Cavs The Blog Podcast

Podcast 181: Taking Flight by CavsTheBlogAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This podcast started out with a fully triggered Tom Pestak ready to rant to David Wood and Nate Smith. Despite plenty to talk about in the world of basketball, the Cavs, sports, and culture, Tom's ire was focused on a perceived slight towards CtB. This delved into a discussion of the state of Cavs' media, and a realization that we're celebrating the 10th anniversary of CavsTheBlog this season. The topics for this anniversary podcast ranged far and wide.Also catching Tom's ire? The state of nutrition science today (if that seems random to you, you're not alone). Tom can't shake the feeling that despite years of data it feels like we know less now about the topic than we did 20 years ago. "We just don't know," was also an apt summation of our thoughts on this Cavs season, as we delved into an array of topics. Manu Ginobili, one of the greatest guards of his generation? Who's been watching Dion Waiters' nutrition and could the Cavs use Saint Weirdo? Where will Jimmy Bu

Well... it's been a long, eventful summer. Amazingly, the NBA season is just around the corner with just a few weeks to go until training camps start up again. To celebrate the dog days of August before we delve back into the thick of all things Cavalier, Tom, Nate and EG settled into their old aluminum and frayed nylon lawn chairs to shoot the breeze for an hour or two. We talk LeBron and the Lakers, touch on some of the new faces coming to Cleveland, take some detours to the Browns, Tribe and even the unfortunate Urban Meyer saga... plus we share a little of our own travails this summer... including the time Tom and Nate had a random encounter at the same gritty Michigan small town chocolate factory.Yeah, it's long in the tooth... so what else is new? Be sure to stick around for Tom's awesome softball tales to get some real context for the lawn chairs in question...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Podcast Episode 178: LeBrexit by CavsTheBlogAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Podcast Episode 177: Adding A Young BullAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Well, it's a complicated case you know... about what happens next for the Cavs. A lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's for both LeBron James, Dan Gilbert and Koby Altman to ponder. Frankly, there's just a lotta strands to keep in our heads, man... lotta strands like the draft... free agency... and the future of the team. Probably too many strands for the old Duder to keep straight... but maybe not too many for Nate, Mike and EG to unwind over the course of a couple of hours in the podcast booth.We give one last gloss over the Finals, delve into the Lebowski er, LeBron Watch, speculate on where the King might end up, examine what the team might look like next year either with or without their leader, and take a stab at who we like coming out in next week's draft. Yeah, it's a long one... but like we said... it's a complicated case.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

David Wood hopped into the podcast booth with Nate Smith to try and make sense of what’s happening right now.The Warriors picked up another win tonight behind a super efficient 10-14 night leading to 26 points for Kevin Durant and a Stephen Curry record setting nine 3s. Throughout the game the Cavs played winning stretches of basketball where they were forcing misses and getting great looks. Against almost any other team in the league, their level of play would of netted them a win, but the Warriors are a different beast.The Cavs certainly had a hard enough time overcoming the Warriors, but we talked a lot about how the Cavs are having to overcome officiating in a series that should be tied, and have to overcome the shortcomings of their own coach (who's running their star player into the ground, and who's unable to play his best players), and the officials who seem to fall for every bit of Golden State BS and let them get away with sooo much more contact. It's almost like the Cavs are playing fiv

Episode 174: "Then I Will Make It Happen" by CavsTheBlogAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode 174: "Then I Will Make It Happen" by CavsTheBlogAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, The Cavs proved once again to be no match on the road as they fell behind early at the TD Garden by 13 in the first quarter, and wound up losing by precisely that margin in the end. Though they made runs in the final three quarters, they never really got the deficit under 10 that often, and trailed by as much as 20 early in the fourth quarter. The Celtics didn’t even really shoot that well, averaging just 36.5% from the field on the night… but they wound up taking 11 more shots than the Cavs given Cleveland’s 15 turnovers, and a lot of those were threes. Ty Lue once again went the inexplicable route in his wonky rotations… and had an even weirder response for why he didn’t play Kyle Korver at all in the first quarter…To recap and try to make sense of this nonsense… Nate, EG and RightDownEuclid gathered their courage and hopped into the podcast booth. We dissect what went wrong (mostly Ty Lue), what went right (Larry Nance stood up for himself), and whether or not we

