Was Altman’s Presser A Smoke Screen? It Should Be

Cavs’ president of basketball operations Koby Altman held his after the season press conference on Monday and we file it under the category of “What else did you want him to stay”.

Altman expressed confidence in the “Core 4” (this is the last time we will use this term, a label like that must be earned) and talked about the journey to a championship, that it takes time to get there, and said you could see the improvement of the team with a 64 win regular season.

Again, what did you want him to say? That it is obvious the current roster isn’t good enough to win a championship, and changes have to be made? That wasn’t the forum for that kind of discussion.

Much like it didn’t matter what the Cavs did during the regular season in 2024-25, what Altman says doesn’t either. His actions prior to the start of training camp this fall will tell you what he thinks.

We have heard people comparing the timeline to that of the Boston Celtics, who took seven years to get to the top of the mountain and win the title in 2023-24. There is a major difference though. Those Celtics’ teams went to the conference finals five different seasons in those seven years.

The Cavaliers have yet to get past the second round with this group.

The centerpieces of those Boston teams are Jaylen Brown, drafted in 2016 and Jayson Tatum, picked in the first round of 2017. Their usual starting lineup the year Tatum was selected was Brown and Tatum, and the other three starters were Al Horford, Aron Baynes, and Kyrie Irving.

They lost to the Cavs in the conference finals in seven games.

Over the years, their starting lineups featured many players. Marcus Smart, Kemba Walker, and even Tristan Thompson were prominent for Boston until they traded for Derrick White at the deadline in 2022.

The following off-season, Brad Stevens brought in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis and won it all last season.

They did not stick with the same group over that entire period of time.

Getting De’Andre Hunter was a good start. He’s long, athletic, and can shoot the ball. In our opinion, he should be a #3. Too often, Kenny Atkinson had to use him at the #4, and he’s not big enough there.

In terms of players being “untouchable”, we don’t believe anyone is that. Now, that doesn’t mean it is likely a player like Donovan Mitchell would be moved, but let’s say the Nuggets offered Nikola Jokic for him. Altman would be crazy to not deal for the league’s best player.

And remember, Mitchell has a player option on his contract following the 2027-28 season, and everyone knows how badly he wants to win a title. Plus, he will be 29 by the time training camp gets under way.

There is a fine line between patience and stubbornness. We would get it if the Cavs stood pat after one five game loss in the playoffs, but this group has been defeated in five games the last three seasons and won two playoff series in that time.

When you build a team, you should keep tinkering until you get it right. The Celtics did just that. Can Altman do the same?

His actions this summer will speak louder than his comments earlier this week.

Guardians At A Crossroads?

We have been thinking most of this baseball season that the Cleveland Guardians’ success was being done with smoke and mirrors.

Lately, we have been wondering if the mirror has a crack in it.

Yes, if the season ended today (it doesn’t), the Guardians would make the post-season via the wild card, but let’s see where they are after this 10-game stretch where they are on the road against the red-hot Twins and Tigers and then come home to take on the best team money can buy in the Dodgers.

What can Steven Vogt hang his hat on right now? The offense ranks 9th in the American League in runs scored, and in the last eight games, they have scored more than two runs just three times.

Right now, the batting order has four hitters producing: Steven Kwan, Jose Ramirez, Kyle Manzardo, and the surprise of the year to date, Daniel Schneemann. The league OPS is 702 and just two other batters, Angel Martinez and Gabriel Arias are around that figure.

Lane Thomas should be back soon, but while he’s really good against southpaws, whether he can help the Guardians against right-handers is a question.

Nolan Jones, the idol of the exit velocity crowd is still hitting just .181 with a 579 OPS. Will Brennan was given another shot and so far is 0 for 9.

Carlos Santana was brought back, and you have to wonder if he’s going to produce. He is now 39 after all. He’s still walking, leading the team with 23 free passes, but has just seven extra base hits on the year. His slugging percentage is just .320.

When David Fry is ready to return, and he can DH only this season, the front office will be forced to make a tough decision on Santana. Manzardo has to play and platooning him with Fry still doesn’t address the lack of production from Santana’s spot.

