OK, my like to post ratio is dropping a little, so I'm going to put in the effort for all you guys and transcribe the latest Hey Windy from Tuesday. Transcribed the first 38 minutes until they started to talk Tribe. A lot of this is obvious stuff covered on the board but always interesting to see Windy's take. But I may be prejudiced -- he agrees with me that the Raptors are the toughest opponent in the East for us.
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Cavs got two days off with no practice, about 8 days total with practice -- heck of a lot of rest
Great things for the Cavs to have. Lebron teams used to this because he always seems to sweep in the first round
Exactly what they need, a bunch of players with minor injuries
Kyrie with left knee thing, Korver with foot, TT with thumb, JR with hamstring
Guess that they will really start drilling in and preparing for Toronto Raptors
Raptors have controlled this series
Cavs will install game plan things for Raptors
This rest is great, a really good thing, every team would always choose rest. Vital for Cavs
Interviewer asks -- what did we learn about Cavs in Indiana series, what do you take away most?
Windy -- I have good news and bad news
start with bad news -- despite improvements from Shump and second unit, their defense did not statistically improve
111 points/100 possessions in this round, identical to their post-all star break record
this is 12 points / 100 possessions WORSE than typical first round performance by eventual NBA champions
first team in 20 years to sweep a best of 7 series while allowing 100 points in every game
worst defensive performance by a Lebron team since 2014 Finals. Similar to performance against Magic in 2009
So defense is not healed. They are not out of the woods on defense at all
Good news -- Lebron looked sensational. 1 rebound and 4 assists shy of averaging a triple double for a playoff series
He thought Kyrie had a good first two games, but only had one good quarter in last two games
But Cavs won those games anyway because of good bench play
Deron Williams played great
And bench units could play defense -- e.g. the Shump/DWill/Frye/Lebron/Korver lineup
so if Cavs defense collapses with starters they can pull Kyrie/Love if they need to
it was a close series but Cavs were clearly the better team
Q: Cavs kept giving up big leads -- what is going on when they let other teams back in the game?
Cavs play best when they are in transition after getting stops, they don't look so good playing a slower ISO game
when Cavs get up they tend to slow down, then they don't get a lot of stops because the D is weak
so they tend to lose leads that way -- slow down, fail to get stops, slow down more
play better when they are down sometimes because they have to hurry and speed up
they will have to work on their habit of slowing down
asks about JR behind the back pass
Windy -- JR has regressed a little
JR also regressed after getting his long term contract in NY
but of course injury, personal situation contributes
talk about the 3 pointers at the end of the 4th game, claim by NBA that he traveled
Windy is fine with last two minutes report. But at the same time, there is no freaking way any ref calls travel on that Lebron 3. Nor would the league want them to. It's a flow of the game thing.
thinks they may expand the last two minutes report to entire playoff games
Q: when people get physical with KLove his lack of athleticism really shows up. Limits his value. How valuable is he over the long term from a playoff perspective?
Windy -- very fair question. KLove rebounds with positioning, not athleticism, he doesn't get high off the ground
he struggles with interior shots near the basket
limited athleticism + knee problems
he is still a valuable player, but all this is definitely a factor. Cavs will have to think about it.
but does think his ability to play alongside Lebron, his ability to find places to shoot, he can be effective.
Q: is there anything the Cavs do better than the Warriors, do the Cavs even have a chance in the Finals?
Windy -- what a buzzkill to bring up the Warriors.
The Warriors are looking absolutely sensational right now.
they took apart Portland even though some significant players were injured. Pretty scary.
What do the Cavs have that the Warriors don't? They have Lebron James. He's a great equalizer
but it's early in the playoffs yet. Reminds him of last year
Right now, I don't like the Cavs chances. But they're not playing right now
Q: thoughts on Mike Brown coaching the Warriors?
Kerr is in bad physical shape, a lot of pain
belief is that the docs can fix the symptoms with the week off, expect to see Steve Kerr back
hired Brown as lead assistant because he had head coaching experience, just in case
Brown has won nine different playoff series
Brown really good at making in-series playoff adjustments
no matter what your memory says, Brown does have a good track record
Q: what do players do during all this time off? Do they leave and hit the party scene (lol) or stay and work out?
players have had two days off, they could have gone anywhere or do anything
but typically what you see this time of year is that players will get treatment or do workouts.
Cavs have world class massage therapists at their facility. Also a great chef who cooks to order. Light shooting work maybe.
during this week Cavs will have one or two contact practices, go full out five on five
they bang, call fouls, etc. Or practices that focus on conditioning
Lebron likes to turn these off times into mini training camp
Lebron does wind sprints and stuff
Q: Raptors-Bucks -- have the Raptors found their stride? Are they the more difficult matchup? Compare Raptors and Bucks
Windy -- I saw the Raptors as the biggest threat to the Cavs in the playoffs [NOTE -- I agree]
Cavs have not really played *this* Raptors team. Haven't played against Raptors with Ibaka and PJ Tucker
Cavs really wanted PJ Tucker but couldn't come up with a deal that worked
Because of this he believes Raptors became the best defensive team in the East post-trade
Lowry has been so-so, still has some injury issues, a lower back problem, but he has done some clutch stuff this series
Raptors lineup switch -- took JV out of starting lineup and started Norman Powell
transformative move -- Powell had sensational game, playing great
Powell shooting 89% from 3 this series
moved Ibaka to center in small lineup starting
they will also have great size off their bench (JV and Patrick Patterson)
expects Raptors to win.
Bucks start two rookies -- Brogdon and Thon Maker
Giannis struggles shooting.
Delly's shot is completely off. He can't hit the broad side of a barn, huge hitch in his shot
Bucks have fantastic length but offensively challenged
Raptors are hungry, have been looking forward to this series all season
Raptors will not be intimidated by the Cavs
This Raptors team is deep, experienced, and will not be afraid
Q: Believes Wizards will go to ECF. Are the Wizards the scariest team out there? Also, how does Mike Brown change the Warriors?
Windy -- Mike Brown does not change the Warriors. he will not change a thing.
re Wizards vs Raptors, Windy thinks the Raptors are scarier for the Cavs, Raptors are the bigger threat
Raptors have a lot more depth than the Wizards
John Wall is scary, but Wizards not as much
you could not put Kyrie on John Wall, he thinks. Wiz require defensive adjustment that way
But Wizards have very suspect bench, and also very wobbly / unreliable defense
Raptors go 9 or 10 deep with quality NBA players, Wizards go 6 to 7 deep maybe.
But whatever happens Cavs will be facing very good guards going forward.
[They start talking about Indians]