Nate Smith, Right Down Euclid, and a moribund Tom Pestak dragged ourselves into the podcast booth to lament the Cavs' game two loss to the Celtics. They discussed the Cavs' lack of discernable offense or defensive scheme, Ty's continuing inability to play his best lineups, the dumpster fire that is Rodney Hood's play, the Celtics, the future, and so much more. Don't rage quit. This one will be cathartic.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode 171: Swept Away by CavsTheBlogAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

David Wood,Evil Genius and Nate Smith gather to talk about the Cavs convincing win against the Raptors. Tom Pestak hopped in late too. We discussed the win, OG Anunoby, the match-up issues for Toronto, Chewbacca Ibaka, Star Wars, the 76ers, Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson‘s lack of NBA ability, TT’s awesome screens, LeBron and his unstoppable skyball turnaround, and much more. *We experienced some issues with the podcast tonight. We cut out around the 37 minute mark and at that point Nate did some producing magic to make the podcast listenable. We’re going back to our old recording methods for the next game, so appreciate the broken pod for what it is. David cuts out and Nate, Tom, and EG, talk without me. It’s a mess, but it’s a beautiful one. *Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

After an exhausting, maddening, thrilling, nail-biting series, the Cleveland Cavaliers emerged victorious over the Indiana Pacers in a series that saw Indy outscore the Cavs by 40 points over seven games (courtesy of two blowouts). LeBron James proved that he is simply the best basketball player on this planet scoring 45 points on 72 TS% while adding nine rebounds, seven dimes, and four steals. The wine and gold got a very unexpected contribution from Tristan Thompson who started the game after being buried on the bench, and who went off for 15 points, 10 rebounds, and one monstrous block on Victor Oladipo late that helped preserve the victory. The Cavs also got 14 from Kevin love who returned to form a bit at 4-8 from downtown. Cleveland held off a furious charge from Victor Oladipo who dropped 30 with 12 boards and six assists. It was an exhausting game that saw a few lead change until a furious comeback in the third gave Indy the lead briefly in the third, until Cleveland was able to hold them at bay to cl

LeBron James went all Top Gun on the Pacers in Game 2, scoring 20 points in the first quarter and 46 for the game to lead the Cavs to a victory that wound up a little closer than it should have. In the end, Cleveland evened things up with the feisty Indy squad and their “Iceman” Victor Oladipo. The Cavs supporting cast didn’t wash out as much as they did in Game 1, as Kevin Love, Kyle Korver, George Hill and JR Smith all started and contributed. JR even had a terrific strip of Dipo and pulled the “hit the brakes and he’ll fly right by” move on the other end for an easy bucket. Love got a bit of a scare with what looked like a nasty thumb injury, but according to Ty Lue, he’ll be good to go for Game 3.Nate, EG and Tom hopped in the cockpit to break this one down and crack wise about all things Cavs, NBA playoffs and yes, the time Tom watched Top Gun in Spanish in Long Beach (trust us, you won’t want to skip the amazing story at the end of this one…). It also gives us the subtitle of this recapShareAdvertising

Our long national nightmare, the NBA 2018 Tankthon, has ended. The Cavs' extended preseason known as the NBA regular season has also ended. The playoffs (all hale Jim Mora) are here! Before we get to that though, we had a basketball game in Cleveland. The Cavs played the Knicks. LeBron James started, got to ten points, and given that Philly was Anhillating the Bucks and that Boston was up on the Nets, the Cavs decided to send LeBron to the bench and deploy their own tank driver to put the Knicks in a tie with the Nets for the 8th/9th draft lottery spot. Yes, LeBron got to 82 games for the first time in his career, and kept his double digit scoring streak alive, but the only meaningful thing about this game for the Cavs was that no one got hurt, and that the Cavs might've had a little more lottery luck.David Wood joined me in the podcast booth to talk about the game, the Cavs postseason odds, and the first round matchups. For the Cavs, Cedi Osman, dropped 17-7-6 on 18 shots in 33 minutes while Ante Ziz