Cleveland thought they had shortstop solved after Brayan Rocchio’s breakout in the post-season, but it did not come to fruition. Arias has done okay, but the pop so many people envisioned hasn’t arrived. He’s slugging .393. He is drawing more walks, but his on base percentage is just .313.

The pitching staff, normally the cornerstone of the team, is also ninth in ERA and it’s a daily challenge to have a starting pitcher finish six innings. Here is the average length of a start for the Guards’ rotation–

Tanner Bibee 5.67
Luis Ortiz 5.37
Logan Allen 5.17 (prior to last night)
Ben Lively 4.96
Gavin Williams 4.67

No question this has taken a toll on the bullpen, which understandably isn’t performing as well as they did a year ago.

Cade Smith hasn’t been the fireman he was a year ago. Tim Herrin has allowed 10 walks and three homers, two things relievers cannot do, in 16 innings. Vogt has tried using Joey Cantillo out of the ‘pen, and he has had some success, but he’s also issued 12 free passes and four long balls in 22 innings.

And Jakob Junis has appeared in seven games this month and allowed runs in five of them.

The real problem is what is the alternative? C.J. Kayfus has hit well in the minors this year at both Akron and Columbus, but also has less than 400 plate appearances above Class A.

As for the rotation, with Lively down, we will see what Slade Cecconi, acquired from Arizona for Josh Naylor, can do. In the bullpen, it might be a matter of time before we see Andrew Walters, Nic Enright, or Franco Aleman.

We were surprised by the lack of activity by the Guardians after they got to the ALCS last season. It might be coming back to haunt them over the next week.


Standing Pat Shouldn’t Be An Option For Cavs

Sometimes patience is needed and sometimes it is not.

Since the Cleveland Cavaliers were bounced out of the NBA playoffs, and earlier than they and many people expected to boot, there has been speculation about should they run it back with the so called “Core 4” or not.

After all, the wine and gold won 64 games this season, had three winning streaks of 12 or more games, and was the top seed in the Eastern Conference. We are a big believer in Charles Barkley’s line of “if it ain’t broke, don’t break it”, but we aren’t talking about a single season here.

Since president of basketball operations Koby Altman made the big swing for Donovan Mitchell, the Cavs have been knocked out of the playoffs the last three seasons in “Gentleman sweeps”, that is to say five games.

The first year they lost to the Knicks in round one, the last two seasons, in the conference semifinals.

When something happens once, you can write it off as a fluke, even twice, you can point to circumstances, but when it occurs three times, it is time to admit changes need to be made.

There are people who think when you say Altman has to make some moves, you are saying he should blow up the roster. That is absolutely not the case. Cleveland is still a relatively young team, in fact, maybe too young.

Mitchell will be 29 next season. Jarrett Allen will be 28. Darius Garland will be 26 by the end of next season, and Evan Mobley will be 24. At the end of this season, no one who was getting significant minutes for Kenny Atkinson was 30 years old.

These Cavs are a very good regular season team, especially in the early part of the year. But second halves of the season and the playoffs usually come with more physical play, and that seems to bother the team.

One move we would make is to get a veteran, yes, someone over 30, and can still play meaningful minutes for next season. We think it would be good to have a player who has seen it all in the NBA on the court when things start to go wrong. For example, the Pacers have Pascal Siakam, who is 31.

And in basketball, it’s not always about talent and putting the five most talented players on the floor. It’s about the fit. They have to be able to play off of and enhance their teammates’ games.

So, when we say Altman should move away from a particular player, it doesn’t mean we think said player is devoid of talent. What we are saying is the fit just isn’t working with that guy.

We see the analytics community will come up with efficiency ratings, etc. for a group of players and deem them to be successful, and maybe they are, but perhaps switching out one of those guys makes them even better.

We get the familiarity factor. This group has been together basically for three seasons and most definitely the longer you play together the more you know about each other.

But the things that have plagued the Cavs in the post-season, outside of the injuries, aren’t currently on the roster. Toughness, mentally and physically, has to come from more players, and of course, there is the height that is desperately needed.

