Cavs: the Podcast

Cavs: The Podcast

The folks who brought you Cavs: The Blog bring you Cavs: the Podcast. Here you’ll find the most in-depth Cavs analysis in our audacious game recaps. We boast an insightful, clever, and civil commentariat – the best you’ll ever come across.

  1. FEB 2

    322: Enter the Umlaut

    One of the most frustrating Cavs of my lifetime is no longer wearing wine and gold. De'Andre Hunter was traded to the Sacramento Kings, Saturday, and in his place arrived Keon Ellis and Dennis Schröder, a man we've joyfully referred to as "The Umlaut" for the shock of white in his hair he often wore and the dots over the "o" in his name. To break down the trade, Nate Smith, Chris Francis, and Eli Kim jumped in the the podcast booth and went through, the pros, the cons, the why's, the optionality the grade brings, and where the Hunter experiment went wrong. There was definitely a difference of opinion on the move. As a fair warning, this was recorded right before the Cavs' entertaining defeat of the Portland Trailblazers, Sunday night, which saw Jarrett Allen post the best game of his career: a 40/17/5, six stock, zero turnover evisceration of Portland's Donovan Clingan. To say that the Cavs seem to be suffering from the departure of Hunter would be a lie. The ball moved and everyone played more free. To decide whether trade was good for the Cavs, and whether it might lead to something larger, we broke down Ellis' and Schröder's gamea and how they mesh, and the best (and worst) case scenario for their Cavs' tenure. We got into a lot of other topics too, including the All-Star selections, the possibility of LeBron returning to Cleveland next summer, whether the Cavs will be able to swing for the fences in another trade, whether Giannis gets moved at all this season, Koby's talent development pipeline, news from from around the Association, and so much more.   Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 45m
  2. 10/23/2025

    319: Bright Lights and the Big City

    After going 4-0 in the regular season last year against the Knicks, Cleveland dropped its opener in the Garden, 119-111. The story of this game was free throws, focus, and rebounding. The Knicks were more focused (Cavs fouled four three point shooters in the first half), were much better on the glass (48-32 rebound advantage), and then were blessed by the officiating gods as New York played refball down the stretch (as I called pregame). Still, you can’t spot a team 15 points in the first half on their home court, especially an NBA darling like the Knicks. Donovan Mitchell and Sam Merrill turned in monster second halves, helping the Cavs briefly go up 1 in the fourth with 23 and 16 respectively, while Mobley dropped 22/8/3 on the night. Jarrett Allen played soft as triple ply Charmin, and Jalen Tyson shook like he was haunted in his first start in the bright lights. Meanwhile, CPJ no-showed, and Tyrese Proctor looked like a player unafraid of the big city in his NBA regular season debut, with good handle, feel, and some nice dimes to complement a team high +11 with zero turnovers. OG Anunoby started his quest for DPOY with a 24/14/2 line with three stocks, while Brunson scored 23 on 13 (mostly b******t) free throws. It was a frustrating loss with some bright spots, and as some commenters noted, the Cavs were missing 50 ppg worth of injured players. Nate Smith and Chris Francis made a long overdue return the podcast booth to break it all down and go around the NBA with some instant reactions, over-under win total predictions, and a look forward to the coming six games in nine days stretch for the wine and gold. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 32m
  3. 07/01/2025

    317: Go *avs

    Episode 317 found us on the first night of free agency (you know, BEFORE the Shamsbombs about Lillard's buyout and Myles Turner becoming Buck). To start it off, Late bemoaned the Cavs' decision to keep Sam Merrill over Ty Jerome (or both), a decision that was originally about money, that became less so when we figured out that Merrill got four 4/38 years instead of Jerome's 3/28. The Cavs' decision to sign Isaac Okoro to a multi-year deal last year ended up backfiring as it made the luxury tax payments very difficult when it came to keeping both. Chris talked me off the ledge with some salient counterpoints, but I still contend that Lonzo Ball isn't going to play any meaningful playoff minutes for the Cavs. Eli Kim joined us for the second session, and we rode my stalking horse for 6/30: a Darius Garland for LeBron James trade before the 2024 fiscal year ended. Obviously that didn't happen, and there was a lot of meditation on LeBron's weirdness and the mess of the Lakers. The general tone of the pod was muted frustration and reluctant patience before we went around the rest of the moves in free agency and their impact on the Cavs. Oh, and Eli tried to trade for Giannis again (another thing that is obviously not happening). Finally we figured out who could be out there for the Cavs, busted a whole lot of chops, asked Eli what was for dinner, explored the details of his impending move, and discovered who his favorite hockey team is. It was a pretty fun 100 that saw us return to the podcast quality you've come to know and love. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 37m
  4. 06/16/2025

    316: Amateur Hour

    Hope you all had a happy Father's Day, Cavalier fans. With the NBA finals in full swing, last week, Nate, Eli, and Chris Francis constructed an impromptu podcast booth in an abandoned culvert underneath I-80, and exorcised the demons of the Cavs' 2025 playoff exit. Full warning, this one might have the worst audio engineering in the history of CtB, and it's almost a week old now. I've been burning it at both ends at work and this was the soonest I could post. So it's Amateur Hour from us as we flexed our dormant podcast muscles.  To kick it off we got into why the Cavs lost highlighted by some major criticisms for Kenny Atkinson, the Cavs' perpetually injury mismanagement, the Cavs' lack of punch, and the NBA officials. Up next we got into slop season with no one off the table in our discussion of how to reconstruct this Cavs roster. The conversation revolved around a few key points key points: the Cavs have one last shot to make a major move before the end of June, before they're locked in salary cap purgatory, above the dreaded luxury tax apron; there are no perfect deals out there, and there aren't any clear paths for improving the roster; the Cavs might be stuck with what they have; Cleveland desperately needs some longer wings, better secondary ball-handling, and a guard set that complements both each other and Cleveland's bigs; and finally, the luxury tax apron is going to act as a hard cap and make it very hard for teams over it to operate. After that we got into the finals, celebrated a big birthday, and looked forward to the summer. It was an entertaining podcast, even if it was a little rough around the edges. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 27m
4.3
out of 5
39 Ratings

About

The folks who brought you Cavs: The Blog bring you Cavs: the Podcast. Here you’ll find the most in-depth Cavs analysis in our audacious game recaps. We boast an insightful, clever, and civil commentariat – the best you’ll ever come across.

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