2023-24 Season | Game #43 | Cavs @ Bucks | Jan. 26, 2024 | 8:00 p.m.

[KevinLoveFan]

I'm admittedly a Donovan stan - which is why I have become a Cleveland fan - but have really fallen in love with some of the other players on this team. JA is a breath of fresh air after watching Don play with Gobert in Utah. Gobert was alway whinning and rarely had a smile on his face. JA plays hard but looks like he's having a good time doing it. Last year I would groan anytime Wade came into the game. I thought his defense was average at best and he could never hit an open shot. This year has been a revelation. His shooting has gotten better, but even when the shots aren't falling you can count on him for shutdown, hard nosed defense. I think Sam has turned into one of my favorite role players in the league. Absolute knock down and is oozing with confidence. Team is so fun to watch and I really hope DG and EM figure out how to fit in.

Speaking of Don, I went back and watched the game again last night and his defense was outstanding for the most part. He got caught looking and missing a defensive rebound once and then not getting out on Crowder which lead to an open three, but he was on Beasley most of the night and locked him up. Beasly is one of the best three point shooters in the league and was held without a shot until is crazy drifting 3 from the corner later in the 4th. I think this has been Don's best defensive year of his career.

Welcome! I was a Kevin Love stan, so he was the one who brought me here. Like you, I ended up developing an attachment to the whole team, which was surprisingly about a decade ago already now. My primary team is OKC, but I still follow Cleveland lots; I even watch them more these days than Love in Miami, because Miami isn't terribly exciting in the regular season, let's admit.

 

[jjvors]

Welcome! I was a Kevin Love stan, so he was the one who brought me here. Like you, I ended up developing an attachment to the whole team, which was surprisingly about a decade ago already now. My primary team is OKC, but I still follow Cleveland lots; I even watch them more these days than Love in Miami, because Miami isn't terribly exciting in the regular season, let's admit.

Since we're confessing 'stanship', I'm a Lebron stan and followed him down to Miami, back to Cleveland, and over to LA. Like Miami, LA isn't too interesting with poor coaching and poor GM work.

Lebron's work in 2017-2018 still amazes me. The team was mediocre but every night you had to watch because you didn't know what Lebron would do. I figured the team had no chance to go far in the playoffs, but they went to the Finals.

 

[2 For The Brew]

Anybody checked on Catfish? He was living large Wednesday night and while we were losing last night. Not a peep after the Cavs took the lead last night.

He’s not ready for prime time. Was throwing in the towel after two minutes of game time.

But let’s talk about your boy Dean.

I think that Chicago game was a watershed game for him. He was 1-7 shooting threes. But his teammates encouraged him to shoot and he buried three in a row in the fourth to ice the game.

He’s struggled to get to ten points / 36 minutes in his career here. Last year he was making progress, got hurt, and never looked the same. At the beginning of the season I posted that he needs to target 12 / 36 which isn’t great but makes him a credible three point threat. Unfortunately early this season he was barely 1/2 of that.

In the past six games including Chicago - four on the road - he’s averaging nearly 15 points per 36 and averaging three made threes a game. That’s an amazing improvement. He’s brought his 3pt% up to 41.3% - by far the best of his career. More importantly he’s moving with confidence, shooting with zero hesitation, faking defenders closing on him and sidestepping to shoot, and doing damage. Clearly the attitude of Niang and Sam is positively impacting Dean (and Ice to a lesser extent). Couple that with Dean’s excellent defense and our starting forwards are getting the job done.

It’s great to see Dean so confident and he’s a big part of the success of this team. Advanced metrics just love the guy. I think he’s got a legit case to start ahead of Strus when Mobley gets back (although he needs to get his 20 mpg regardless).

 

[Cavatt]

It was a very ugly game early on and while that 2as partly the bucks, there were also some costly unforced errors from the cavs that looked more like earlier in the year. When they were alert a d looking for the next pass they played great. When they were trying to iso over and over it lead to bad possessions.

