Dave DuFour and Zena Keita take a look at the undefeated Cavaliers after their latest win and discuss the injury situation around the league as NBA Cup group play begins. Then the breakfast club is joined by The NBA Daily's Andrew Schlecht to catch up on Shai's big night and the fallout from Chet Holmgren's injury. In the final segment, Dave and Zena dig into the mailbag and discuss Victor Wembanyama's three-pointer obsession.Check us out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rcW_-xUq6B0Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita and Andrew SchlechtExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What are the highlights of the Cavs' undefeated start?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for November 12th, 2024. Coming up, the Cavs are 12-0. Even though they got a scare from the Bulls, we got a bunch of injuries that are going to color the NBA Cup opening week. And we got Andrew Schlecht to talk about the Chet Holmgren injury and how that's going to affect the rest of the Thunder season. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena. Wow.
How about those calves, Zena? 12 and 0. When are they going to stop? I actually asked you this, you know, in our little group chat. When are we going to believe in them? That's that's the real question that we got to start getting to because. I'm starting to believe a little bit, even though they got another scare from the Bulls. You know, the Nets put the scare into them the other night.
They survived. The Cavs now 12-0 after beating the Bulls 119-113. And, you know, we highlighted Darius Garland on yesterday's show, and he's been amazing. And this was not his best game last night, Zena. But luckily, you know, when Garland doesn't have it going, you just have Donovan Mitchell. He's been awesome this year, too. So, I mean, what a game for the Cavs.
They just keep winning. It was surreal. And I'm going to tell you, I think in the group chat, I feel like I'm the only one that believes this Cavs team is legitimate. I mean, until we see them fully be able to, I don't know, get blown out like they've done other teams. I saw the Warriors just catastrophe. So I do believe in this team. I have said this.
Since the season started, they are really well constructed. And last night against the Bulls, you saw how well constructed they are. When Darius Garland isn't having a night of playmaking and offensive shot making like he typically has, guess what? Don't worry. You got Donovan Mitchell who can score 25 points in the first half, end up with 36 points.
Oh, also your bench, you need a little bit of a boost because your starters aren't playing well against the fast Bulls. who are going in transition at lightning speed, don't worry. You got Ty Jerome coming off the bench to get you steals, to get you deflections, and, oh, yeah, can also drop in some threes.
It was so perfectly mapped out last night as to why the Cavs are built to contend in this league. They were able to withstand the speed of the Chicago Bulls, give them their credit. The way that they came out at the Cavs was tremendous, but ultimately... The Cavaliers have something going. And right now it's depth. It is resilience.
And one thing that's going to be at question is their size, especially we heard that news with Jared Allen still trying to figure out what happened there.
Yeah, Jared Allen had to leave the game, suffered an injury, so they finished the game without him. No update as of recording, but you mentioned the bench and the depth, and they actually won the game for him. Absolutely. You look at this game and the Bulls starters, I think for the majority of the game, they really did kind of outperform the Cavs starters. Donovan Mitchell kept them in it.
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Chapter 2: How did injuries affect the NBA Cup preparations?
I think the second that they see each other, particularly there's going to be two moments that I'm locking into. Number one, that pregame shoot around. I'm going to be on the court before everybody gets out there. I'm sure they're going to find a way to shoot around as early as possible so that they can have some privacy in that moment. But then also that moment, everyone sees it at home.
You see it in the arenas where the lights are flashing and they're getting ready for the jump ball and everybody's kind of dapping up, shaking hands before the game. And you're going to see Klay Thompson in a Mavericks uniform lining up against his old teammates. That's going to be a moment that's going to be for the crowd. It's going to be surreal to be to see that.
But it's going to be like that time Ringo Starr played against the Beatles. I honestly don't know. No, no, no, no, no. I love being old enough to be able to tell people anything and they maybe believe it's going to be weird. I hate to see those guys broken up like this.
It's not it's going to be a good game, Dave. It is. I mean, Dallas Mavericks have been entertaining. Warriors have been entertaining. This is going to be a battle. We'll see what happens in terms of the size disparity. I think that's going to be that's the biggest thing that people have talked about within this this matchup. But they've been fun. Yeah, they've been fun.
It's going to be a fun game. Coming up after the break, we got Andrew Schlecht, who is on the floor at the Thunder game. And we're going to talk about Chet Holmgren and hopefully we're not going to cry. The Thunder survived their first game without Chet Holmgren last night against the Clippers, which I just can't believe, Zena. I thought Ivica Zubac was just going to dominate.
And then I looked at the starting lineup that the Thunder ran out there. Shea Gilgis-Alexander was the tallest guy. Andrew Schlecht is here. He was at the game. Andrew, is this the plan? They're just going to run out a bunch of guards, say Shea, just score 45 points, get nine assists, get five steals like you did last night. Just do that every game until Hartenstein comes. I mean, this is crazy.
Yeah, they don't really have an option right now. I mean... For the Thunder, it's going to be all about Shea. It's going to be all about J-Dub. Both had incredible games tonight. But it is going to be about Shea. He had 45 points on 21 shots tonight. I mean, it doesn't get much more.
How many free throws, though?
Listen, we don't need to talk about that. He did. He made. 15 of 16 from the free throw line tonight. At least he's making nine assists to one turnover. I mean, he was about as efficient as you can be. And they they needed all of it because the Clippers were on fire tonight from three. There were 21 of 38, 55 percent from three. And the Thunder won this game on the possession battle.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Chet Holmgren's injury?
They're increasing their league lead in steals. I mean, they're like running away with the team steal record right now. 16 steals in this game. We mentioned double teaming Harden. They're flying all over the court. And the ball pressure. Again, this is a bunch of guys. Now, it's funny because... There have been teams like the Raptors team where we talk about all these guys who are 6'9".
The Magic, they're shooting for these guys that are 6'10". And we think about that. A team of guys who are 6'6 and under who can all handle, all take shots. All move around. They're all versions of each other.
They have good hands.
I mean, they're missing Dyson Daniels, basically, on this team. But they got all the rest of the guys. I mean, they could be running amoeba defense out there, Andrew, by the time this is all said and done. I don't know. It's kind of amazing.
Yeah, it's it's pretty fun to watch. And not only defensively, can you see these guys taking on a lot of different roles, but offensively, like there's a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things. Like that's kind of the blueprint for being a Thunder player. And you see this kind of being repeated in the draft over and over again.
You see that with guys that they acquire, even like Isaiah Hardenstein, who is a big man. I mean, he's a big man with a lot of skill. It's a skill game for the Thunder. They want disruptive defensive players, which they acquired one in Alex Caruso. They drafted one last year in Cason Wallace. They have one of the best in Lou Dort.
And then they want guys that can do multiple things on the offensive end. And that's what you see throughout the roster. Now they're not big, but as time goes on, you know, I think that they'll probably play like six to 10 games without both Chet and Hartenstein, but they'll get Hartenstein back. Jay will is going to come back shortly after that and then give it 10, 12 to probably 10 to 15 weeks.
And Chet will be back too. So eventually they're not going to be this tiny team, but again, probably the next like nine, 10 games, we are going to see like this micro ball from the thunder.
And it's too bad. We're not in the 10 day contract territory. Cause you know, we could be getting like DeMarcus cousins in Oklahoma city. Like this is like desperate. That's absurd.
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