Start with our hoop heads, draftkings contributor Jeff Pratt
TK Nations wires, Nick Whale talking win totals here
ahead of next season. Gentlemen, now that the
Summer League is behind us, the Cavs, our
champions here, Jeff Pratt, you have this odd
obsession with summer league. So I'll start with you
this full cavs roster. Now that we are focusing
on the regular season, how do you like its
chances of topping 49.5 wins? Uh Firstly, by
an odd obsession with Summer League? Do you mean
I just like to watch it because I like basketball
Emerson is that, is that you also have an
odd obsession with really ugly shoes as I've seen you
tweet, Jason Tatum, new shoes, which are
just an upgrade lawn mowing dad shoe. That's all
it is. Dad shoes are great. I don't
know. You out of all people should respect lawn
mowing. Dadu Emerson as a dog, dad yourself
. Uh But anyway, but we're not talking about
the Celtics. We're not talking about Jason Ta and
we're talking about the cavs here and you know,
how does Cleveland Summer League win correlate to their chances
of winning games in the regular season. It absolutely
does not. It means nothing. I will say
that Amani Bates Tweeting out Cleveland. This is for
you imposing with the summer league trophy was pretty funny
. Uh So at least that was something came out
of it and I hope he enjoyed playing there because
that's the best chance he has at contributing to a
winning basketball team, at least for the next couple
of years because he is a very raw product in
terms of getting on the court. I do Cleveland's
odds of hitting at least 50 wins this season.
They did it last year, finishing third in the
East with 51. The roster got a lot better
. They addressed multiple needs, especially shooting with Max
Strus, even if they did overpay him a little
bit. George Niang, local guy, they also
added a lot more depth and they have a full
summer to work with Donovan Mitchell in terms of building
that che history between him. Darius Garland. Uh
Jared Allen, Evan Mobley, we saw that breakdown
a little bit in the playoffs last year against the
New York Knicks. So this team, they got
better, they have a lot more time to build
chemistry. They should be a better basketball team next
season. All right. Waylon, what do you
think Pratt mentioned it? You're one of the Mitchell
era. Cavs finishing with 51 wins. Yeah.
II, I think year one of the Mitchel era
went about as well. As it could have as
far as him fitting in, you know, kind
of establishing himself as the number one option but still
allowing Darius Garland to play his game. Uh,
you know, Evan Mobley didn't maybe take the full
leap forward that we thought but still had a really
productive sophomore season. And then you have Jared Allen
is kind of this perfect fourth option, you know
, center who could give you 12 and 12 but
doesn't really command touches and I think he's a perfect
fit. I think we have to address, you
know what they did this offseason trying at least to
finally find the missing piece. Like basically, since
lebron James left this team in 2018, they've been
trying to find a new wing right and they've just
been cycling through options, you know, they took
Isaac Okoro top five pick, you know, they
kind of went more defensive focus with that spot.
He looks like a bust. I mean, he's
pretty much unplayable at this point unless he's in a
defensive specialist role. Nobody was left wide open for
three more often in the NBA last season than Isaac
A coo. So what do they do? They
go out and get Max Strew, they resign,
Caris Levert, they bring in George's Niang. Uh
So the, the upgraded shooting, I think around
Garland and Mitchell to me, especially if you're going
to play two big men who don't shoot in Mobley
and Allen, you can't have a third no shooter
out there and too often last year, they were
basically playing a non shooter at the 5 to 4
and the three. So that's going to change this
season. Uh And for that reason, as long
as they stay relatively healthy, I think they can
get to 50 wins again. All right, Chin
May outside of and Garland here. Who the hell
can you trust? Offensively? Evan Mobley is a
guy who I think should continue to grow and get
better. We didn't, as Nick mentioned, we
didn't see the full package from Evan Mobley last season
, but I think another off season, another uh
kind of year to adjust with Donovan Mitchell in the
fall will give Moby a better idea of where he
fits in this offense, but I'm in agreement with
the guys. I would take the over on this
one. The Cavs got the 51 wins last year
in year one of Donovan Mitchell being in Cleveland.
And I think when you get the full off season
, when you integrate some of these new pieces,
they did upgrade the roster in terms of shooting and
I think they understand now that they can't just kind
of trot through the regular season and expect to then
go far in the postseason. They got a rude
awakening against the Knicks in the playoffs. So I
think this Cleveland team is going to be a bit
more focused, going to try a bit more to
get a higher seed potentially in the east and outside
of Boston and Milwaukee, there's a lot of uncertainty
in the east as to who's going to be in
that top tier. And I think Cleveland they have
the pieces to, uh to get there. So
I would take the cavs over on this one.
They got the 51 wins last year and they did
nothing but get better in terms of the roster.
So the overs the play here.