00:00All right. Hey, are you excited? Are you wearing, do you have to wear a cup to watch the cup?
00:05No, you don't. Thank God. I haven't worn a cup since grade school football.
00:11Congratulations on your success.
00:13Thank you. Appreciate that. I'm actually, I'm going to support my, my school tonight by wearing
00:20my, my St. Ed's hoodie, because we've got the Holy War between St. Ed, St. Ignatius. So
00:25even though I'm going to be at the NBA cup game, and it's a big deal because LeBron is
00:29coming home, I'm also going to have one eye on what's happening between St. Ed's and
00:34St. Ignatius, because that affects my life more than anything.
00:38I didn't realize how deep you were into your, into your high school roots for high school
00:42football.
00:43I am. I mean, I'm not the guy who's going to Applebee's talking about the glory days or
00:48something like that, but yes, I'd still, I still support the team. I still take my son
00:53to games. I have a sideline pass and stuff like that.
00:56Oh, you know, it's, it's great to be an alum.
01:00So you've been to a couple of these games where LeBron has come back into Rocket Arena
01:05at this point. The calm has definitely taken place from there. Is it still a big deal inside
01:11of that building when LeBron James steps back in or has it become just second nature?
01:16No, it's a big deal. And I'm interested to see what it's going to be tonight because guys,
01:21I just don't think it's going to be the all out love fest that it has been recently because
01:27of everything that happened throughout the course of this summer. When he has come back
01:31as a member of the Lakers, he obviously won the championship in 2016. And the way that
01:37he left the second time was very, very different than the way that he left the first time.
01:42So when he has come back as a member of the Lakers, it's been an all out love fest. It's
01:47been
01:48appreciation for everything that he accomplished during his time with the Cavs. It's been reflecting
01:54on the great moments throughout the course of his career, the video clips. There's also the pictures
02:00of LeBron, you know, signaling to the crowd with the hearts between his hands, pointing to the
02:07the championship banner, you know, tapping his heart, things like that. But I got the sense
02:14throughout the course of the off season because of LeBron and the way that he went about things
02:20in terms of making his free agency decision that this fan base was hurt because obviously he was
02:27thinking about Cleveland. He was thinking about Philadelphia. He was thinking about these other
02:31places that he could go. And here he is again with the Cavs as one of those options with
02:37Cleveland as one of those options. And he chose a different a different team. And he had his
02:43reasons for it. And I think he's going to end up being proven right on that. It certainly looks good
02:50for
02:50Philadelphia early on in the season. But I think there is a level of pain that still lingers from this
02:59offseason. And I don't think it's going to be overpowering boos or things along those lines. I don't think
03:06it's going to be a hostile environment for LeBron, but I just don't think it's going to be the all
03:11out love fest that it has been recently. I can see that as a team, though, if you're the Cavs,
03:18I mean,
03:18you open up the season with them. It's a game you should have had, right? Like, so like, what do
03:23you
03:23think is going through their minds going into this one? Yeah, I mean, I think when you go on the
03:28road
03:28and you have a 29 point lead and you completely collapse, you obviously want to make up for that.
03:35You obviously have a team in Philadelphia that is looked at as a championship contender in the
03:41Eastern Conference. And if you're the Cavs and you have championship aspirations and you do,
03:46that has been stated from the very beginning of training camp. You understand that these are the
03:53kinds of teams that you have to perform well against. These are the kinds of teams that are
03:58potentially going to stand in your way of getting the Eastern Conference thrown. So you have to show,
04:05you have to prove yourself, you have to show other people that, yes, you belong on that same level.
04:11And yes, what happened in the first game against Philadelphia, where you completely collapsed,
04:17that was more of a fluke than who you are at your core. So I do think the Cavs have
04:23motivation going
04:24into tonight. I also think the NBA Cup matters. Now it may not matter to us, but we have seen
04:30over
04:31time that these elevated games bring out mooring guys. We have also seen over time that getting to
04:38the NBA Cup finals or winning an NBA Cup or competing in high stakes games, it translates. Do you know
04:46who won
04:46the NBA Cup last year? The New York Knicks? Yeah, I was just going to say that. I think the
04:52year
04:52before it was the Bucs. Yeah, do you know who they beat last year? It was the San Antonio Spurs.
04:57That's right. It was the NBA finals. The Indiana Pacers have gone on deep runs in the NBA Cup and
05:05parlayed that into NBA. So these games do matter. There is a bigger feel to them and it gives you
05:14an
05:14opportunity to play in higher stakes games with more pressure, with more involved in them in November
05:23and it prepares you better for what could be ahead. Emphasis on could be.
05:29Would they be better? I'm just curious. Would they be better off taking instead of, I don't know,
05:34I'm going to take the all-star break. I don't know how you would do it logistically.