Altman and his staff need to make some changes. With the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, it won’t be easy, but change is needed. Hopefully, it’s an interesting summer for the Cavaliers.

For Cavs, It Turns Out Size Does Matter

Believe us, we would have loved to be wrong about the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Even in the midst of the 15-game winning streak to open the year, we said the streak was nice, but the real tale for the Cavs was going to be told in the playoffs. We knew they were a playoff team coming into the year, it was always about how far they could advance in the playoffs.

Of all the reasons we thought the wine and gold would lose in the playoffs, we never thought the shooting would fail this team. Yes, they aren’t big enough, and their toughness, both physical and mental, can be called into question.

But we never thought the shooting would be an issue. This was a team that shot 49% from the floor, 38% from three, and 77.6% from the line. In the five-game series loss to Indiana, they shot 42.6% from the floor and 29.4% from three.

Meanwhile, the Pacers shot 36.8% from long distance in the regular season and knocked down 42.1% in the series. Andrew Nembhard made 29% during the 82-game schedule and suddenly became Larry Bird in the playoffs, making 11 of 22 threes.

Before this season ending series, we felt the Pacers would offer a challenge due to their length and athleticism. Cleveland’s pair of 6’2″/6’3″ guards had a difficult time getting the team into the offense against the Pacers’ trio of 6’5″ defenders. There were so many possessions where the Cavs got the ball over the timeline with 17 or 18 seconds left on the shot clock.

And Indiana stayed with the Cleveland players on the perimeter which caused the offense to morph into a lot of isolation ball, mostly Donovan Mitchell attacking the basket. And if they had possessions where they could move the ball, it seemed they overpassed.

They passed up good shots trying to get layups and dunks and Myles Turner and Pascal Siakam were there waiting.

Now, the focus shifts to Koby Altman. Altman has swung a big trade after losing in the play in tournament and fired a coach after losing in the conference semis a year ago. Perhaps it is time to look at the makeup of the roster, which continues to show there isn’t enough size.

We’ve talked about the backcourt, but beyond Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, there isn’t enough height on the team in a sport where absolutely size matters. Kenny Atkinson determined the Cavs’ back up big, Tristan Thompson, couldn’t play in the series unless it was garbage time.

Bringing in De’Andre Hunter helped, but there are still too many 6’5″ or 6’6″ players on the roster. And given opportunities after the trade deadline, Altman filled the open roster spots with 6’4″ Javonte Green and 6’6″ Chuma Okeke.

We like Jaylon Tyson a lot, he has versatility the Cavs need, but Cleveland passed on DaRon Holmes, 6’10” from Dayton and 6’11” Kyle Filipowski from Duke, who were rated around the same place as Tyson.

Perhaps Nae’Quan Tomlin and Luke Travers can move into the rotation in training camp, both players would add some size.

As for toughness, the Cavaliers have been dominated in all three series they were eliminated in over the last three seasons. They didn’t put up much of a fight in any of those losses.

That has to change.

It was a stunning defeat especially after a 64-win regular season, and we agree with Atkinson that the pain of defeat is a great motivating factor. We also agree when he said the season wasn’t a success because the Cavs didn’t make progress in terms of advancing.

It’s going to be a long summer for both the front office and the players. Let’s hope both are ready to work hard before training camp starts.

Despite A Lot Of Issues, Guardians Are Hanging Tough

The Cleveland Guardians have hit May on a bit of a hot streak. They came into Saturday night’s game against the Phillies having won eight of their last ten. We understand this doesn’t sound good, but to his credit, Steven Vogt seems to be doing it with smoke and mirrors.

Based on the number of runs they have scored and allowed, the Guardians’ record should be 19-22, which would put them fourth in the AL Central Division.

Their offense is below average, scoring 4.1 runs per game (the AL average is 4.2). Their pitching ranks 10th in the league in ERA at 4.13, higher than the average of 3.96.

This could mean two things. First, they could get much better pitching starting this week and stopping other teams from scoring would cause a continued streak of good play. Or a losing streak is in the balance.

Part of the problem with the pitching staff has been the inability of the starters to throw strikes. We were at the game Friday night when Gavin Williams labored through five innings, throwing 98 pitches. Yes, he held them off the scoreboard and that’s great, but it puts a strain on the bullpen.

