00:00Jalen Brown's one of the few guys that I will say this on.
00:02There's not a lot when it comes to the Cavs that I'm willing to take off the table
00:09because of the position he plays, because of what he's done in the NBA,
00:14and because of where he is in his career.
00:17I think Evan is so much harder of a conversation for me to have
00:21than Donovan Mitchell is because Evan is at a much younger clip,
00:26but I do think Evan's value outside of Cleveland is sky high
00:32compared to what it is with the average Cavs fan.
00:35You only get to use that bullet once.
00:38The concern is until Donovan Mitchell signs a contract extension,
00:45his future here is in question.
00:48Now, he has said very publicly how much he loves Cleveland,
00:51his commitment here, whatever.
00:53And he's not going to sign this offseason because he can get the Supermax next offseason.
00:58I understand all that, but you take an awful big risk
01:02because I feel like Evan Mobley is your insurance policy
01:06if the Donovan Mitchell era with the Cavaliers ends.
01:10If this ends in the next two years,
01:14he's your insurance policy to where you don't have to completely bottom out
01:17and crater and all that,
01:19and plus you don't have a lot of draft capital into the future right now
01:21because you're going to be still paying for the Donovan Mitchell trade
01:25until the end of the decade.
01:27Well, but here's the thing.
01:28It's not even for me just because you're right.
01:30Evan Mobley is kind of your insurance policy,
01:32and I think people are really off on Evan and what he is
01:38and what he isn't right now.
01:39Well, I think he's miscast.
01:41Yes, and I don't think that's any fault of his own.
01:44I think that's the way the Cavs are set up.
01:46So I think you could get the Evan people want
01:48if you ever cleared the deck and built this thing around him.
01:51This happens all the time.
01:52Yeah.
01:52I mean, I know it's a little different
01:53because Luka was in the NBA Finals a couple years ago.
01:56It's what the Lakers are doing,
01:58going from being a team built around LeBron to Luka
02:01and maybe letting LeBron go in that process.
02:04My thing is, even if you trade Evan for Jalen and Donovan stays,
02:11okay, so now your timeline is the next two years.
02:14And I'm okay with that, right?
02:16But that next two years, it's a mandate.
02:18You have to win an NBA championship.
02:20Not like, hey, it'd be great to be the Finals.
02:23No, you have to win an NBA championship
02:24because it's become a zero-sum game
02:27because afterwards, it's going to stink.
02:30As bad as the last couple years have stunk for the Milwaukee Bucks
02:33and as painful as this was to trade Giannis,
02:35thank you, Jimmy, as painful as that might have been,
02:38the truth is it was all worth it
02:40because you did something with Giannis in Milwaukee
02:43that nobody had done since Kareem in 71.
02:45Right.
02:46Right?
02:46So everything that happened after that
02:48with what they paid for Jew Holiday
02:51and the Middleton contract, which aged like sour milk,
02:56like all those things were worth it.
02:58The four coaches they've had in the last five years.
03:00Although nothing's really worth the Doc Rivers experience this year.
03:03Head coach.
03:03But all of it's worth it because you won that damn title.
03:06Yeah.
03:07I mean, and even when the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA championship,
03:12and again, not pocket watching for Dan,
03:13but the reality is Dan was paying for that championship in 2020 still.
03:19And that's fine.
03:20Totally worth it.
03:21The Rams a couple years ago, right?
03:23They win the Super Bowl.
03:25They have a little bit of a rough patch.
03:28But hey, you got the trophy in the case.
03:30Who cares if you don't have any picks?
03:31It paid off.
03:32The problem you run into, though, is if you don't get the trophy in the case.
03:36And then you have to bottom out.
03:38And now when you bottom out, you have no assets.
03:41That's where the Cavaliers potentially could be.
03:44This is a situation where, again, hypothetically,
03:49let's say your window is two more years with Donovan, James Harden,
03:53and whoever else is still here, this group, this core, whatever, however that looks,
03:58you have two years to do this thing.
04:00Because once that expires and those guys go on to retirement
04:04or on to their next teams or whatever, you're left holding the bag,
04:08and now you have nothing to rebuild with.
04:10Or if two years from now, Donovan and Jalen are still the center point,
04:14the focal point of your team,
04:16and you haven't had a lot of draft picks to replenish the core around them,
04:21and James Harden retires, so now you need to find a point guard,
04:23you're still going to be in considerable cap issues.
04:26Yes.
04:27And then they're 31, 32, 33 years old, making $140 million combined or more.
04:33And the reason why that's a problem is you're going to end up being
04:36what the Warriors have been since 2022, which, again, was only worth it.
04:41This protracted goodbye tour for Draymond, Steph, and for a little bit there, Clay,
04:47it was only worth it because you won that next championship in 2022.
04:51Well, I think it's still worth it because they won three of them against the Cavs.
04:54Well, no, I think there would have been a time where Warriors fans tuned the hell out
04:58if not for 2022.
04:59Okay.
05:00I do.
05:00Because I think at some point, like, once you get three years in the rearview mirror
05:04of a title, things...
05:07The glow has worn off?
05:08Yeah, I think it's natural that fans get a little bored with, hey, nostalgia.
05:13You know, I mean, one of the merciful things that happened with LeBron...
05:16Listen to Yankee fans now.
05:17They haven't won a World Series in years, and they're losing their minds,
05:19and they got, what, 26, 27 of them things in the case?
05:22Don't make me started on that.
05:23Knicks fans, New York media members saying,
05:26it's been a title drought here in New York because they hadn't won a title since 2011.
05:31I just, I want to throw rocks at them.
05:33I'm not a big proponent of stoning.
05:35For a minute there, I wanted to stone a couple of our brethren,
05:38the fan in New York, as much as I love and respect them.