05:37I'm not making regular season games into a Cup game and then playing it out as like a week-long
05:42tournament in the middle of the season. I just don't know how you'd do that. Yeah,
05:47I don't know how you would either. I do think that would be more dramatic though. I think it might
05:50be a little bit more entertaining. I don't know why. I just think it's more... The NBA schedule is a
05:57grind to begin with. It's very, very complicated to put together. We're talking about back-to-backs,
06:01three games and four nights. It's the kind of schedule that doesn't make a lot of people happy.
06:09So messing with it that substantially, I don't think that would go over very well and I just
06:14don't know how they would do it and maintain the actual schedule and the time frame for the schedule
06:20that they would want. I just think it would make it really, really difficult to fit everything in.
06:24All right. Speaking of time frame, I'm looking at odds at coaches who could get fired and Kenny is
06:30sitting at number two right now. I think he's a good coach. I do know that people are a little
06:36antsy right now. I do know this is a franchise that once fired a coach who was in first place.
06:41So is Kenny in trouble or does something have to happen to make Kenny's life a little bit easier
06:46other than winning? Those odds don't surprise me at all. Make a list of the most disappointing
06:51teams in the NBA through the first eight games. The Cavs are right near the top. They're four and
06:58four. They've won one game away from home. The most impressive performances that they
07:04have had have come against Brooklyn and Milwaukee. Both those teams suck and they're headed for
07:08the lottery and they're headed for one of the worst records, two of the worst records in
07:13the Eastern Conference. So when you come into the season and you have these championship
07:19aspirations and you're coming off an Eastern Conference finals appearance, yeah, there are going
07:24to be expectations and there's going to be pressure and people are going to put you under a microscope
07:32in a different kind of way than what it has been in the past. And the other thing is because
07:38of their
07:38financial situation and because of the roster moves that they made this past offseason, I think there's
07:45an understanding that there's just not a lot that the Cavs can do from a roster flexibility
07:50standpoint. So if they're going to make a drastic change because they underachieve, what's the lever
07:57that you pull? You pull the Kenny Atkinson lever, right? And that's what teams have done in the past.
08:04So if you're going to make a drastic change, if you underachieve, and I'm not saying that the Cavs are
08:09going to continue to underachieve, but I'm saying to this point they have, and that's what we're judging
08:15it on. And if it continues, there are three levers that you would pull. You would pull the Jared Allen
08:21lever, you would pull the Evan Mobley lever, or you would pull the Kenny Atkinson lever. That's how
08:27you substantially change this organization. And they already made the decision this past offseason to
08:33not pull the Evan Mobley one. They had an opportunity to go out and be in the Giannis talks.
08:38They had an opportunity to go out and be in the Jalen Brown talks. They had an opportunity maybe
08:42to be in the Kawhi Leonard talks. And the Cavs decided that they believe in Evan Mobley. They're
08:48going to double down on Evan Mobley. And that's fine. That's the decision that they made. But that
08:54tells you that that's not something that they're really inclined to do. So now you go to the Jared
08:59Allen one. Well, to this point, there has been no trade offer that they have received from a team,
09:05and they've gotten a bunch of them. But there has been no trade offer that they've received from a team
09:09that they deem one that makes them a better basketball team. Okay, so are you going to get
09:14a new offer that you haven't gotten to this point that you're going to say yes to finally?
09:19I don't know. I have my doubts on that. So that leaves you with Kenny. And I'm not saying that
09:25things are really, really bad right now. And this front office is going to make an emotional rash
09:31decision. Since Kobe Altman has taken over as president, he hasn't acted that that level of
09:38emotional. He has tried to be measured. He has tried to assess the situation in a bunch of different
09:46ways. He's gone through a lengthy evaluation process. And then he's made what he thinks is
09:54the best decision for the basketball team. So I don't see him all of a sudden, you know,
10:01getting caught up in this terrible start, this underachieving start, and then make a drastic
10:07change like that. But if this doesn't go the way that the Cavs wanted, because they had such high
10:15expectations coming into this year, I don't think they're just going to sit idly by and say,
10:20we're not going to do anything to change whether it's the roster, whether it's the coach, whether
10:27it's things within the front office. I don't think they're going to keep the status quo if this team
10:33doesn't take the next step. And what's the next step? After you get to the Eastern Conference finals,
10:39it's get to the NBA finals and compete for a championship. So if members of this organization
10:44don't see them taking that step, don't see them as realistically competitive for a championship,
10:50yeah, I definitely think changes will happen.
10:53Chris Fidor, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer joining us on the Wise Heart Right We Make It Right
10:57call, Kyle Wright Hotline. Chris, you brought up Evan Mobley and the idea of changes. It seems like
11:02you're shooting a few more threes this year. What evolutions have you seen in his game to this point?