Here are the walk rates per nine innings for the Guardians’ starters this season–

Williams 5.6
Logan Allen 4.8
Luis Ortiz 4.4
Tanner Bibee 3.2
Ben Lively 3.0

And Lively will likely miss some time after leaving last night’s start with forearm tightness.

The latter two are acceptable. The first three have had issues getting through five innings and again, that affects the relief corps. Last year, the bullpen was dominant. This year, we’ve already seen Emmanuel Clase and Cade Smith go through some struggles.

And the last two games against Philadelphia saw a pair of 1-0 games get expanded leads because the bullpen allowed runs.

The Guardians simply need Williams, Allen, and Ortiz to throw more strikes.

Offensively, the hitting has been buoyed by the recent hot streak of Daniel Schneemann, who has a .344 on base percentage and an 857 OPS. But mostly, the offense is overly reliant on Steven Kwan (.390/.453/843), Jose Ramirez (.356/.472/828) and Kyle Manzardo (.315/.476/791).

Reports are Lane Thomas should be back soon, and it will be interesting to see where he fits in. Angel Martinez has done a decent job in centerfield and rightfield continues to be a vortex of suck, so logically, putting Thomas in right should be the play.

We say this knowing the exit velocity police are championing Nolan Jones and Jhonkensy Noel, who are both hitting under .164 and have OPS under 600. Jones is out of options, and we know the Guardians’ front office goes to the end of the earth for those guys, but it has to be tough to keep putting him in the lineup.

Sunday night, Vogt pinch hit Will Wilson for Jones, and we have said this before, but whether or not Wilson should be on a big-league roster should be the question, not should he be pinch hitting in a close game in the late innings.

Brayan Rocchio was sent down yesterday with his .165 batting average and 433 OPS, and Will Brennan was called up. We know what Brennan is at this point, he’s a singles hitter who doesn’t walk and also doesn’t handle left-handed pitching. Such is the state of things as the upper level of the farm system.

Later this week, the Guards hit the road and take on the red-hot Twins and Tigers on the trip. Vogt needs some of these issues to have worked themselves out by then.

That they have the second-best record in the AL is kind of a minor miracle.

Cavs Need Another Big Effort Tonight.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were looking at their season Friday night. They lost the first two games of their best-of-seven series against the Indiana Pacers at home, and of course, in the history of the NBA, no team has come back from down 0-3.

Darius Garland didn’t play in the first two games, and both Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter sat out game two with injuries. All three played with the wine and gold’s season on the line.

The result was a 126-104 win in Indianapolis to cut the series lead to 2-1 for the Pacers. Mobley had 18 points and 13 rebounds, Hunter scored 8 and had 5 boards, while Garland scored 10 points and dished out 3 assists. It was enough to support the incomparable Donovan Mitchell, who poured in more than 40 points for the second straight game.

Hopefully, the trio will be available for the rest of the series, because as we thought going into the Eastern Conference semis, this is going to be a tough series against a quality team.

Mitchell is averaging 41.3 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in the series, and Jarrett Allen and Max Strus have been very good, but no doubt, Kenny Atkinson needs his full complement of players going forward, especially because some of his bench guys haven’t played up to their regular season standards.

While we aren’t shocked that Dean Wade and Isaac Okoro haven’t produced, outside of good defense, Ty Jerome’s struggles are a bit puzzling.

Wade has played 60 minutes in the three games and has taken just 8 shots, making just one. To put that in perspective, the Pacers’ Jarace Walker has played 17 minutes and hoisted six shots.

We get Wade is out there for defense and rebounding (he is 5th on the team in the series with 17 caroms), but this is basketball. You have to be a threat on both sides of the court.

As for Okoro, he has played 48 minutes and taken seven shots, making two, and is 0 for 3 from beyond the arc, meaning if the offense is going to put him outside, the Pacers aren’t going to guard him.

Jerome needs a good game in the worst way. During the regular season, we saw many games where he had an impact despite not scoring. In the three games thus far, he is just 10 for 42 from the floor and has made only one of 12 three-point shots.

