Jarrett Allen? He’s Not The Problem With the Cavs

The postmortem on the Cleveland Cavaliers season and roster continues and one of the scapegoats seems to be Jarrett Allen. Yes, we know Allen wasn’t much of a factor in the last two losses to the Pacers. Frankly, no one was a factor in the blowout that was Game 4, and we agree he didn’t play well in the last contest.

However, he, along with Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus were the best players wearing wine and gold in the first three games of the series.

He had 12 points and 5 rebounds in the first game, 22 points and 12 boards in Game 2, and 19 points and 12 caroms in the Cavs’ only win of the series.

The criticism comes from those basketball “experts” who believe the only way you can win playing two big men is if one of them hoists a bunch of three pointers.

But Kenny Atkinson made it work in the regular season (yeah, we know) by using a lot of motion so the lane was clear for drives by the guards. That seemed to ebb as the season went on, and the Pacers took them out of that style completely with their constant ball pressure by their backcourt.

The real problem is that Koby Altman put together a roster with only two big men who can actually play and contribute. Allen was probably overexposed against the Pacers because their “five out” style takes Allen away from what he does best, being a rim protector.

And too often, Allen was tasked with guarding Tyrese Haliburton on the perimeter because of switching. He did not allow the Pacers’ star to drive, but did give up threes because, let’s face it, it’s a terrible match up for the 6’11” Allen.

But what was Atkinson to do?

He was pretty much using De’Andre Hunter as the back up 4/5, a spot that at 6’8″ he really isn’t big enough for. Dean Wade could’ve been an option, but offensively he seems afraid to shoot and when he does, it wasn’t going in. Besides, much like Hunter, Wade is really a small forward.

We had been saying all year the roster needed another 4/5 that could contribute and preferably get one who could shoot from outside. The Cavs had several chances to add a serviceable big man but used their open roster spots on Javonte Green and Chuma Okeke, both of whom are in the 6’5″ range.

Maybe Nae’Qwan Tomlin can become a contributor next season. He’s 6’10” and averaged 20.8 points and shot 34% from three in the G-League this past year.

Remember that comment about the lack of size on the roster. Because if you move Allen, you need to get another big in return. That’s not to say Allen is untouchable, anyone can be moved if it upgrades the roster. But as it currently stands, the Cavs have no depth up front.

So, while you criticize Allen for what he’s not, remember he’s a rim protector and a solid rebounder, things you need over the 82-game schedule. We like to look at what a player does well and try to enhance those things.

Jarrett Allen isn’t the Cavs’ biggest issue. Was he overexposed in the Pacers’ series? Perhaps. But isn’t the real problem that Atkinson had no alternative?

That’s something the front office needs to think about this summer as they put together the ’25-’26 edition of the Cavaliers.

An Off Year Off-Season For Guards’ Front Office

The Major League Baseball season has passed Memorial Day, which is traditionally been the quarter pole of the campaign, but now it is more like the one third point of the season.

Last season, as we all remember, the Cleveland Guardians had a tremendous season, winning the American League Central Division and winning the Division Series, losing in the AL Championship Series to the Yankees.

You would think the franchise would try to build on this success, but this is the Guardians, and you would be wrong. As the calendar is getting ready to turn to June, it’s fair to analyze the off-season for the front office.

The first move was trading Eli Morgan to the Cubs to minor league outfielder Alfonsin Rosario. Morgan was moved because of the bullpen depth the organization has, and Rosario has pop, although he arrived with a poor strikeout to walk ratio. We have no issuce with this move.

Nor do we have a problem with the Andres Gimenez deal. Yes, Gimenez is a fabulous defender at second base, but his offense has fallen off since 2022 and the Guards owed him over $23 million per year starting in 2027.

Ultimately, they received Luis Ortiz, a starter badly needed by Cleveland. He’s had control issues but has taken his turn regularly and had some tough luck in terms of run support.

We thought the front office would reallocate the money saved in the transaction, and the same in the Josh Naylor trade, but sadly, we were fooled again. We felt the same way when Corey Kluber was dealt to Texas, but they didn’t use that cash at the major league level.

We know Naylor was going to be a free agent. We also knew the Guardians didn’t have a real strong offense and they traded one of their three best hitters. That didn’t seem to add up.

They signed Carlos Santana to replace Naylor, but let’s face it, at 39-years-old Santana is not the same offensive threat as the player he replaced.

Paul Sewald and Jakob Junis were signed to help the bullpen, but Sewald is hurt, and Junis has been getting hit like a pinata as of late. The former did get some high leverage situations early in the year before he was put on the IL, but he certainly wasn’t a difference maker.

And the last move, made right before the season started, was getting Nolan Jones, who is the darling of the analytics’ people because he hits the ball hard, but the results-oriented folks see a .194 average and a 568 OPS.

After dealing Gimenez and Naylor, perhaps a veteran bat would have helped. Instead, manager Steven Vogt has to work around a roster with a bunch of below average offensive players. Rightfield continues to be a vortex of suck.

There have been curious roster moves as well. The Guardians just sent Joey Cantillo to AAA to get stretched out as a starter, but we felt it was weird they didn’t have him start right from the get-go. Logan Allen won the fifth starter job, and he hasn’t exactly been the model of consistency.

Cantillo would have provided immediately rotation depth.

But it is what it is. We felt coming into the year this team had a lot of holes and we stand by that.

It’s okay though. Cleveland won a World Series in 1948.

Guardians Hanging In With The Lack Of A Bench

The Cleveland Guardians just keep pushing forward. Last week, they started a very difficult stretch playing ten straight games against three of baseball’s best/hottest teams.

