00:00Now I think it becomes really interesting to see how quickly,
00:02because I do think the Cavs were one of several teams
00:04that their markets individually were obviously held up
00:08while you wait for LeBron to make his decision.
00:11Yeah.
00:12Chop, chop.
00:13You've got to get moving here.
00:14Cavs fans, Fire Kobe is still trending, by the way.
00:17Cavs fans want blood right now.
00:19Cavs fans, they want to see something that's going to be different
00:21than what it was last year.
00:22But what was Kobe going to do?
00:24Hey, LeBron, please come back.
00:26You know I defend Kobe,
00:28so I'm not one of them going after Kobe.
00:30We'd be Portland if not for Kobe Altman, in my opinion,
00:32so I'd defend him.
00:33But Tom Dundon would buy us and try and move the tee?
00:36You're taking this too far.
00:37Okay.
00:38But the point is that when it comes to them making moves,
00:43yeah, chop, chop, you've got to get on it.
00:44Whether it's Kaminga, whether it's DeRozan,
00:46whether it's Super Mario, they have to do some things here.
00:48Okay, fair.
00:49But if you get Kaminga and somehow it's because you traded Jared Allen,
00:54I will be pissed.
00:55I understand there might be a move out there that you can make with Jared
00:59that you get better.
01:00And I'm not saying no to those moves.
01:03But Jared Allen for Jonathan Kaminga feels like the tip of the iceberg
01:07that the Titanic went and hit.
01:09Sure.
01:09So how you make the moves also matters to me.
01:12Of course it does.
01:12But I do think we're in a little bit of a sense of urgency here
01:16because what they say in Gladiator, the crowd is fickle.
01:19The crowd is fickle right now, okay?
01:21Like the crowd's getting restless.
01:22They want to make sure the Cavs understand that they believe.
01:26You know, we talked yesterday about like who would be fumbling the bag
01:29in this scenario.
01:30Yeah.
01:31So there's a portion of the fan base that believes the Cavs fumbled this.
01:33It was a perfect story, a perfect homecoming.
01:36It was sitting right there for you,
01:37and you weren't able to get LeBron to do the obvious thing.
01:40And, yeah, they got to find a way to show you that they're different
01:43than last year now.
01:44I mean, what is it?
01:45We got about 400 votes in right now, Antnik Wilson says,
01:48and about 22% of those 423 votes are saying they're mad at the Cavs.
01:53And it's funny.
01:54If it comes out, hey, all you had to do was trade for Anthony Davis,
01:59well, if Anthony Davis for Evan Mobley was the deal,
02:01I'm not going to be mad at the Cavs.
02:03If it was Jared Allen, Max Strews, Dennis Schroeder,
02:08and Future First, I might be inclined to be more mad at the Cavs at that point.
02:13I would think so.
02:14I would think so.
02:14From here, the devil's in the details with where you go.
02:18I just know this.
02:19Like, it's either run it back or you have to make a big swing.
02:24I don't know what big swing you could make,
02:27but I imagine the only guy that I'm not real confident is going to be here
02:31is Jared Allen if they don't just run it back.
02:33They got to do something.
02:34I would imagine they got to do something.
02:36The run it back crowd is – because then you're just relying on Harden
02:38being here for a little bit longer.
02:40Which, by the way, we have to figure out at what point he signs his deal now too
02:43because the idea was that he was waiting for LeBron to kind of give him space
02:47and everything financially.
02:48What a bleep salad that is.
02:49We now got to sign James Harden and we don't get LeBron?
02:51We got to wait.
02:52We got to wait on it now.
02:53Can we still sign him, do as little money as possible?
02:55Can we still do that with James Harden?
02:57I don't think their answer to all this is let's just completely wave the white flag.
03:01Well, no.
03:01No, I mean, I think – what I mean is if –
03:03Are you just going to cross over and –
03:05If James is going to sign for $25 million if LeBron came here,
03:09but now that LeBron's not coming here, you give him $30 million,
03:12I'd like to see option A.
03:13I'd like to go back to the $25 million.
03:15I don't want to pay James Harden more because now LeBron's not coming here.
03:19He was open and willing to take less money to make it more enticing for LeBron
03:22or to make the money work for LeBron, and now that's gone.
03:24It's kind of what happens when you have no leverage.
03:25Oddly enough, the goodwill that Harden would have gotten if LeBron had come here
03:29also then seems like that's out the door as well.
03:31Oh, I mean, I think if you want to put it on somebody on this roster,
03:34you kind of got to put it on James Harden, right?
03:36I don't think so.
03:37It was on the whiteboard.