And as a team the long-distance shot hasn’t been falling for Cleveland. For the season, the Cavs made 38.3% of their threes, and through the first three games, the wine and gold are knocking down just 27.4%.

As amazing as Mitchell has been in the series, he’s only hitting on 22.6% of his threes, compared to 36.8% in the 82-game schedule.

If the Cavs start shooting better from deep in the series, that will add another dimension to their offense, one the Pacers will have to come up with an answer for.

When you are down in a playoff series, every game becomes bigger. So, tonight’s contest will either even the series giving the Cavaliers home court advantage again or put their collective backs to the wall for the balance of these conference semi-finals.

The famed Cavs’ depth has to return for this series to swing. It can’t just be on Mitchell and the starters to be on top of their games.

Guardians Without Alternatives With Bats At AAA

The good news is the Cleveland Guardians are sitting at 21-15 and have the third best record in the American League, behind only Detroit and Seattle.

The bad news is based on the number of runs they’ve scored and allowed, their record should be 16-20.

The good news is their offense is right at the league average, scoring 4.14 runs per game.

The bad news is they still have only four hitters in their lineup with OPS over 750.

The good news is the performance of Daniel Schneemann to date. The second-year big leaguer, who got off to a terrible start going 1 for his first 19, is currently red hot. He’s hitting .383 over his last 49 at bats and has a 956 OPS with five homers and 10 extra base hits.

Couple this with Angel Martinez, who also didn’t make the team out of spring training, but since his call up has batted .316 (724 OPS) and has handled centerfield for the most part very well.

On the flip side, there are a number of players struggling mightily. Brayan Rocchio, who looked like he turned a corner in the playoffs last season, is in a dreadful slump and hasn’t had a hit since April 26th and his OPS has slipped to 452.

Another post-season hero, Jhonkensy Noel, had a big pinch hit in the doubleheader Tuesday, but overall is batting just .174 with a 484 OPS and has fanned 21 times in 72 plate appearances and has walked just twice.

Rookie Will Wilson is another Guardians’ bench guy and frankly, we wonder why he’s in the major leagues. He’s hit .235 during his time in AAA, and that includes his hot start in Columbus where he started 22 for 68.

Outside of his time in the capital city, there is nothing to suggest he can hit, let alone big-league pitching. Since his call up to the big club, he’s 3 for 18 and the hits are all singles.

It is quite likely the only reason Rocchio, Noel, and Wilson are still on the 26-man roster is there are no alternatives to note in AAA.

We all know about Chase DeLauter’s injury at the beginning of training camp, but recently another top prospect, Juan Brito went down with a thumb injury that required surgery. He was batting .291 with an 891 OPS and more walks than strikeouts when he went down.

If Will Brennan was a right-handed hitter, he likely would be in Cleveland in place of Noel, but he’s not, and when he was here, he’s been shown to be a singles hitter who doesn’t walk. His slugging percentage is .442 in AAA but has walked just six times.

Perhaps another look at Johnathan Rodriguez should be in the cards, but this time with him getting Noel’s at bats. In both of his stints in the majors, he’s received very sporadic playing time, going 4 for 36.

C. J. Kayfus was just moved up to Columbus after starting the season at Akron and has played only five games at AAA. We doubt the front office will call him up any time soon.

Another problem with the roster construction is Steven Vogt’s reluctance to play Kyle Manzardo at 1B when he is DHing Steven Kwan or Jose Ramirez. Manzardo leads the team in RBIs and is third in OPS, ahead of Ramirez right now.

Yet, he’s not in the lineup when Kwan or Ramirez have a “half day” off. Why doesn’t Manzardo play and Carlos Santana, who is 39 years old, get a day off?

We say it all the time, front office people have to prepare for when things go wrong. The lack of organizational depth is telling for the Guardians.

How much longer than they overcome it? We hope until October.

Losing Game One, Cavs Need To Respond Tonight

We told everyone it wouldn’t be easy.

There is a lot of angst over the Cavaliers’ loss in game one to the Indiana Pacers, but for us, that feeling of deep concern won’t take hold unless they lose tonight to go down 0-2 in the seven-game series.