One of the games in Minnesota was rained out, but the Guards split there and then went to Detroit and took three of four from the first place Tigers. They had dropped to fourth place after losing the first game in the Twin Cities and fell six games out of first.

Now, they are in second place, five off the pace set by Detroit. They held the Tigers, the second highest scoring team in the American League to just 11 runs in the four-game set, allowing just one run in the first two contests.

Manager Steven Vogt is doing it with a roster that contains very little depth. Using WAR (wins above replacement), the Guardians have three positions, shortstop, centerfield, and rightfield that rank in the bottom two among all AL teams.

And for the mathematically challenged, that’s one-third of your daily lineup.

To be fair, they also have three spots (LF, 2B, and 3B) that rank in the top four of all teams in the Junior Circuit but imagine if Vogt was getting any kind of production from short and two of the outfield spots. No doubt, his job would be much easier.

The league average OPS is 705. Currently, the Guardians have five players on the roster with figures 100 points less than that: Nolan Jones (552), Jhonkensy Noel (408), Lane Thomas (305), Austin Hedges (538), and Will Wilson (564).

Thomas is just coming back off the injured list and his figure should get better with more at bats, but the problem with this it has to be difficult for Vogt to give players a day off.

We know this wasn’t intended by the skipper to phone in Sunday’s game against the Tigers, but the Guardians did win the first three games of the series and Tarik Skubal, the reigning Cy Young Award winner was going for Detroit.

Vogt used that game to give many of his veteran players, save for Jose Ramirez, a needed day off.

The result was a 2-hit shutout with 13 whiffs for Skubal against a lineup that had just two hitters over league average in OPS–Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo.

You could have predicted the outcome before the game and in fact, many on social media did just that.

We would guess very soon that David Fry will be activated from his rehab assignment, and we would guess he would replace Noel on the 26-man roster. However, Fry can only DH right now, which paints Vogt into another corner. His current DH, Manzardo, leads the Guards in homers (10) and RBIs (28).

He’s also second on the team in walks with 21.

If you play Manzardo at first base, then you have to sit Carlos Santana, who leads the team in walks. Either way, you are sitting one of the productive hitters you have.

Could you put one of them in the outfield? Well, Manzardo has never played the outfield since turning professional and the last time Santana played there was 2022 when he played an inning in RF for Seattle.

Again, this situation shines a spotlight on the weird off-season by the Guardians’ front office. There were veteran free agent outfielders on the market, but the team wasn’t interested. Apparently, they felt what they had in the minors would take care of the problem.

Remember, they also traded for Nolan Jones right before the season opened. How has that worked out?

Vogt is operating with no bench right now. He’s done a solid job getting his regulars some rest and spotting at bats for the non-producing players. You have to wonder, how long can he do that?

Browns Need Professional QB Play To Evaluate Others

Obviously, living in northeast Ohio the talk about the Cleveland Browns is pretty much non-stop. And having four quarterbacks on the roster without a clear-cut starter leads to even more speculation.

The biggest discussion is when to go to one, if not both, rookie signal callers, because after all, you have to know what you have in both (assuming both make the final roster). And in the deluded minds of the radio sports talk hosts and fans alike, this information is needed because the Browns are going to have one of the top picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.

The latter idea is because many in the media have given the Browns’ front office permission to stink this upcoming season, a bold thought given the 3-14 record this past season.

Apparently, people have used the Men In Black mind erasing wand and thus the 11-6 season just the year prior has vanished from everyone’s memories. Of course, part of that is the organization basically sabotaging the season with coaching changes to aid Deshaun Watson.

This is not to say we believe the Cleveland Browns are Super Bowl contenders this season, but we are certainly sure that Kevin Stefanski and even the front office are going into the year thinking they are gunning for the first overall pick in the draft.

We said it after the trade out of the #2 slot this year, if the Browns have the first overall pick next year, it better be because Jacksonville has had a terrible season.

It is true the Browns do have to find out about Dillon Gabriel and/or Shadeur Sanders and even Kenny Pickett this season. But they also have to find out about running backs Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson. They need to know what they have in rookie TE Harold Fannin, and they need to see how the offensive line plays.

And to do that they need to see how these guys play with a real professional quarterback, and that’s why all things being equal, Joe Flacco should be behind center at the beginning of the season.

Solid quarterback play makes a big difference in evaluating the other players and positions. Just last year, what were people thinking about Jerry Jeudy after seven weeks, when he had 21 catches and the most yards he had receiving was the 73 in week two?

That was with Watson at the helm. With Jameis Winston taking the snaps, the Pro Bowl receiver had at least five catches in every game save one, and three 100-yard games.

He finished the year with career highs in receptions and yardage.

We have heard friends of ours refer to the offensive line as hot garbage, and it was early last season. The Cleveland front gave up 35 sacks in the first seven games. After a change in quarterbacks, they allowed 31 sacks in the final 10 contests.

Neither figure is really good, but the first seven games would have to be considered as horrendous, but it also wouldn’t be representative of how the group played thoughout the season.

All we are saying here is not only does Flacco give the Browns their best chance of victory, but he also allows them to do honest evaluations of the players surrounding him.

That’s important too.

Look, if Cleveland starts off 1-6 like many think they will, then see what you have in the younger quarterbacks. Remember, Flacco is 40 and he may not be the same guy he was down the stretch in 2023. He still has to earn the right to be on the field in week one.

Yes, the Browns need to see these young guys, but they also owe the other players on offense to be evaluated based on decent play at quarterback.

That’s something people are overlooking.

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.