roster is such and their timeline is such that they don't have a ton of room for patience right now.

I know like people are saying that this is a really good draft, and that's true, but I think that's more true at the top than it is toward the back end.

I'm not saying that you can't find good players at the end of these drafts.

There's always gonna be somebody who slips through the cracks, and this is where the Cavs have made their money as a front office is, is finding players.

You know, they're, they're winning games, but they find players anyways that can help them in the draft process.

Jimmy, what do you think about the gymnastics? What do you think about the salary cap situation that makes all of these things so much more difficult for the Cleveland Cavaliers because they're still in the second apron than other teams trying to improve their rosters when they have more flexibility?

And one of the things that Kenny Atkinson said as the end of the regular season was playing out and the postseason was getting closer and closer and closer, he said, "I'm gonna have a hard time not finishing playoff games with Max Strus, because I trust him, because he's a winner, because he makes clutch plays." And he made clutch plays again tonight.In a game that the Cavs absolutely had to have

Some heroes, some heroes wear capes, other heroes wear man buns.

Um, and Max Strus, Max Strus wears a man bun.

[laughs] Um, it is-- First of all, the, the inbounds play is just incredible.

Like, he was talking after the game like it was, like he was anticipating the count.

I went back and watched it.

Scott Foster gets to, like, two.

So I, I thought maybe underrated, but Sam Merrill's impact, you, you certainly felt that, um, as soon as he got in the game.

Jimmy, what do you think about the strengths and weaknesses and the comparisons of rosters to a potential contender?

Man, I just think the Cavs are not playing, are not fulfilling the theory of their roster while the Pistons are fulfilling the theory of theirs.

The Pistons are, have built a, an elite defensive roster, an elite defensive ecosystem.

They're built on toughness and physicality.

All that stuff is bearing out.

The Cavs are supposed to...

Their advantage in this series is supposed to be offense, offensive ceiling, three-point shooting, spacing.

What do you think happens if everything goes awry and the series ends in five or even in four? Let's start there.

And I think that's a big difference and a big advantage point for this Cleveland Cavaliers team, especially if their stars are not going to be able to keep up minutes-wise with what the starters for the Pistons were able to do in that first-round series.

There's no question that Kenny has way more buttons to press at his disposal in this series.

I mean, look at the box scores from the Pistons Magic series, and boy, does that look pretty familiar, doesn't it? It's a J.B.

Bickerstaff team that doesn't have a ton of shooting, and he finds about seven guys that he likes, and He rides those guys.

I mean, the Game 7 yesterday, which Detroit won pretty comfortably, to Danish Jenkins and I think Javante Green were the only two bench players who played more than 10 minutes.

And that's, to a certain extent, that's a Game 7, particularly when you have a young team.

But like, I don't know, Cade's playing 40 minutes a night.

who they want to take away.

Oh, by the way, in the final two minutes of the second quarter, third quarter, and fourth quarter combined, the Cavs were outscored 29 to 2.

I'm with Chris.

I think the Cavs could still win this series, but today is the, the day that I think the fan base lost hope about, like, anything big picture.

This was, "Oh, okay, that's, that's, that's still that team

teamThe different team comment from Donovan after the game.

He can't lean into the narrative that's, that's being played out here where, like, you guys, you know, fumbled those games against the Pacers last year, and now you're fumbling a game here.

Like, what's the connective tissue there? Like, if he honestly answers that question, that's a big problem.

We can't continue to show this kind of late-game pressure moment immaturity.

But how much does some of this stuff make you just think about what has been said throughout the season and be like, "How am I supposed to believe anything you say anymore?"

[laughs] Like, like we've been saying a lot this s- I don't pay a ton of mind to what's being said into microphones as pertains to playoff adversity, as it pertains to recaps, even just something as simple as James Harden saying, "We will respond." Okay, that's a fun thing to say.

That's what you should say in that moment.

I need to see it.

I need to see it four years running.

I need to see it four years runningThis Cavs team says all the right things, acknowledges where their flaws are as, uh, un- not necessarily even just a roster makeup, but, like, physical, mental makeup.

And then we get to the next year, and some version of something similar happens again, right? Go back to the beginning.

What do you think about rotation adjustments and not necessarily going completely away from guys, but Kenny Atkinson testing to see what works because you already have sample size and you already have information to tell you that it does?