We hate to break things down in the first game to the NBA being a “make or miss league”, but that’s a good place to start. The Pacers made 53% of their three-point shots and the Cavs, the second-best team in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage, made just 9 for 38 shots from beyond the arc.

There was a 30-point difference from three between the two games. It’s tough to win when you shoot poorly and the other team is hot.

Aaron Nesmith is a very good three-point shooter, making 43% in the regular season and he knocked down four of six, but Andrew Nembhard hit five of six, and he’s a 29% shooter during the 82-game schedule.

Conversely, Donovan Mitchell (36.8%) and Max Strus (38.6%) combined to hit just 3 of 19 shots from distance.

Besides missing shots, the other troubling thing about the wine and gold’s offense was the 50 shots (out of 98) taken by Mitchell and Ty Jerome. The only other Cleveland player who took more than 10 shots was Evan Mobley, who went 9 for 13 from the floor.

The shooting was a big part of the reason for the loss, but certainly not the only reason. The Pacers definitely played with more physicality, and remember they went to the conference finals last season, they have more playoff experience than Cleveland, and it showed.

The Cavs have to pick it up in terms of physical play, and this is something we feel this group needs to reminded of constantly.

Also, Kenny Atkinson loves to talk about the depth of the Cavs and during the regular season and in round one, he was right. However, Sunday night, Indiana had five bench players score, led by Bennedict Mathurin with 11.

The wine and gold had just three bench players score, but to be fair, Sam Merrill started in place of the injured Darius Garland. Jerome and De’Andre Hunter both scored in double figures, but the only other bench points were from Isaac Okoro, who had a bucket.

We thought Okoro was effective in the first half. He was a +6 and hit a layup and had two assists and two rebounds. He didn’t do much in the second half. But in the second half, it seemed he was cast as a three-point shooter, something he’s not good at. He’s much better when he attacks the basket.

Wade is another solid defender, but didn’t even attempt a shot in the first half. In the second half he missed two shots, including a wide open three which would have caused the roof at Rocket Arena to be blown off.

Because of the injuries to Garland, Hunter, and Mobley someone has to step up. Excuses are for when the series is over. Competitors overcome them. And a couple of players are going to have to produce more if none of the injured players can go.

Atkinson has to figure out a way to have both players be serviceable offensively so their defense can be a weapon.

Really, what Sunday’s loss did most was make tonight’s game pretty much a must win for the Cavaliers. They’ve demonstrated all year the ability to win on the road, but losing both home games would make it very difficult to advance.

This might be the first time all season this groups back have been against the wall. We will see what the response is.

A Week Later, Taking Two QBs Is Still Puzzling

We still are puzzled by the Cleveland Browns’ draft and it is now over a week old.

We have been critical of the “collaborative process” that GM Andrew Berry always talks about because to us, there has to be a single person that sets the vision and philosophy of what Cleveland Browns football looks like.

And once again, the weirdness did not begin until late in day two.

Trading down to get Mason Graham? No problem there. We watched, like most people in Ohio, as Graham was a dominant figure in Michigan’s shocking win over the eventual National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes. Putting him next to Myles Garrett on the defensive line should pose a very strong front four for defensive coordinator Jim Schwarz.

UCLA LB Carson Schwesinger received some first round grades and could be a sign that Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah will not be ready to play this year.

We do not think Jerome Ford is an every down running back and actually have no problem drafting two. The running game is a staple of Kevin Stefanski’s offense, so taking Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson remakes the running back room.

FYI, we would still bring back Nick Chubb. The worst-case scenario (besides another 3-14 record) for the Browns is Chubb going elsewhere and still have something left in the tank. It may not be the best football move, but it would be great for the fan base, which has seen its share of mediocre football recently.

Also, TE Harold Fannin Jr. is another solid choice, another staple of the Stefanski offense is having two quality tight ends.

Of course, we are really getting at taking two quarterbacks. And we bet if there was a singular person in charge when whoever came up with the idea to take Shadeur Sanders just 50 selections after taking Dylan Gabriel, the football czar would have said no.