11:07Zero. Absolutely zero. Evan looks like that. And I hate to say it that bluntly, but look,
11:14this guy makes $50 million a year. He is a former defensive player of the year. He is an all
11:23-star
11:24and he once was second team all NBA. This is a guy that the Cavs need to be great more
11:31frequently
11:31than he is. That's it. This is a big boy league. And those are the expectations when you have that
11:39kind of status. And if this organization said this past offseason that we are not entertaining
11:45discussions for Evan Mobley when it's related to Giannis and when it's related to Jalen Brown
11:49and to these other star caliber players, like that's fine, but that's going to raise the expectations
11:56too. That's going to raise the bar as well. He needs to be better than what he has been in
12:03the
12:03first eight games. Guys, with Evan Mobley on the floor, and this is a small sample size theater,
12:09but that's all we have to go on at this point. So you don't want to make sweeping declarations here.
12:16But with Evan Mobley on the floor, the Cavs are being outscored by 5.1 points per 100 possessions.
12:22Okay. With him off the floor, they are outscoring the opponent by 13 points per 100 possessions.
12:31That is an on-off differential of 18 in the wrong way for somebody like Evan. It's just not good
12:39enough, right? He's got nine made shots this year, nine in eight games that are unassisted.
12:4884% of his made shots so far this year have been assisted by his teammates. What does that tell
12:55you?
12:56He has no offensive creation. None at all. He's very, very reliant on his teammates getting him
13:03those shots. And by the way, those numbers are drastically down from what they were last year.
13:09Last year, it was around like 31% of his shots being unassisted. Now it's 16% unassisted.
13:18You know, yeah, he's making more threes. And that's good. Because that's going to stretch
13:24the defense out in a different kind of way. But what else is he doing? If it's not a dunk,
13:31if it's not a layup, if it's not a three pointer, it's not an effective offensive possession for Evan
13:38Mobley. And this doesn't mean that he's a bad player. I don't want it to come across that way.
13:43But he's not playing like a star. And they need him to be a star. They're paying him to be
13:49a star.
13:50That's the decision that they have made with Evan. And he just has to be that more frequently
13:56than he is. They can't have those kinds of drastic on off splits with one of their most
14:02important players, with one of their highest paid players. It's just not good enough.
14:08Nothing that he has done in the first eight games has shown that he has taken a step forward in
14:14his
14:14evolution. He looks very similar to the guy that he was last year, the guy that he was three years
14:20ago. And there just hasn't been the step that he has had to make for this organization to make.
14:28And if he doesn't make that step that everybody has been waiting for, including the Cavs,
14:33this team is not winning a championship as currently constructed.
14:37So, Chris, what would you be looking for him to do then? Because I've never really seen James
14:43Harden dump the ball into a post to a guy. I've never really seen that a whole lot in the
14:46modern
14:47NBA outside of Nikola Jokic. So what are you looking for for him to do?
14:51Okay, so let's put it in this perspective, okay? Because people are like, what does that mean that
14:56he has nine unassisted made shots? Victor Wimbanyama has 31. Anthony Davis has 27.
15:05Giannis has 41. Jokic has 27. Nas Reed has 20. Bam Adebayo has 22. Evan has nine. There are ways
15:15that
15:15you can create offense where you don't have to have your back to the basket. You can get the ball,
15:21and something positive can happen with you going toward the basket off the dribble in self-creation
15:27than what is the case with Evan Mobley. So they can use him at the elbow, and he can try
15:34and use
15:35some explosiveness and get past his defenders. They can use him in pick and roll situations
15:41where it doesn't turn into, you know, what it has been in the first eight games of this season.
15:48There are opportunities there for him. There are touches. There are shot attempts within this offense,
15:53and it's just he's not maximizing those opportunities that he is getting because he
15:59just doesn't have a lot of creation to his game. He is very, very reliant on his teammates creating for
16:07him, and so is Jared Allen, and that puts a lot of the burden on James Harden. That puts a
16:12lot of
16:12the burden on Donovan Mitchell, and that really neuters what you can do on the offensive end of the
16:17floor. Speaking of neutering, enjoy the cup tonight. Cavs, Sixers. Good luck, my friend. Good luck.
16:24Thank you. Should be a blast. Gotta love those courts, right? You gotta love those courts.
16:29Great for the retinas. I forgot about that. Perfect for the retina.
16:32Can't stand them. Thank you. Goodbye, Chris. We'll read you every day. Thanks, man.
16:36You gotta guess. Anytime. He is Chris Fedor, plaindealerclean.com. Wow. Well, what do you
16:42do with Evan Mobley after talking about it like that? 216-474-0092. It's Baskin and Phelps
16:48with Dan Mannegan.
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