For those of you who didn’t follow the 1987 animated Teenage Mutant Ninja series… or the later feature film incarnation of the same, Bebop and Rocksteady were the guys who were always so close to defeating the Turtles… talked plenty of smack while doing it… but always found a way to lose in the end. And, as Tom Pestak puts it on this edition of Cavs: The Podcap… they are the perfect comp for the Washington Wizards.The Wizards once again found a way to lose to the Cavaliers tonight, this time by choking away a 16 point lead in the final six minutes of the game. To put that in proper perspective… teams this year that had similarly trailed by at least 16 points with that much time remaining in a game had gone 2-461. Make that three now.After the Cavs blew a sizable lead themselves (they were up 39-26 after one), they mounted a furious rally against the bumbling underlings of the Foot Clan… er, John Wall, Brad Beal and the Wiz. LeBron James went full mutant ninja, scoring or assisting on 23 of the Cavs’ final 32

On a night when LeBron James tied the "unbreakable record" set by Charlotte Hornets owner, Michael Jordan, of 866 consecutive games with at least 10 points... the real catalyst was a dude who's been missing for a while. According to Larry Drew, JR Smith got inspired by playing with a labrador belonging to the North Carolina baseball team during practice this morning... but maybe, just maybe... he found the Fountain of Hennessey in Florida after the miserable Heat game.Whatever it was, JR had his best game in recent memory... and not even by bombing away with irrational confidence threes (he was just 1-2 from deep)... but instead driving to the rack and attacking for three the hard way. He also threw an awesome Granny Smith alley-oop to LeBron to get him going as well. In all, after a sluggish start, the Cavs turned it on with one of their biggest second quarters of the season... and then put the bees away in the second half. The only remaining questions were whether or not Kemba Walker would becom

Nate Smith, David Wood, EvilGenius, and Tom Pestak all crammed into the podcast booth to break down the victory over the Raptors. We also talked about the Cavs coaching issues (hint, we all seem to like Larry Drew at the helm over Tyron Lue), and what Kevin Love means to this team. We looked at Zizic, George Hill, and Jose Calderon and how their unexpected contributions are changing the team.We took on this playoff preview, and also discussed how the East playoff race will shape up (a lot depends on Kyrie's knee), and who we'd like to see in the first round of the playoffs. We even looked at how the 2018 and 2019 free agency periods will shape up. We also touched on Jordan Clarkson's fantastic quote about dinosaurs being pets for giants...Finally we took a deep dive on a popular radio topic: the top 5 Cleveland athletes of the last 20 years. It was an exciting discussion of sports, culture, history, and hot takes. There were a lot of surprises, heated discussion, and laughs.Advertising Inquiries:

No, we don't reference RoboCop in this PodCap, but he was from New Detroit... and the Cavs did clean up the Pistons the way Murphy shut down crime in that city... and Larry Nance Jr. did play like a cyborg for most of his first start at Center... and Tom, Nate and EG did spend an inordinate amount of time at the end of this long and winding pod playing the Dead or Alive? guessing game...In any event, tune in to hear all about how the Cavs looked very much alive in their first game with LBJ and LNJ wreaking havoc in the starting lineup together... and alternately how Tristan Thompson's career as a starter might very well about to be dead. We also cover which buyout candidates are still alive for the Cavs, and how dead tired the team might be after their long upcoming road trip. Plus, you can learn the correct way to spell Dwayne/Dewayne/Duane. And, even though (as mentioned) there is no spirited discourse on RoboCop... there is plenty of analytical gerrymandering about other movies that populated Sunda