We envision those Progressive Insurance commercials with “Dr. Rick” with the doctor sighing and shaking his head when the idea is brought to him.

First off, the Browns need a quarterback, but they also could use offensive line help, another wide receiver, another edge pass rusher, and in today’s NFL, you can always use a cornerback.

But how is the team going to keep four quarterbacks on the roster? If winning games is the goal, and it should be, despite many media members in town wanting to write off the 2025 season, then Joe Flacco should be the starter for Game 1.

They traded for Kenny Pickett prior to the draft, and he is a former starter in the NFL. And we said coming into the draft, even if the Browns took a passer with the second overall pick, we wouldn’t let him touch the field until late in the ’25 campaign. At the earliest.

The point is the Browns had a solid draft until they decided to take two QBs, one of whom might be the most famous player in the draft. And that’s not a rap on Sanders, who we would have taken earlier.

It’s having two rookies on the roster at a position where only one can play.

And worse, the Browns have created this circus themselves. Perhaps that what they want, just like the Dallas Cowboys always want to seem to be in the news. But does that help you win?

More than likely, Browns’ fans will find out it doesn’t. But at least, it will be a collaborative process from the front office.

Cavs Dominant Vs. The Heat, Pacers Will Be A Challenge

When you sweep a first round series outscoring your opponent by 122 points in the four games, that’s historic. But then you have to remember the Cavaliers won 27 more games than the Miami Heat during the regular season.

We thought the playoff tested Heat would provide a good challenge for the wine and gold, but the two games in Florida were a total beatdown and it is on to the Eastern Conference semi-finals against Indiana, who defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in that matchup.

Despite what fans want in their hearts, which is a series against the Washington Wizards, the reality says the opponents in the playoffs get tougher as you move along. Indiana is no different.

The Pacers, who by the way went to the conference finals a year ago, got off to a tough start this season at 10-15. After that, they went 40-17, meaning they are a very good team, perhaps the third best in the East.

Rick Carlyle is a very good coach, winning a title with Dallas in the 2010-11 season, and has won over 1000 games as a head coach in the NBA.

Moreso, the Pacers are long, exactly the type of team the Cavaliers have had troubles with this season.

Indiana has size in the backcourt with Tyrese Haliburton (6’5″) and Andrew Nembhard (6’5″). As we know, that’s a big advantage over the Cleveland backcourt.

The Cavs match up pretty well in the frontcourt, as the Pacers go with Aaron Nesmith (6’5″), Pascal Siakam (6’8″), and Myles Turner (6’11”). Their sixth man is Bennedict Mathurin at 6’6″, and Obi Toppin (a player we’ve wanted the Cavs to sign) also gets a lot of minutes and he’s 6’9″.

They also have a solid back up point guard that Cleveland fans will hate in T. J. McConnell, who was a big factor in Indiana’s playoff run a year ago.

They like to play with pace, just like the Cavs, so it should be an action-packed series.

Both teams can make three-point shots, the Cavaliers were second in the NBA making 38.3% from beyond the arc, while the Pacers knock down 36.8%, good for 9th in the league.

Both teams take care of the basketball, among the top five in the NBA in least number of turnovers. They both shoot well overall, ranking in the top three in overall shooting percentage.

Considering this is a 1-4 matchup, these teams are very, very similar, and that leads to a very good matchup.

We still think the biggest edges the Cavs have are Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter. Mobley will likely play Siakam, who averaged 20.2 points per game. And after a rough first game against Miami, Hunter wound up knocking down 8 of 13 from three and averaged 17.3 points per game in the last three contests.

And remember that Darius Garland didn’t even play the last two games against the Heat.

One thing that would help the Cavs is getting more out of Dean Wade, who played 52 minutes in the series and took just five shots, making two. Wade played solid defense, as he always does, but he has to contribute something offensively as the opponents get better.

It would not be a shock to see Carlyle play off him and double up on a better offensive player.

And remember, the Pacers played a short-handed Milwaukee squad in round one. Cleveland is not that.

It should be very good basketball being played in this series. The Cavs should be able to advance to the conference finals though.