Plenty to complain about this game. It was really hard to watch the first half.

Conversely, seeing the cavs lock down on defense in the 2nd half was really awesome. It shook them and the bucks looked tired.

Very interesting arc to the game, but nobody would claim that was beautiful ball. Great win tho

 

[Tlyons]

He’s not ready for prime time. Was throwing in the towel after two minutes of game time.

But let’s talk about your boy Dean.

I think that Chicago game was a watershed game for him. He was 1-7 shooting threes. But his teammates encouraged him to shoot and he buried three in a row in the fourth to ice the game.

He’s struggled to get to ten points / 36 minutes in his career here. Last year he was making progress, got hurt, and never looked the same. At the beginning of the season I posted that he needs to target 12 / 36 which isn’t great but makes him a credible three point threat. Unfortunately early this season he was barely 1/2 of that.

In the past six games including Chicago - four on the road - he’s averaging nearly 15 points per 36 and averaging three made threes a game. That’s an amazing improvement. He’s brought his 3pt% up to 41.3% - by far the best of his career. More importantly he’s moving with confidence, shooting with zero hesitation, faking defenders closing on him and sidestepping to shoot, and doing damage. Clearly the attitude of Niang and Sam is positively impacting Dean (and Ice to a lesser extent). Couple that with Dean’s excellent defense and our starting forwards are getting the job done.brick fest

It’s great to see Dean so confident and he’s a big part of the success of this team. Advanced metrics just love the guy. I think he’s got a legit case to start ahead of Strus when Mobley gets back (although he needs to get his 20 mpg regardless).

Felt the exact same way after that Chi game.

Dude was a brick fest and could have tucked it in and got gun shy.

And now he's our hottest 3pt shooter(well, until Merrill heats back up again). Love it.

Also I think last year's Cavs get manhandled in this game.

We have something different now. We fight. Playing this kind of defense without Mobley is a testament to all the guys but especially JBB.

And dare I say it? We're running some decent ATOs here and there instead of utter crap all the time.

 

[shoes22]

He’s not ready for prime time. Was throwing in the towel after two minutes of game time.

But let’s talk about your boy Dean.

I think that Chicago game was a watershed game for him. He was 1-7 shooting threes. But his teammates encouraged him to shoot and he buried three in a row in the fourth to ice the game.

He’s struggled to get to ten points / 36 minutes in his career here. Last year he was making progress, got hurt, and never looked the same. At the beginning of the season I posted that he needs to target 12 / 36 which isn’t great but makes him a credible three point threat. Unfortunately early this season he was barely 1/2 of that.

In the past six games including Chicago - four on the road - he’s averaging nearly 15 points per 36 and averaging three made threes a game. That’s an amazing improvement. He’s brought his 3pt% up to 41.3% - by far the best of his career. More importantly he’s moving with confidence, shooting with zero hesitation, faking defenders closing on him and sidestepping to shoot, and doing damage. Clearly the attitude of Niang and Sam is positively impacting Dean (and Ice to a lesser extent). Couple that with Dean’s excellent defense and our starting forwards are getting the job done.

It’s great to see Dean so confident and he’s a big part of the success of this team. Advanced metrics just love the guy. I think he’s got a legit case to start ahead of Strus when Mobley gets back (although he needs to get his 20 mpg regardless).

It's honestly really interesting that the influence of Niang and Merrill has really impacted Dean, but playing behind Kevin Love for 2.5 years didn't lead to the same improvements.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Dean Wade making the most of his time with Mobley out has been the best part of this. I believe he has earned "JBB Rotational Trust" which will be huge once Mobley returns.

Dean is certainly earning a place in the Bickerstaff "Circle of Trust". Playing elite defense, committing no turnovers, getting a few boards, and hitting 13-of-17 threes over his last four games definitely gets your foot in the door.

 

[Jscc]

I went back and watched the tape on all of both teams' shots.