03:38It was on the whiteboard.
03:39Yeah, the whiteboard said LeBron was not happy with the Garland trade.
03:43The whiteboard was very clutch – pro-clutch agency.
03:46You happen to notice that one?
03:47It was very – oh, Darius Garland is the greatest thing ever.
03:49I wonder why.
03:50Member of clutch.
03:51I get it.
03:52No, I mean, LeBron really did like Darius Garland.
03:54That goes back beyond just the clutch thing.
03:56Right, but he also likes Harden and Donovan.
03:59It's the only people that they've reported that he's actually talked to in this process.
04:03Where was Evan Mobley banging on those streets?
04:05Why did everybody say that – and I don't want to say everybody –
04:08why were there reports that said LeBron isn't a big fan of James Gain?
04:11If it was he likes him.
04:13I don't know.
04:14You answer that for me.
04:15I have no idea why that would happen.
04:16All I know is that the reports were that Donovan and James Harden
04:20were the ones that were texting LeBron and had been texting LeBron for months on end.
04:23I text a lot of people I don't like that.
04:25How do you think I got limo on here?
04:27That's a joke.
04:27That's a cheap shot.
04:28No, but like – I mean, I don't know that this falls on Harden in any sort of way.
04:32I think it falls on Mobley in some sense because where was he pounding the pavement for a recruiting trip?
04:36What a crock.
04:37What a crock.
04:37What an absolute crock.
04:38He's a max deal player.
04:40You can't get out there and do recruiting?
04:41So the one guy on the whiteboard that said,
04:43oh, hey, basically that Darius Garland for James Harden thing is a negative for you,
04:47but Evan Mobley, who wasn't on the whiteboard,
04:50wow, that doesn't mean anything.
04:51He didn't even register.
04:52Didn't even register.
04:53That's absolutely – no.
04:54That right there –
04:55How does Mobley as a max player take none of this?
04:57No, I think what's ridiculous is trying to put this on Harden.
05:00I think that's ridiculous.
05:01James Harden is not a winning player.
05:03Harden's not – Joel Embiid's not a winning player.
05:05Yes, but that's why you have Jalen Brown.
05:07Embiid's never been to a conference championship game.
05:09Yes, that's why Jalen Brown winning a championship a couple years ago cancels out Joel Embiid.
05:14You don't have a cancel out for a player who is synonymous with not winning NBA championships around the NBA,
05:20which is James Harden.
05:21Right now, Evan Mobley's a losing player.
05:23No, no, no.
05:24See, because here's the thing.
05:24It's five years in the league.
05:25He's not one of the three –
05:26One conference final.
05:27He's not one of the two best players on this team consistently.
05:30He's one of the two highest paid players on the team.
05:31That doesn't mean he has to be one of the two best players.
05:34That's not how the NBA works.
05:35You put a lot at stake at him, and yeah, I can argue that's part of the reason why the
05:39Cavs are in the situation they're in right now
05:40is because he's not one of the two best players on the team.
05:42He hadn't taken that elevated step that he needed to.
05:45Young, big, who plays a really – I mean, elite-level defense, former defensive player of the year.
05:49Didn't even make a defensive player of the year vote this year.
05:51Or James Harden, who's 36 years old, got fat this summer.
05:54Do you see how much weight you're putting on a guy that just got acquired on the team in March?
05:57He put the weight on.
05:58Not me.
05:58You see how much emphasis you're putting on a guy?
06:00Oh, that's disingenuous.
06:01He's got a team in March, and now it's his fault for fumbling the back?
06:03Players around the NBA just told you.
06:05How is this on James Harden?
06:07James Harden's not a serious NBA player.
06:09No, that's a ridiculous thought that this is coming down to Harden.
06:11That is a ridiculous thought.
06:13No, ridiculous is putting it on Evan Mobile.
06:15You should go on Donovan before it goes on Harden in any sort of sense.
06:18Oh, I'll give you that.
06:19Yeah.
06:19Hey, Donovan, great job.
06:20Thank you for nothing.
06:22Real good job there, Captain.
06:24Appreciate it.
06:25But hey, you know what?
06:26I'm glad you guys got to the Eastern Conference Finals without LeBron.
06:29I mean, I am a little –
06:31I am at the end of all this.
06:32I am a little peeved about the idea that the 76ers clearly did –
06:36they understood the assignment.
06:38Every one of their big-time players was in constant communication
06:40with LeBron James, trying to genuflect at the altar of LeBron,
06:44kiss his ass, make sure that he knows that everything's good,
06:47we want to be playing with you, we'd love to be playing with you.