05:40I don't really know them, but as much as I respect them.
05:42I do respect them.
05:43I just don't love them.
05:44I don't give a crap.
05:44However, my point is, to get back to it, it has to be on the table, and you have to
05:51seriously
05:52consider it if you're the Cavs, and if you make this deal, what's the move you make behind
05:58it?
05:58Like, what are the...
05:59Again, like, everyone's judging the Giannis deal based off just the deal.
06:02Right.
06:02And it's like, okay, but what else might the Heat do around that?
06:07Because that will determine how good the Heat really are.
06:10Yeah, because that trade did not move the needle, in my view, for Miami.
06:14Even though they got a great player, two-time MVP, NBA champion, all that.
06:19Got a great player, but I don't think that that made them, that trade singularly made them
06:26title contenders.
06:27They're going to have to have ancillary moves around it to elevate them.
06:32So, all right, so I think you're...
06:33I would say those are two different things.
06:35I do think it moves the needle.
06:37I don't think it makes you a definitive title.
06:39I think it puts you into the category of the Cavs.
06:41There's like four or five teams in the East in the category of the Cavs.
06:44Right.
06:45Problem is, it doesn't put you at the top.
06:47Right.
06:47So we agree fundamentally.
06:48I just wanted to...
06:49Yeah.
06:49However, but like, if you could say...
06:51But you make that trade.
06:52That's why you make the trade if you're Miami, right?
06:54You're making a trade like that to position yourselves to win another NBA champion.
07:00And to see who else it shakes free.
07:02Who else might...
07:03Guys, LeBron might look at that and go, they need a point guard.
07:07Yeah.
07:07I'll go there for one of the mid-level exception.
07:10Or I'll go there for something, right?
07:12Who's to say he can't do his retirement tour?
07:14In Miami.
07:15Where, oh, by the way, he did win two NBA championships.
07:18Pat Riley better give him his damn cookies this time, though.
07:20Yeah, no kidding.
07:20Because I'll tell you, LeBron's not putting up with that at 41.
07:22No, he's not.
07:23You do not deprive a 41-year-old man of his cookies or his wine.
07:26You give that man everything.
07:27But, again, I think it's on the table.
07:30I am most reticent about trading Evan, because I think he's massively underrated in Cleveland.
07:35And I don't think he's...
07:37I think there's a lot of really smart basketball people who just don't want to admit how poorly
07:42this thing is set up for him to be the best version of himself.
07:45And I think they're doing that because they've decided Donovan is king here and nothing can
07:50move them off that.
07:51So, if I'm the Cavs, I would rather upgrade over Donovan with Jalen Brown than I would
08:00Evan Mobley.
08:01But, again, I want to say it.
08:02But both things have to be on the table, because Jalen Brown is the infinity stone, right?
08:10Like, he is the thing that they have not had since LeBron left.
08:14He is a big wing that can score in droves.
08:17I know it.
08:18One of the things that...
08:19Oh, it's just going to be a lot of iso ball.
08:21Guys, yep, you're not wrong.
08:23But if that's the cost of getting a top 10...
08:27Guys, Donovan is, on any given moment, the 8th best or 20th best player in the NBA.
08:33Jalen Brown is, at any point, one of the five best players.
08:38Now, more often than not, he's been a top 10 player.
08:41But he's one of the few guys that can ascend to that spot, given his own spot.
08:46And I think we...
08:47I think this idea that there isn't a big upgrade for the Cavs and how they're built...
08:51Again, on other teams, it might not be the same way.
08:53But specific to how you're built with two ball-dominant guards, do I think Jalen Brown fixes the wings in
09:01a way that makes you significantly better than with Donovan?
09:05Yes, absolutely.
09:06I don't even think it's a question.
09:07Yeah, see, the pairing that I would actually prefer is Evan and Jalen Brown.
09:13I think those two players work better together and will be able to produce more consistently than if you put
09:21Jalen Brown next to James Harden and Donovan Mitchell.
09:23I just...
09:24I think it works better.
09:25And so...
09:26And you kind of went where I was thinking.
09:29And that is...
09:31I love Donovan Mitchell.
09:32I have tremendous respect for how he's embraced Cleveland, what he's done for the Cavaliers.
09:36I have no complaints about that trade.
09:39I don't really want to trade him.
09:40This is just the brass tacks of, if you can make that move, you have to.
09:44Right.
09:45And that's where I'm at.
09:46It's like, okay, I'm looking at the numbers, and I'm thinking, I honestly don't believe that Donovan Mitchell is a
09:53$70 million a year player in the NBA.
09:56Not at 30, 31, 32, 33.
09:59And I would not do that deal if I was the Cavs.
10:03But when you're in that desperate position that the Cavaliers find themselves in, they have no choice.
10:08And I feel like this is your out.
10:10If you could swap Mitchell for Brown in a heartbeat.
10:15And I think from the Boston side, I think Donovan at this point in his career is probably more comfortable
10:21playing the two to Tatum.
10:22And also, by the way, Donovan and Tatum play different positions.
10:26I think that matters.
10:27They take up different places on the court, even if there's still some iso ball stuff that would go on
10:32there.
10:32But, like, I think it might make sense for Boston, even if Donovan isn't the player at that position that
10:40Jalen Brown is.
10:41Because, again, that's as good as one-for-one as you're going to get.
10:44Any other team isn't going to give you Donovan Mitchell for Jalen Brown.
10:48The other issue that I have to raise is that I've watched Donovan in the playoffs four straight years.
10:54And I have watched this team flame out in their final series, whether it was in the first round, the
11:00second round, or the conference championship.
11:02I have watched Donovan and this team flame out four straight years.
11:08I'm very open-minded about trying something else.
11:11I'm very open-minded about trying something else.
Comments