Cavs generated 29 open shots and hit less than 50% of them.

Bucks generated 18 open shots and hit roughly 50% of them.

That was encouraging because it means the Bucks missing shots wasn't Milwaukee's problem. The defense to start the game was also elite. The Bucks didn't have an uncontested shot until about three minutes left in the first quarter when Bobby Portis hit an above-the-break 3 in transition. All of Milwaukee's shots to that point had a Cavs hand in their faces.

Another encouraging thing: the majority of those Milwaukee open shots were alley oops [Cavs defensively took them away in the 2nd half], corner 3s, and put-backs. All things that could be schemed away except for maybe put-backs.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

The 100 points scored by the Bucks was their lowest scoring output of the year in games where both Giannis and Dame played. The only two lower scores were 95 against the Cavs with Giannis out and 97 against Orlando with Dame out.

Yep, the Cavs gave up four dunks off lobs to Giannis in the first half but corrected it in the second. When Niang was on him Giannis just ran to the rim for a lob and Georges was unable to get up there and contest it. If you try to front him and deny him the ball he will just run to the rim for a lob. Very effective if you're not defending it properly.

 

[Dr No]

It's honestly really interesting that the influence of Niang and Merrill has really impacted Dean, but playing behind Kevin Love for 2.5 years didn't lead to the same improvements.

He no doubt learned a lot from Love that he's putting to use. But the big difference is for a guy Dean's age, Love is a legend - legends do stuff you can't do. Niang, Merril, Strus, are peers - you see a peer do it and say "hell, I can do that".

 

[cabs]

Since we're confessing 'stanship', I'm a Lebron stan and followed him down to Miami, back to Cleveland, and over to LA. Like Miami, LA isn't too interesting with poor coaching and poor GM work.

Lebron's work in 2017-2018 still amazes me. The team was mediocre but every night you had to watch because you didn't know what Lebron would do. I figured the team had no chance to go far in the playoffs, but they went to the Finals.

I'm somewhat a Cavs fan due to LeBron, not the full reason but it certainly helped me choose but I stayed loyal after he left, I just didn't like Miami and still don't. Had he gone to the Knicks instead I potentially would have jumped though not guaranteed.
NBA Live 05 really got me into NBA I bought that game before I really knew any NBA players, Cavs and Nuggets were my fave teams to play with
Loved playing with Lebron, Hughes, Gooden, Z and from Nuggets Melo, Boykins, Nene, Klieza etc

 

[Jscc]

I'm somewhat a Cavs fan due to LeBron, not the full reason but it certainly helped me choose but I stayed loyal after he left, I just didn't like Miami and still don't. Had he gone to the Knicks instead I potentially would have jumped though not guaranteed.
NBA Live 05 really got me into NBA I bought that game before I really knew any NBA players, Cavs and Nuggets were my fave teams to play with
Loved playing with Lebron, Hughes, Gooden, Z and from Nuggets Melo, Boykins, Nene, Klieza etc

I wished both LeBron and Melo stayed on the teams that drafted them. Those Cavs and Nuggets games were always entertaining.

I also remember that first all-star rook/soph game with LeBron, Melo, Wade, Amare, etc., it was highlight dunk after highlight dunk. You could tell they were about to take over the league.

 

[bleedwineandgold03]

I'm somewhat a Cavs fan due to LeBron, not the full reason but it certainly helped me choose but I stayed loyal after he left, I just didn't like Miami and still don't. Had he gone to the Knicks instead I potentially would have jumped though not guaranteed.
NBA Live 05 really got me into NBA I bought that game before I really knew any NBA players, Cavs and Nuggets were my fave teams to play with
Loved playing with Lebron, Hughes, Gooden, Z and from Nuggets Melo, Boykins, Nene, Klieza etc

Similar story I played nba live 04 and really loved the Cavs jersey and did research on the franchise and became a die hard fan and here we are 20 years later with all the ups and downs