06:50Bob Myers was in constant communication with Rich Paul,
06:53even going on his podcast, doing all these things.
06:55What did I get out of the Cavs in this?
06:57I heard nothing about Kobe Altman the entire time.
07:00At Fanatics Fest is the only time we got any glimpse of anything,
07:02and it was just James Harden and Donovan being like, that's cool.
07:05Like, if it was a recruiting process by the Cavs,
07:09they just failed that end of it.
07:11And I don't know, maybe LeBron needed Donovan to genuflect
07:14and bend to the knee a little bit harder.
07:16But clearly he didn't.
07:17Clearly – and maybe that's where that goes on James too.
07:19Maybe James didn't do enough to say,
07:21hey, LeBron, we need you here at all costs.
07:24And Mobley, I can't find Mobley at all.
07:25He's not even at Fanatics Fest.
07:27I don't know where he is.
07:28He's too busy working out and bulking up this summer.
07:29Great.
07:30Pick up a phone and call LeBron.
07:31My goodness.
07:31How do you know he didn't?
07:32Well, right now I got no reports that says he does.
07:34So that's what you need?
07:35Yeah, I got all sorts of reports about the 76ers players
07:38that did their job right now.
07:40I got nothing in relation to Mobley.
07:41Isn't that on the reporters?
07:42Except for a shirtless pick on the beach.
07:44That's all I got from Mobley.
07:45Isn't that on the reporters, not on Evan?
07:46Evan's got to come out and say, hey, this is for Peterlin.
07:49They can't report it if they don't know what happened.
07:50They can't report it if you have no idea if it actually went through.
07:53All we've heard, and Bede's reaching out like crazy.
07:58Brown's reaching out like crazy.
08:00Maxie's reaching out like crazy.
08:01Maxie's calling him his big brother.
08:03James Harden got fat.
08:04All these guys are making a big push for LeBron.
08:07And I didn't see it from the Cavs.
08:10At the end of the day, they sat back and thought that they were winning this thing
08:13and thought they were in the driver's seat
08:14and decided it was a better bet not to try to fumble it and upset LeBron
08:18than go after him, make the attempted push, try to get him,
08:24try to make sure that he knows that he's wanted on this team.
08:27They didn't do that.
08:28Marcus in Aurora, welcome to the show.
08:30Hey, guys.
08:31You know, look, if they don't trade Garland,
08:34they don't get to the conference finals, but I digress from that.
08:37Yeah, but they might have also gotten LeBron back here
08:39if LeBron wanted to play with Darius more than, you know, James Harden.
08:43Yeah, play with Darius in the IL all he wants.
08:45The bottom line is the longer it took for him to make a decision,
08:51the more odds were better that he was leaving.
08:54And I can't blame him for chasing a ring.
08:57I'm not mad at him for that.
08:58Isn't that why you play?
09:00To try to win rings, right?
09:02So anybody says, ah, he's just a ring chaser, you're an idiot.
09:04So what?
09:05If he wants to win a ring, you can't blame him for that.
09:07On that, we agree.
09:08I will say this.
09:09At least today, I'm not going to watch him play, okay?
09:13I don't want to watch him play.
09:15At least when he went to the Heat, I watched the Heat,
09:17and I rooted against him.
09:18I'm not going to root against him or for him,
09:20but I'm just not going to watch him play.
09:22So if that makes any sense, that's about how I feel about it,
09:25you know, gentlemen?
09:26Marcus, we appreciate you, buddy.
09:28Thank you very much.
09:28That was a nice go.
09:29We agreed on a lot here.
09:31Today, I can't.
09:32He's just out?
09:33He's just not going to watch him play at all?
09:35So I think that's the appropriate take today.
09:37I don't believe you in six months.
09:39Okay, all right.
09:40That's fair.
09:40If LeBron is in the NBA Finals, it's not six months,
09:43but, you know, ten months from now, I will root for him.
09:47As much as I think Philly fans are trash human beings,
09:50as much as I think Spike Eskin's going to do his tough thing on WIP,
09:55I'm not bowing down to the king,
09:57he will after you win a championship.
09:58We all do.
09:59It's okay.
09:59We're all whores here.
10:00But the point is, yeah, despite everything,
10:05unless it was Golden State, I was going to root for LeBron
10:10to win a championship wherever he went.
10:12I'm just not doing it today.
10:13Yeah, then that's fine.
10:15Even if it was Golden State,
10:16you'd still probably be rooting for him in some capacity.
10:18I would.
10:19This is just easier.
10:20This is an easier pill to swallow than if it was Golden State or Miami.
10:23This is an easier pill to swallow than if it was Golden State or Miami.
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